Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] For almost four years, American soldiers and

Marines in the Pacific have struggled across beaches,

through jungles and atop mountains to subdue a nation

that refuses to surrender.

The effort has been immense.

More is required.

In the spring of 1945,

the United States will start the final push

to defeat the Japanese empire.

[dramatic music]

- All wars changed the world,

but none of them changed the world

like the second World War did.

- Japan's on the march, Germany's on the march.

[dramatic music continues]

- No one can imagine the nightmare

they're about to unleash.

The most destructive war in human history.

- Suddenly the world is turned upside down

and all hell is let loose.

[dramatic music continues]

- The West is stunned by the speed of the advance.

[dramatic music continues]

- You get the allies led by the big three,

Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin,

men who are dealing with immensely complicated questions.

- It's the biggest military operation of human history.

- The allies have to come together, not just militarily

but industrial scale.

It's a global perspective.

- [Historian] They have to fight in every climate

from the Arctic to the jungles of the Pacific,

to the deserts of Africa and the depths of the ocean.

[dramatic music]

- But there was no certainty of victory.

It was going to be a horrific bloodbath.

- We see humans at their absolute worst,

how they treat other human beings,

and we see them at their absolute best,

willing to give their lives that others might live.

- World War II was a struggle

in which there could be one victor and vanquish.

[dramatic music]

[bomb exploding]

[sirens wailing]

[radio static crackling]

- [Radio Host] With the Rhine's West Bank secured,

Britain expects other crossings of Germany's river

of Destiny after a law to build up our own strength,

and after that, the end of the European war

should not be far off.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] In America in the spring of 1945,

there is hope that the war in Europe is nearing its end.

Husbands and fathers,

boyfriends and brothers might finally be coming home.

- It is front and center on the American mind.

How quickly can we get to Berlin

and get the soldiers home?

- The public get this sort of an attitude

that you know, hey, the war's almost over.

They'll be coming home, but it's almost like a marathon

and you see the finish line in the distance

and so you know you can give one last kick

and then somebody says,

"Actually there's another three miles to go."

- [Tom Hanks] Victory in Europe seems within reach.

Victory over Tokyo remains on the far horizon.

[dramatic music]

For months, hundreds of B-29s

have been striking Japanese cities to marginal effect.

- The army air forces believed that a sufficient amount

of pinpoint bombing from high altitude

would take out Japanese industry

and make it impossible for them to continue the war.

It didn't work.

[dramatic music continues]

Bombing from 30,000 feet, the winds were too strong,

blew the bombs all over the place.

- [Tom Hanks] Under the command of General Curtis LeMay,

the Air Force alters its tactics.

[fast-paced music]

[airplane roaring]

On March 9th, 1945,

LeMay's B-29s will attack Tokyo from only 5,000 feet

using a new weapon.

Bombs filled with napalm.

- Napalm is this gel combined with gasoline

that will stick to things and then it catches fire

and it makes it very, very hard to put out.

It's for starting fires that are designed

to just go out of control.

- And the reason it's gonna be so destructive

is that Tokyo is mostly made of wood and paper

and this is just going to explode.

It'll be incredibly imflamable.

- [Craig] The argument was that if you destroy the housing units

of the Japanese workers, they wouldn't be able to go to work

and build the planes and the tanks.

They needed to continue the conflict.

[dramatic music]

But the outcome was absolutely horrific.

[dramatic music]

[bombs whirring]

[fire crackling]

- [Historian] It is just complete devastation in Tokyo.

[soft music]

A hundred thousand people were killed.

[soft music continues]

- [Saul] We think of Dresden as being the worst single moment

in the European Theater of Operations.

The fire storm at Dresden, 25,000 were lost there,

but in Tokyo there's a hundred thousand killed

in a single operation.

The whole city was a sea of fire.

[soft music]

- [Christopher] It was so hot that canals start to boil

and the fires eat up so much of the oxygen

that a lot of the people who die asphyxiate

because there's no oxygen left.

A huge proportion of the city is simply gone in one night.

