Original subtitles

In the first months of 1945,

Japan was on the run.

The Americans had fought their way across the Pacific.

US submarines and aircraft had destroyed

Japan's merchant fleet and naval airpower.

The main Japanese home islands had been cut off

from vital supplies of fuel and raw materials.

The Japanese were facing defeat.

Yet they refused to surrender,

convinced that if they fought back with sufficient brutality

the Americans wouldn't have the stomach for the fight,

and would give in.

Japan made clear that every move towards the home islands

would be paid for in Allied blood.

It presented the United States with a huge problem.

How could Japan be defeated

without a terrible loss of American life?

The country would eventually turn to the most powerful

and dreadful weapon ever seen.

A weapon that would change the course of war for ever.

In early 1945, as US military planners

considered the next move against Japan,

their gaze fell on the Japanese occupied island of Iwo Jima.

It lay a mere 800 miles from the Japanese mainland

and would be a valuable base for attacking the country.

The US commander in the central Pacific, Admiral Chester Nimitz,

assembled the largest landing fleet

ever brought together in the Pacific campaign

and prepared to invade the island.

Nimitz was taking no risks.

Wave after wave of American aircraft

paved the way with a massive aerial bombardment.

Then, on the morning of February 19th, 1945,

the guns of the naval task force

began one of the most prolonged bombardments of the war.

At the same time, landing craft set off for the shore.

The Marines hit the beaches of Iwo Jima

along the south-western shore just after nine o'clock in the morning.

For a few moments, there was an eerie calm,

the massive naval and aerial bombardment

appeared to have overwhelmed the Japanese garrison.

Then a hurricane of Japanese fire swept over them.

General Tadamichi Kuribayashi,

the Japanese commander on the island,

had told his men to hold their fire

until the Americans were right under their guns.

Now, the Japanese opened up from a network of tunnels,

caves and bunkers.

There was carnage.

But gradually small groups of US troops inched their way forward.

Finally, by the evening, the beach-head had been secured.

The task now was to capture the 550-foot high

Mount Suribachi, the heavily-defended volcano

that dominates Iwo Jima.

For three days, Marines clawed their way up

the steep, pitted slopes.

They were supported by a constant air and naval bombardment

from the invasion fleet.

Finally, on February 23rd, 1945,

a US platoon led by 1st Lieutenant Harold Schreier

began the final assault,

carrying with them a small US flag.

They reached the summit and raised their flag

using a piece of piping as a pole.

Marine Corps photographer Staff Sergeant Louis Lowery

captured the scene with a few precious photographs.

The hard pressed Marines on the beaches below

cheered and wept.

Ships sounded their whistles.

Three hours later, the event was restaged with a larger US flag.

The moment was immortalized by photographer Joe Rosenthal

with one of the most iconic photographs of the war.

But the battle for Iwo Jima was far from over.

The rest of the island was still in Japanese hands.

The next day, the Marines captured the first

of the island's strategically vital airfields.

But Kuribayashi had told his men to take

as many of the enemy with them as possible.

Their duty to the Emperor - to die on the island.

It meant each assault became a bloody frontal affair.

It took two weeks before the remaining

two airfields on the island were in US hands.

Even as the fighting continued,

the US Airforce began to make use of Iwo Jima's airfields.

During the late spring and summer of 1945,

over 2,500 damaged US bombers

made emergency landings on the island,

often saving the lives of their crews.

Finally, at the end of March,

after some six weeks of ferocious fighting,

the last Japanese resistance was snuffed out.

But the capture of Iwo Jima had come at a terrible price.

Only 200 of the 22,000-strong Japanese garrison survived.

The Americans had also suffered badly.

Nearly 7,000 Marines had been killed and some 18,000 wounded.

The Americans finally had the base they needed.

But it was now clear

that unless the US could come up with an alternative,

any invasion of Japan

would be paid for in tens of thousands of American lives.

In the United States, one group of military planners

had long believed there was an alternative to invading Japan.

It was called strategic bombing.

This involved carefully targeted bombing raids

designed to destroy Japan's infrastructure,

industry and ability to wage war.

