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WWW.MY-SUBS.CO
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If you define a Cold War
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as a state of conflict
with a nuclear-armed opponent
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where you can't get at each other,
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even though you are
functionally hostile to each other,
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{n8}then we're in a new Cold War
with the Russians.
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More Russian forces
on the move.
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Surface-to-air missiles
in the country's far east
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due to join what Moscow says
are military exercises near Ukraine.
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{n8}It's easy in some ways
to say that the Cold War ended
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{n8}in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
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But if you open the newspaper
on any given day,
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we're still living
with the aftermath of the Cold War.
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What we're seeing
is still that story playing out.
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{n8}Columns of Russian tanks
and armored vehicles
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are reported to be pouring
across the Ukrainian border tonight.
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Swarms of helicopters
flying in low over the countryside,
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creating panic and terror
for the people living there.
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After months of preparations,
the Russian president Vladimir Putin
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{n8}has launched a major
military operation against Ukraine.
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The war in Ukraine has begun.
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Oh. It's close.
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{n8}Putin is obsessed with Ukraine.
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{n8}He does not want
to recreate the Soviet Union.
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{n8}He wants to recreate the Russian Empire.
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They see Ukraine as part of their empire,
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{n8}a part of the Soviet Union.
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{n8}They consider it their legacy,
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{n8}their property,
which they want to take back.
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Putin said
the collapse of the Soviet Union
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{n8}was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe
of the 20th century.
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For him, winning the war
in Ukraine is not just, you know,
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destroying Ukrainian Statehood.
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I think it's a war to basically
replay results of the Cold War.
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The Cold War did end,
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but now we are living through
a new edition of the Cold War.
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And it's a very dangerous Cold War.
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How can they threaten
the boundless Russia with nuclear weapons
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when they are only a small island?
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The island is so small
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that one Sarmat missile is enough
to sink it once and for all.
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These people showing films of London
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being vaporized by a nuclear weapon
and laughing about it on the nightly news.
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These are shocking, shocking situations.
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Organizers of any provocation
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{n8}threatening the fundamental interests
of our security will regret it,
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{n8}like they haven't regretted anything
for a long time.
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{n8}We are not seeking a new Cold War.
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It is something that we thought
that we would never see again.
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The pictures that we saw
from the Second World War...
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I mean, right now,
how can this be happening?
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The Cold War,
which began in phases,
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ultimately became
a global existential struggle
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between the United States and its allies,
and the Soviet Union and its allies.
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At its peak,
the Cold War touched every continent,
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with the exception of Antarctica,
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and practically
every country in the world.
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It shaped the decolonization
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of great, large European empires.
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It shaped domestic politics
in the great capitals of Europe...
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...North America,
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and Asia.
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For many, many people around the world,
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it affected their daily lives.
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And in some cases, it killed them.
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{n8}It created a need
for intelligence services,
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{n8}for secret activity, that never went away.
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Vladimir Putin cannot be understood
without reference to the Cold War.
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His worldview is a product
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of the way in which the Soviet Union
collapsed in the late '80s and early '90s.
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{n8}It set off an arms race that changed
virtually everything about American life,
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but also really destabilized
global relationships
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and caused infinite amount of harm
around the globe
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for most of the 20th century.
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It seemed
so obvious and so clear.
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We were so good.
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{n8}We were the country
that finally was virtuous,
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{n8}in addition to being powerful.
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Everybody in America was supposed
to embrace this single narrative.
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And it was logical that we would then
be threatened by a hostile,
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evil force that wanted nothing
but destruction and nihilism.
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The Cold War
was the first war in history
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that held the possibility
of ending in apocalypse.
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That's what made it different.
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And that's what made it
so psychologically threatening.
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If you got it wrong, we weren't talking
about the loss of a thousand people.
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We weren't talking about the loss of,
God forbid, 10,000 people.
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We were talking about the potential loss
of millions of people,
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perhaps a billion people.
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That was a scale of awfulness
that was never before
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within the power of statesmen.
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Why was it there?
Because of nuclear weapons.
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The arrival of nuclear weapons
is what helps the Cold War to play out.
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They can't be disentangled
from one another.
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The question
of when to use nuclear weapons
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has always haunted
every country that has them.
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{n8}I'm not sure that there would be
a Cold War without nuclear weapons.
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Over the history
of nuclear weapons,
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we've gotten very close
to catastrophe numerous times.
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{n8}We survived that
not because we were smart.
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{n8}It was because we were lucky.
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Einstein supposedly said,
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"I know not with what weapons
World War III will be fought,
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but World War IV will be fought
with sticks and stones."
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{n8}So, that's the nuclear world we live in.
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Once humans
stop seeing other humans as human,
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the most horrific acts are possible.
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{n8}There seems to me to be evidence
that lessons that we thought were learned
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{n8}were not learned,
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and that history is not history,
but we are in an ongoing tide.
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Nuclear fission,
splitting heavy elements,
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was discovered just at Christmastime
in 1938 in Nazi Germany,
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{n8}Berlin,
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{n8}by two, curiously,
chemists and a physicist.
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{n8}And they were experimenting
with bombarding a solution
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{n8}of uranium nitrate with a particular kind
of subatomic particle, called a neutron.
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When a neutron
enters the uranium nucleus,
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it's rather as if the Moon hit the Earth.
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Even if it's just flying
at normal room temperature,
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when it goes in, everything goes crazy.
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It's sufficient energy
from one fission of one atom
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to make a grain of sand visibly jump.
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It's enormous.
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It's very exothermic, in physics terms.
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Puts out a lot of energy
for very little input.
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{n8}German scientists published a paper
in a British journal, Nature.
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And the whole world woke up one day
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to headlines in the New York Times
and the London papers.
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They split the atom!
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{n8}One of the more brilliant scientists
in American history, Robert Oppenheimer,
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{n8}started thinking,
"Well, what can you do with the energy
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that comes out of this amazing reaction?"
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Within a week, he had a drawing
on the blackboard of an atomic bomb.
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If you could get this reaction
to cause another reaction
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and another reaction,
and another reaction,
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until you had like 80 generations,
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you could blow up a city.
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Oppenheimer saw that immediately.
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Almost all the physicists did.
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History provides us
with a cast of monsters.
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Hitler was a one-person show.
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{n8}Today, we must remove
undesirable elements proven to be bad.
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{n8}What is bad has no place among us!
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Hitler was the worst
that mankind had ever created.
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The idea that Hitler
would have his Thousand-Year Reich
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powered with atomic bombs
terrified people.
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Particularly those who were Jewish
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and had escaped what was already
beginning to be the Holocaust.
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And, of course,
the United States was not yet at war.
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{n8}This nation will remain a neutral nation.
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{n8}Albert Einstein, the most famous
scientist in the world at the time,
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drafted a letter
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that would go under Einstein's signature
to President Roosevelt.
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{n8}Essentially, the letter said that
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{n8}we believe it will be possible,
in a relatively short time,
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{n8}to build weapons
of remarkable destructiveness,
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{n8}and we want you to be aware of that
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and to take action so that we,
the Western world, have this weapon first.
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The fear is a Nazi atomic weapons program.
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And the sense
is that this is a race with Berlin.
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{n8}British scientists, Canadian scientists,
and American scientists,
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{n8}they are convinced
that smart physicists in Germany
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are trying to give Adolf Hitler
the ultimate weapon
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to win his war of conquest.
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When World War II started in Europe,
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{n8}Joseph Stalin was the leader
of the Soviet Union,
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{n8}and the Soviets and the Nazis were allies.
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The Hitler-Stalin pact resulted
in a carving up of Eastern Europe.
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The Soviets gained the Baltic States.
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They also gained
the eastern part of Poland.
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And they also gained a piece of Romania.
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{n8}They misunderstood Hitler
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{n8}as much as the Western democracies
misunderstood Hitler.
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{n8}In 1941,
Hitler betrays his new Soviet allies
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by invading the Soviet Union.
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Initially, it looked like
the Nazis would beat the Soviets.
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The Soviets were caught by surprise.
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Stalin actually can't even
bring himself to talk publicly
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to the Soviet people for days.
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He is so distraught at his own
strategic stupidity of trusting Berlin.
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00:17:07,401 --> 00:17:09,862
And the war was not only
what was happening in Europe,
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but also what was happening in Asia.
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The Japanese sought empire in Asia.
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It wanted to control China.
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They ultimately
would control Southeast Asia.
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They would control the Philippines.
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They even had their sights on India.
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Hirohito, the Japanese emperor,
was the leader.
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In Japan at that time,
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the Emperor was the judiciary,
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legislation, and administration,
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as well as the supreme commander
of the Japanese army and navy.
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However, many Japanese believed
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that the Emperor's ancestors
could be traced back to a god.
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{n8}In 1940, the Japanese
entered an alliance with Berlin and Rome.
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The Americans mistakenly assumed
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that the Japanese would never attack
a territory of the United States.
