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We have witnessed this
morning the distant view

of the Seattle Hospital Harbor and a severe

bombing of the hospital
harbor by enemy planes,

undoubtedly Japanese.

I was up in the compartment
reading a comic book.

That's when I realized
we were under attack.

Buddy, this is the real McCoy.

It's the goddamn Japs.

The unprovoked and dastardly attack
by Japan, a state of war, has existed.

Can you envision a million
pounds of TNT blowing up?

I could see the pilot and the co -pilot
and they were laughing for all they

were worth.

It was horrifying.

5 a.m., Sunday 7th December 1941.

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii lay still and quiet.

The mighty warships of
America's Pacific fleet were

anchored in battleship row.

At that time the Navy,
the personnel thought

the battleships were
the greatest thing going.

Nothing could defeat them.

Oklahoma was outboard, the
Tennessee was inboard, the

West Virginia was outboard.

And right behind us was the Arizona and

then right behind the
Arizona was the Nevada.

Were two battleships, then
two battleships, then two

battleships, all sitting
there like sitting ducks.

On air bases, aircraft
were tightly grouped to

guard against potential sabotage from
Japanese sympathizers on the island.

Unbeknownst to those
at Pearl Harbor, 230 miles

to the north, Japanese
forces aboard the carrier

Akagi were preparing for an attack.

As dawn approached, the first wave of 180

aircraft took flight.

The fate of Pearl Harbor was sealed.

At 6.30 a.m., Navy sailors aboard

the anchored warships
at Pearl Harbor began their

routine, waking up to what
seemed like an ordinary Sunday.

Unaware of the catastrophe
about to unfold, these

men went about their
duties, oblivious that in

mere minutes they would face one of the

most devastating and historic
battles in American naval history.

Fifteen minutes later,
signs began to emerge that

this would be no ordinary day.

One of the advanced guard Japanese
submarines had just been spotted.

The USS Ward had been patrolling outside of

the harbor when it saw a
periscope above the water.

The ship attacked the
unidentified submarine and sent

back notification of the
incident to the mainland.

His message, when I broke it down,

said, sunk enemy submarine
one mile south of Pearl Harbor.

Well, our communications officer,
when he looked at that, he was aghast.

He was certain they didn't mean
sunk a submarine, they meant sighted it.

This vital early warning was neglected.

Had the message been
relayed properly, aircraft and

battleships could have been
prepared in advance, and

the U.S. Navy could have diverted the
catastrophe which would soon unfold.

By 7 a.m., the first wave of

Japanese aircraft was approximately
130 miles away from Pearl Harbor.

The commander of the
strike force used music

from an Hawaiian radio
station to home in on the target.

However, by this time,
American forces on the

ground had spotted the Japanese attackers.

One of the men at an Army radar
post noticed some blips on his radar and

alerted military HQ.

This was the Americans'
final chance to avert

disaster, but unfortunately, the
intelligence was not taken seriously.

At 7.20 a.m., an Army lieutenant

disregarded the radar report,
believing that it indicated

a flight of U.S. planes, possibly B

-17 bombers, scheduled to arrive that day.

I told them not to worry about it
because it was a flight of B-17s

coming in from California.

Well, when you're approaching
Oahu from California, you

don't come from the north,
you come from the east.

7.40 a.m., the first wave of Japanese
aircraft reaches the island of Oahu.

The quiet morning was shattered by the roar

of planes, and a rush of fear and
panic spread across the naval base.

Out of the mystic Pacific skies, like tiny

locusts, they swarmed in from the sea.

Without knowing it, a reluctant U.S. would

soon be plunged into World War II,
forever altering the course of history.

Until December 1941,
America is adopting this very

kind of tricky policy of staying out of

the war, because
domestically, a lot of Americans

don't want to be sucked into a conflict.

They don't think it's got
anything to do with them.

And at the same time,
the American president,

Roosevelt, is keen
to help the Allies fight,

by supplying supplies across the
Atlantic, and also supplying battleships.