[soft music]

- [Tom Hanks] The destruction is immense.

16 square miles of Tokyo are obliterated.

After this one raid,

a million Japanese no longer have a home.

- It's unprecedented.

General LeMay later I recall that he would've been tried

as a war criminal if United States lost in the war.

[soft music]

- [Tom Hanks] To survey the damage,

Emperor Hirohito emerges from his bunker

beneath the Imperial Palace.

- Emperor Hirohito has been pretty isolated

throughout the war,

but he does have a sense that the war is not exactly going

as his generals and admirals are telling him.

So when the fire bombing in Tokyo happened,

that only intensifies his desire

to start looking for ways to end the war.

- [Christopher] For Emperor Hirohito the big concern

is not what might happen to the ordinary Japanese people,

but if the Americans make it onto Japanese soil,

what might happen to him?

What might happen to the imperial ine

that goes back centuries in Japan?

He says, "I can't possibly face my ancestors

having sacrificed the throne."

- [Tom Hanks] The emperor of Japan is considered

to be divine with immense authority over his people.

But Hirohito rarely exerts that authority in political

or military matters.

- There's the committee for the supreme direction

of the war, which is six people, two people from the army,

two people from the Navy, the prime minister

and the foreign minister.

Those six are the only six

that had any real say within Japan.

- The civilian leaders understood they

couldn't win the war, but the military are determined to

fight on.

- Japanese military leaders have lived their whole life

under a professional code.

That surrender is so dishonorable you

would rather die, no matter what the suffering,

the warrior does not surrender.

- [Jon] For all the firebombing,

for all the destruction already rained on Japan,

there's no sign of surrender.

- [Craig] The American high command now believes

that the Japanese would not surrender short of an invasion

and occupation of the Japanese home islands.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] The United States is gathering its forces

for the next phase of its assault on Imperial Japan.

[boat whirring and dramatic music]

The capture of Okinawa,

the largest island on the Ryukyu chain.

- Okinawa is just 400 miles south of Kyushu,

which is the most southerly of the Japanese home islands,

and therefore can be used to launch an invasion fleet.

So Okinawa is absolutely vital to the Americans.

[dramatic music continues]

- [Craig] Okinawa would be defended

by about a hundred thousand Japanese frontline troops

and also native Okinawan militia forces.

They know that the Americans have overwhelming superiority

in the air and at sea.

[dramatic music continues]

- [Christopher] The plan for the defense of Okinawa

is don't go for a Banzai charge.

Instead, they will prepare these defensive fortifications,

let the Americans come to them and take them out that way.

[dramatic music continues]

- [Tom Hanks] Using native Okinawans as forced labor,

the Japanese build a network of bunkers and tunnels.

- [Craig] And the idea was kill four, five Americans

before you are killed yourself.

The Japanese overall strategy is to make the Americans pay

so much for Okinawa that an invasion

of the Japanese home islands would be unthinkable.

[dramatic music]

- [Saul] The garrison on Okinawa is only half the Japanese

strategy for defending the island.

The other element of the plan is to use kamikaze,

but in far greater numbers than ever been used before.

- The Japanese recognize

that when the Americans conduct

these amphibious landing operations,

the ships offshore are the lifeline

that's keeping the battalions ashore in the fight.

So they came up with this idea of these organized waves

of kamikaze attacks.

- [Dan] And if you launch 300 kamikaze at the American fleet

and you take out seven aircraft carriers or something,

that is a war changing thing.

[bombs exploding]

- [Tom Hanks] The Battle of Okinawa starts

with the largest invasion of the war in the Pacific.

A massive effort combining naval, air and ground support.

60,000 soldiers and marines are bound

for Okinawa's western beaches.

The invasion force will land on Hagushi Bay,

then the Marines will sweep north

and the army south to take control of the entire island.

[guns firing]

- [Saul] The biggest danger in an amphibious operation

is the actual landing because you are incredibly vulnerable.

You are out in the open.

The combat troops going up first.

Both marine and army have been told to expect up

to 80% casualties.