But in the first years of the Pacific war,

there was a problem.

Japan lay beyond the range of America's bombers.

In April 1942, the US had managed to launch

a one-off bombing raid on Tokyo.

But it had pushed the bombers to their limits

and was never a practical long-term option.

Then, in early 1944, the Boeing Aircraft Corporation

produced a revolutionary new heavy bomber,

the B-29 Superfortress.

It could carry 20,000 lbs of bombs

over a range of 3,250 miles.

Suddenly, Japan was just about in reach

of America's forward bases in the Pacific.

In summer 1944, nine months before the assault on Iwo Jima,

US B-29s stationed at Chengdu in south-west China,

began a series of strategic bombing raids on Japan.

But range was still an issue.

It was too far for a fighter escort,

so the Superfortresses had to fly alone,

staying at high altitude for their own safety.

Even then, the range was also only just within limits

and there was no room for navigational error.

Many of the bombs missed their targets.

Then in July 1944, there was a development

that gave strategic bombing a new lease of life.

The US navy captured the Mariana Islands

in the central Pacific.

They were only 1,500 miles from the Japanese homeland.

This was well within the B-29's operating range.

The odds for a successful bombing campaign on Japan

had dramatically improved.

On November 24th, over 100 Superfortresses

took off from the Marianas.

Their target - the Nakajima aircraft factory in Tokyo.

But only 48 bombs struck anywhere near the target.

For three months, more raids targeted other industrial sites.

But the B-29's were still flying without a fighter escort

and still dropping their bombs from high altitude.

The targets were often obscured by cloud

and jet stream winds made accurate bomb aiming impossible.

To make matters worse, the B-29s suffered from engine problems.

There were also attacks from Kamikaze pilots.

By the winter of 1944,

it was clear that strategic bombing was just not working.

If Japan was to be bombed into submission,

the US would have to come up with something else.

So it was that on December 18th, 1944,

America tried a new tactic.

Eighty-four B-29s set off from Chengdu

for Japanese-occupied Hankow, on the Yangtze River.

They flew much lower than usual

and carried mostly incendiary

rather than high-explosive bombs.

Hankow was devastated.

The raid was more effective

than almost any of the previous strategic bombing raids.

The US appeared to have found a way forward,

fire-bombing at low altitude.

The US bomber commander in the Marianas,

General Curtis LeMay,

now ordered the systematic fire-bombing of Japan.

It was the same tactic that Britain had employed in Germany.

On the evening of March 9th, 1945,

Pathfinder aircraft roared over Tokyo,

dropping incendiary target indicators.

The fires they started marked the aiming points

for almost 300 B-29s.

Coming in at just 5,000 feet,

they dropped over 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs.

The flimsy wooden houses stood no chance.

Air was sucked in, creating towering firestorms,

which raced faster than people could run.

The glow from the burning city

could be seen over 150 miles away.

When the all-clear finally sounded the following morning,

16 square miles of Tokyo had been obliterated.

Over 100,000 of its citizens were killed

and a million made homeless.

Tokyo was not the only city to face this devastating new tactic.

Nagoya was set ablaze two nights later.

Then Osaka and Kobe during the following week.

Firestorms engulfed whole areas,

destroying houses and industrial facilities.

But American success was coming at a price.

Without escorts, the low-flying US bombers

were dangerously vulnerable to Japanese fighters.

American losses now mounted.

If the bombing campaign was ever to succeed,

the US needed bases even closer to Japan.

Within weeks, Iwo Jima fell.

Now, at last, the US air force

not only had a base for its bombers

within easy striking distance of Japan,

it could finally use its Mustang fighters to escort them.

During the late spring and early summer of 1945,

strikes of up to 500 bombers attacked Japan every other day.

Once the largest industrial areas had been crippled,

LeMay moved on to lesser targets.

Yet in the face of catastrophic damage

and an appalling death toll,

the Japanese showed no sign of cracking.

It finally dawned on the Americans

that strategic bombing alone

was never going to defeat Japan.

It looked like a full-scale invasion of the country

was becoming inevitable.

For the US battle planners,

the next logical step in the land campaign

was the Japanese island of Okinawa.