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{n8}Some of the committee that was
going to plan the Manhattan Project,
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the program to build the first bombs,
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met on December 6th, 1941 in Washington,
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and woke up the next morning
to Pearl Harbor.
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It took Pearl Harbor
to bring America into the war.
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Yesterday, December 7th, 1941...
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a date which will live in infamy...
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the United States of America
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was suddenly and deliberately attacked.
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No matter how long it may take us
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to overcome this premeditated invasion,
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the American people
in their righteous might
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will win through to absolute victory.
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00:19:56,778 --> 00:20:00,699
{n8}During World War II
we basically have the Axis powers,
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{n8}which are Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan.
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And the Allies...
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...being the United States,
the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union.
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00:20:17,799 --> 00:20:24,097
The United States did assist
the Soviet Union by giving them weapons.
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00:20:28,060 --> 00:20:32,356
By coordinating to a certain extent
on military campaigns.
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00:20:32,439 --> 00:20:35,567
But the one thing the United States
was not going to do
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was to share its scientific secrets
with the Soviet Union,
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00:20:39,196 --> 00:20:41,573
particularly when it came
to the Manhattan Project.
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00:20:49,331 --> 00:20:53,252
The Army takes over
the Manhattan Project in 1942.
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{n8}That's when General Dick Groves
was chosen to run the Manhattan Project.
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I must endeavor
to conduct this program
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in such a way as to serve
the best interests of the United States.
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Groves was a military engineer.
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Before the Manhattan Project,
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he had been in charge of making sure
the Pentagon got constructed.
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So he knew how to do big projects.
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00:21:26,618 --> 00:21:29,997
Pentagon was the largest office building
in the entire world at the time.
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He's gruff.
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00:21:33,333 --> 00:21:37,212
His number-two person described him
as the biggest SOB he had ever worked for.
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00:21:37,296 --> 00:21:41,341
He was incredibly arrogant,
thought he knew more than everybody.
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He says, "I need this project to have
the number-one priority
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of the entire war," formally.
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And what this high-level priority means
is he can get any resource he wants.
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00:21:53,020 --> 00:21:56,315
He can get any scientist
or person he wants.
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He put together a program
that eventually involved
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a number of sites around the country
where uranium would be separated
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into the rare isotope that chain-reacts.
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00:22:16,835 --> 00:22:22,341
Plutonium would be bred
in giant graphite fuel reactors
239
00:22:22,424 --> 00:22:24,593
in eastern Washington
240
00:22:24,676 --> 00:22:27,554
where there was plenty of cold water
to keep the reactors cool,
241
00:22:28,138 --> 00:22:31,308
and where it was far enough away
from anywhere that if they blew up,
242
00:22:31,391 --> 00:22:32,642
nobody would be killed.
243
00:22:32,726 --> 00:22:34,978
Except the people
who worked there, of course.
244
00:22:44,529 --> 00:22:49,076
He put this whole program together
and hired some 600,000 people.
245
00:22:58,043 --> 00:23:03,131
{n8}Groves saw something in Oppenheimer
and chose him to direct this laboratory.
246
00:23:06,134 --> 00:23:09,763
When they were looking for a place
where the bombs themselves
247
00:23:09,846 --> 00:23:11,932
would be designed and built,
248
00:23:12,015 --> 00:23:14,184
Oppenheimer said,
"Let's go look in New Mexico."
249
00:23:42,087 --> 00:23:45,132
Los Alamos became a secret lab
cut off from the rest of the world.
250
00:23:45,215 --> 00:23:47,175
It was surrounded by barbed wire.
251
00:23:49,886 --> 00:23:53,557
People who worked there
had to get a special pass to go in.
252
00:23:54,808 --> 00:23:57,602
{n8}The children who were born
in the hospital there
253
00:23:57,686 --> 00:24:00,439
were given the post office box address
254
00:24:00,522 --> 00:24:03,400
because the location
could not be revealed.
255
00:24:12,784 --> 00:24:18,081
The people who were there during
the war remember it as an amazing place,
256
00:24:19,374 --> 00:24:22,919
almost like the Olympian heights
of the Gods.
257
00:24:25,422 --> 00:24:28,383
When you think about
what they were doing, it's really ironic.
258
00:24:28,467 --> 00:24:32,262
They were working on a weapon,
whatever their good intentions,
259
00:24:32,345 --> 00:24:34,473
that was gonna kill a lot of people.
260
00:24:34,556 --> 00:24:36,600
It would really be its only use.
261
00:24:36,683 --> 00:24:39,895
But they knew that they were
working on something that,
262
00:24:39,978 --> 00:24:42,355
if the Germans got it first,
would destroy the world.
263
00:24:44,065 --> 00:24:48,945
The task of defeating Hitler
may be long and arduous.
264
00:24:49,029 --> 00:24:52,991
There are a few appeasers
and Nazi sympathizers
265
00:24:53,074 --> 00:24:55,327
who say that it cannot be done.
266
00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:59,748
They even asked me
to negotiate with Hitler,
267
00:25:00,415 --> 00:25:05,629
to pray for crumbs
from his victorious table.
268
00:25:06,213 --> 00:25:08,965
This course I have rejected,
269
00:25:09,674 --> 00:25:12,177
and I reject it again.
270
00:25:15,055 --> 00:25:17,724
Franklin Roosevelt began
the atomic weapons program.
271
00:25:23,772 --> 00:25:29,277
He expected to live long enough to decide
whether or not to use atomic weapons.
272
00:25:45,126 --> 00:25:49,506
We'll never know
if he would have dropped bombs on anyone.
273
00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:53,176
He dies in April of 1945.
274
00:26:17,158 --> 00:26:19,536
His vice president,
Harry S. Truman,
275
00:26:19,619 --> 00:26:22,414
{n8}knows nothing about the Manhattan Project.
276
00:26:23,707 --> 00:26:27,669
{n8}So that there can be
no possible misunderstanding,
277
00:26:27,752 --> 00:26:31,506
{n8}both Germany and Japan can be certain
278
00:26:31,590 --> 00:26:34,301
{n8}beyond any shadow of a doubt...
279
00:26:35,343 --> 00:26:38,305
{n8}...that America will continue
the fight for freedom
280
00:26:38,388 --> 00:26:41,349
until no vestige of resistance remains.
281
00:26:43,059 --> 00:26:47,355
It was about ten days afterwards
that the Secretary of War, Henry Stimson,
282
00:26:47,439 --> 00:26:50,609
thought it was time that the new president
should know about the bomb.
283
00:27:00,660 --> 00:27:03,788
Stimson's memo
is all about the diplomatic questions
284
00:27:03,872 --> 00:27:05,152
{n8}raised by the Manhattan Project.
285
00:27:05,206 --> 00:27:08,168
{n8}What is the world gonna look like
after an atomic bomb is used?
286
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:12,047
He's trying to impress
upon Truman this is not just a weapon.
287
00:27:12,130 --> 00:27:15,967
This is the most important
turning point of the human race.
288
00:27:28,146 --> 00:27:31,024
1945,
military progress in Europe
289
00:27:31,691 --> 00:27:36,780
was edging further
than scientific progress on the bomb.
290
00:27:37,739 --> 00:27:41,368
The British, the American,
and the Red armies begin the last battles
291
00:27:41,451 --> 00:27:45,121
with a common front
in a broken and dismembered Germany.
292
00:27:48,667 --> 00:27:53,838
{n8}Hitler was largely alone,
shaking in his bunker.
293
00:27:56,174 --> 00:28:00,512
In 1945, that man shot himself
294
00:28:01,721 --> 00:28:04,474
{n8}after killing his wife.
295
00:28:05,975 --> 00:28:08,937
{n8}The threat posed by Adolf Hitler was over,
296
00:28:10,271 --> 00:28:14,150
though Nazi ideology did not,
sadly, disappear.
297
00:28:16,986 --> 00:28:19,322
German men and women,
298
00:28:20,990 --> 00:28:23,618
soldiers of the armed forces.
299
00:28:24,786 --> 00:28:27,372
Our leader, Adolf Hitler,
300
00:28:28,998 --> 00:28:30,250
has fallen.
301
00:28:37,924 --> 00:28:39,968
Much remains to be done.
302
00:28:40,593 --> 00:28:45,473
{n8}The victory won in the West
must now be won in the East.
303
00:28:45,557 --> 00:28:48,768
The whole world must be cleansed
304
00:28:48,852 --> 00:28:52,939
of the evil from which
half the world has been freed.
305
00:29:01,364 --> 00:29:05,869
The question became,
how do we secure a victory against Japan?
306
00:29:06,619 --> 00:29:08,496
And there was a great deal of concern
307
00:29:08,580 --> 00:29:13,084
{n8}that the war against Japan
could last for months, if not years,
308
00:29:13,168 --> 00:29:14,919
{n8}beyond the defeat of Germany.
309
00:29:19,924 --> 00:29:21,342
Even after Pearl Harbor,
310
00:29:21,426 --> 00:29:24,262
and the rage and the shock
that that event brought...
311
00:29:26,931 --> 00:29:30,560
you know, the US government
still had to galvanize public opinion...