[dramatic music]

So if you've drawn the unlucky straw of being one

of the first units, you're pretty convinced not many

of you're gonna survive.

[dramatic music continues]

They to the beaches start walking up it,

body's tense waiting for the bullets to come

and there is nothing.

[dramatic music]

- [Martin] They're experiencing virtually no opposition.

And so there was a thought that hey,

maybe Okinawa's not gonna turn out

to be a big bloodbath after all.

[fast-paced music]

- [Saul] The first few days go very well for the

landing forces.

They cut across all the way to the other side

of the island against minimal opposition.

[fast-paced music continues]

It's looking too good to be true at this stage.

[dramatic music]

- [Yuki] Military leaders believed that Japan must fight

to protect the honor of the country.

And these kamikaze pilots are the chosen ones

to go to this divine mission to protect their homeland.

They really believe that

that would turn the tide of the war.

- [Craig] The pilots are young, many of them are teenagers,

they're ill trained.

They don't even have enough fuel

to come back from this flight if they wanted to.

They know they're going to die

and so when they get to the first American ship they see,

they attack.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] For the first five days

of the invasion of Okinawa, there's no opposition

to the massive US fleet surrounding the island.

[dramatic music]

But just after noon on April 6th,

the Japanese arrive in force.

[dramatic music] [signals beeping]

- Imagine we're on the bridge of one

of these destroyers 80 miles north of Okinawa.

The kamikaze come from starboard, from port,

from high, from low.

[dramatic music and planes whirring]

So you feel like you're in a boxing ring

with about five other boxers attacking you

from every direction.

[planes whirring and dramatic music continues]

- Hundreds of kamikaze at a time thrown

against the invading fleet.

They thought with the sheer numbers they could take out

the capital ships that's battleships

and aircraft carriers and drive off the US fleet

in its entirety.

[bomb exploding]

- [Craig] The kamikaze don't really have much success

against aircraft carriers,

[bombs whirring]

but 300 plus ships are targeted by the kamikazes.

More than 36 of them sink.

[dramatic music]

It is more devastating than any conventional bombing attack

has been in the war so far, but it's not enough.

- What the kamikaze tells me is

that the Japanese knew the war was lost,

at least by conventional means.

There's nothing more dangerous in warfare

than a cornered enemy.

The Japanese are gonna go down in flames

but will never surrender, never.

- [Tom Hanks] For the US Navy,

the battle against the kamikaze at Okinawa is bloodier

than any previous confrontation of the entire Pacific War.

And American ground forces are now facing

increasing resistance as well.

- [Martin] The force that had landed on the beaches is pushing

south toward a place called Kakazu Ridge

where they encounter the first line of Japanese defenses.

[dramatic music]

[bomb exploding]

- [Saul] It's the first time the Americans

meet serious opposition and it stops them dead.

[dramatic music continues]

The Japanese have created a defensive system

that goes right across the whole width of the island,

so they can't be out flanked.

- [Tom Hanks] American troops endure days

of nonstop enemy fire.

[guns shooting]

- [Saul] This is attritional, grizzly, meat grinding fighting,

and that's just the first line of defense

there are gonna be many more beyond this.

What we thought was gonna be a cakewalk is anything but.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] April 12th.

The American people learn Franklin Delano Roosevelt,

the man they elected four times is dead.

[soft music]

Vice president Harry S. Truman, a former judge

and senator from Missouri is sworn in hours later.

- Roosevelt had led the country through the Great Depression

and through the war.

In the 82 days that Truman had been vice president,

he met with Roosevelt all of twice.

He really knows nothing about what's going on

with the war effort.

- He didn't think he was up to the job

and there are people who would say he was right.

- [Tom Hanks] The new president is immediately confronted

with enormous challenges.

- [Jonathan] It's important for the wartime president to

demonstrate that he has a plan for bringing this war

to a successful conclusion and as rapidly as possible.

It's clear to the American population

that Germany is on its last legs,

but Japan is still fighting hard.

- The question really is, how many American lives am I going

to lose to end this war?