So there is a very fine line the
Americans are having to tread.

If Great Britain goes down, the Axis powers

will control the continents
of Europe, and Asia,

and Africa, and Australasia,
and the high seas.

And they will be in a position to

bring enormous military and naval
resources against this hemisphere.

Thinking in terms of today and tomorrow, I

make the direct statement
to the American people

that there is far less chance of the

United States getting into war, if we do

all we can now to support the nations

defending themselves
against attack by the Axis, than

if we acquiesce in the
defeat of those nations.

That is all going to change in December

1941, when suddenly, out of the middle of

nowhere seemingly, the
Hawaiian port of Pearl Harbour

is suddenly attacked by the Japanese.

At 7.49am, the First
Waves commander ordered

the attack on Pearl Harbour to proceed.

I was in bed with a
beautiful blonde, my wife.

That's what I was doing
on December the 7th.

All of a sudden, I heard a commotion.

By now, my gut had just
turned up to a little ball of lead.

Six minutes later, the coordinated
attack on Pearl Harbour began.

The Japanese dropped bombs,
torpedoes and fired mercilessly

at the Pacific fleet and aircraft bases.

About that time, I began
to hear our guns firing.

I mean, they would really fire fast.

They had a lot of guns and more

ammunition, they could
have shot in a thousand years.

Dive bombers attacked
American air bases across Oahu,

starting with Hickam Field,
the largest, and Wheeler

Field, the main United States
Army Air Force's fighter base.

The men on the air bases tried desperately

to fight back, but the close grouping of

the planes made them easy
targets for the Japanese bombers.

Over at Pearl Harbour, around 15 miles away

to the west, the Japanese
aircraft had America's

Pacific fleet in their sights.

On the morning of the 7th, that was
my third anniversary in the Navy, and I

was sitting in my bunk, reading the paper

when they sounded general quarters.

The thoughts went through people's heads.

What in the world is going on now?

Why are they doing a
drill on a Sunday morning?

And they said it in a different manner,

you know, they got a little hot-tempered.

When it all started, we kept hearing some

thud noises and explosions, but they
were deep sounding, they got louder.

And I got up, I told my buddy, I
said, let's go out there and see

what's going on.

I said, that sounded big.

And looked up there and saw those planes

screaming around, and
we saw the big red dot.

Well, that's when we
realized it was Japanese.

An emergency message was flashed out.

Air Raid Pearl Harbour,
this is not a drill.

Unprepared for the attack, the
warships had only a minimal power supply.

Ammunition from the stores had
to be brought up manually by crew.

The odds were not in the U.S.'s

favour, and the Japanese
had total domination of the sky.

As I was going up the ladder, a plane
came flying right down the port side

of the ship, and I could see the
pilot and the co-pilot, and they were

laughing for all they were worth.

The Americans believed
that the water was too

shallow for a torpedo
attack, but the Japanese

had created a brand new kind of torpedo,

specifically designed for
the waters of Pearl Harbour,

and it had a devastating effect.

By 8 a.m., the USS
West Virginia had been hit.

The West Virginia was torn apart
by six torpedoes and two bombs.

Chaos and confusion soon ensued.

The attack on Battleship
Row moved at a sudden pace.

Within the first five
minutes of the attack,

four battleships were hit, including the
USS Oklahoma and the USS Arizona.

Minutes later, the Arizona exploded
after a bomb hit its gunpowder stores.

The ship was sunk, and
it took the lives of 1,177.

It was horrifying, because as the bomb hit

the starboard side of the Vauxhall
deck, it was just a gigantic explosion.

Can you envision a million
pounds of TNT blowing up?

You had burning oil all over the top
of the water, and you had black smoke,

and then you had fire in the ship.

And so those young kids were trying to

jump into the burning water from the mast.

Some of them made
it, some of them didn't.

By 8, 10 a.m., the
USS Arizona was in bits.

The Japanese had swiftly
pulverized Battleship Row.

The USS Oklahoma, containing 1,000
men, was experiencing a horrifying fate.