It lay a mere 350 miles from the Japanese homeland islands.

The island was defended by more than 120,000 men.

The Japanese commander, General Mitsuru Ishijima,

was determined to turn it into an American graveyard.

Once again, Admiral Nimitz, the US commander in the region,

assembled a huge fleet.

It included 40 aircraft carriers and 18 battleships.

The opening bombardment of Okinawa

began on March 23rd, 1945.

It lasted for a whole week.

Finally, on the morning of April 1st,

the assault boats headed for the shore.

To their surprise, they met almost no opposition.

By nightfall, 60,000 men had landed

and the beach-head was up to two miles deep.

For the next two days, the US forces

built up their strength and pushed across the island.

Again, opposition was unexpectedly light.

By April 4th, the Japanese defenders had been split in two.

Marine divisions now headed north.

Army units pushed south.

The Marines continued to meet only sporadic resistance

and within three weeks had cleared the northern part of the island.

But it was a different story in the south.

There, the army units ran into savage fire.

For ten days, the Japanese held their defensive line.

Then, when they could hold out no longer,

they simply withdrew to the next defensive position

and continued to resist all over again.

Meanwhile, the Japanese also prepared to launch

an air assault on the invasion fleet.

Early on the morning of April 7th,

Kamikaze pilots gathered to drink their ritual cups of sake

and climb into their aircraft for the last time.

Over 700 aircraft, half of them Kamikazes,

took off and approached the US landing fleet,

A line of radar-equipped destroyers,

operating about 50 miles out at sea, was hit first.

By the end of the first day of the attack,

two US destroyers had been sunk.

Twenty-four other vessels were also damaged.

But the Japanese had lost over 300 planes.

Over the following days,

the Japanese introduced a new weapon.

The Okha, or "Cherry Blossom",

was a rocket-powered suicide missile

driven by a Kamikaze pilot.

It was launched from a bomber

and carried a massive 2,650 pound warhead.

On April 12th, another US destroyer was hit and sunk.

The Okha looked deadly.

But US fighters quickly learnt to intercept

and shoot down the bombers that carried them.

In desperation, the Japanese navy

now sent a suicide mission of its own.

The "Yamato", Japan's largest battleship,

was loaded with just enough fuel to reach Okinawa

and ordered to fight to the death,

sinking as many US ships as possible in the process.

But as the giant ship approached Okinawa, it was spotted.

Some 400 US aircraft descended on it.

Within two hours, it blew up.

The fireball could be seen for over 100 miles.

Back on Okinawa, torrential rain

now turned the battlefield into a quagmire.

For over a month, US troops struggled to push their way south.

Every cave or dugout entrance

had to be blasted by flamethrowers,

grenades and explosives.

As before, as one defensive line was overrun,

the Japanese slipped back to another,

and the whole grim business would start again.

US casualties rapidly mounted.

Finally, on June 1st, the town of Shuri was captured.

Then, on June 4th, a new contingent of Marines landed

to the south of Naha, the island's capital,

and linked up with troops pushing down from the north.

Savage fighting continued, but by June 17th,

the Japanese resistance was collapsing.

Five days later, the Americans finally secured Okinawa.

The Japanese commander, General Ishijima,

committed ritual suicide - hara kiri.

Over 7,000 prisoners were taken, the first time ever

that such large numbers of Japanese troops had surrendered.

It had been a bloody and exhausting campaign.

100,000 Japanese soldiers,

and some 40,000 civilians had been killed.

The Americans, for their part, had lost over 15,000 men.

It was a sobering reminder of what would await the American forces

if they invaded the main Japanese home islands.

More than ever, they needed a solution.

A way to obliterate Japan's will to fight once and for all.

The victory at Okinawa meant America's military planners

now had to decide what to do next.

Despite shattering defeats,

the Japanese still showed no sign of surrendering.

Some US commanders argued for a continuation

of the fire-bombing campaign.

But by the summer of 1945,

it was clear that bombing alone would never defeat Japan.

An invasion seemed unavoidable.

But the question was: at what price?

The Japanese had some one million men

defending the home islands.

