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(ENGINE STARTING)

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PAUL TIBBETS: Our job was
to deliver one bomb to Hiroshima.

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We wanted pinpoint accuracy.

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TIBBETS: It was inconceivable
as to what we were looking at.

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ROBERT FURMAN: One plane
had completely devastated the city.

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It wasn't there anymore.

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NARRATOR: In the decades that followed
the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

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the men and women of
the Manhattan Project,

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gave a series of
candid interviews.

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ROBERT. R. WILSON: We
did discuss whether, perhaps,

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what we were doing
was morally wrong.

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NARRATOR: They talked about
building and using the ultimate weapon,

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and the secret
mission that came next.

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PHILIP MORRISON:
The radiologist, he said,

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"You Americans conducted
a human experiment."

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NARRATOR: As the city smoldered,

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teams from the Manhattan Project

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went to Japan to study
the effects of the bombs.

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STAFFORD L. WARREN: The bodies, of
course, of all the dead were in the rubble.

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I'll never forget the stench.

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NARRATOR: They were
followed by American film crews,

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who recorded scenes
of such devastation,

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the films were
suppressed for decades.

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This is what the Americans saw
and the Japanese lived through

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at the end of history's
deadliest experiment,

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seventy-five years ago.

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J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER:
We have made a thing,

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a most terrible weapon,

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that has altered abruptly and
profoundly the nature of the world.

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REPORTER: It's war. Our enemies Japan,
Germany and Italy are out in the open.

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The nation prepares to protect
its traditions and its way of life.

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Our only cause now is victory.

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NARRATOR: As the United
States enters World War II,

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a group of American scientists
with the support of Albert Einstein

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are secretly developing a weapon

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with the power
to destroy cities.

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The atomic bomb.

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Many of the world's leading
physicists are German.

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The Americans are terrified that the
Nazis will develop a nuclear device first.

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And believe their own
effort is lagging behind.

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Codenamed the Manhattan
Project after its first offices,

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the American program
gets a new boss,

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Brigadier General Leslie Groves.

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LESLIE GROVES: I started
to review the laboratories.

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Columbia, Chicago, Berkeley,

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to see just where
we stood scientifically,

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and I was horrified to
see how far they were

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from anything that was essential
for us to do any construction with.

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They just didn't know anything.

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Before that project, none of
them had ever had to produce.

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They did research. If it didn't
turn out, well, nobody cared.

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If they didn't
feel like working,

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that's all right, they
went out and went fishing,

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or played golf or sat
around and talked.

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There was none
of the feeling that

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"The country depends on me."

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NARRATOR: Sharing
an office with Groves

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is Brigadier General
Kenneth Nichols.

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KENNETH NICHOLS:
General Groves, I would say,

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is the biggest son of a bitch I've
ever met, bar none. (LAUGHS)

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He was very cutting
in his remarks,

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and in his treatment of people.

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He had the biggest ego of
any individual I'd ever met.

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Coupled with ego he had guts.

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When he made a
decision, he stuck with it.

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You need that type of guy
to get a thing like this done.

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NARRATOR: One of the program's
scientists is Samuel K. Allison.

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SAMUEL ALLISON: There was a
good deal of irritation and antagonism.

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Groves couldn't
understand the fact

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that there was practically
no respect for authority.

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NARRATOR: To break the deadlock,

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Groves needs an ally who can
speak the scientists' language.

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His attention is drawn to
a Professor at Berkeley,

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known for his great relationship

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with the younger physicists,
J. Robert Oppenheimer.

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ROBERT BACHER: If one knew
Robert Oppenheimer and knew Groves,

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it would be hard to
think of two people

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who are more
unalike, dissimilar.

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ROBERT SERBER: You know,
Oppenheimer had this inspirational quality.

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You know, he spoke very well,

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and he had an
appealing character.

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GROVES: Oppenheimer's great
mental capacity impressed me.

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I was appalled by his
ignorance of American history.

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He had no experience in
administration in any way.

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NARRATOR: Nevertheless, Groves
saw something in the professor

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that made him
override any objections.

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GROVES: Oppenheimer
was selected by me,

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and the whole basis of it was
that there wasn't a better man.

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BACHER: The fact was,

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I think Groves had very
great trust in Oppenheimer.

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And when he was told things that were
difficult for the project by Oppenheimer,

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he'd cope with them in
a very responsive way.

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NARRATOR: Now the most
powerful scientist in America,

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Oppenheimer's task is daunting.

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OPPENHEIMER: The
doubts which then existed

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were not of a
metaphysical quality.

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NARRATOR: Struggling with the
theoretical problems in designing a bomb,

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the Manhattan Project begins
a massive recruitment drive.

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And young physicists
like Philip Morrison

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suddenly find
themselves in demand.

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MORRISON: We could see the
war was coming closer and closer

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to the United States
and we were fearful.

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Hitler was running Europe.

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Germany was the
leader of modern physics,

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and seemed to have the
threat of a nuclear weapon.

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MORRISON: Physicists were drained
out, everywhere, they disappeared.

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We knew very well that something
was going on in Chicago about fission.

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And a lot was going on in
Boston about microwaves.

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And I imagined that there
was an atomic project,

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a uranium project somewhere.

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NARRATOR: That uranium project is
focused at the University of Chicago,

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where scores of scientists

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experiment on ways to
create chain reactions.

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MORRISON: In December '42,

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Bob Christy who'd been
in my class in Berkeley,

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asked me to come to Chicago.

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And said, "Now, what do
you think we're doing here?"

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I said, "Well, I
don't really know,

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"but it's pretty clear to me, it's
something to do with uranium."

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He said, "Yes. We
are making bombs."

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This was the most
extraordinary thing

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that I had ever
heard anyone say.

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My life changed absolutely.

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NARRATOR: It's late 1942,

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and the Axis powers occupy
large portions of Europe,

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North Africa and Asia.

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In America, the
Manhattan Project

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is finally making progress in
the race to build an atomic bomb.

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But it needs a
radiation specialist

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to understand the vast amounts of
radioactivity the bombs will unleash.

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Working in Rochester,
New York State,

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is Dr. Stafford Warren,

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A pioneer in the use of
X-rays to detect breast cancer.

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WARREN: Late '42, I was
invited to lunch at the country club,

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and I met these two
gentlemen in civilian clothes.

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Mr. Groves and Mr. Marshall.

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And they said "We'd like
to talk to you in private."

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We got upstairs.

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They looked in the closet,

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and locked the door.

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They said that "We
would like to have you work

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"on a secret program in
which we need a doctor

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"who is familiar with things
that you've been working with."

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(CAMERA CLICKS)

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I said, "This is radiation?"

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He said, "I won't answer
that until we've tried you out."

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Then the security people came
and they asked all our neighbors.

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They asked, "Does Mrs. Warren
play bridge? Is she a gossip?"

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How many children have we got.

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Once you're in a highly
classified program,

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your life is an open book.

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NARRATOR: One of
Warren's first assignments

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is to help Groves
build a secret city,

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in a remote corner of Tennessee.

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At Oak Ridge, factories
will be constructed

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to refine uranium, pure
enough to fuel an atomic bomb.

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WARREN: Oak Ridge was a
large area of very low-grade farming.

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The topography
lent itself very well

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to isolating three or four
big operations in little valleys,

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and it was difficult
to get there.

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The only transportation
was a few taxis in Knoxville.

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NARRATOR: Oak
Ridge is so remote,

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it needs all the
amenities of a major city.

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WARREN: "We've
got to build a hospital."

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He said, "We'll also have to
worry about recreation halls,

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"and things like that because
this is going to be classified.

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"We'll have to have all of
the essential elements here."

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Anything that was
necessary to keep them

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satisfied with the job.

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NARRATOR: Brigadier
General Kenneth Nichols

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is in charge of the
day-to-day construction.

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But the plumbers, electricians
and carpenters he hires

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won't be told why they are
building a city that is not on any map.

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KENNETH NICHOLS: We had recruiting teams
out all the time, all over the country

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to bring in the type of
labor that we wanted.

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All right, I'll be there.

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NICHOLS: Generally,
you told a man no more

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than he needed to
know to do his job.

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A carpenter didn't worry
what we were making.

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He might be building
a dormitory here,

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working in one of the plants, but he
didn't know what it was going to be.

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I just learned a secret.
It's a honey. It's a pip.

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But the enemy is listening,
so I'll never let it slip.

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'Cause when I learn a
secret, boy, I zipper up my lip.

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NICHOLS: We would give
them a cover story, classified.

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For example, if we were
making a catalyst with gasoline

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to extend the range of bombers.

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NARRATOR: 99% of
the people in Oak Ridge

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will not find out what they
are actually working on,

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until after the war has ended.