312
00:29:34,314 --> 00:29:36,775
to involve it in another world war.
313
00:29:39,778 --> 00:29:43,615
{n8}There was still the enormous task
of making Americans
314
00:29:43,698 --> 00:29:46,117
hate the Japanese enough
315
00:29:46,201 --> 00:29:48,828
{n8}to fight them in the way
that they needed to be fought for defeat.
316
00:29:50,079 --> 00:29:52,791
{n8}There was an enormous information
and propaganda campaign
317
00:29:52,874 --> 00:29:55,919
{n8}to portray the Japanese in a certain way.
318
00:29:59,589 --> 00:30:02,842
{n8}You say
you can destroy us by outfighting us.
319
00:30:02,926 --> 00:30:07,222
{n8}You cannot. You cannot outfight us
because the path ahead of you
320
00:30:07,305 --> 00:30:11,017
lies straight up the steep
and rocky mountain of Japan.
321
00:30:11,100 --> 00:30:12,811
And it is slippery with blood.
322
00:30:13,645 --> 00:30:14,729
{n8}Your blood!
323
00:30:15,438 --> 00:30:18,900
And there was, you know,
a heavy racial overtone to it.
324
00:30:20,777 --> 00:30:24,656
I mean, Germans, when they were depicted,
they were sinister enemies.
325
00:30:24,739 --> 00:30:27,158
They were, you know, to be killed.
They were targets.
326
00:30:27,242 --> 00:30:31,246
But they were still seen
as icy human beings.
327
00:30:31,329 --> 00:30:34,874
But the Japanese were often portrayed
almost as a subspecies.
328
00:30:36,125 --> 00:30:38,628
There really is a sense
for the American public
329
00:30:38,711 --> 00:30:41,047
that the Japanese are subhumans.
330
00:30:42,966 --> 00:30:45,260
There can be no peace in the world
331
00:30:45,969 --> 00:30:48,930
until the military power of Japan
is destroyed.
332
00:31:18,459 --> 00:31:24,340
There was a firebombing raid
on Tokyo, March 9th and 10th, 1945.
333
00:31:50,909 --> 00:31:53,786
It killed 87,000 people.
334
00:32:04,756 --> 00:32:06,424
And it was just horrendous.
335
00:32:09,135 --> 00:32:12,472
Bomber pilots eviscerated
16 square miles of Tokyo
336
00:32:12,555 --> 00:32:13,932
in one night air raid.
337
00:32:22,023 --> 00:32:24,609
Japanese civilians
were being killed.
338
00:32:29,405 --> 00:32:31,866
People burned like matchsticks.
339
00:32:34,494 --> 00:32:38,081
They tried to flee to rivers,
and the rivers caught on fire.
340
00:32:40,833 --> 00:32:43,878
But there was no sign yet
that the Japanese were ready to surrender.
341
00:32:51,177 --> 00:32:53,554
And then the Battle of Okinawa happens.
342
00:33:13,783 --> 00:33:16,953
{n8}The Battle of Okinawa
ended on June the 22nd.
343
00:33:18,371 --> 00:33:23,543
And Okinawa was an extraordinarily
costly battle for American troops
344
00:33:23,626 --> 00:33:26,004
and American ships and American sailors.
345
00:33:27,547 --> 00:33:32,218
We lost something like
12,000 men at Okinawa.
346
00:33:34,303 --> 00:33:36,597
They lost about 200,000.
347
00:33:36,681 --> 00:33:40,893
It was a terrible, bloody slaughter
the closer we got to the home islands.
348
00:33:41,519 --> 00:33:43,604
And there was great concern
in the military
349
00:33:43,688 --> 00:33:47,275
that we would have to invade
the home island of Japan.
350
00:33:49,402 --> 00:33:51,904
We're going
to destroy Japan's armies,
351
00:33:51,988 --> 00:33:57,076
{n8}Japan's navy, Japan's air forces,
Japan's war factories.
352
00:33:57,160 --> 00:33:59,662
{n8}Japan's whole power to wage war.
353
00:34:01,372 --> 00:34:04,042
After Okinawa,
it became even more clear
354
00:34:04,125 --> 00:34:07,462
that we needed to find a way
to end a war without an invasion.
355
00:34:10,298 --> 00:34:14,135
Truman faced the responsibility
for finding a way to end a war
356
00:34:14,218 --> 00:34:16,763
against Japan on American terms
357
00:34:16,846 --> 00:34:19,515
at the lowest possible cost
in American lives.
358
00:34:21,434 --> 00:34:24,729
Sixty-five million people
killed in the Second World War.
359
00:34:26,564 --> 00:34:28,024
{n8}The worst war in human history.
360
00:34:29,192 --> 00:34:31,277
Anything that would end such a war,
361
00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:34,072
you can see why people
thought of it as a deliverance.
362
00:34:47,752 --> 00:34:48,961
At the moment,
363
00:34:49,045 --> 00:34:53,758
when the US military was making plans
for the invasion of the home islands,
364
00:34:54,926 --> 00:34:57,512
the scientists
at the Manhattan Project said,
365
00:34:58,096 --> 00:35:00,640
"We're about to test this idea."
366
00:35:02,391 --> 00:35:05,978
Because implosion
was such a new technology,
367
00:35:07,313 --> 00:35:09,565
nobody really quite knew
how this would work.
368
00:35:10,566 --> 00:35:15,321
It was clear that they had to test it
before they used it in the military.
369
00:35:21,953 --> 00:35:25,957
In order to, uh, test the bomb,
you had to find a place that was remote...
370
00:35:28,292 --> 00:35:30,086
where the bomb could go off,
371
00:35:30,169 --> 00:35:32,421
and you could have
some plausible deniability
372
00:35:32,505 --> 00:35:34,465
as to tell people what it was.
373
00:35:40,304 --> 00:35:45,893
They didn't want the radioactive fallout
to be going down toward a populated area,
374
00:35:45,977 --> 00:35:49,188
so they looked around,
and they decided that Alamogordo,
375
00:35:49,272 --> 00:35:52,984
what is now the White Sands test area
out in the New Mexican desert,
376
00:35:53,067 --> 00:35:54,819
would be the best place to do it.
377
00:35:56,154 --> 00:36:02,702
This test was scheduled
for the morning of July 16th, 1945.
378
00:36:11,294 --> 00:36:14,505
{n8}They didn't want to stir up
a bunch of dirt and make it radioactive,
379
00:36:14,589 --> 00:36:17,925
so they put the bomb up on top of a tower,
100 feet high.
380
00:36:31,647 --> 00:36:34,108
It was just
the innards of the weapon,
381
00:36:34,192 --> 00:36:36,569
a tangle of cables and wires.
382
00:36:36,652 --> 00:36:40,448
They didn't have the radar on it
and all the other... The tail and so forth.
383
00:36:42,783 --> 00:36:47,246
This assembly was put
in a little tin corrugated iron cabin
384
00:36:47,330 --> 00:36:49,498
up on top of a steel tower,
385
00:36:50,249 --> 00:36:53,961
and one of the scientists
was delegated to sit with it all night
386
00:36:54,045 --> 00:36:56,464
after it'd been completely put together.
387
00:36:56,547 --> 00:36:59,258
There was a storm front
that was passing through
388
00:36:59,342 --> 00:37:01,177
that made him a little nervous
389
00:37:01,260 --> 00:37:04,305
because he thought, "Well, if lightning
hits this tower, I'm dead."
390
00:37:04,388 --> 00:37:07,558
"Bomb goes off
and I'm vaporized."
391
00:37:11,729 --> 00:37:16,067
Fortunately, the rain stopped
about 4:00 a.m., and the sky cleared.
392
00:37:19,487 --> 00:37:23,866
The scientists had come down
from Los Alamos in large numbers.
393
00:37:25,284 --> 00:37:27,995
All the scientists
who'd worked at Los Alamos
394
00:37:28,079 --> 00:37:32,208
wanted to be at Trinity
to see the results of their labor.
395
00:37:32,291 --> 00:37:35,002
There was quite
a whole delegation out there.
396
00:37:36,295 --> 00:37:40,466
The scientists were on a hillside
about 20 miles away.
397
00:37:42,426 --> 00:37:46,597
There were some big,
massive bunkers buried in the ground
398
00:37:46,681 --> 00:37:48,891
almost 10,000 yards away.
399
00:37:51,435 --> 00:37:52,979
One of the concerns was,
400
00:37:53,062 --> 00:37:56,983
would the bomb have
a higher-than-anticipated mushroom cloud?
401
00:37:58,442 --> 00:38:03,906
Would it carry contaminated fallout
throughout populated parts of the country?
402
00:38:04,991 --> 00:38:08,286
For them, it was a real possibility,
but they tested it anyway.
403
00:38:09,078 --> 00:38:11,914
{n8}Nine, eight, seven,
404
00:38:11,998 --> 00:38:15,126
{n8}six, five, four,
405
00:38:15,209 --> 00:38:17,795
three, two, one.