The Japanese had fired three
torpedoes, causing the ship to turn over.

Water started to spill
through into the interior.

And I looked around,
and there was a big whale.

I said, what on earth is that?

That's the Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma had capsized,
and we didn't even know it.

And it was right so close I
could have hit it with a ball.

I felt like somebody kicked me in the

stomach with a boot or
something, because that's

the worst I ever felt in the
whole war, to see the Oklahoma.

You just don't kill a battleship.

They're impregnable.

Tough!

The Oklahoma's hull
had been torn apart, and

the crew desperately tried
to stop the water pouring in.

We took these soles and the blankets and

stuffed them in the vent system to
try to stop the water from coming in.

Well, we'd plug it up in one place
in the vent, then it'd start coming in

somewhere else.

More than 30 soldiers
were trapped inside the

battleship, fighting for their lives.

Meanwhile, Kanyohi Naval
Air Station was also in flames.

But the sailors stationed
there attempted to fight

back against the Japanese bombardment.

I was angry, so damn mad, that I
didn't have a sense enough to be afraid.

Of course, during this time, I was being

wounded, because the Japs, they
ain't joking, they were there to kill us.

The first wave of attacks was ending.

However, one Japanese pilot
made a final daring run on the base.

I saw a speck way up there.

Boy, he was coming like hell.

Then he came boiling out of that smoke.

I didn't have to move that gun, I
just swung it around and I let him

have it.

The air station lay in
complete devastation.

Charred wreckage of airplanes
and shattered propellers were

strewn across the landscape,
mingled with lifeless bodies.

The American troops felt
a crushing sense of defeat.

I know some of them cried.

Some of them were angry.

Some of them just couldn't understand.

None of us really understood
why we were hit at that time.

The surprise attack
had taken a massive toll.

At 8.54am, the second wave of 170

aircraft began their attack.

They were separated into
three groups, focusing in

on mostly the same targets.

But with the base now on high
alert, their plan was less successful.

At the airbase and the ships, the
Japanese faced a barrage of fire.

Resistance was better coordinated.

The sky was very full of
planes, plus exploding shells.

At times, it was just
like a flock of birds.

Having devastated battleship
Roe over the last hour,

Japanese pilots set their sights on
the warships moored in the dockyards.

There were three airplanes
coming down, and dive bombers.

And these three planes
dropped their bombs, and

I saw them coming, and I started screaming

and screaming, and I said, they're going to

get us, they're going
to get us this time.

The USS Cassin and USS
Downs, both destroyers,

were heavily damaged
during the second attack.

Stationed in dry dock
number one, alongside the

battleship USS Pennsylvania,
they were hit by bombs

and engulfed in fires
from ruptured fuel tanks.

At 9.30am, the Japanese also set their

sights on the USS Shore,
dropping several bombs on the ship.

The spectacular explosion of
her forward magazine provided

one of the most iconic
photographs of the attack.

While the shore burned,
another warship, the Nevada,

made a break for open water.

As we moved down the channel, the second

wave of planes came over, and we
were hit by five to seven bombs, and many,

many near misses.

The explosions, we could feel them, and we

just were holding our breath,
hoping that all went well up there.

Bombs hit the forward
and mid-section of the ship.

If the crippled Nevada sank, it would
block the escape route to the sea.

The rest of the ships in Pearl
Harbor would be like sitting ducks.

The Nevada eventually beached
on Hospital Point, escaping

the inferno and keeping
the vital channel clear.

At 10am on the 7th of December, 1941,

the Japanese strike force
decided to withdraw, leaving

behind a devastated Pearl Harbor.

Concerned about potential
American counterattacks and the risk

of exposing their fleet to
greater danger, Admiral

Nagumo ordered the retreat.

Although the attack was
highly successful, key targets

like oil storage facilities and
shipyards remained intact,

which later proved crucial to the U.S.

recovery.

Within two hours, 21
American warships had been

sunk or damaged, 188
aircraft destroyed, and 2

,403 U.S. servicemen and women killed.