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NICHOLS: We
started from scratch,

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and built the fifth
largest city in Tennessee.

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NARRATOR: At its peak, Oak
Ridge will house 75,000 people,

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and consume more
electricity than New York City.

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Built at a cost of $1.2 billion,

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it is funded directly
by the President,

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and not even Congress
know about the vast expense.

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As huge factories
rise out of the ground,

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the scientists hit a roadblock.

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They don't have
enough uranium 235,

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the key radioactive material
to make multiple bombs.

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And so their focus shifts

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to the newly discovered
element of plutonium.

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MORRISON: I remember very
well, the shipment was given to us.

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This is the first shipment

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in which the weight
of the plutonium

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is greater than the
paper that goes with it.

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NARRATOR: But to
make that plutonium

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will require the building
of another massive facility

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in the wilds of
Washington State.

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GROVES: The whole design

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of the plutonium chemical
reduction plant at Hanford,

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there were two of them,

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cost somewhere around
$50 million apiece.

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It was based on a millionth
of a pound of plutonium.

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ALLISON: We decided on the
Columbia River as the water supply

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for the first power reactors
to produce plutonium.

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The army was very fearful

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that we might make the water in
the Columbia River radioactive.

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GROVES: What we were afraid of

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was that the discharge of radioactive
material would affect the fish.

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NARRATOR: Groves calls in
Stafford Warren to conduct a study.

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WARREN: It appeared that

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it'd be a good idea to see
whether the radioactive materials

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that were in the discharge water

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were of sufficient concentration
to be a hazard to the fish.

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Because we didn't
want anything to happen

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that would give a bad name to
the... Any stage of the process.

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GROVES: We would have
been subjected to terrific criticism,

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if we destroyed all of
the salmon in the river,

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and we would have
scared the country to death.

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NARRATOR: It's early 1943,

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and the outcome of World
War II hangs in the balance.

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At Stalingrad,

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Russia successfully beats
back the Nazi onslaught

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but it had cost
half a million men.

237
00:15:35,713 --> 00:15:37,003
In the Pacific,

238
00:15:37,046 --> 00:15:40,006
US forces suffer several
thousand casualties

239
00:15:40,049 --> 00:15:44,175
as they take control of the strategically
important island of Guadalcanal

240
00:15:44,219 --> 00:15:45,551
from the Japanese.

241
00:15:53,184 --> 00:15:55,100
And in the United States,

242
00:15:55,144 --> 00:15:58,520
construction is underway on the
classified city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee,

243
00:15:58,564 --> 00:16:03,524
and the plutonium reactors
at Hanford, Washington State.

244
00:16:03,567 --> 00:16:07,068
But the project needs a centralized
laboratory for the final stage,

245
00:16:08,279 --> 00:16:10,696
building the atomic bombs.

246
00:16:18,287 --> 00:16:20,912
Oppenheimer suggests Los Alamos,

247
00:16:20,956 --> 00:16:25,374
which happens to be near his
vacation home in New Mexico.

248
00:16:25,418 --> 00:16:28,877
OPPENHEIMER: We had a ranch,
Sangre de Cristo, New Mexico.

249
00:16:30,422 --> 00:16:32,338
It's about 3,000 meters high,

250
00:16:32,381 --> 00:16:35,590
and it's 50 miles
by a very rough

251
00:16:35,634 --> 00:16:38,051
and terrible trail from
there to Los Alamos.

252
00:16:44,432 --> 00:16:47,266
GROVES: It was in
an area isolated enough

253
00:16:47,310 --> 00:16:51,144
so that any experiments wouldn't
attract the attention of people.

254
00:16:54,148 --> 00:16:58,149
NARRATOR: At Los Alamos, there is a boys'
school that is struggling financially.

255
00:16:59,861 --> 00:17:03,195
GROVES: It was a
school for rich Easterners

256
00:17:03,322 --> 00:17:06,239
who wanted their sons
to learn what it was

257
00:17:06,325 --> 00:17:09,241
to have a horse
and to live outdoors.

258
00:17:09,327 --> 00:17:11,242
We sort of looked
at it casually.

259
00:17:11,370 --> 00:17:12,786
There were enough
buildings there,

260
00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:15,871
so we could move in and
get started without waiting.

261
00:17:18,042 --> 00:17:21,542
Didn't take me long
to say, "Well, this is it."

262
00:17:26,382 --> 00:17:27,692
NARRATOR: Within
a matter of weeks,

263
00:17:27,716 --> 00:17:30,341
the finest scientific
minds in the country

264
00:17:30,385 --> 00:17:33,802
are ordered to report to the secret
site in the New Mexico Desert.

265
00:17:34,930 --> 00:17:37,764
Among them is Philip Morrison.

266
00:17:37,808 --> 00:17:41,850
MORRISON: I came to Los Alamos
when many people came to Los Alamos.

267
00:17:41,894 --> 00:17:43,810
Many of my old
friends were there

268
00:17:43,853 --> 00:17:45,133
living in a wonderful community.

269
00:17:50,192 --> 00:17:51,628
Of course, we worked
around the clock,

270
00:17:51,652 --> 00:17:54,318
six days a week and Sundays too.

271
00:17:55,571 --> 00:17:57,445
Because every day
we read of the battles

272
00:17:57,489 --> 00:18:00,490
in which our friends
were being killed in droves.

273
00:18:05,079 --> 00:18:06,703
And we were the bottleneck

274
00:18:06,746 --> 00:18:09,146
in the manufacture of a weapon
which if we didn't make first,

275
00:18:10,082 --> 00:18:11,998
would lead to the
loss of the war.

276
00:18:21,967 --> 00:18:24,383
NARRATOR: In the fall of 1944,

277
00:18:24,427 --> 00:18:28,720
ace pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets
gets a call from the brass.

278
00:18:32,850 --> 00:18:34,474
TIBBETS: I was
called to the office

279
00:18:34,518 --> 00:18:37,643
of Commanding General
of the Second Air Force.

280
00:18:37,687 --> 00:18:40,771
He told me that I
had been selected

281
00:18:40,815 --> 00:18:42,814
to organize a unit

282
00:18:42,858 --> 00:18:46,525
that will be capable of
employing this atomic weapon.

283
00:18:48,779 --> 00:18:53,990
Needless to say that I didn't
comprehend everything that was going on.

284
00:18:54,033 --> 00:18:57,200
He said, "You've got to work with
General Groves, you've got to satisfy him."

285
00:19:02,665 --> 00:19:04,914
NARRATOR: The design of
the bomb had not been finalized,

286
00:19:04,958 --> 00:19:08,042
but it's anticipated to be larger
and heavier than any before it.

287
00:19:09,962 --> 00:19:12,713
TIBBETS: We were not
permitted to use radar.

288
00:19:12,757 --> 00:19:16,549
Meaning we were only allowed to
make a release under visual condition.

289
00:19:18,635 --> 00:19:22,553
So they gave us
some practice units.

290
00:19:22,597 --> 00:19:26,056
The shape was the
actual shape of the bomb.

291
00:19:28,226 --> 00:19:31,769
Our particular job was
to deliver one bomb.

292
00:19:35,107 --> 00:19:37,732
We wanted pinpoint accuracy.

293
00:19:44,281 --> 00:19:46,530
NARRATOR: But at Los Alamos,

294
00:19:46,908 --> 00:19:49,866
the scientists' faith in building a
real bomb is about to be shaken.

295
00:19:51,953 --> 00:19:56,663
Here it is, General
Groves, plutonium.

296
00:19:56,707 --> 00:20:00,750
NARRATOR: The bomb's design is based on
the scientists' experiments with uranium.

297
00:20:00,794 --> 00:20:02,417
But the material
Groves has spent

298
00:20:02,461 --> 00:20:04,753
hundreds of millions
of dollars creating

299
00:20:04,797 --> 00:20:07,588
is the lesser known plutonium.

300
00:20:07,632 --> 00:20:10,633
Well, that's the, uh,
first I've ever seen,

301
00:20:10,676 --> 00:20:12,342
but, uh, after this,
if you don't mind,

302
00:20:12,385 --> 00:20:15,470
I wish you'd hold
something under it,

303
00:20:15,514 --> 00:20:16,678
because after all,

304
00:20:16,722 --> 00:20:19,598
there's about over
$50 million in that tube.

305
00:20:22,101 --> 00:20:25,018
MAN: Cut.

306
00:20:25,062 --> 00:20:28,897
NARRATOR: But initial tests
show this plutonium is so volatile,

307
00:20:28,941 --> 00:20:32,066
it can burn itself up before
the weapon leaves the lab,

308
00:20:32,652 --> 00:20:34,067
making it a dud.