406
00:38:17,878 --> 00:38:18,963
Now.
407
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:53,497
{n8}We knew
the world would not be the same.
408
00:38:54,665 --> 00:38:56,751
{n8}Few people laughed.
409
00:38:57,376 --> 00:38:58,586
{n8}Few people cried.
410
00:38:59,545 --> 00:39:01,130
{n8}Most people were silent.
411
00:39:04,633 --> 00:39:06,927
I remembered the line
412
00:39:07,011 --> 00:39:09,764
from the Hindu scripture,
the Bhagavad Gita.
413
00:39:11,057 --> 00:39:12,057
Vishnu.
414
00:39:15,102 --> 00:39:18,731
{n8}"Now I am become death,
the destroyer of worlds."
415
00:39:21,692 --> 00:39:24,153
{n8}I suppose we all thought that
one way or another.
416
00:39:36,707 --> 00:39:39,293
People jumped up
and started looking at it.
417
00:39:48,552 --> 00:39:51,013
There was a general sense of real relief
418
00:39:51,097 --> 00:39:53,974
because this technology
419
00:39:54,058 --> 00:39:57,395
that they had invented
in a period of about eight months,
420
00:39:57,478 --> 00:40:00,439
this brand-new technology had worked.
421
00:40:07,446 --> 00:40:10,783
It was thought that the area
surrounding the Trinity test site
422
00:40:10,866 --> 00:40:12,451
was largely uninhabited.
423
00:40:14,745 --> 00:40:16,705
But in reality,
nearly half a million people
424
00:40:16,789 --> 00:40:19,667
lived in New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico,
425
00:40:19,750 --> 00:40:24,797
within 150-mile radius
of the Trinity test site in 1945.
426
00:40:26,841 --> 00:40:30,052
About 40 miles away,
there's a camp, a girls' dance camp.
427
00:40:30,136 --> 00:40:32,221
About ten girls
who were about 13 years old
428
00:40:32,304 --> 00:40:33,931
were fast asleep in their bunks.
429
00:40:36,851 --> 00:40:37,768
Suddenly, boom.
430
00:40:37,852 --> 00:40:40,396
An enormous explosion
shakes their bunkhouse
431
00:40:40,479 --> 00:40:42,523
and throws the girls out of their bunks.
432
00:40:44,066 --> 00:40:46,360
{n8}They and their dance instructor
run outside,
433
00:40:46,861 --> 00:40:50,364
{n8}and one of them later recalled
that the sky was just painful to look at.
434
00:40:50,448 --> 00:40:52,450
It was so bright. She said, quote,
435
00:40:52,533 --> 00:40:54,660
"It was as if the sun came up.
Tremendous."
436
00:41:01,041 --> 00:41:03,752
And then a few hours later,
these girls look up
437
00:41:03,836 --> 00:41:06,130
and there's white ash
falling from the sky,
438
00:41:06,213 --> 00:41:08,007
and they think that it's snow.
439
00:41:11,552 --> 00:41:14,597
{n8}So they put on their bathing suits
and they go to a local stream
440
00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:18,058
{n8}to play in the snow,
and they're pressing it into their faces.
441
00:41:18,142 --> 00:41:21,979
And they said, "It's hot instead of cold.
Why is this snow hot?"
442
00:41:22,062 --> 00:41:25,316
And in their reasoning,
they said, "It's hot because it's summer."
443
00:41:25,399 --> 00:41:28,068
And only one of them survived to 30.
444
00:41:30,529 --> 00:41:32,740
The New Mexicans
had not been told ahead of time
445
00:41:32,823 --> 00:41:34,492
that the test would take place.
446
00:41:34,575 --> 00:41:36,327
They were not evacuated ahead of time,
447
00:41:36,410 --> 00:41:39,038
nor were they evacuated
or told afterwards.
448
00:41:39,121 --> 00:41:42,750
In fact, the government
put out a press report
449
00:41:42,833 --> 00:41:45,586
that a munitions dump had exploded nearby,
450
00:41:45,669 --> 00:41:47,671
and that's what
these people had experienced.
451
00:41:48,881 --> 00:41:53,677
It didn't do much to explain
why this snow was falling from the sky,
452
00:41:53,761 --> 00:41:56,388
or why all their family pets
were dying all of a sudden,
453
00:41:56,472 --> 00:42:00,100
or their livestock
was starting to turn white in patches.
454
00:42:02,811 --> 00:42:04,647
The blast in the Trinity test
455
00:42:05,356 --> 00:42:08,108
literally turned the sand
into green glass.
456
00:42:27,378 --> 00:42:28,837
Truman got news
457
00:42:28,921 --> 00:42:31,882
that this test had been successful
during the Potsdam Conference.
458
00:42:47,856 --> 00:42:51,443
{n8}Truman and Stalin and Churchill
were trying to work out
459
00:42:51,527 --> 00:42:53,862
{n8}what the balance of power was going to be
460
00:42:53,946 --> 00:42:56,448
{n8}among the Allies,
who were expecting to win the war.
461
00:42:57,283 --> 00:43:01,120
{n8}The big three meetings are held
in Kaiser Wilhelm's former palace.
462
00:43:01,203 --> 00:43:05,583
{n8}Here, the fate of Germany and the end
of Japanese aggression will be settled.
463
00:43:07,418 --> 00:43:11,797
They are meeting the Soviets
for the first time, Truman and Stimson.
464
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:13,924
Truman is meeting Stalin in person.
465
00:43:16,302 --> 00:43:18,512
The West
certainly didn't understand
466
00:43:18,596 --> 00:43:22,016
whom they were dealing with
when it comes to Stalin.
467
00:43:23,434 --> 00:43:25,394
He had a lot of charisma.
468
00:43:26,604 --> 00:43:31,191
He made a good impression on people,
and he wanted to make that impression.
469
00:43:31,275 --> 00:43:33,277
It was
at this historic conference
470
00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:36,864
that the dividing of Germany
into four zones of occupation took place.
471
00:43:38,532 --> 00:43:41,410
The American officials
are very distressed at Potsdam
472
00:43:41,493 --> 00:43:46,624
because they're starting to realize
that the world is being divided up
473
00:43:46,707 --> 00:43:48,876
in a way that they didn't
quite anticipate.
474
00:43:48,959 --> 00:43:52,630
That these allies, who were always
sort of enemies of my enemy,
475
00:43:52,713 --> 00:43:57,885
were actually quite paranoid,
and expansionist, and hard to trust.
476
00:43:57,968 --> 00:44:01,263
It was becoming clear
that once the Soviets took over territory,
477
00:44:01,347 --> 00:44:03,390
they essentially kept the territory.
478
00:44:04,475 --> 00:44:07,728
The Russians were going
to enter the war against the Japanese
479
00:44:07,811 --> 00:44:09,647
on the 15th of August.
480
00:44:10,314 --> 00:44:14,151
And Truman was hoping
that he could get the war over with
481
00:44:14,234 --> 00:44:17,196
before Stalin entered the war in the East,
482
00:44:17,279 --> 00:44:21,575
so that Japan wouldn't be divided
the way Germany was going to be divided.
483
00:44:26,747 --> 00:44:29,958
Truman was notified
about the test of the plutonium bomb
484
00:44:30,042 --> 00:44:31,293
at Alamogordo,
485
00:44:31,377 --> 00:44:35,839
and how powerful it was,
and how it exceeded expectations.
486
00:44:37,091 --> 00:44:40,260
And that was great news for Truman
because he thought it might help him
487
00:44:40,344 --> 00:44:42,262
in his negotiations with Stalin.
488
00:44:46,392 --> 00:44:49,436
And so one question that came up was,
489
00:44:50,229 --> 00:44:52,564
"So, do we tell Stalin about the bomb?"
490
00:44:57,569 --> 00:45:01,031
The recommendation
to Truman was, "Tell Stalin."
491
00:45:01,115 --> 00:45:06,120
It would be important for the two of them
to discuss how the bomb should become
492
00:45:06,203 --> 00:45:09,623
somehow an instrument of peace
rather than of war.
493
00:45:11,750 --> 00:45:13,585
But Truman ignored that advice.
494
00:45:13,669 --> 00:45:18,048
{n8}Truman was very bucked up
by the news of the successful test,
495
00:45:18,132 --> 00:45:21,593
{n8}and Churchill waxed eloquent
about it, saying,
496
00:45:21,677 --> 00:45:24,304
"Now we can tell the Russians
where to get off."
497
00:45:26,890 --> 00:45:29,476
Truman went over to Stalin and said,
498
00:45:29,560 --> 00:45:32,604
"We have a weapon
of unusual destructive force."
499
00:45:35,023 --> 00:45:37,359
Stalin said nothing, just nodded.
500
00:45:38,485 --> 00:45:42,239
And that was the only official exchange
501
00:45:42,322 --> 00:45:45,492
between the US and the Soviet Union.
502
00:45:52,249 --> 00:45:54,310
Even while we celebrate
victory in Europe,
503
00:45:54,334 --> 00:45:58,630
British and American chiefs of staff
plan strategy for victory in Japan.