That's the whole ball game for Harry Truman.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] Truman meets with Secretary of War

Henry Stimson and Army General Leslie Groves.

The agenda is classified.

- [A.J.] They hand Truman a document.

Truman opens it up and reads it

and the memo begins with these dramatic words.

"Within four months,

we shall in all probability have completed

the most terrible weapon ever known in human history,

one bomb which can destroy a whole city."

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] The Manhattan Project,

the top secret American program

to develop the world's first atomic bombs.

For three years, thousands of scientists and engineers

have worked on the most powerful weapon in history.

It is set to be tested midsummer.

- [Robert] Truman and his commanders are ready to pay any

price to bring this war to an end.

But an invasion of the Japanese home islands

will be bloody on an unimaginable scale.

Higher losses than any previous campaign

either in the Pacific War or in the war in Europe.

- The Manhattan project,

the attempt to develop atomic weapons.

If that proves to be successful,

If that proves to be successful,

if those tests prove out, then that is an alternative.

[bells ringing and fast-paced music]

- [Tom Hanks] The war in Europe is over.

The Nazi Third Reich has been destroyed.

[fast-paced music continues]

[whistle hissing]

But for war weary America and its allies,

the war in the Pacific continues

and many of the men who helped defeat Germany

may now be required to fight Japan.

- At this point, people in the military knew that a lot

of these units are gonna need to be transferred.

Just because the war in Europe is over,

don't get excited.

We're gonna need those troops in the Pacific.

[guns firing]

- [Tom Hanks] After two months of ceaseless combat,

Marine and Army units break

through the main Japanese defensive line on Okinawa.

Japanese troops are forced to retreat

and attempt a last stand on the Kiyan Peninsula.

- [Christopher ] By this point, the Japanese soldiers on Okinawa

are low on ammunition,

they are starving, they're exhausted,

but they realize that the next step for the allies

after Okinawa is the home islands.

They are all that stand between the allies

and their families, their homes.

They are the last line of defense

and everyone is depending on them.

[dramatic music]

- [Martin] Although the Americans have gained ground,

[bombs exploding]

the more you push and the more terrain

that has been captured, the more dangerous

and costly the battle is becoming.

[dramatic music continues]

- But the Americans know we're making progress.

If war is a clash of wills,

the United States is a nation willing to fight it out

to the end.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] Organized resistance on Okinawa

ends On June 22nd.

The Japanese Army's commanding general

and his chief of staff both commit suicide

by ritual seppuku.

- [Saul] A hundred thousand Japanese servicemen are killed.

On the American side,

the casualties are 50,000 killed and wounded.

These are the worst

of battle casualties in the Pacific War for the Americans,

worse than all of that are the number of civilians killed.

Up to 125,000, which is a third

of the population caught in the crossfire.

- [Col. Douglas] This is just Okinawa.

What happens when we get to their home islands?

The cost is gonna be enormous.

This war ain't over.

It's not even close to being over.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] American leaders understand

the Battle of Okinawa is a frightening preview

of what to expect when Japan's home islands are invaded.

- Truman has a meeting with General Marshall

and the joint chiefs of staff on Operation Downfall,

the invasion of the Japanese home islands.

This plan goes back to the Roosevelt presidency.

Planning is going forward

and the most interested person at the meeting

is George Marshall.

He wants Truman to sign off on it.

- Operation Downfall will be a two-pronged operation,

the first called Operation Olympic.

The idea of Operation Olympic is

to invade the southern island of Kyushu

and seize naval bases

and air bases while pushing Japanese forces north.

The critical phase though of Operation Downfall

is what's code named Operation Coronet.

It's the invasion of Honshu,

which is where Tokyo itself sits.

So this would inevitably end in either the destruction

or capture of the Japanese capital.

[dramatic music]

- [Saul] Think about the scale of Operation Downfall

as a whole.

5 million men involved, up to a million British

and Commonwealth troops, 4 million American troops,

and this is gonna dwarf D-Day in the logistics

and the naval of forces that are gonna be involved.