309
00:20:36,029 --> 00:20:38,090
MORRISON: The kind of
plutonium material they were making

310
00:20:38,114 --> 00:20:41,365
was too radioactive
ever to make a bomb

311
00:20:41,408 --> 00:20:44,992
according to the design
that was then current.

312
00:20:45,036 --> 00:20:49,538
NARRATOR: Physicist Robert
Bacher witnesses the repercussions.

313
00:20:49,581 --> 00:20:55,000
BACHER: That then caused the
whole project to have an enormous crisis.

314
00:20:57,420 --> 00:21:01,588
The nature of the explosive charge
just needed complete re-design.

315
00:21:05,219 --> 00:21:06,926
Groves, when I told him first,

316
00:21:06,970 --> 00:21:09,095
went just as white
as that sheet of paper.

317
00:21:11,181 --> 00:21:13,849
NARRATOR: Uncertain
now if plutonium will work,

318
00:21:13,892 --> 00:21:16,934
Groves orders the labs
to develop a uranium bomb

319
00:21:16,978 --> 00:21:19,769
and a plutonium
bomb at the same time.

320
00:21:22,482 --> 00:21:24,189
MORRISON: There were two bombs,

321
00:21:24,483 --> 00:21:27,234
in everybody's mind, as
soon as this was discovered,

322
00:21:27,278 --> 00:21:29,443
the Fat Man and Little Boy.

323
00:21:31,155 --> 00:21:32,821
NARRATOR: It will
be a race against time

324
00:21:32,948 --> 00:21:36,992
to get a functional plutonium
design before the war ends.

325
00:21:46,542 --> 00:21:48,770
REPORTER: (ON RADIO) The
red army is advancing street by street

326
00:21:48,794 --> 00:21:51,085
through the burning
ruins of Berlin.

327
00:21:51,129 --> 00:21:52,461
The war in Europe is ending.

328
00:21:54,215 --> 00:21:56,256
On the other side of
the world in the Pacific,

329
00:21:56,300 --> 00:21:58,717
on the islands and coral atolls,

330
00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:01,677
the Japanese are
resisting fanatically.

331
00:22:01,721 --> 00:22:06,389
The toll of United States dead and wounded
on the beaches and the jungles is rising.

332
00:22:08,642 --> 00:22:12,936
FURMAN: As it became apparent
that the Germans would be defeated,

333
00:22:12,980 --> 00:22:17,647
Groves began to talk about
targets in Japan with Roosevelt.

334
00:22:21,862 --> 00:22:27,030
NARRATOR: As the idea of using the
atomic bomb to end the war gains traction,

335
00:22:27,073 --> 00:22:28,990
Colonel Paul Tibbets,
who will drop the bomb,

336
00:22:29,034 --> 00:22:32,367
is brought more
fully into the plan.

337
00:22:32,411 --> 00:22:37,413
TIBBETS: I was called in to a
meeting in February or March of '45,

338
00:22:37,457 --> 00:22:40,624
here in the Pentagon
in which I was told

339
00:22:40,667 --> 00:22:44,835
that certain targets had
been selected in Japan

340
00:22:44,879 --> 00:22:47,963
that had not been bombed.

341
00:22:48,007 --> 00:22:51,507
And the reason was they wanted to
be able to make bomb blast studies

342
00:22:51,551 --> 00:22:54,217
on virgin targets once
the bombs were used.

343
00:23:01,809 --> 00:23:03,850
NARRATOR: As the war progressed,

344
00:23:03,894 --> 00:23:09,521
US planes had fire bombed the industrial
cities that fed the Japanese military machine

345
00:23:09,565 --> 00:23:11,165
but the loss of life
has been staggering.

346
00:23:12,692 --> 00:23:16,318
In Tokyo, 100,00
perish in a single night.

347
00:23:20,407 --> 00:23:22,740
FURMAN: There was a great
problem of trying to find targets

348
00:23:22,784 --> 00:23:25,200
because we had
bombed so many cities.

349
00:23:25,243 --> 00:23:28,453
They tossed around
Kyoto as a prime target

350
00:23:28,497 --> 00:23:31,830
and that was thrown out
because it's a religious center.

351
00:23:31,874 --> 00:23:34,124
NARRATOR: The targets
shortlisted are Yokohama,

352
00:23:34,168 --> 00:23:38,461
Kokura, Niigata,
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

353
00:23:41,757 --> 00:23:47,343
But suddenly the project is
faced with an unexpected twist.

354
00:23:47,387 --> 00:23:49,322
REPORTER: The grief
stricken nation mourns the death

355
00:23:49,346 --> 00:23:54,139
of Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
President of the United States.

356
00:23:54,183 --> 00:23:59,060
Vice-President Harry S. Truman takes
the oath of office as 32nd President.

357
00:23:59,104 --> 00:24:02,312
NARRATOR: Groves is
called in to brief his new boss.

358
00:24:02,356 --> 00:24:06,816
GROVES: As far as I know and I've
never heard anything to the contrary,

359
00:24:06,859 --> 00:24:09,443
Mr. Truman knew
nothing about this project

360
00:24:09,487 --> 00:24:13,655
until he became President.

361
00:24:13,699 --> 00:24:17,074
NARRATOR: Groves quickly receives
the backing of the new president,

362
00:24:17,118 --> 00:24:20,910
but whether the bomb will
actually work is still in doubt.

363
00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:31,877
NARRATOR: On July 16th, as
fighting continues in the Pacific,

364
00:24:31,921 --> 00:24:33,962
the men of the Manhattan project

365
00:24:34,006 --> 00:24:35,880
prepare for the
first test of the bomb

366
00:24:35,924 --> 00:24:40,300
at a site in the desert some
200 miles from Los Alamos.

367
00:24:43,513 --> 00:24:47,055
The entire team works around
the clock to get the test ready,

368
00:24:47,099 --> 00:24:50,308
but the most critical job
falls to Robert Bacher,

369
00:24:50,352 --> 00:24:52,435
head of the
so-called "G Division."

370
00:24:54,272 --> 00:24:55,854
BACHER: G stood for "Gadget".

371
00:24:55,897 --> 00:24:58,189
It was a simple code
word for the bomb.

372
00:25:02,194 --> 00:25:06,863
The problem of getting
ready was pretty rough.

373
00:25:06,906 --> 00:25:09,823
NARRATOR: Designed to be the
most devastating weapon in history,

374
00:25:09,867 --> 00:25:14,660
how much destruction the
explosion will cause is unknown.

375
00:25:14,704 --> 00:25:18,163
Most observers are positioned
20 miles from the bomb site.

376
00:25:19,791 --> 00:25:23,876
But Dr. Stafford Warren fears
that may not be far enough.

377
00:25:23,919 --> 00:25:26,670
WARREN: I was the only one
who had any worry about afterwards.

378
00:25:29,758 --> 00:25:31,548
So we began to lay out a plan

379
00:25:31,592 --> 00:25:33,675
for distributing
the people around

380
00:25:33,719 --> 00:25:36,302
in case we were wiped
out at the headquarters.

381
00:25:38,431 --> 00:25:43,308
There was a ditch there which had
some dry leaves and some hay in it,

382
00:25:43,351 --> 00:25:47,895
so we suggested that
everybody lie down in the ditch.

383
00:25:47,938 --> 00:25:51,522
Oppie, he was in the bunker where
a lot of the control equipment was.

384
00:25:52,650 --> 00:25:54,733
In 40 seconds we'll know.

385
00:25:54,777 --> 00:25:56,818
The stakes are pretty high.

386
00:25:56,862 --> 00:25:58,964
ISIDOR ISAAC RABI: It's
going to work all right, Robert,

387
00:25:58,988 --> 00:26:00,196
and I'm sure,

388
00:26:00,239 --> 00:26:02,198
we'll never be sorry for it.

389
00:26:02,241 --> 00:26:06,868
MAN: (ON RADIO)
40, 39, 38, 37...

390
00:26:11,707 --> 00:26:16,458
26, 25, 24, 23...

391
00:26:16,502 --> 00:26:20,462
Nine, eight, seven, six,

392
00:26:20,506 --> 00:26:25,632
five, four, three,
two, one, now.

393
00:26:41,063 --> 00:26:43,854
WARREN: At first, of course,
there was a feeling of great heat,

394
00:26:43,898 --> 00:26:46,899
as if you had just opened
a great big furnace door.

395
00:26:50,779 --> 00:26:52,611
BACHER: It was
even more impressive

396
00:26:52,655 --> 00:26:55,364
than most everybody
thought it was going to be.