504
00:45:58,714 --> 00:46:02,426
And their heads of government prepare
an ultimatum to the people of Japan.
505
00:46:03,844 --> 00:46:06,972
Truman sought
unconditional surrender from Japan.
506
00:46:09,308 --> 00:46:13,854
We call upon the government of Japan
to proclaim unconditional surrender.
507
00:46:13,937 --> 00:46:17,274
The alternative is prompt
and utter destruction.
508
00:46:18,066 --> 00:46:20,569
The Japanese
didn't want to surrender,
509
00:46:20,652 --> 00:46:23,489
and they certainly didn't want
to surrender unconditionally
510
00:46:23,572 --> 00:46:28,577
because they feared that that would mean
the end of the empire,
511
00:46:28,660 --> 00:46:31,455
{n8}and that the Emperor
would be forced to abdicate.
512
00:46:33,791 --> 00:46:36,251
There was a division
within the Japanese government
513
00:46:36,335 --> 00:46:38,670
between those who wanted to seek peace,
514
00:46:38,754 --> 00:46:41,048
as long as the Emperor
could remain on his throne,
515
00:46:41,131 --> 00:46:43,634
{n8}and those who wanted to fight on
for as long as possible
516
00:46:43,717 --> 00:46:46,845
{n8}in order to hopefully
get better surrender terms.
517
00:46:46,929 --> 00:46:50,265
And there was, in fact,
paralysis within the Japanese government
518
00:46:50,349 --> 00:46:51,475
about what to do.
519
00:46:54,770 --> 00:46:57,147
{n8}My grandfather, Shigenori Togo,
520
00:46:57,648 --> 00:46:59,608
was foreign minister of Japan.
521
00:47:00,984 --> 00:47:03,195
{n8}Throughout the beginning of his tenure
522
00:47:03,278 --> 00:47:06,156
{n8}until the very end,
he had only one motive.
523
00:47:06,740 --> 00:47:08,992
Avoid unconditional surrender.
524
00:47:10,077 --> 00:47:13,080
Because if you agree
to unconditional surrender,
525
00:47:13,163 --> 00:47:19,169
{n8}Togo might run the risk of the fate
of the Imperial family becoming dubious.
526
00:47:21,338 --> 00:47:22,631
That, he couldn't.
527
00:47:25,801 --> 00:47:27,219
There is a group
528
00:47:27,302 --> 00:47:30,305
of conflicting opinions
inside the government,
529
00:47:30,389 --> 00:47:32,641
also inside the military groups,
530
00:47:32,724 --> 00:47:38,730
that it's better to fight to the end,
to the death.
531
00:47:39,690 --> 00:47:42,818
On the other side,
there are rational people
532
00:47:42,901 --> 00:47:45,529
that said we faced such casualties.
533
00:47:45,612 --> 00:47:47,865
It is time to end the war.
534
00:47:48,991 --> 00:47:53,412
When the Potsdam Declaration
reached Togo, 26th of July,
535
00:47:53,912 --> 00:47:57,833
the hardliners in the military
said that this is not good.
536
00:48:00,419 --> 00:48:04,882
We should make the world know
that Potsdam is not acceptable.
537
00:48:06,425 --> 00:48:08,427
We're really angry
at the Japanese
538
00:48:08,510 --> 00:48:11,680
{n8}for not surrendering
when we knew they had been defeated.
539
00:48:13,515 --> 00:48:15,976
The hatred between
the United States and Japan
540
00:48:16,059 --> 00:48:17,227
was unparalleled.
541
00:48:25,861 --> 00:48:27,529
{n8}I was born in Los Angeles.
542
00:48:29,323 --> 00:48:34,494
In 1940, we went to Japan
to visit our ailing grandparents.
543
00:48:35,996 --> 00:48:38,081
My parents had to go back to the States
544
00:48:38,165 --> 00:48:40,292
because they still
had some business there.
545
00:48:43,211 --> 00:48:47,382
They left my older brother and me
in the care of my grandparents.
546
00:48:52,220 --> 00:48:56,600
Here we were in the middle of Hiroshima,
living with our grandparents.
547
00:49:00,604 --> 00:49:03,815
And then, before my parents
could come back for us...
548
00:49:06,485 --> 00:49:08,153
the war started.
549
00:49:09,029 --> 00:49:12,950
And we were in the middle of Hiroshima
for the duration of the war.
550
00:49:21,708 --> 00:49:26,463
More than 100,000 men, women,
and children, all of Japanese ancestry,
551
00:49:26,546 --> 00:49:29,091
removed from their homes
in the Pacific Coast state.
552
00:49:29,883 --> 00:49:33,345
Two-thirds of the evacuees
are American citizens by right of birth.
553
00:49:35,973 --> 00:49:38,433
Shortly after they returned
to the United States,
554
00:49:38,517 --> 00:49:41,269
my parents were sent
to a concentration camp,
555
00:49:41,353 --> 00:49:44,606
along with 120,000 other
Japanese-Americans.
556
00:49:45,732 --> 00:49:47,859
There were ten of them,
I believe, altogether,
557
00:49:47,943 --> 00:49:50,028
scattered around the United States.
558
00:49:51,613 --> 00:49:54,116
They suffered tremendously in the camp.
559
00:49:54,199 --> 00:49:55,909
I mean, they lost everything.
560
00:49:56,618 --> 00:50:01,039
Can you imagine somebody telling you,
you have to get out of your house?
561
00:50:01,123 --> 00:50:04,710
You got two suitcases
full of things you can carry with you,
562
00:50:04,793 --> 00:50:07,337
and the police throw you
in the concentration camp
563
00:50:07,421 --> 00:50:08,880
for three, four years.
564
00:50:10,590 --> 00:50:13,427
The entire community
bounded by a wire fence
565
00:50:13,510 --> 00:50:15,971
and guarded by military police,
566
00:50:16,054 --> 00:50:18,682
symbols of the military nature
of the evacuation.
567
00:50:22,728 --> 00:50:24,563
Maybe somebody would have said,
568
00:50:24,646 --> 00:50:27,691
"Well, you know, maybe it's not right
to use a weapon this powerful
569
00:50:27,774 --> 00:50:31,653
against a civilian population"
if we'd had it against Germany.
570
00:50:36,408 --> 00:50:39,453
But the racial factor
against Japan, I think,
571
00:50:39,536 --> 00:50:41,955
{n8}prevented any real second thoughts.
572
00:50:43,915 --> 00:50:47,335
{n8}It was to spare the Japanese people
from utter destruction,
573
00:50:47,961 --> 00:50:52,549
{n8}that the ultimatum of July the 26th
was issued at Potsdam.
574
00:50:53,508 --> 00:50:56,887
Their leaders promptly rejected
that ultimatum.
575
00:50:57,804 --> 00:51:00,390
If they do not now accept our terms,
576
00:51:00,474 --> 00:51:03,643
they may expect
a rain of ruin from the air,
577
00:51:03,727 --> 00:51:06,730
the like of which
has never been seen on this earth.
578
00:51:08,315 --> 00:51:13,028
Here we have a bomb more powerful
than anything ever before developed.
579
00:51:13,111 --> 00:51:16,865
If it worked the way scientists
thought it would work,
580
00:51:17,657 --> 00:51:22,204
if, in fact, an atomic bomb
could wipe out a city with one bomb,
581
00:51:22,704 --> 00:51:26,166
hopefully the shock of that
would finally be enough
582
00:51:26,249 --> 00:51:29,795
to convince the Japanese government
that it was time to surrender.
583
00:51:31,254 --> 00:51:33,924
Also, the Red Army
was coming into Manchuria.
584
00:51:36,927 --> 00:51:39,096
It's very clear that American policymakers
585
00:51:39,179 --> 00:51:43,266
were rushing to get the war over with
before the Russians came in.
586
00:51:43,350 --> 00:51:45,727
{n8}We didn't want them
to get very far into Manchuria,
587
00:51:45,811 --> 00:51:47,771
{n8}and we certainly
didn't want them in Japan.
588
00:51:48,772 --> 00:51:53,026
Leslie Groves had been charged
with creating the atomic bomb
589
00:51:53,110 --> 00:51:55,112
and getting it ready for wartime use.
590
00:51:55,779 --> 00:52:00,033
And he pursued this
with relentless determination.
591
00:52:00,117 --> 00:52:05,080
And by mid-July, the first bomb
was nearly ready for use.
592
00:52:11,795 --> 00:52:16,716
In order to have a good target,
a few cities were set aside.
593
00:52:19,511 --> 00:52:20,846
You want a city
594
00:52:20,929 --> 00:52:24,808
that is going to really have
a good before and after picture,
595
00:52:24,891 --> 00:52:29,312
so that you can show what this weapon
is capable of both to scare the Japanese,
596
00:52:29,396 --> 00:52:32,274
and scare the rest of the world
about the power of this thing.