They were supported by about 5,000 aircraft

and new Kamikaze pilots were being trained all the time.

Mass suicide attacks by civilian volunteers

could also be expected.

A bloodbath seemed inevitable.

It was estimated that over a quarter of a million American lives might be lost.

Then, in July 1945, the new US President,

Harry S. Truman, heard about the results

of a top secret Allied scientific research program.

It was called the "Manhattan Project".

For three years, Allied scientists

had been working on an atom bomb -

a weapon that draws on the vast quantities of energy

released when an atom is split.

It would have an unimaginable destructive force.

The project was led by US General Leslie Groves,

an army engineer.

The scientific director was Robert Oppenheimer,

a 39-year-old physicist from the University of California.

Over a three year period, the program had recruited

many of the Allies' best scientific brains.

Two radioactive materials seemed to offer most promise

as fuels for the new bombs.

One was a naturally occurring form of uranium

called Uranium-235.

It was processed at a vast factory at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The other was plutonium - a man-made material

manufactured in primitive nuclear reactors

at Hanford in Washington State.

The research was co-ordinated and conducted

by a team of scientists at Los Alamos,

a specially-built laboratory complex

in the New Mexico desert.

By early 1945,

the Los Alamo scientists were pretty confident

that they had a uranium bomb that worked.

But it required huge quantities of Uranium-235

and the scientists worried that they didn't have enough of it.

So they also designed a second bomb that used plutonium.

But this, unlike the uranium bomb,

was much less well understood

and they weren't sure it would work.

Before it could be used, they would need to test it.

By early July 1945,

after an expenditure of more than two billion dollars,

the plutonium bomb was ready for trials.

The "gadget", as it was called,

was mounted on a steel tower in the New Mexico desert.

At 5:30 in the morning of July 16th, the atomic age began.

News that "Operation Trinity" had been successful

was swiftly passed to President Truman.

He had recently arrived at a conference

in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam,

meeting with Stalin and Churchill,

discussing the future of Europe.

Truman didn't hesitate.

He ordered his commanders to prepare to drop the new bombs

on Japan as soon as possible.

Two bombs - a uranium device codenamed "Little Boy"

and a plutonium bomb called "Fat Man" -

were now transported to the Mariana Islands.

There, the immensely experienced Colonel Paul Tibbets,

leader of the specially-trained 509th Composite Group,

prepared his B-29.

At 2:45 in the morning of August 6th,

Tibbets lifted his plane,

named "Enola Gay" after his mother, off the runway.

On board he was carrying "Little Boy".

The flight to the target, Japan's fourth largest city,

Hiroshima, went without a hitch.

At 08:00am, on a bright sunny morning,

"Enola Gay" approached the city at 33,000 feet.

Then, at just after 08:15, Little Boy was released.

The uranium bomb had the power of nearly 13,000 tons of TNT.

The temperature beneath the mushroom cloud

reached 5,000 degrees Centigrade.

Thousands of people were instantly vaporized.

Shockwaves levelled buildings up to a five mile radius.

Estimates of the death toll vary hugely.

Some put it at 40,000 people, others at 100,000.

Many suffered from terrible burns and blistering.

Over the course of the following weeks,

thousands more people died from radiation poisoning.

On August 7, 1945, President Truman told the world

about the bomb and issued Japan with a warning.

Let there be no mistake,

we shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war.

They may expect a rain of ruin from the air,

the like of which has never been seen on this Earth.

But no Japanese surrender was received.

Two days later, on August 9th,

"Fat Man" was dropped on the major military port of Nagasaki.

The plutonium bomb was even more powerful.

In fact, the bomb fell way off target,

but it still caused massive destruction.

Between 35,000 and 50,000 people are estimated

to have died in the explosion.

The Japanese government could now have no doubt

that they faced a new and horrific weapon,

but the question remained,

would even this force them to surrender?

The Nagasaki bomb was followed by a stark warning

from US Secretary of State James Byrnes.

There is still time,

but little time for the Japanese to save themselves

from the destruction which threatens them.

The intention was clear -

the atom bomb would be used again and again

until Japan gave in.

That same day, Japan's position became even more precarious.