397
00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:04,162
SERBER: It was as if somebody
had set off a flashbulb right in your face.

398
00:27:04,206 --> 00:27:07,039
You got completely
blinded for about 30 seconds.

399
00:27:08,543 --> 00:27:10,708
Then gradually,
your vision cleared.

400
00:27:17,174 --> 00:27:19,508
OPPENHEIMER: I
remembered the Hindu scripture,

401
00:27:21,094 --> 00:27:25,303
"Now I am become death
the destroyer of worlds."

402
00:27:29,851 --> 00:27:32,184
MORRISON: I really
thought it would be terrible.

403
00:27:32,228 --> 00:27:34,686
But, you know, we were
committed by that time.

404
00:27:40,442 --> 00:27:42,900
REPORTER: During a series of
meetings in Potsdam, Germany,

405
00:27:42,944 --> 00:27:46,736
the final doom of Japan is settled
by the big three and their advisors.

406
00:27:46,780 --> 00:27:51,740
Delivering an ultimatum of unconditional
surrender to the Nipponese war lords.

407
00:27:51,784 --> 00:27:54,660
NARRATOR: The day after
the test explosion in New Mexico,

408
00:27:54,704 --> 00:27:57,662
Truman meets his
Soviet and British allies

409
00:27:57,706 --> 00:27:59,497
to discuss how to
end the war in the East.

410
00:28:00,916 --> 00:28:02,708
Let's not forget

411
00:28:02,751 --> 00:28:06,961
that we are fighting for peace.

412
00:28:07,005 --> 00:28:10,422
NARRATOR: Although it does
not talk openly of a nuclear device,

413
00:28:10,465 --> 00:28:12,465
the Potsdam Declaration warns

414
00:28:12,509 --> 00:28:15,426
that if the Japanese do
not immediately surrender,

415
00:28:15,469 --> 00:28:18,053
they will face prompt
and utter destruction.

416
00:28:29,772 --> 00:28:32,606
NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
the first atomic bomb,

417
00:28:32,649 --> 00:28:36,067
the enriched uranium Little
Boy, leaves Los Alamos

418
00:28:36,111 --> 00:28:41,279
under the watchful eye of General
Grove's assistant, Robert Furman.

419
00:28:42,490 --> 00:28:43,865
FURMAN: When the bomb was ready,

420
00:28:43,909 --> 00:28:46,658
General Groves sent
me out to pick it up,

421
00:28:46,702 --> 00:28:50,953
and I remember the authorities
in Los Alamos wanted a receipt,

422
00:28:50,997 --> 00:28:53,706
so I signed a receipt
for an atomic bomb.

423
00:28:56,418 --> 00:29:01,128
Then they decided it was too
secret for me to keep the receipt.

424
00:29:01,172 --> 00:29:05,381
And they actually developed a receipt
for the receipt that I had just given them.

425
00:29:05,425 --> 00:29:06,841
(LAUGHS)

426
00:29:10,179 --> 00:29:13,888
Then I took the bomb in a
convoy down the mountain.

427
00:29:16,684 --> 00:29:18,516
And then we had a flat tire.

428
00:29:20,854 --> 00:29:23,103
Very secret, very
important project

429
00:29:23,147 --> 00:29:27,106
stood by the side of the
road while some GI fixed a tire.

430
00:29:27,567 --> 00:29:29,150
(LAUGHS)

431
00:29:30,861 --> 00:29:32,903
In Albuquerque, I got
on a plane with the bomb.

432
00:29:37,867 --> 00:29:40,825
There was a plane ahead
of me and one behind me,

433
00:29:40,869 --> 00:29:44,370
and we flew without incident
over to San Francisco,

434
00:29:44,413 --> 00:29:47,039
and took the bomb
aboard the Indianapolis,

435
00:29:48,458 --> 00:29:50,625
which then sailed the Pacific.

436
00:29:54,672 --> 00:29:57,130
What I carried was
really half the bomb.

437
00:29:57,174 --> 00:30:00,549
Because if I had the whole bomb
the thing would blow up at any time.

438
00:30:02,719 --> 00:30:04,886
So the other half
was flown over.

439
00:30:07,306 --> 00:30:09,473
NARRATOR: The
warship USS Indianapolis

440
00:30:09,517 --> 00:30:11,099
carries Furman and the bomb

441
00:30:11,351 --> 00:30:16,270
across the Pacific to the
island of Tinian in record time.

442
00:30:16,313 --> 00:30:19,481
But only three days after
depositing its precious cargo...

443
00:30:22,568 --> 00:30:26,194
The Indianapolis is sunk
by Japanese torpedoes

444
00:30:26,238 --> 00:30:28,780
in shark infested waters.

445
00:30:28,823 --> 00:30:33,700
Of the nearly 1,200 men
onboard, only 316 survive.

446
00:30:38,122 --> 00:30:40,080
At the same time at Los Alamos,

447
00:30:40,124 --> 00:30:43,416
the scientists are having second
thoughts about their experiment.

448
00:30:45,586 --> 00:30:47,836
MORRISON: Once it became
clear the Germans were beaten,

449
00:30:47,879 --> 00:30:51,463
the original sense of fear and
anxiety disappeared from the project.

450
00:30:53,092 --> 00:30:55,092
At Los Alamos, there
was certainly concern

451
00:30:55,136 --> 00:30:58,678
whether somehow the project
was no longer necessary.

452
00:31:00,015 --> 00:31:02,306
NARRATOR: Young
physicists like Robert Wilson

453
00:31:02,349 --> 00:31:04,558
are deeply concerned
by the ethics.

454
00:31:06,352 --> 00:31:09,228
WILSON: I organized a
small meeting at Los Alamos.

455
00:31:09,272 --> 00:31:14,398
The title was "The Impact of
The Gadget on Civilization".

456
00:31:14,442 --> 00:31:17,026
In between 30 and
50 people came.

457
00:31:19,321 --> 00:31:24,197
We did discuss whether perhaps
what we were doing was morally wrong.

458
00:31:24,241 --> 00:31:26,469
MORRISON: There was a
great deal of feeling of hesitancy,

459
00:31:26,493 --> 00:31:29,618
but there was a great deal of feeling
it was not our responsibility to decide.

460
00:31:29,662 --> 00:31:31,454
NARRATOR: With trademark charm,

461
00:31:31,497 --> 00:31:35,498
Oppenheimer intervenes to
keep the scientists on track.

462
00:31:35,542 --> 00:31:38,459
MORRISON: Oppenheimer's
view was that unless we found out

463
00:31:38,502 --> 00:31:40,586
if there was such a
thing as nuclear weapons,

464
00:31:40,629 --> 00:31:43,628
you could hardly build a peace in which
nuclear weapons were not recognized.

465
00:31:45,300 --> 00:31:46,631
WILSON: On that logical basis,

466
00:31:46,675 --> 00:31:49,426
we all decided
that that was right,

467
00:31:49,470 --> 00:31:51,385
and that we ought to
go back in the laboratory,

468
00:31:51,429 --> 00:31:55,972
and work as hard as we could
to demonstrate a nuclear weapon.

469
00:31:58,060 --> 00:32:00,267
NARRATOR: But that does
not entirely settle the matter,

470
00:32:00,311 --> 00:32:04,312
as over 100 scientists from
Oak Ridge and the Chicago lab,

471
00:32:04,356 --> 00:32:07,065
dispatch a secret letter
to the White House,

472
00:32:07,108 --> 00:32:09,232
insisting that the bomb
should not be dropped

473
00:32:09,276 --> 00:32:11,735
without prior warning
to the Japanese.

474
00:32:14,405 --> 00:32:16,655
NARRATOR: The idea
is rejected by the military.

475
00:32:19,201 --> 00:32:22,451
Not least the man whose
job will be to drop the bomb,

476
00:32:23,537 --> 00:32:25,454
Paul Tibbets.

477
00:32:25,498 --> 00:32:28,623
TIBBETS: When we were on
the island, I heard certain things.

478
00:32:28,666 --> 00:32:32,250
One of the things suggested
was that we drop this weapon

479
00:32:32,294 --> 00:32:35,419
where they could see it explode,

480
00:32:35,463 --> 00:32:40,507
and from that realize that we had
a terrible weapon of destruction.

481
00:32:42,636 --> 00:32:45,719
I would liken this to the
fighter in the prize ring.

482
00:32:45,763 --> 00:32:49,555
I don't see any reason
to telegraph your blow.

483
00:32:49,599 --> 00:32:53,517
FURMAN: Everybody on the
military side wanted to see it dropped.

484
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:57,104
From where we sat, the
Japanese were determined

485
00:32:57,147 --> 00:33:00,523
to fight to the very end.