Many of the ships were
repaired and fought in later battles.

And crucially, from the point of view of

the United States, all three of the Pacific

Fleet's aircraft carriers
were not at Pearl Harbor

at the time, and so they escaped damage.

And this was to prove vital during
the later stages of the Pacific War.

The reason why it was so symbolic and

so successful was that
America had never been

attacked like that on their home
shores, especially in the modern era.

And it was proof that the Japanese were

this highly mechanized force,
utterly ruthless, who would

commit an act like this, I mean, you

could almost call it
terror, of absolute audacity

and absolute violence,
which had both a very

strong military and
naval purpose, but also, of

course, it basically saw
the Americans who had

spent the last couple
of years being relatively

complacent about the war, about a lot of

people thinking, this
doesn't bother us, this isn't

something that's going to
impinge on our backyard,

to realizing that the war was at
hand whether they liked it or not.

During the attack on
Pearl Harbor, 68 civilians

tragically lost their
lives, with the bulk of

the casualties being military personnel.

A total of 2,335 service members were

killed, bringing the
overall death toll to 2

,403.

Many civilian deaths
were caused by stray anti

-aircraft shells that fell
on Honolulu as defenders

desperately fired at the
incoming Japanese planes.

Millions of Americans
awoke on the morning of

the 7th of December,
1941, to the horrifying

news of the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor.

The devastating aftermath of the damage
sent shockwaves across the country.

Hello NBC, hello NBC, this
is KGU in Honolulu, Hawaii.

I am speaking from the roof of the
Advertiser Publishing Company building.

We have witnessed this
morning, the distant view,

of a brief full battle of Pearl Harbor,

and the severe bombing
of Pearl Harbor by enemy

planes, undoubtedly Japanese.

The city of Honolulu
has also been attacked,

and considerable damage done.

This battle has been going
on for nearly three hours.

It is no joke, it is a real war.

The scale of the tragedy began to
unravel, and President Franklin D.

Roosevelt took swift and decisive action.

On 8th December, 1941, the very next day,

he addressed a joint session
of Congress, delivering

his famous Day of Infamy speech, a show

of strength which would
go down in American history.

Yesterday,

December 7th,

1941,

a date which
will live in infamy.

The United States of
America was suddenly and

deliberately attacked by naval and
air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was
at peace with that nation,

and at the solicitation of Japan, was

still in conversation with
its government and its

emperor, looking toward the
maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

The facts of yesterday and today

speak for themselves, with confidence
in our armed forces,

with the unbounding
determination of our people.

I ask that the Congress declare that since

the unprovoked and
dastardly attack by Japan on

Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war

has existed between the United
States and the Japanese Empire.

Pearl Harbor at Hickam Field in the bomb

-popped streets of Honolulu
ever is written history,

history with a tragic,
treacherous pen, history that

130 million Americans
will never forget, and in

days to come, the Japs, too,
will remember Pearl Harbor.

Here is a tragic, unforgettable
page in the annals of America.

Here, the cunning deceit of
the Japs will never be forgotten.

Here, they hoped to score a
knockout before the war began.

The Arizona's gun crews battered
and broke and fired to the last.

Their guns pointed skyward
from whence the enemy appeared.

Pearl Harbor was the
worst defeat the United

States had ever had, and that dug
right deep into every one of them.

This cannot happen.

Why did it happen?

And they all responded
in such a strong way.

I guess I really did know that we

would win, because when you attack a bunch

of Marines and sailors, you're in trouble.

We may lose the battle, but
we're going to win the war.

The attack on Pearl
Harbor had shattered the

peace, igniting a fiery
resolve across the nation.

As smoke still billowed
over the wreckage, the

U.S. transformed overnight, gearing
up for war on an unprecedented scale.

Factories roared to life,
soldiers rallied, and the

country united under a
singular purpose, to strike

back with relentless force.

We are going to win this war, and
we are going to win the peace that

follows.

I repeat that the United States can accept

no result, save victory,
final and complete.