597
00:52:33,859 --> 00:52:38,613
Hiroshima, Niigata, Kokura,
and Kyoto were on the list,
598
00:52:38,697 --> 00:52:42,576
and Stimson famously vetoed Kyoto
599
00:52:42,659 --> 00:52:46,621
because it was kind of
the intellectual center of Japan.
600
00:52:47,164 --> 00:52:49,875
{n8}He insisted that Kyoto
be taken off the list.
601
00:52:51,459 --> 00:52:54,629
He goes to Truman,
and the framing he uses is, essentially,
602
00:52:54,713 --> 00:52:56,756
that Kyoto is a civilian target.
603
00:52:56,840 --> 00:52:58,717
Hiroshima is a valid military target.
604
00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:03,680
The Japanese will never forgive us
if we destroy a major civilian target.
605
00:53:04,347 --> 00:53:08,018
He refers to Hiroshima repeatedly
as a purely military target.
606
00:53:09,477 --> 00:53:11,271
This is not totally correct.
607
00:53:11,354 --> 00:53:13,857
Hiroshima, yeah,
it has a military base in it,
608
00:53:13,940 --> 00:53:15,734
but it's 90% civilians.
609
00:53:17,027 --> 00:53:19,988
It's a real city.
It's not just a military base.
610
00:53:20,906 --> 00:53:22,699
It's not clear
Truman understands all this.
611
00:53:39,966 --> 00:53:43,929
{n8}We woke up early in the morning,
the morning of August 6.
612
00:53:47,974 --> 00:53:52,062
Put on our school clothes
because school was in session.
613
00:53:52,687 --> 00:53:54,231
And on our way to school,
614
00:53:54,314 --> 00:53:58,818
we were told that school was canceled
that day because enemy aircraft,
615
00:53:58,902 --> 00:54:00,904
that would be American aircraft,
616
00:54:01,446 --> 00:54:03,990
was still in the area.
617
00:54:04,574 --> 00:54:08,411
And they were afraid of,
you know, additional bombing.
618
00:54:10,580 --> 00:54:14,292
We were 0.8 miles from the hypocenter,
619
00:54:14,960 --> 00:54:16,920
which is considered pretty close.
620
00:55:24,487 --> 00:55:28,950
My brother, he saw the airplane
and the secondary,
621
00:55:29,034 --> 00:55:31,161
he saw something was in the distance.
622
00:55:31,244 --> 00:55:33,038
A very small, tiny block.
623
00:55:33,121 --> 00:55:34,914
That was atomic bomb.
624
00:55:36,708 --> 00:55:39,336
It didn't come down straight.
625
00:55:39,419 --> 00:55:43,006
And then for a while,
it went with the airplane
626
00:55:43,089 --> 00:55:45,175
and then made a curve and dropped.
627
00:55:45,258 --> 00:55:48,887
And then he turned back, and it exploded.
628
00:56:15,413 --> 00:56:16,748
There was a flash.
629
00:56:17,999 --> 00:56:21,002
Everything I was seeing
turned white.
630
00:56:22,128 --> 00:56:25,298
Couldn't see anything. No color at all.
631
00:56:26,925 --> 00:56:29,052
And then there was a strong blast.
632
00:56:32,389 --> 00:56:37,644
{n8}I felt like I was, like,
in a tornado or a typhoon.
633
00:56:43,942 --> 00:56:47,112
And then unconscious.
Everybody became unconscious.
634
00:56:49,364 --> 00:56:54,536
And then when I opened my eyes,
everywhere was just broken.
635
00:57:18,977 --> 00:57:21,729
I had been looking at the koi fish.
636
00:57:21,813 --> 00:57:25,150
My mom called for me,
and I went inside the house.
637
00:57:26,192 --> 00:57:28,445
{n8}It was at that moment
the atomic bomb was dropped.
638
00:57:29,112 --> 00:57:33,491
{n8}Had I still been outside
at the time the bomb went off,
639
00:57:33,575 --> 00:57:35,660
I would have been killed instantaneously.
640
00:57:37,996 --> 00:57:41,833
My mom went to the closet,
it looked like it was about to collapse,
641
00:57:41,916 --> 00:57:44,210
and yanked a large futon out of it.
642
00:57:44,294 --> 00:57:48,548
She threw it over the family,
who had all gathered together.
643
00:57:49,966 --> 00:57:54,888
So she said, "Let's die here as a family,"
and wrapped us into a bundle.
644
00:57:56,556 --> 00:58:02,270
It's a feeling that I can never forget,
not even decades later.
645
00:58:03,938 --> 00:58:09,027
For as long as I live,
I will never forget that moment.
646
00:58:12,489 --> 00:58:17,035
I don't recall
seeing the flash, nor hear the boom.
647
00:58:17,535 --> 00:58:20,038
I was knocked out instantaneously.
648
00:58:21,039 --> 00:58:24,292
When I came to,
the bathhouse was on top of me.
649
00:58:27,295 --> 00:58:29,380
I was buried alive.
650
00:58:30,632 --> 00:58:34,761
I wanted to call out, "Mom! Help me!"
651
00:58:35,512 --> 00:58:37,722
But I couldn't speak.
652
00:58:39,557 --> 00:58:42,560
There was something
like a blast wave,
653
00:58:43,394 --> 00:58:47,941
and then all the walls and stuff
were blown out.
654
00:58:49,901 --> 00:58:53,780
{n8}After the blast, my body just floated,
655
00:58:54,531 --> 00:58:58,117
and then hit the ground.
656
00:58:59,786 --> 00:59:03,331
Then I realized...
657
00:59:05,250 --> 00:59:07,085
my back...
658
00:59:09,754 --> 00:59:11,381
was burnt.
659
00:59:16,219 --> 00:59:19,514
Just remembering it, I hate to remember
anything about those days.
660
00:59:26,521 --> 00:59:30,817
The atomic bomb
exploded at a height of 600 meters
661
00:59:30,900 --> 00:59:33,820
above the ground in the sky
over Hiroshima City,
662
00:59:33,903 --> 00:59:35,738
with a population of 350,000.
663
00:59:37,657 --> 00:59:41,703
The fireball had a core temperature
of several million degrees.
664
00:59:45,290 --> 00:59:49,127
Ferocious heat rays, like those generated
by burning magnesium,
665
00:59:49,210 --> 00:59:51,796
were unleashed over the entire city.
666
00:59:54,299 --> 00:59:56,801
About two or three seconds
after the blast,
667
00:59:56,884 --> 00:59:59,804
the people who had been exposed
to those heat rays
668
00:59:59,887 --> 01:00:03,641
were severely burned
and many of them died.
669
01:00:14,444 --> 01:00:17,405
The rivers
were filled with corpses.
670
01:00:21,659 --> 01:00:24,454
So many corpses in the river,
there was no space in between.
671
01:00:29,917 --> 01:00:32,670
One could not gather
the bodies of the dead.
672
01:00:32,754 --> 01:00:36,132
The remains turned to ash,
so you couldn't collect them.
673
01:00:39,344 --> 01:00:41,554
The bones had turned to ash.
674
01:00:46,476 --> 01:00:49,854
We saw
the hordes of people from the inner city
675
01:00:49,937 --> 01:00:51,439
with tremendous injuries.
676
01:00:52,565 --> 01:00:55,943
Skins on their body
would be dripping from their bodies.
677
01:00:58,196 --> 01:01:01,949
The pattern of clothes
would be etched on the bodies.
678
01:01:05,536 --> 01:01:07,955
People that were
directly exposed to the rain,
679
01:01:08,039 --> 01:01:09,874
they were burned so terribly,
680
01:01:09,957 --> 01:01:12,460
to get some relief,
they would jump into the river,
681
01:01:12,543 --> 01:01:13,543
only to die.
682
01:01:21,928 --> 01:01:24,430
The elementary school I attended
683
01:01:24,514 --> 01:01:27,517
is on the other side of this mountain.
684
01:01:29,560 --> 01:01:31,688
That's where I got exposed
to the radiation.
685
01:01:32,438 --> 01:01:36,401
I went down this road,
686
01:01:36,484 --> 01:01:39,821
and the sky was completely dark
when I got here.
687
01:01:39,904 --> 01:01:45,118
And it started raining when
the radiation fallout was coming down.
688
01:01:46,160 --> 01:01:51,124
The large raindrops
pelted down and drenched us.
689
01:01:51,207 --> 01:01:53,918
We were soaked.
690
01:01:55,169 --> 01:01:58,256
We didn't know it at the time,
691
01:01:58,339 --> 01:02:01,968
but it was black rain,
contaminated with radioactive material.
692
01:02:08,808 --> 01:02:11,519
Then when the evening came,
693
01:02:12,270 --> 01:02:14,731
we looked back toward the city
from the mountains.
694
01:02:18,526 --> 01:02:22,113
It was burning so ferociously
that it could almost scorch the night sky.
695
01:02:23,573 --> 01:02:29,078
And I think about how so many people
were burned alive in those flames,
696
01:02:30,580 --> 01:02:32,373
and it tears me apart.