486
00:33:00,566 --> 00:33:03,400
The whole country was
being directed by the military,

487
00:33:03,443 --> 00:33:06,403
and the military
would not give up.

488
00:33:06,446 --> 00:33:09,863
REPORTER: At Okinawa
alone, 50,000 American casualties.

489
00:33:11,616 --> 00:33:14,534
The military is determined
to fight to the death.

490
00:33:14,577 --> 00:33:18,829
Their plans are carried
out by the Kamikaze pilots.

491
00:33:18,872 --> 00:33:23,749
Sworn to give their lives for the
Emperor and the honor of the nation,

492
00:33:23,793 --> 00:33:27,252
they carry on the only
air war left to Japan.

493
00:33:29,630 --> 00:33:32,214
GROVES: If we didn't use the
bomb, it would have come out.

494
00:33:32,258 --> 00:33:36,342
Sooner or later, in a congressional
hearing, if nowhere else.

495
00:33:36,386 --> 00:33:39,511
And then every mother whose son

496
00:33:39,555 --> 00:33:42,472
was killed after
such and such a date,

497
00:33:42,516 --> 00:33:45,015
the blood is on the
head of the President.

498
00:33:52,356 --> 00:33:53,897
NARRATOR: The debate ends.

499
00:33:53,941 --> 00:33:55,983
And a few days before
the bomb is to be dropped,

500
00:33:56,026 --> 00:33:58,776
scientists Robert Serber
and Philip Morrison

501
00:33:58,820 --> 00:34:02,154
are dispatched across the
Pacific to help arm the bomb.

502
00:34:04,074 --> 00:34:05,781
TIBBETS: The night
before we took off,

503
00:34:05,825 --> 00:34:09,160
the people from Trinity
had arrived in the Marianas,

504
00:34:09,203 --> 00:34:11,411
and they had with them
colored photographs

505
00:34:11,455 --> 00:34:14,580
of the Trinity explosion
in New Mexico.

506
00:34:14,623 --> 00:34:16,415
So we got the gang together.

507
00:34:17,626 --> 00:34:18,708
TIBBETS: Gentlemen,

508
00:34:18,751 --> 00:34:19,959
when we met at Wendover

509
00:34:20,003 --> 00:34:21,878
for the first time
about ten months ago,

510
00:34:21,921 --> 00:34:24,337
I told you at that time
that I had great hopes

511
00:34:24,381 --> 00:34:25,797
that the mission
that we are about

512
00:34:25,841 --> 00:34:27,756
to undertake could end the war.

513
00:34:31,179 --> 00:34:33,261
We didn't use the
word atomic bomb.

514
00:34:33,513 --> 00:34:37,347
We did not use that. But we
said, "Okay. Now this is the bomb."

515
00:34:39,310 --> 00:34:40,976
This is what will happen

516
00:34:41,020 --> 00:34:43,186
when we make
our flight tomorrow.

517
00:34:45,148 --> 00:34:46,563
This is what we're gonna see.

518
00:35:02,745 --> 00:35:06,037
NARRATOR: As the Americans
prepare to use the weapon,

519
00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:09,414
citizens of Hiroshima, like
school girl Fumiko Amano,

520
00:35:09,458 --> 00:35:13,542
go about their lives as best they
can against the backdrop of war.

521
00:36:08,504 --> 00:36:11,129
NARRATOR: It's the early
hours of August the 6th.

522
00:36:11,173 --> 00:36:14,048
On Tinian Island,
pilot Paul Tibbets

523
00:36:14,092 --> 00:36:17,801
assembles the crew of
his plane the Enola Gay.

524
00:36:17,844 --> 00:36:20,970
After months of practice
in the Utah desert,

525
00:36:21,013 --> 00:36:25,181
final preparations are being
made for the first atomic mission.

526
00:36:25,225 --> 00:36:28,184
The culmination of an
experiment years in the making.

527
00:36:30,646 --> 00:36:32,563
No mistakes can be made.

528
00:36:35,817 --> 00:36:38,137
TIBBETS: Take-off was somewhere
around 2:00 in the morning.

529
00:36:40,362 --> 00:36:43,988
It had been agreed that we would
not take off with the bomb armed

530
00:36:44,073 --> 00:36:47,574
because, should there
be an accident of any kind,

531
00:36:47,617 --> 00:36:50,243
the chances of losing
half of the island existed.

532
00:36:54,790 --> 00:36:57,039
NARRATOR: Among the planes
accompanying the Enola Gay,

533
00:36:57,083 --> 00:37:01,126
are two carrying
scientists from Los Alamos

534
00:37:01,169 --> 00:37:04,629
there to survey the
biggest explosion in history.

535
00:37:06,674 --> 00:37:08,465
TIBBETS: We climbed
up to our altitudes,

536
00:37:08,509 --> 00:37:12,510
started on our way to our
rendezvous at Iwo Jima.

537
00:37:12,554 --> 00:37:15,053
NARRATOR: With
1,500 miles to Japan,

538
00:37:15,097 --> 00:37:17,556
Tibbets must
level with the crew.

539
00:37:18,767 --> 00:37:20,266
TIBBETS: Once we were airborne,

540
00:37:20,310 --> 00:37:22,476
I called back where
the enlisted men were,

541
00:37:23,396 --> 00:37:25,520
poured some coffee,

542
00:37:25,564 --> 00:37:29,064
and I told them actually what we
were doing and what we were carrying.

543
00:37:29,108 --> 00:37:31,734
NARRATOR: One concern is the
aftershock could knock the plane

544
00:37:31,777 --> 00:37:33,151
out of the sky.

545
00:37:37,573 --> 00:37:41,199
TIBBETS: About 30 minutes
from our landfall on Japan,

546
00:37:41,243 --> 00:37:44,994
the weather being clear at our
primary, which was Hiroshima,

547
00:37:45,038 --> 00:37:46,745
there was no decision left.

548
00:37:53,711 --> 00:37:55,084
(BELLS TOLLING)

549
00:37:59,465 --> 00:38:01,340
NARRATOR: Oblivious
to what is coming,

550
00:38:01,383 --> 00:38:04,800
Hiroshima residents like
six-year-old Takako Kotani

551
00:38:04,844 --> 00:38:06,677
wake to a beautiful
summer's morning.

552
00:38:15,728 --> 00:38:18,436
NARRATOR: Takako's family
are planning to leave the city,

553
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:21,898
believing they will soon be a
target for conventional bombing raids.

554
00:39:06,810 --> 00:39:10,185
NARRATOR: Having
circled the city at 8:15 a.m.,

555
00:39:10,229 --> 00:39:12,687
the Enola Gay reaches
its release point.

556
00:39:35,373 --> 00:39:38,249
TIBBETS: The bomb blast hit
us in two different shockwaves.

557
00:39:43,170 --> 00:39:47,339
We continued our turn to head
directly back towards Hiroshima.

558
00:39:47,383 --> 00:39:51,300
It was kind of inconceivable as
to what we were looking at there.

559
00:39:55,139 --> 00:39:58,931
This explosion was so big
that it seemed almost unreal.

560
00:40:02,853 --> 00:40:06,145
NARRATOR: Exploding
1,870 feet above the ground,

561
00:40:06,188 --> 00:40:09,565
the bomb unleashes a shockwave

562
00:40:09,608 --> 00:40:12,650
that spreads 15
miles within a minute,

563
00:40:12,694 --> 00:40:15,318
and a ball of fire
one mile high.

564
00:40:58,563 --> 00:41:00,145
PRESIDENT TRUMAN:
A short time ago,

565
00:41:00,189 --> 00:41:03,106
an American airplane

566
00:41:03,150 --> 00:41:05,316
dropped one bomb on Hiroshima

567
00:41:05,359 --> 00:41:09,402
and destroyed its
usefulness to the enemy.

568
00:41:09,446 --> 00:41:13,114
That bomb has more power
than 20,000 tons of TNT.

569
00:41:14,408 --> 00:41:16,158
It is an atomic bomb

570
00:41:16,202 --> 00:41:19,285
loosed against those
who brought war

571
00:41:19,329 --> 00:41:20,329
to the Far East.

572
00:41:22,165 --> 00:41:24,058
NARRATOR: To the leader
of the Manhattan Project,

573
00:41:24,082 --> 00:41:25,791
this mission has
been successful.

574
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:31,711
GROVES: After I got the
first news of the dropping,

575
00:41:31,755 --> 00:41:34,589
this was about 11:30 at night,

576
00:41:34,633 --> 00:41:36,340
I went right to sleep.

577
00:41:36,383 --> 00:41:37,983
Oh, no, I never had
any trouble sleeping.