Then the forces that are actually gonna land

and most importantly of all is gonna dwarf the number

of casualties.

[soft music]

- [Dan] If the allies had to invade Japan,

that would be the largest amphibious assault

ever undertaken.

And when the Americans were gonna bear

almost the entire weight of it

and the President understood that better

than most of the American public did.

[soft music continues]

- [Saul] Truman specifically says to his chiefs of staff,

I don't want an Okinawa from one end of Japan to the other.

[soft music continues]

- [Jon] So Truman in June of '45 is looking

at a brutal final act against Japan.

But it is very important to Harry Truman

that he always be seen as the decider.

The buck stops here.

- Truman understands that this war with Japan needs to end,

the invasion looks horrible.

But what's option B in this situation?

- Even at this late date in June, there's no sense

that the Manhattan Project is going to work.

They really don't know if they have a bomb yet.

- [Robert] And so Truman signs off on Operation Downfall,

the two big invasions of Japan.

Stage one, Operation Olympic is set for November 1st.

The clock is ticking.

[dramatic music]

- [Noriko] The Japanese Army's plan is to fight to the bitter

end with a decisive and final battle in the home islands.

- [Christopher] For a while now, the Japanese army had been

planning what they call Operation Ketsugo,

which means operation decisive.

It's a plan to defend Kyushu.

They think they've got perhaps a million men

that they can put into the field.

They also want to put civilians into the field.

Their idea is that they will make things so terrifying

that it will stop the Americans trying

to do anything anywhere else in the home islands.

- [Yuki] Women and children we're going through the military

drills where everybody was given a bamboo spear.

They are essentially mobilizing everybody

older than 12 years old to fight to the death.

[crowd chanting and dramatic music]

[fast-paced music]

- [Tom Hanks] In July for the first time,

President Truman meets with both British Prime Minister

Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin

at Potsdam, formerly the home of Prussian Kings

and the German Kaiser.

- [A.J.] Europe is devastated.

[soft music]

It's a massive disaster zone.

The point of the Potsdam Conference is

for these three governments to come together

and figure out how these countries are gonna be rebuilt.

- But Truman has his eyes on a completely different problem.

He huddles with Secretary of War Stimson,

and what are they talking about?

They're talking about the Pacific.

[soft music]

- [Tom Hanks] With Operation Downfall months away,

President Truman seeks assurance

that the Soviets will participate in the war

against Japan as pledged.

- [Craig] All this time, Japan

and the Soviet Union had been neutral.

They had not been at war with one another.

- [Robert] Stalin promised within 90 days of the end

of the war in Europe, he'll join the war against Japan.

He promised that to Roosevelt back at Yalta.

So Truman hopes that's a go.

- [Tom Hanks] But at the start of the conference,

Stimson receives a coded cable from the War Department.

- "Operated on this morning, diagnosis not yet complete,

but results seem satisfactory.

Dr. Groves is pleased."

[dramatic music]

- [Robert] Truman now knew that the atomic bomb

had been detonated successfully.

[dramatic music]

- [A.J.] In this moment we have this amazing window

into Truman's thinking because he was keeping a diary.

Truman realizes this bomb could be a short circuit

to ending the war.

- [Saul] When Truman hears that the atomic bomb actually works,

he knows they have to use it,

but he wants to give the Japanese one last chance

to surrender before he does.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] President Truman, along with Churchill

and Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Republic of China,

issue the Potsdam Declaration, a warning to Japan

of what awaits if they don't surrender unconditionally.

But Stimson suggests they consider allowing Hirohito

to keep his throne.

- [Saul] Stimson understands the constitutional

and cultural position that the emperor plays

in Japanese life, this kind of demigod status.

And so he insists on inserting into the declaration,

assurance that they won't try the emperor for war crimes.

But beyond that, it will be unconditional surrender

and no other terms will be acceptable.

- [A.J.] Also in this document is wordage

that does not mention the atomic bomb,

but it does say that if unconditional surrender

is not coming, the destruction was going to be historic

and massive.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] The Office of War Information

releases the Potsdam Declaration

and the Japanese receive it via radio from San Francisco.