Franklin D.

Roosevelt led the United States into war in

the Pacific, with strong backing
from both the Soviet Union and Britain.

We cannot tell what the
course of this stell war will be.

And it spreads remorseless
to ever wider regions.

Though the Soviet Union
was primarily focused on

the European front against
Nazi Germany, Stalin supported

U.S. efforts against Japan, particularly
after the U.S. joined the Allies.

Winston Churchill and Britain,
already deeply involved in

the war, were key partners.

With both nations coordinating
strategies for a two-front war,

in response to the surprise
attack, FDR swiftly mobilized

the military, air force, and navy, with the

first waves of American
forces being deployed to

key Pacific locations, such
as Hawaii, the Philippines,

and other islands soon after.

The Japanese military fortified
its positions across island

strongholds by reinforcing defenses
and stockpiling resources, fully

aware of the impending clash with the U.S.

Elsewhere, in the West, most
of Europe was under Axis control.

Adolf Hitler had launched a
massive invasion of the Soviet Union,

but the spread of his forces did not deter

him from also declaring war on the
United States on 11 December 1941.

It's one of Hitler's most
perplexing decisions as

to why he decided to declare
war on the United States.

Actually, his reason
for doing it is because

he thinks, finally, this
is an opportunity to

show that he really wants to rid the
world of what he sees as being the

evils of international finance
and Jewish control of economies.

Of course, he's dead wrong about that.

He's also in a pact with Japan, so
he feels that Japan's a natural ally.

And so this is why, you
know, war breaks out.

It's Hitler saber-rattling.

He doesn't know what
it's going to lead to.

With Hitler's declaration,
the U.S. found itself

engaged in a two-front war.

The attack on Pearl
Harbor had thrust millions

of American citizens directly
into the heart of the conflict.

It's one thing just to say we're declaring

war, but also,
logistically, this is a really

tricky ask for the Americans, if you like.

They've got to fight a war in Europe,

and they've also got to fight a war

around the other side of
the planet, all over the Pacific.

This is going to require all of America's

industrial might and know-how if they can

fight a war both in
Europe and the Pacific.

Never in the history or the memory
of man has there been a war in which

the courage, the
endurance, and the loyalty of

civilians played so vital a part.

Many thousands of
civilians all over the world

have been and are being killed
or maimed by enemy action.

Our soldiers and sailors
and Marines are fighting

with great bravery and great skill on far

distant fronts to make sure
that we shall remain safe.

As we here at home contemplate our own

duties, our own
responsibilities, let us think and

think hard of the example which is being

set for us by our own fighting men.

The Pacific War turned out to be a

brutal and drawn-out
conflict marked by relentless

battles across land, sea, and air.

Spanning thousands of
miles of treacherous terrain, it

saw ferocious island-hopping
campaigns, massive naval engagements,

and devastating air
assaults as both sides fought

fiercely for dominance in the Pacific.

Seven hours on one
engine, extra belly tanks,

extra nerve and stamina in the cockpit.

When Japan and the
United States are fighting

this war in the Pacific, what they're doing

is fighting for island strongholds.

You've got to think of the war
as like a kind of to-and-fro-ing

of trying to grab stepping
stones on a big pond, if you like.

And so the more stepping
stones you control,

the more of the ponds you control.

And so you have huge battles on islands

like Iwo Jima, Peleniu,
which are very bloody,

very attritional fights in
which the Japanese are

often dug in and
fight to the last man.

And it costs an enormous amount of lives.

So it's a very bloody, very
vicious, very drawn-out combat.

And of course, as well as these battles

on these small islands, you also have these

huge naval engagements
as well, like the Battle

of Midway, which again are
very costly in men and material.

The Battle of Midway in June 1942 proved

to be a decisive
naval battle for the US.

Within the first five
minutes, the American Air

Force had hit three
Japanese aircraft carriers, with

a fourth being destroyed
by the end of the battle.

Midway marked the
beginning of a more aggressive

American military presence in the region.