578
00:41:41,679 --> 00:41:43,407
MORRISON: When the
aircraft came back from the raid,

579
00:41:43,431 --> 00:41:45,388
as soon as the pilot
leaped onto the ground,

580
00:41:45,432 --> 00:41:47,015
a big medal was
pinned on his chest.

581
00:41:49,685 --> 00:41:51,936
And that was the
time of triumph.

582
00:41:51,979 --> 00:41:53,771
A large party which
lasted for a long time.

583
00:41:56,107 --> 00:41:59,024
I think we did not understand
the full novelty of our weapon.

584
00:42:04,197 --> 00:42:06,656
NARRATOR: In Tokyo,
the newspapers report

585
00:42:06,783 --> 00:42:10,242
that Hiroshima has been
attacked by a new type of bomb.

586
00:42:10,285 --> 00:42:13,536
There are no details and
the government is skeptical,

587
00:42:13,579 --> 00:42:17,080
as Japanese war-time
leaders will later explain.

588
00:42:17,123 --> 00:42:19,707
HISATSUNE SAKOMIZU:
President Truman first mentioned

589
00:42:19,751 --> 00:42:22,167
that it was an atomic bomb,

590
00:42:22,211 --> 00:42:24,503
but we didn't
believe what he said.

591
00:42:24,547 --> 00:42:27,839
COLONEL SABURO: On
the following day, August 7th,

592
00:42:27,882 --> 00:42:31,299
General Arisue, of
Japanese intelligence,

593
00:42:31,343 --> 00:42:33,635
headed an investigating team,

594
00:42:33,679 --> 00:42:37,137
including the nuclear
physicist Dr. Nishina

595
00:42:37,181 --> 00:42:40,932
and flew to Hiroshima
to investigate.

596
00:42:40,976 --> 00:42:44,017
GENERAL ARISUE: When
the plane flew over Hiroshima,

597
00:42:44,061 --> 00:42:45,727
there was but one dead tree

598
00:42:45,771 --> 00:42:48,479
and it looked like a great claw.

599
00:42:50,024 --> 00:42:51,024
There was nothing there,

600
00:42:52,401 --> 00:42:53,441
but for that dead tree.

601
00:42:59,240 --> 00:43:02,574
GENERAL ARISUE: But
Dr. Nishina, the nuclear physicist,

602
00:43:02,617 --> 00:43:04,909
said it's the atomic bomb.

603
00:43:07,997 --> 00:43:10,413
NARRATOR: But in
spite of this discovery,

604
00:43:10,498 --> 00:43:11,873
the Japanese do not surrender.

605
00:43:17,671 --> 00:43:19,296
And three days later,

606
00:43:19,339 --> 00:43:23,799
the plutonium-fueled Fat
Man is loaded onto a B-29.

607
00:43:27,012 --> 00:43:29,970
The bomb is due to be
dropped on the city of Kokura.

608
00:43:31,432 --> 00:43:33,723
But bad weather
forces the pilot to divert

609
00:43:34,475 --> 00:43:35,475
to Nagasaki.

610
00:43:44,150 --> 00:43:48,484
Exploding over
Nagasaki at 1,650 feet,

611
00:43:48,528 --> 00:43:50,236
but slightly off target,

612
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:53,071
it's effect is nearly
as devastating

613
00:43:53,115 --> 00:43:54,781
as the uranium
bomb in Hiroshima.

614
00:44:17,760 --> 00:44:21,218
NARRATOR: In spite of pressure
from his generals to continue the war,

615
00:44:21,262 --> 00:44:23,678
Emperor Hirohito
decides to surrender.

616
00:44:43,780 --> 00:44:46,863
NARRATOR: In Hiroshima,
the surrender has come too late

617
00:44:46,907 --> 00:44:48,907
for Takako Kotani
and her family.

618
00:45:57,586 --> 00:46:00,212
NARRATOR: At Los Alamos,
news of the bomb's explosion

619
00:46:00,256 --> 00:46:05,091
is initially greeted with
a sense of satisfaction.

620
00:46:05,135 --> 00:46:07,968
But at this point, little is
known about the effects

621
00:46:08,053 --> 00:46:09,761
of the atomic bomb experiment.

622
00:46:12,098 --> 00:46:13,514
Awaiting news

623
00:46:13,641 --> 00:46:16,433
is Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Stafford Warren,

624
00:46:16,476 --> 00:46:17,892
the project's
radiation specialist.

625
00:46:20,813 --> 00:46:23,772
WARREN: Well, I think
it was about August 12th.

626
00:46:23,816 --> 00:46:27,150
I suddenly was tracked
down by a GI in a car

627
00:46:27,193 --> 00:46:28,859
who said General
wanted to talk to me.

628
00:46:31,613 --> 00:46:34,947
And he said he was offering me,

629
00:46:34,991 --> 00:46:36,490
not ordering me,

630
00:46:36,534 --> 00:46:39,117
because the situation
was pretty delicate,

631
00:46:39,161 --> 00:46:42,244
the chance to lead a party
into Nagasaki and Hiroshima

632
00:46:42,288 --> 00:46:43,495
to study the casualties

633
00:46:43,539 --> 00:46:45,789
and, above all,
what contamination

634
00:46:45,833 --> 00:46:47,749
of radioactive material
was on the ground.

635
00:46:51,046 --> 00:46:54,087
NARRATOR: When planning
the bomb, physicists calculated

636
00:46:54,131 --> 00:46:56,213
that if it exploded
above a certain altitude,

637
00:46:59,260 --> 00:47:01,801
the dangerous
by-product of radiation

638
00:47:01,845 --> 00:47:03,803
would simply be blown away.

639
00:47:07,767 --> 00:47:09,891
It would be Stafford's
job to find out

640
00:47:09,934 --> 00:47:11,559
if this really had
been the case.

641
00:47:13,979 --> 00:47:17,105
WARREN: The expectation
had been with the high detonation

642
00:47:17,149 --> 00:47:18,689
of the two bombs,

643
00:47:18,983 --> 00:47:22,068
that there would be almost
none on the ground to study.

644
00:47:23,945 --> 00:47:26,654
NARRATOR: Allowed
only one call to his wife,

645
00:47:26,698 --> 00:47:28,405
Warren heads to San Francisco

646
00:47:28,449 --> 00:47:30,699
to begin the long journey west.

647
00:47:32,243 --> 00:47:34,118
WARREN: There
were about 20 of us.

648
00:47:34,162 --> 00:47:36,787
GIs and officers, medics.

649
00:47:40,459 --> 00:47:42,249
When we left San Francisco

650
00:47:42,293 --> 00:47:44,794
everybody was
looking out the windows

651
00:47:44,837 --> 00:47:46,230
to be sure that they
got a good view,

652
00:47:46,254 --> 00:47:48,014
as it might be their
last view of the States.

653
00:47:50,841 --> 00:47:53,300
We had no idea what to expect.

654
00:47:56,554 --> 00:47:59,054
NARRATOR: The
mission comes with risks.

655
00:47:59,223 --> 00:48:01,807
Although the Emperor has
announced the Japanese surrender,

656
00:48:01,850 --> 00:48:03,557
no formal peace
has been reached.

657
00:48:09,147 --> 00:48:10,897
Landing at Tinian,

658
00:48:10,941 --> 00:48:15,109
Warren is joined by scientists
Robert Serber and Philip Morrison

659
00:48:15,152 --> 00:48:18,319
whose job will be to
explore the physical impact

660
00:48:18,363 --> 00:48:19,487
on the bombed cities.

661
00:48:21,157 --> 00:48:22,739
MORRISON: I was frightened.

662
00:48:22,783 --> 00:48:24,241
They had a terrible war.

663
00:48:25,327 --> 00:48:26,742
We burned the hell out of them.

664
00:48:29,872 --> 00:48:32,705
I was especially afraid because we
went ahead of the occupation troops.

665
00:48:37,711 --> 00:48:38,897
NARRATOR: In the
first week of September,

666
00:48:38,921 --> 00:48:41,295
the American mission
arrives in Tokyo

667
00:48:41,339 --> 00:48:43,047
and is divided into two groups.

668
00:48:44,133 --> 00:48:46,133
One will go to Nagasaki,

669
00:48:46,176 --> 00:48:48,425
the other, led by
Stafford Warren,

670
00:48:48,469 --> 00:48:49,510
will go to Hiroshima.

671
00:48:52,223 --> 00:48:55,098
For the traveling
scientists and medics,

672
00:48:55,142 --> 00:48:56,850
the scenes are apocalyptic.