- [Noriko] Prime Minister Suzuki and Emperor Hirohito

are the opinion that the Potsdam Declaration

is not really vindictive.

They see some hope.

- [Yuki] Emperor Hirohito himself at this point,

he is open to accepting it,

but he understands his role as an emperor.

There are only certain times for him to weigh in.

- [Saul] The emperor and the Peace Party

are in an impossible position here.

I mean, if they respond positively to the ultimatum,

the military might turn against them,

but if they completely ignore it, there's a danger

that the Americans are actually gonna carry out

what they suggest.

- [Tom Hanks] Two days later, Japan's Prime Minister

Kantaro Suzuki holds a press conference.

- [Yuki] When press asks about Potsdam Declaration,

Suzuki uses the word mokusatsu.

The best translation for that is no comment

or I'm not going to respond to that question.

However, the word mokusatsu can also mean

we're going to ignore it.

- [Christopher] And I think the Japanese media,

they're very quick to interpret it

in the most hostile and negative way.

And then the American media pick it up.

And then that becomes the view

of the American administration as well

that the Japanese are rejecting the Potsdam Declaration.

- [A.J.] And to Truman, the Japanese response is

plain and clear.

He believes that the Japanese told him to go to hell.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] By early 1945,

Tinian Island in the Marianas

is the largest air base on Earth.

Hundreds of B-29s have taken off from its multiple runways

to bomb Japan.

[dramatic music]

- But there's a very mysterious restricted area

at one part of the base.

No one really knows what's going on up there.

It belongs to some unit called the 509th Composite Group.

These are the preparations for the arrival

of the atomic bomb.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] Components for the atomic bombs

are delivered in late July

and carefully assembled over the following days.

[dramatic music continues]

- [A.J.] So the Manhattan Project was able

to produce enough uranium and plutonium for three bombs.

And after the Trinity test,

the Americans only had two bombs in the arsenal.

- [Robert] Truman makes the decision to drop the bomb.

He legitimately wants to save US casualties

and bring this war to an end rapidly.

At the same time, he wants

to assert his authority as president.

[dramatic music]

- [Jon] It is one of the most consequential decisions

that any nation has ever made,

and no one knows what was gonna happen.

But President Truman did understand that this was

of a different scale and scope.

He compares it to the biblical flood in his diary,

"As the world was once destroyed by water for Noah,

perhaps now it'll be destroyed by fire and destruction."

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] By design, the target of the first atomic bomb

is a city relatively unscathed by the war.

American military leaders want the Japanese

to understand the awful destructive power

of this new weapon.

- That morning in Hiroshima is an ordinary morning.

People are going about their business.

Some people are going into the factories to work.

They're still wondering why they've not yet been bombed

and they're expecting it more or less any day.

And then people see this light in the sky,

sun shining off a single aircraft.

[dramatic music]

[airplane whirring]

[soft music]

- [Yuki] The first thing is the flashing light

as if sun explodes,

then a noise and a shock.

[soft music]

The people who were near the epicenter evaporate.

[soft music]

- [Christopher] The casualties mount until you get between

90,000 and 160,000 people who've died.

The dominant image that survivors give of Hiroshima

is of one of the Buddhist hells.

[soft music]

- [A.J.] One thing that's really difficult for historians to jive

with is this idea that Truman has chosen military targets

and he writes even in his diary, the words,

"And not women and children."

We'll never really know.

Did he really feel that this was a military target

or was he writing that in his diary

understanding that history

for generations was gonna judge him for this.

[soft music]

- [Robert] Truman is at sea coming home from Potsdam

when he received the news.

Later that same day, he goes on the airwaves

to address the American people

and to tell them what has just happened.

He says it's a new type of bomb that America has used it

and will continue to use it until Japan surrenders.

- If they do not now accept our terms,

they may expect a rain of ruin from the air

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

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] Even with Hiroshima in ruins,

Japanese leaders do not surrender.