697
01:02:32,915 --> 01:02:34,292
Young children,
698
01:02:35,126 --> 01:02:36,126
you know?
699
01:02:36,461 --> 01:02:38,045
Older parents,
700
01:02:38,629 --> 01:02:41,257
all those people who couldn't escape
701
01:02:41,340 --> 01:02:44,177
and were burned alive, so many of them.
702
01:02:45,720 --> 01:02:49,056
The smoke was filled
with the smell of burning bodies.
703
01:02:50,141 --> 01:02:51,392
So even today,
704
01:02:53,436 --> 01:02:58,649
in the heat of the summer,
when it's sizzling hot,
705
01:02:58,733 --> 01:03:01,402
or when it's so hot
you can feel it on your skin,
706
01:03:01,486 --> 01:03:03,404
that smell of burning bodies,
707
01:03:04,155 --> 01:03:05,615
and the screams,
708
01:03:05,698 --> 01:03:08,534
it all rushes back to me,
in all five senses.
709
01:03:08,618 --> 01:03:09,702
Even now.
710
01:03:12,914 --> 01:03:16,751
Seventy thousand
people died within the first hour.
711
01:03:17,710 --> 01:03:21,380
One hundred and forty thousand,
twice that number,
712
01:03:21,464 --> 01:03:25,510
who have died by December of 1945.
713
01:03:39,607 --> 01:03:44,153
{n8}Three days later, on August 9th,
Nagasaki was bombed.
714
01:04:06,259 --> 01:04:10,930
{n8}The initial target for the second bomb
was actually not Nagasaki, it was Kokura.
715
01:04:12,473 --> 01:04:14,809
But because of cloud cover,
716
01:04:14,892 --> 01:04:18,855
the crew decided
that they couldn't drop it on Kokura.
717
01:04:18,938 --> 01:04:20,982
So they went to the secondary target.
718
01:04:22,400 --> 01:04:24,527
The second bomb's called Fat Man.
719
01:04:27,655 --> 01:04:32,869
{n8}The Hiroshima bomb was the uranium bomb,
and it yielded about 15 kilotons,
720
01:04:32,952 --> 01:04:35,705
{n8}15,000 tons of TNT equivalent.
721
01:04:36,539 --> 01:04:38,666
The Fat Man was a plutonium bomb,
722
01:04:38,749 --> 01:04:42,962
and it yielded
about 22,000 tons of TNT equivalent.
723
01:04:45,381 --> 01:04:47,508
It actually gets dropped on Urakami,
724
01:04:47,592 --> 01:04:50,970
which is a district of Nagasaki
just north.
725
01:04:53,180 --> 01:04:56,100
Urakami, historically,
has been the kind of center
726
01:04:56,183 --> 01:04:58,895
of the Catholic community in Nagasaki.
727
01:05:00,730 --> 01:05:04,817
{n8}There were 8,500 Christians
killed in the cathedral.
728
01:05:04,901 --> 01:05:06,861
There were two priests
hearing confessions,
729
01:05:06,944 --> 01:05:09,906
and a couple dozen parishioners
immediately killed.
730
01:05:12,408 --> 01:05:13,951
The cathedral's destroyed.
731
01:05:17,496 --> 01:05:20,708
We don't know exactly
how many people died in Nagasaki.
732
01:05:20,791 --> 01:05:24,045
The most recent estimate's about 80,000.
733
01:05:24,712 --> 01:05:28,174
The deaths are calculated
as of December 1st
734
01:05:28,257 --> 01:05:33,471
because about 15 or 20% died
from acute exposure to radiation.
735
01:05:35,723 --> 01:05:38,684
When Truman initially hears
about the Hiroshima mission,
736
01:05:39,268 --> 01:05:40,353
he's thrilled.
737
01:05:40,436 --> 01:05:43,105
And he stays
unambiguously positive about it
738
01:05:43,189 --> 01:05:47,068
until Stimson gives him
the first damage reports of Hiroshima.
739
01:05:50,696 --> 01:05:54,659
This is unambiguously a city.
This is not a military base.
740
01:05:56,994 --> 01:05:59,038
Truman had just
gotten back from Potsdam,
741
01:05:59,121 --> 01:06:02,667
and Stimson came to see him,
and he had some photographs of Hiroshima.
742
01:06:02,750 --> 01:06:06,587
And he said, "As far as we can tell,
the bomb killed 100,000 people."
743
01:06:08,839 --> 01:06:10,466
Truman was shocked by that.
744
01:06:11,300 --> 01:06:14,804
Truman starts to report
having these, like, stress headaches
745
01:06:14,887 --> 01:06:18,265
and other sort of physiological symptoms
of stress and discomfort.
746
01:06:18,349 --> 01:06:21,602
He starts describing the atomic bomb
from this moment on
747
01:06:21,686 --> 01:06:23,396
not as the greatest thing in history,
748
01:06:23,479 --> 01:06:28,192
but as a weapon that should not be used
as a regular military weapon of war.
749
01:06:28,275 --> 01:06:31,153
It's a real turning point,
the learning about these casualties.
750
01:06:35,574 --> 01:06:37,451
On August 10th, 1945,
751
01:06:37,535 --> 01:06:42,540
General Groves sends a memo
to the chief of staff, General Marshall.
752
01:06:43,916 --> 01:06:47,461
And he says, you know, we were planning
to have a third bomb on Japan
753
01:06:47,545 --> 01:06:48,796
by the end of the month,
754
01:06:48,879 --> 01:06:51,799
but we've had some real success
in speeding it up,
755
01:06:51,882 --> 01:06:56,053
and we're gonna be ready
to drop that bomb in a week.
756
01:06:57,096 --> 01:07:01,225
Truman went
to a cabinet meeting and he said,
757
01:07:01,308 --> 01:07:06,355
"I have ordered that no further bombs
be used without my express authorization."
758
01:07:07,273 --> 01:07:10,985
It's literally a scrawl
on a piece of paper in handwriting.
759
01:07:11,068 --> 01:07:13,654
"You can't do this
without the president's authorization."
760
01:07:13,738 --> 01:07:16,365
This is the beginning
of presidential control
761
01:07:16,449 --> 01:07:19,160
of nuclear use in the United States.
762
01:07:19,994 --> 01:07:25,166
{n8}I have received this afternoon a message
from the Japanese government,
763
01:07:25,249 --> 01:07:28,335
{n8}in reply to the message
forwarded to that government
764
01:07:28,419 --> 01:07:31,005
by the Secretary of State on August 11th.
765
01:07:32,214 --> 01:07:36,927
I deem this reply a full acceptance
of the Potsdam Declaration,
766
01:07:37,678 --> 01:07:41,766
which specifies the unconditional
surrender of Japan.
767
01:07:46,270 --> 01:07:51,525
{n8}There's a lot of dispute about Truman's
motives in using the bomb in Japan.
768
01:07:52,943 --> 01:07:57,865
You have the dominant narrative
being the bomb ended the war,
769
01:07:57,948 --> 01:07:59,492
it saved American lives.
770
01:07:59,575 --> 01:08:01,911
{n8}The Japanese would not
have surrendered without it.
771
01:08:01,994 --> 01:08:05,122
{n8}It was ultimately a good, right,
that was used.
772
01:08:05,831 --> 01:08:07,833
But then you had a counternarrative.
773
01:08:09,043 --> 01:08:12,046
We didn't need to use the bomb.
Japan would have surrendered.
774
01:08:12,880 --> 01:08:16,550
We didn't need a land invasion
in order to be victorious.
775
01:08:20,429 --> 01:08:23,390
Some have said the atom bomb
wasn't the end of World War II,
776
01:08:23,474 --> 01:08:25,643
but it was the first strike
in the Cold War.
777
01:08:28,229 --> 01:08:31,774
Why'd they use the bomb
against two non-military targets?
778
01:08:31,857 --> 01:08:33,442
Civilian cities.
779
01:08:33,526 --> 01:08:36,946
I mean, there's very small,
tiny little military installations,
780
01:08:37,029 --> 01:08:38,989
but they were not military bases.
781
01:08:40,783 --> 01:08:44,912
{n8}You can't get the precise answer,
but you can get pretty close to it.
782
01:08:45,871 --> 01:08:49,083
It seemed very clear to policymakers
that the war could end
783
01:08:49,166 --> 01:08:52,670
so long as you told the Japanese
that they could keep their god-like figure
784
01:08:52,753 --> 01:08:54,171
in a powerless role.
785
01:08:55,339 --> 01:08:58,717
And secondly, the war would end
when the Russians came in.
786
01:08:58,801 --> 01:09:01,637
That will collapse the politics.
That'll be the turning point.
787
01:09:03,681 --> 01:09:07,810
{n8}This is a letter from Secretary of War,
Henry L. Stimson to President Truman,
788
01:09:07,893 --> 01:09:09,979
{n8}July 2, 1945.
789
01:09:28,581 --> 01:09:30,541
He's basically saying
that the United States
790
01:09:30,624 --> 01:09:33,294
is totally in control of the Japanese war,
791
01:09:33,961 --> 01:09:38,632
and that we have capacity
to deal with them in any way we want.