673
00:49:03,398 --> 00:49:08,066
Images captured by the first
American cameramen in color footage,

674
00:49:08,110 --> 00:49:11,735
large sections of which have
never been publicly broadcast

675
00:49:11,779 --> 00:49:14,613
and are shown now with
black and white footage,

676
00:49:14,657 --> 00:49:16,739
confiscated from
Japanese film crews.

677
00:49:30,127 --> 00:49:32,252
WARREN: We headed
to the middle of Hiroshima.

678
00:49:32,296 --> 00:49:33,919
(FLIES BUZZING)

679
00:49:35,339 --> 00:49:36,589
There were flies everywhere.

680
00:49:38,508 --> 00:49:41,593
They were so bad that we had
to close up the windows to the car

681
00:49:41,636 --> 00:49:43,010
to keep the flies out.

682
00:49:49,684 --> 00:49:51,558
Then you would see
a man or a woman

683
00:49:51,602 --> 00:49:55,437
with what looked
like a polka-dot shirt,

684
00:49:55,480 --> 00:49:57,855
but when you got up close,
it was just a mass of flies.

685
00:50:01,276 --> 00:50:04,319
The bodies, of course, of all
the dead were in the rubble.

686
00:50:07,990 --> 00:50:10,198
And the stench was
just something awful.

687
00:50:12,327 --> 00:50:13,784
I'll never forget the stench.

688
00:50:21,250 --> 00:50:23,833
NARRATOR: 185
miles to the southwest,

689
00:50:23,877 --> 00:50:26,502
the second American
team nears Nagasaki.

690
00:50:29,006 --> 00:50:33,674
Their radiation doctor is
Navy reservist Shields Warren.

691
00:50:33,718 --> 00:50:37,802
He's had no prior involvement
in the Manhattan Project,

692
00:50:37,846 --> 00:50:39,804
but on hearing
news of the bombs,

693
00:50:39,848 --> 00:50:43,015
he lobbied his superiors
to send him to Japan.

694
00:50:43,059 --> 00:50:45,683
SHIELDS WARREN: I thought
that we had grave responsibility

695
00:50:45,727 --> 00:50:48,436
to get medical
teams into the area

696
00:50:48,480 --> 00:50:50,896
and that it was very urgent

697
00:50:50,940 --> 00:50:53,732
that the atomic bombs
survivors should be studied.

698
00:50:56,402 --> 00:50:58,444
NARRATOR: As he
approaches Nagasaki,

699
00:50:58,488 --> 00:51:01,404
he is unprepared for
the destruction he sees.

700
00:51:05,117 --> 00:51:07,284
SHIELDS WARREN: We
had come from Isahaya,

701
00:51:07,328 --> 00:51:10,912
winding over terraced hillsides

702
00:51:12,540 --> 00:51:15,499
and entered a tunnel
through the mountains.

703
00:51:18,294 --> 00:51:19,835
When we came out the other side,

704
00:51:19,879 --> 00:51:24,589
we shifted from a view
of a peaceful countryside

705
00:51:24,633 --> 00:51:26,632
to utter devastation.

706
00:51:37,518 --> 00:51:40,810
NARRATOR: In Nagasaki,
the survey discovers the bomb

707
00:51:40,853 --> 00:51:45,855
has damaged or destroyed
88% of the buildings in the city,

708
00:51:45,899 --> 00:51:48,732
over an area of 40 square miles.

709
00:51:52,238 --> 00:51:55,655
SHIELDS WARREN: A large portion
of it was essentially squashed flat.

710
00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:05,997
The steelwork of the
Mitsubishi shipbuilding plant

711
00:52:06,040 --> 00:52:07,747
looked exactly as though

712
00:52:07,791 --> 00:52:10,875
a giant had simply
smeared it with his hands.

713
00:52:18,967 --> 00:52:21,758
You could see grass and plants

714
00:52:21,802 --> 00:52:24,553
that had been
burned into the wood

715
00:52:24,596 --> 00:52:27,722
by the intense heat of the bomb.

716
00:52:37,398 --> 00:52:38,688
NARRATOR: Back in Hiroshima,

717
00:52:38,732 --> 00:52:40,898
a nervous Stafford
Warren and his team

718
00:52:40,942 --> 00:52:45,569
settle in under the watchful
eye of their Japanese hosts.

719
00:52:45,612 --> 00:52:50,364
WARREN: We were the first
ambassadors of the country.

720
00:52:50,408 --> 00:52:54,826
The Japanese had us bivouacked
into what was a very famous hotel.

721
00:52:56,079 --> 00:52:58,245
It was about five
miles down the harbor.

722
00:53:01,291 --> 00:53:03,458
MORRISON: There were
guards, armed guards.

723
00:53:03,501 --> 00:53:06,126
We couldn't understand
them very well.

724
00:53:06,170 --> 00:53:07,564
But I said, "It's very
strange to be here

725
00:53:07,588 --> 00:53:10,671
"if somebody decides
that we are the very culprits

726
00:53:10,715 --> 00:53:11,835
"that blew up their cities."

727
00:53:17,846 --> 00:53:20,220
WARREN: We all decided the
best thing was to act nonchalant,

728
00:53:20,264 --> 00:53:21,638
but sleep on our guns.

729
00:53:25,977 --> 00:53:28,935
NARRATOR: The next day,
they'll meet the victims of the bomb

730
00:53:29,146 --> 00:53:30,312
for the first time.

731
00:53:39,112 --> 00:53:42,863
It's been less than 24 hours
since they arrived in Hiroshima

732
00:53:42,907 --> 00:53:45,074
and the American
team prepares to meet

733
00:53:45,117 --> 00:53:46,616
Japanese victims of the bomb.

734
00:53:49,287 --> 00:53:53,246
WARREN: The second morning
we began to be aware in the bushes

735
00:53:54,541 --> 00:53:58,667
were vague forms
with white bandages.

736
00:54:03,590 --> 00:54:07,674
It turned out that here were
probably 10,000 casualties

737
00:54:07,718 --> 00:54:10,134
being treated in a
kind of outdoor hospital.

738
00:54:13,263 --> 00:54:16,890
We asked, "Are there any of
these that we could do anything for?"

739
00:54:16,934 --> 00:54:18,808
Because we had
penicillin with us,

740
00:54:19,685 --> 00:54:20,726
but they said, "No."

741
00:54:25,148 --> 00:54:28,816
NARRATOR: The Japanese have agreed
to cooperate with the American survey

742
00:54:28,859 --> 00:54:33,027
on the condition that they do not
interfere with the work of local doctors.

743
00:54:34,406 --> 00:54:36,905
They are here only
to observe and record.

744
00:54:40,076 --> 00:54:42,076
SHIELDS WARREN:
Under the terms of the treaty,

745
00:54:42,120 --> 00:54:45,495
we were not allowed to
treat any Japanese ourselves.

746
00:54:49,792 --> 00:54:52,042
Of course, sooner or
later this broke down

747
00:54:52,086 --> 00:54:54,205
and we were treating them
just like the Japanese were.

748
00:54:57,340 --> 00:55:02,800
And lots of things, we ought to
have done but we just couldn't do.

749
00:55:02,844 --> 00:55:07,929
NARRATOR: Initial estimates have put the
fatalities from Hiroshima at more than 70,000,

750
00:55:07,973 --> 00:55:10,890
but the death toll keeps rising

751
00:55:10,934 --> 00:55:12,850
and the doctors'
job is to decipher

752
00:55:12,893 --> 00:55:16,853
what it is about the atomic bomb
that has caused these injuries.

753
00:55:23,026 --> 00:55:27,194
SHIELDS WARREN: One of
our main tasks was to try to decide

754
00:55:27,238 --> 00:55:30,155
how many of the casualties
were due to radiation,

755
00:55:30,198 --> 00:55:35,617
how many to other injuries
instant to the explosion.

756
00:55:39,080 --> 00:55:43,415
It was singularly difficult to get
adequate eyewitness accounts

757
00:55:43,459 --> 00:55:46,293
as the survivors
were overwhelmed.

758
00:55:48,880 --> 00:55:51,172
Time and again they would say,

759
00:55:51,215 --> 00:55:56,884
"I saw a bright flash and then
a cloud rolled over my mind."

760
00:56:01,306 --> 00:56:04,891
NARRATOR: Among the
survivors is Akira Nakamura,

761
00:56:04,934 --> 00:56:07,726
a 14-year-old factory
worker in Nagasaki.

762
00:57:29,583 --> 00:57:31,102
NARRATOR: The
accounts of the explosion

763
00:57:31,126 --> 00:57:33,417
confirm the medics' expectations

764
00:57:33,461 --> 00:57:37,295
about the immediate
effects of the bomb blast,

765
00:57:37,339 --> 00:57:44,009
but what they are really here to discover
is the invisible effect of the radiation.