Japan employed violent and
desperate tactics during the

Pacific War, including the
infamous Kamikaze suicide attacks,

where pilots deliberately
crashed their planes into Allied

ships in a final deadly bid
to halt the advancing forces.

By 1944, the Japanese
were using Kamikaze pilots

regularly in an attempt
to turn the tide of the war.

These suicide missions, launched
primarily against Allied naval

vessels, caused significant
damage and sank or damaged

hundreds of ships,
killing thousands of sailors.

While terrifying and disruptive,
many Kamikaze attacks were

intercepted by Allied
anti-aircraft defences, and the

loss of skilled pilots and
planes strained Japan's

already dwindling resources.

In late 1944, the bloodiest battle of the

Pacific campaign took
place on the island of Peleliu.

The US 1st Marine Division landed
on the island expecting a swift victory.

However, the Japanese had
changed their defensive strategy.

Instead of defending
the beaches, they dug into

the island's rocky ridges
and caves, creating a

complex network of fortified positions.

The temperature was around 115 degrees.

Now 115 degrees with
high humidity is insufferable

to even sit and rest, but to be

running around out
there in the scorching sun

carrying your load of
ammunition and your weapon,

trying to help carry a wounded
out, was just absolutely exhausting.

You could see Bloody Nose Ridge on the

other side, that's where we were going.

Places as many as 200 feet high, the Japs

had complete clear
vision of everything we did.

The Marines faced heavy
resistance right from the

start, with intense
machine gun and artillery fire

from hidden Japanese positions.

They had heavy artillery up there.

The concussion from
the Jap artillery shells was

so loud and so constant that it was

like as though the ground
was swaying back and forth.

And here you were up running through this.

You could see guys
just falling all around us.

That was one of the strangest ways
to me that men fell when they were hit.

I suppose it depended on what type of

projectile or fragment
hit them, but some of

them just sagged down to the ground.

It was almost pitiful, like they were
just real tired, and they were dead.

And other guys threw their arms out and

fell over backwards, and
some guys pitched forward,

and some let out god-awful screams.

To me, that was the worst
part of all of seeing guys get hit.

It maybe didn't bother some people
as bad as it did me, but every one of

those guys was a damn good Marine
and a buddy and some other son.

The island was declared
secure after nearly two

and a half months of
intense fighting, though

scattered resistance continued for weeks.

However, fighting in the
Pacific would continue late

into 1945, with countless
more American lives lost.

The Allied powers secured
victory in Europe in May 1945.

The Nazi Empire finally fell after six long

years, and Hitler escaped to his
bunker prepared to die by cyanide.

However, for the United
States, the war was not over yet.

Trouble still brewed in the Pacific,
and American blood continued to spill.

After V-Day was declared in Europe, there

was a real problem, but America and the

rest of the Allied powers
were still at war with Japan.

And Japan showed absolutely
no signs of surrendering.

The difference between
Germany and Japan was that

Germany, especially after
Hitler died, knew they were

beaten, knew there was nowhere else to go,

they just basically had to settle for a

humiliating peace, the best
possible terms they could get.

The thing about Japan is that there is

no concept of surrender
in their national identity,

but the whole idea was that they
would literally fight until the last man.

Germany surrendered on May the 8th, and we

got the news on a tank radio because
we were preparing on Okinawa for a big

push on May the 9th, and granted
that we were all glad for the troops in

Europe and glad for the civilians who had

suffered so much, but as far as we

were concerned, the
general remark that I heard

was, so what, because the next day we
had to make this push and my company

got all shot up.

So, you know, Nazi Germany might
as well have been on the moon as far as

we were concerned because we had our hands

full of all kinds of
trouble where we were.

The Battle of Okinawa
took place on May the 5th.

It was the final desperate push in the

Pacific theater, bringing the war
closer to Japan's home islands.

As the largest amphibious
assault of the Pacific

War, Okinawa was seen as the last major

stepping stone for the
Allies before a potential

invasion of mainland Japan.