792
01:09:39,258 --> 01:09:40,259
Which is true.
793
01:09:40,342 --> 01:09:43,179
So, it was not a question
of whether the war would go on.
794
01:09:43,262 --> 01:09:45,764
It's a brutal question
of using the atomic bombs
795
01:09:45,848 --> 01:09:48,184
in order to end the war
without the Russians.
796
01:09:49,143 --> 01:09:51,896
{n8}Many American policymakers
knew the Japanese couldn't face
797
01:09:51,979 --> 01:09:54,481
{n8}the great powers
when the Russians came in,
798
01:09:54,565 --> 01:09:56,984
and that the Russian attack
would end the war.
799
01:09:58,319 --> 01:10:01,697
They desperately wanted to end the war
before the Russians got to Japan,
800
01:10:01,780 --> 01:10:04,783
and better if they could end it
before they got far into Manchuria.
801
01:10:05,492 --> 01:10:09,205
So it's a diplomatic and political use
at that point in time,
802
01:10:09,288 --> 01:10:10,789
and it's a major tragedy.
803
01:10:11,582 --> 01:10:13,000
Some would say a war crime.
804
01:10:14,001 --> 01:10:17,046
What do you make of this,
that we didn't need to drop the bomb?
805
01:10:17,129 --> 01:10:18,129
You know...
806
01:10:20,424 --> 01:10:26,472
I find that truly scurrilous
for someone to say all these years later.
807
01:10:27,306 --> 01:10:30,726
We didn't know.
We didn't know if the bombs would work.
808
01:10:31,393 --> 01:10:34,772
We didn't know if they would
force the Japanese to surrender.
809
01:10:34,855 --> 01:10:38,817
We didn't know if Stalin
was gonna come in when he came in,
810
01:10:38,901 --> 01:10:41,737
or when he would come in,
or if he would come in.
811
01:10:41,820 --> 01:10:43,989
We didn't know any of that.
What we did know
812
01:10:44,073 --> 01:10:47,618
was that the Japanese
were prepared to sacrifice
813
01:10:47,701 --> 01:10:52,706
every one of their human beings
who lived in those islands to fight.
814
01:10:52,790 --> 01:10:55,000
The closer we got to Japan
815
01:10:55,084 --> 01:10:58,921
as we marched up the islands
in the South Pacific one by one,
816
01:10:59,004 --> 01:11:00,172
the harder they fought.
817
01:11:00,965 --> 01:11:04,510
There was no indication that the war
was just suddenly going to end.
818
01:11:04,593 --> 01:11:07,554
The Japanese were gonna say,
"Oh, sorry! Time to stop."
819
01:11:09,098 --> 01:11:10,516
It didn't work that way.
820
01:11:14,603 --> 01:11:18,315
In the United States, there was
overwhelming support for the bombs.
821
01:11:19,149 --> 01:11:20,985
Ecstatic support.
822
01:11:21,986 --> 01:11:24,613
The vast majority,
over 75% of people polled,
823
01:11:24,697 --> 01:11:26,865
said that they approved
of the use of the bombs.
824
01:11:28,033 --> 01:11:31,078
In one poll that was conducted
shortly after the bombings,
825
01:11:31,161 --> 01:11:35,582
23% of those polled said that they wished
that even more atomic bombs
826
01:11:35,666 --> 01:11:38,544
could've been used on Japan
before that country had surrendered.
827
01:11:38,627 --> 01:11:40,921
That's how strong
the feeling of vengeance was.
828
01:11:43,507 --> 01:11:49,888
{n8}It really wasn't until John Hersey's
bombshell reporting in The New Yorker,
829
01:11:49,972 --> 01:11:53,434
{n8}where The New Yorker gives over
an entire issue of the magazine
830
01:11:53,517 --> 01:11:57,813
{n8}to his first-person reporting
from Hiroshima,
831
01:11:57,896 --> 01:12:03,319
that brings the power
and the awful horror of the bomb
832
01:12:03,402 --> 01:12:05,821
home to the American public.
833
01:12:07,239 --> 01:12:12,619
Americans really began to reckon
with the cost and the horror
834
01:12:12,703 --> 01:12:14,705
of what they had unleashed on the world.
835
01:12:17,374 --> 01:12:21,962
End of 1946,
you're starting to see more voices
836
01:12:22,046 --> 01:12:25,591
that go against
the Manhattan Project narrative,
837
01:12:25,674 --> 01:12:29,845
that are starting to say things like,
"Maybe the bombs weren't necessary."
838
01:12:31,055 --> 01:12:33,849
A lot of those voices
are senior military officials.
839
01:12:34,433 --> 01:12:35,684
It's Admiral Leahy.
840
01:12:36,977 --> 01:12:38,395
It's General Eisenhower.
841
01:12:42,191 --> 01:12:44,902
The wartime alliance
with the Soviet Union
842
01:12:44,985 --> 01:12:47,488
was in some ways
a marriage of convenience,
843
01:12:47,571 --> 01:12:51,575
and it broke down more quickly,
I think, than anyone anticipated.
844
01:12:54,703 --> 01:12:58,082
The Soviet Union thought,
"We won the war with Germany."
845
01:12:58,165 --> 01:13:01,043
"We occupy half of Europe."
846
01:13:01,126 --> 01:13:03,629
"Our standing now is great."
847
01:13:03,712 --> 01:13:06,924
"Our power is so much greater
than it was before the war."
848
01:13:08,258 --> 01:13:10,636
And suddenly,
the bomb comes and introduces
849
01:13:10,719 --> 01:13:15,724
a whole new element of uncertainty
into the balance of power.
850
01:13:17,351 --> 01:13:19,144
So on the 20th of August,
851
01:13:19,228 --> 01:13:21,522
so two weeks to the day after Hiroshima,
852
01:13:22,106 --> 01:13:24,233
Stalin signs a decree.
853
01:13:25,567 --> 01:13:27,778
"Build the bomb as soon as possible."
854
01:13:31,865 --> 01:13:36,954
The invention of nuclear weapons
changes everything that comes after it.
855
01:13:43,210 --> 01:13:48,507
You begin to see the US
and Europe and the Soviet Union
856
01:13:48,590 --> 01:13:52,678
lurch towards this idea of a Cold War
857
01:13:52,761 --> 01:13:56,765
that's gonna pit the two superpowers
against each other.
858
01:13:57,933 --> 01:14:01,186
The Soviet Union and its agents
have destroyed the independence
859
01:14:01,270 --> 01:14:06,984
and democratic character of a whole series
of nations in Eastern and Central Europe.
860
01:14:10,320 --> 01:14:12,239
The United States
is the only country
861
01:14:12,322 --> 01:14:15,784
to have ever used
an atomic weapon in warfare.
862
01:14:15,868 --> 01:14:20,664
These weapons really changed
the fate of the 20th century.
863
01:14:21,373 --> 01:14:23,167
They changed the nature of the conflict
864
01:14:23,250 --> 01:14:25,335
between the United States
and the Soviet Union,
865
01:14:25,419 --> 01:14:28,839
{n8}particularly once the Soviet Union
had access to these weapons.
866
01:14:30,799 --> 01:14:35,554
They were so big and so destructive
that basically they couldn't be used.
867
01:14:37,514 --> 01:14:41,018
This is one of the reasons that we think
of the Cold War as a cold war.
868
01:14:41,852 --> 01:14:43,270
It could not be hot.
869
01:14:43,353 --> 01:14:46,565
For the Cold War to be hot
between the two rival powers
870
01:14:46,648 --> 01:14:48,150
would have been a suicide pact.
871
01:14:51,778 --> 01:14:55,157
So instead, the Cold War
was conducted through economic means.
872
01:14:56,825 --> 01:14:58,494
Through psychological means.
873
01:15:02,247 --> 01:15:04,791
And through proxy battlefields
across the world.
874
01:15:06,627 --> 01:15:10,005
To avoid situations
in which US and Soviet troops
875
01:15:10,088 --> 01:15:13,008
might engage each other directly
in a way that might lead
876
01:15:13,091 --> 01:15:15,093
to an all-out nuclear war.
877
01:15:16,303 --> 01:15:19,389
The calculated pressures
of aggressive communism
878
01:15:19,473 --> 01:15:23,101
have forced us instead
to live in a world of turmoil.
879
01:15:23,977 --> 01:15:28,273
But I do have in my hand
the names of 57 individuals
880
01:15:28,357 --> 01:15:29,816
who are either communists,
881
01:15:29,900 --> 01:15:33,111
who are certainly loyal
to the Communist Party.
882
01:15:35,155 --> 01:15:39,368
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
883
01:15:46,291 --> 01:15:49,586
I think the driving force
that was in us all,
884
01:15:49,670 --> 01:15:51,505
that we're aware of it, was fear.
885
01:15:54,216 --> 01:15:58,387
When you can't control things,
fear can ravage you.
77862
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