- [Yuki] The peace camp pushed for immediate acceptance

of the Potsdam Declaration,

but the military side insists on continuing the war.

The reasoning is

that may be the only atomic bomb that they had.

So they're still at the stalemate.

And then the Soviet Union declares war in Japan.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] Just as Stalin promised exactly 90 days

after the surrender of Germany,

one and a half million Soviet troops

pour across the border into Japanese occupied Manchuria.

- [Christopher] The Japanese aren't aware that for months

the Soviets have masked their armor

on the borders with Manchuria.

But now the Russians are rolling into Manchuria

and they're rolling over the Japanese.

And now you've got the prospect

of the Soviets not just making their way into Manchuria,

but possibly across to the Japanese home islands.

[dramatic music]

For Japan, it's a complete disaster.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] On the same day the Red Army moves

into Manchuria, the B-29s appear over Nagasaki.

into Manchuria, the B-29s appear over Nagasaki.

One carries an atomic bomb.

- [Dr. Rebecca] The US has just one more atom bomb left.

But the whole idea is to give Japan the impression

that the US has an unlimited stock

and that if Japan won't surrender,

the US will continue to unleash atom bombs on Japan.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] Between 60 and 70,000 people

are killed instantly.

[dramatic music]

- [Saul] Prime Minister Suzuki convenes the war council

and the discussion is,

are we gonna accept the Potsdam Declaration?

And the answer from the military is no.

[dramatic music]

- [Christopher] You've had two atomic bombs.

You've had the Soviet invasion of Manchuria,

and yet the Supreme War Council is still split.

The war faction, the military,

they're absolutely not willing to consider

unconditional surrender.

- [Yuki] That's when Prime Minister Suzuki

makes the very important move

saying that we need to ask the emperor.

- [Christopher] This is a standout moment.

This is something you would never normally do.

There's a sense Hirohito is semi divine

and shouldn't be troubled with the decision making process.

It's a really extraordinary step.

- [Bradley] But Hirohito, I think, sees the gravity

of the situation.

He sees that this is a moment where it's his responsibility

to step up as the leader effectively.

- [Noriko] And he says,

"We must bear the unbearable and suffer the insufferable.

We will end the war and then move on."

[soft music]

- I have received this afternoon a message

from the Japanese government.

I deem this reply, a full acceptance

of the Potsdam Declaration,

which specifies the unconditional

surrender of Japan.

- And people go nuts.

Tens of thousands of people gather

at the gate of the White House.

- [Tom Hanks] The world has been holding its breath

since the war began.

Now it is over and there is great celebration.

- [Robert] One of the crucial factors in ending this war is

that you have Harry Truman, an accidental president

who had to be briefed on the wartime situation

when he enters the Oval Office.

And Hirohito, who has never really made political decisions.

They assert themselves and bring the war to an end

in August of 1945.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom Hanks] Batan, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima,

Okinawa, once obscure points on a map,

now each place has a new meaning.

[soft music]

In Japan on August 15th, Emperor Hirohito addresses a nation

that has never surrendered.

- [Robert] Most Japanese had never heard the emperor's voice

before, but the Jewel Voice Broadcast as it became known,

is essential to getting most Japanese used to the idea

of laying their arms and admitting surrender.

[Hirohito speaking in foreign language]

- [Dan] When the Japanese hear that the war is over,

there has to be a combination of feelings.

We sacrificed all these people, all this money

and these cities of Japan, and we lost.

- [Yuki] Shock, sadness,

but also this incredible sense of grief

that we let the emperor down.

Our lack of effort let the emperor down.

- [Craig] The Japanese accepted the idea of surrender.

The allies accepted the idea

of Hirohito remaining on the Japanese throne,

and that was the end of the war.

- [Tom Hanks] September 2nd, 1945 on the deck

of the USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay,

the Japanese sign the instrument of surrender,

the largest conflict in world history closes

with a signature and a speech.

Douglas MacArthur marks the occasion.

"It is my earnest hope

and indeed the hope of all mankind,

that from this solemn occasion,

a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage

of the past."