This brutal campaign, codenamed
Operation Iceberg, was marked

by fierce ground combat, kamikaze attacks,
and heavy civilian casualties,

Japanese forces entrenched in

fortified positions fought
tenaciously, leading to a high

death toll on both sides.

Over 12,000 U.S. soldiers and an

estimated 100,000
Japanese soldiers were killed.

Thousands of Okinawan civilians
also perished, many through

forced suicides.

The combat at Okinawa was in a sense

worse than Peleliu because it went on for

three months and when it was over,
we were just so utterly exhausted.

It was indescribable.

I was convinced that if I had had

to invade Japan, I would never
survive because my luck had run out.

The battle marked
the climax of the

island-hopping campaign
and set the stage for the

war's end.

The catastrophic losses
at the Battle of Okinawa

convinced U.S. leaders that an invasion of

Japan's mainland would be devastating.

With Truman now as president, he weighed up

the decision to use
atomic bombs to force

Japan’s surrender, and
avoid further bloodshed.

At 8.15 a.m. on the 6th of August,
1945, the lead plane, Enola Gay,

released the Little Boy
bomb over Hiroshima.

Residents awoke to the most
almighty sight in human history.

Little Boy fell almost six miles in 43

seconds before
detonating at an altitude of 2

,000 feet.

80,000 people died instantly,
some even evaporating on the spot.

A short time ago, an American airplane
dropped one bomb on Hiroshima

and destroyed its usefulness to the enemy.

You can imagine that if you are in

Hiroshima and you're going
about your daily business,

there's just this flash
of blinding white light

and then all of a sudden
everything around you is destroyed.

And it is something biblical.

I mean, you would have
genuinely imagined if

you'd seen it that this
was the end of days.

Japan at this point was faced with the

fact that one of their major industrial and

military bases no longer existed.

I mean a huge number
of civilians had been killed.

It was an act completely
without parallel in modern warfare.

It was literally the first atomic bomb.

You would have expected
that they would have

thought we can't carry on, but this is

Japan we're talking about,
this isn't any other country.

And so they refused to surrender on the

grounds that they asked us,
well, you can keep bombing us.

We don't care, we are not
going to surrender to you.

But of course the problem is they didn't

really understand what
they were up against.

The bomb obliterated
Hiroshima and its people,

and yet the Japanese government
still refused to surrender.

Three days later, a second
bomb landed on Nagasaki.

The devastation at
Nagasaki is, make no mistake,

it's huge, but because Nagasaki is built in

sort of valleys and it's got cliffs and

things like that, the
explosion was much more

contained so relatively
less, fewer parts of the

city but it is still devastating and it

is far greater than any other
single bomb can possibly produce.

Emperor Hirohito broke the
government's deadlock, expressing that

the Japanese race will be
destroyed if the war continues.

And so on the 15th of August, Hirohito

announced the end to Japan's
suffering over radio broadcast.

I have received this
afternoon a message from

the Japanese government
following that government by the

Secretary of State on August 11th.

I deem this reply a full acceptance of

the Potsdam Declaration which
specifies the unconditional surrender

of Japan.

In the reply, there is no qualification.

Reporters rush out to relay the news to

an anxious world and touch off
celebrations throughout the country.

A new wave of cruelty Japan officially
signed the Surrender Act soon after.

Four years after the
devastation at Pearl Harbour,

the biggest conflict in history
had finally come to an end.

In Chicago, tears of
joy mingled with cheers

as a million people sang
and danced in the streets.

The surprise attack by Japan on the 7th

of December, 1941 led
to death and destruction

on a scale never before
seen in human history.

The relentless fighting in the Pacific.

From the beaches of Iwo Jima to the

blood-soaked hills of Okinawa
had pushed both sides to the brink.

The dropping of atomic
bombs on Hiroshima and

Nagasaki brought the war to a dramatic and

tragic end, sparing the
world from further destruction.

What began with an
unprovoked assault closed with

a transformed world
as the hard-fought peace

reshaped nations and laid the
foundation for a new global order.