Early in the morning of August 9th,

a million and a half Soviet troops

stormed into Manchuria and northern China.

The Soviet leader, Josef Stalin, was not only after territory.

He wanted a say in any final peace settlement

in the Far East.

There were still over a million Japanese troops in the area

but the Red Army Blitzkrieg was unstoppable.

The Japanese position in the war had become untenable.

That evening, Emperor Hirohito met

with his six top military and political leaders.

The war cabinet was divided.

Three, led by the Prime Minister,

Baron Kantaro Suzuki, argued for peace.

The other three wanted to continue fighting.

It was deadlock.

Then the Japanese Prime Minster broke with all precedent

and asked the Emperor for his opinion.

Emperor Hirohito voted for peace,

on condition that his position as head of state was maintained.

The next morning, a proposal was sent

to the US Secretary of State James Byrnes.

Byrnes rejected it.

Only unconditional surrender would do.

As the Japanese war cabinet argued amongst itself,

Soviet troops continued to tear into Mongolia.

At the same time, American fighters now roamed freely over Japan,

shooting up military targets and transport links at will.

Massive air raids continued to devastate Japan.

Then, on August 14th, the Truman administration

sent word that the Emperor's position would be safeguarded,

provided he agreed to accept the orders

of the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces.

Hirohito used his huge prestige to instruct the war cabinet

to "endure the unendurable" and accept the terms.

That day in Washington, President Truman announced

that Japan had surrendered unconditionally.

I deem this reply a full acceptance

of the Potsdam declaration, which specifies

the unconditional surrender of Japan.

Cheering, singing crowds

erupted onto the streets of every American city.

In Britain, it was midnight when the new Prime Minister,

Clement Atlee, broadcast the news.

Japan has today surrendered.

The last of our enemies is laid low.

Peace has once again come to the world.

Let us thank God for this great deliverance and his mercies.

Long live the King.

Within minutes, crowds appeared on the streets of London.

Many gathered outside Buckingham Palace.

A giant street party lasted well into the following day.

The next morning, August 15th,

an astounded Japanese people

listened to the voice of their God Emperor

for the very first time.

He told them that Japan's position had become impossible

and the country was obliged to surrender.

All military forces must lay down their arms.

Such was the emperor's prestige that almost every unit obeyed.

But in Manchuria, despite the Japanese ceasefire,

the Soviet forces fought on.

For the first time, large numbers of Japanese troops now surrendered.

Nevertheless, the Soviets, determined to seize

as much territory as possible, continued to advance.

Stalin wouldn't stop the fighting for another week.

By then the whole of Manchuria,

half of Korea,

and part of northern China were under his control.

Elsewhere in South-East Asia, in the Philippines,

and on many of the Pacific islands

bypassed by the Americans,

it took weeks for news of the surrender

to reach isolated Japanese garrisons.

Some Japanese soldiers would remain hidden in the jungle

for more than 30 years.

Finally, on August 28th,

two weeks after the surrender,

the first US troops arrived in Japan.

A huge US fleet gathered in Tokyo Bay,

sailing past the shattered hulks

of the once-proud Japanese navy

that they had so comprehensively defeated.

Several days later, on September 2nd, 1945,

a Japanese delegation came aboard the USS battleship "Missouri".

On its quarterdeck, the new Japanese foreign minister,

Mamoru Shigemitsu,

signed the document of unconditional surrender.

It was countersigned by US General Douglas MacArthur,

the man who would effectively run Japan

for the next six years.

As supreme commander for the Allied powers,

I announce it my firm purpose

in the tradition of the countries I represent,

to proceed in the discharge of my responsibilities

with justice and tolerance.

Then a force of more than 2,000 Allied aircraft roared overhead.

It was a fitting tribute to the overwhelming power

which had finally brought Germany and Japan

to utter defeat.

World War Two was at an end.

Japan's ruthless desire to wage war

had been crushed by a weapon of awesome destructive power.

Now in the East, as in the West,

the world would be divided and shared along new lines.

New allegiances would be formed,

and new enemies would vie for global influence,

under the specter of nuclear war.

A new era in world history had begun.