766
00:57:44,053 --> 00:57:47,136
WARREN: We weren't
particularly interested in skin burns.

767
00:57:47,180 --> 00:57:52,224
Skin burns and things like
that were common to all warfare.

768
00:57:54,936 --> 00:57:57,144
We'd divide our day in half.

769
00:57:57,188 --> 00:57:59,646
In the morning, we
would see casualties.

770
00:57:59,690 --> 00:58:02,607
In the afternoon, we would
look over the destruction

771
00:58:02,651 --> 00:58:04,483
and try to make measurements

772
00:58:04,527 --> 00:58:07,069
what the downwind
contamination might be.

773
00:58:10,365 --> 00:58:14,741
NARRATOR: While Stafford Warren and
his medical team explore the human costs,

774
00:58:16,828 --> 00:58:20,704
physicist Robert Serber studies the
effect on buildings and infrastructure.

775
00:58:45,934 --> 00:58:48,934
SERBER: Bill Penney and I
wandered around Nagasaki

776
00:58:48,978 --> 00:58:52,437
and Hiroshima, now,
for several weeks.

777
00:58:52,480 --> 00:58:54,063
Completely alone.

778
00:58:59,069 --> 00:59:01,944
The thing that was really
astonishing about the whole thing was,

779
00:59:01,988 --> 00:59:03,863
we had no difficulty
at all with the people.

780
00:59:06,408 --> 00:59:08,658
We wandered around the ruins

781
00:59:08,702 --> 00:59:11,744
among the people whose
families had all been killed.

782
00:59:11,787 --> 00:59:13,996
We had no feeling
of danger at all.

783
00:59:17,751 --> 00:59:20,083
NARRATOR: The
scientists want to establish

784
00:59:20,127 --> 00:59:24,962
how the blast effects in an atom
bomb compare to conventional weapons.

785
00:59:25,006 --> 00:59:29,090
To do this, they must verify the
height at which the bomb exploded.

786
00:59:30,719 --> 00:59:32,552
Serber needs to find a building

787
00:59:32,596 --> 00:59:36,305
that is still standing which was
directly in line with the bomb.

788
00:59:36,349 --> 00:59:39,182
SERBER: It's a piece of a wall

789
00:59:39,225 --> 00:59:43,477
of a schoolhouse in Hiroshima,

790
00:59:43,520 --> 00:59:47,146
about half a mile from
where the bomb went off,

791
00:59:47,190 --> 00:59:52,275
and it's flash burned,
scarred by broken glass.

792
00:59:52,319 --> 00:59:55,486
You can see the shadows
of the window sash

793
00:59:55,529 --> 00:59:58,280
and the chord of the shade.

794
01:00:03,036 --> 01:00:06,578
And from the angle of
which this shadow was cast,

795
01:00:06,622 --> 01:00:10,206
we could measure the height
at which the bomb went off.

796
01:00:12,710 --> 01:00:14,876
And this was the evidence,

797
01:00:14,920 --> 01:00:18,212
that it really went off at the height of
what was supposed to be Hiroshima.

798
01:00:23,468 --> 01:00:26,302
NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
Philip Morrison searches the city

799
01:00:26,346 --> 01:00:29,638
to quantify the
effects of the radiation.

800
01:00:31,557 --> 01:00:34,225
MORRISON: I went
around just as Bob Serber did

801
01:00:34,268 --> 01:00:37,727
and tried to look
for significant clues,

802
01:00:37,771 --> 01:00:42,815
measuring, confirming, the Japanese
measurements out on the site.

803
01:00:48,154 --> 01:00:52,280
NARRATOR: But with a month having
elapsed since the initial detonation,

804
01:00:52,324 --> 01:00:53,907
he needs local help.

805
01:00:55,910 --> 01:00:57,868
MORRISON: I discovered
the man called Kimura.

806
01:01:01,081 --> 01:01:05,749
Kimura lived in a
little, one-room shelter.

807
01:01:06,961 --> 01:01:11,003
And he had a very
nice electrometer

808
01:01:11,047 --> 01:01:13,088
and a stopwatch,
and a slide rule,

809
01:01:14,717 --> 01:01:19,009
and many, many, foils
that he had collected

810
01:01:19,053 --> 01:01:22,762
with phosphorus on them
from the bones of the victims.

811
01:01:26,934 --> 01:01:30,893
And he had measured
these radiation doses,

812
01:01:30,937 --> 01:01:33,646
and done the right
calculations all over the city.

813
01:01:38,444 --> 01:01:40,401
NARRATOR: Contrary
to American expectations,

814
01:01:40,445 --> 01:01:43,446
Kimura's results
show vast quantities

815
01:01:43,488 --> 01:01:46,030
of highly toxic
radioactive matter fell

816
01:01:46,074 --> 01:01:50,159
in doses up to 1.5
million times greater

817
01:01:50,202 --> 01:01:52,910
than that judged safe
for a medical X-ray.

818
01:02:02,962 --> 01:02:06,254
NARRATOR: It's six weeks
since the bombs were dropped.

819
01:02:06,298 --> 01:02:09,466
Hiroshima and Nagasaki have
been decimated by the blasts.

820
01:02:14,263 --> 01:02:17,305
And the US scientific
mission is finding people

821
01:02:17,348 --> 01:02:20,557
in both cities suffering the
effects of radioactive fallout.

822
01:02:23,061 --> 01:02:25,227
Throughout the
Manhattan Project,

823
01:02:25,271 --> 01:02:28,563
Stafford Warren has conducted
radiation experiments on animals and fish.

824
01:02:33,861 --> 01:02:35,986
These studies will provide clues

825
01:02:36,030 --> 01:02:40,448
to how much radioactivity has been
absorbed by the Japanese people.

826
01:02:40,492 --> 01:02:44,284
WARREN: We had expected
from our animal experiments to find

827
01:02:44,328 --> 01:02:47,161
a great deal of
gastrointestinal damage

828
01:02:47,205 --> 01:02:51,706
as well as bone marrow damage
and blood count reductions.

829
01:02:54,002 --> 01:02:58,796
In the dogs, we had extensive
information about the timing.

830
01:02:58,839 --> 01:03:02,423
We didn't know what the
timing of these clinical changes

831
01:03:02,467 --> 01:03:06,843
would be in the human because
there was no prior experience.

832
01:03:10,056 --> 01:03:13,640
NARRATOR: While the team had guessed
most deaths would come from the bomb blast,

833
01:03:13,683 --> 01:03:17,435
the radiation is causing a
second wave of fatalities.

834
01:03:17,479 --> 01:03:20,729
Sawako Tamura is one of
the nurses who witnessed it.

835
01:04:15,941 --> 01:04:19,358
NARRATOR: These survivors continue
to turn up weeks after the bombing,

836
01:04:19,402 --> 01:04:22,610
puzzling the US scientific team.

837
01:04:22,654 --> 01:04:26,280
WARREN: Day after day we
would come and look at these people

838
01:04:26,323 --> 01:04:30,324
and they would have
purpura, bleeding spots,

839
01:04:30,368 --> 01:04:35,036
about eighth of an inch in diameter,
on various parts of the body.

840
01:04:35,080 --> 01:04:39,665
Mostly face, chest, and arms.

841
01:04:39,709 --> 01:04:43,544
Any place that got slightly bruised
had a hemorrhage underneath

842
01:04:45,297 --> 01:04:47,797
and they would be
a sickly yellow color.

843
01:04:51,343 --> 01:04:53,551
And we did a few
white blood counts

844
01:04:53,595 --> 01:04:57,054
and found 50 cells
instead of 5,000.

845
01:04:59,641 --> 01:05:02,474
The next day we'd come
back and they'd be gone.

846
01:05:02,518 --> 01:05:04,393
They had been
incinerated overnight.

847
01:05:06,688 --> 01:05:09,439
NARRATOR: Across the city,
people who survived the bomb,

848
01:05:09,482 --> 01:05:14,276
like 20-year-old Aoki Shigeru, are afraid
they will develop the same symptoms.

849
01:06:04,442 --> 01:06:07,317
NARRATOR: One theory why
many continue to show symptoms

850
01:06:07,361 --> 01:06:09,401
is that two hours
after the bomb fell,

851
01:06:09,445 --> 01:06:12,696
a storm broke over Hiroshima,

852
01:06:12,740 --> 01:06:17,408
the falling water mixed with
radioactive dust from the explosion,

853
01:06:17,452 --> 01:06:22,120
creating a toxic "black
rain" that fell on the survivors.

854
01:07:08,658 --> 01:07:11,617
NARRATOR: Though the
radiation has killed tens of thousands,

855
01:07:11,661 --> 01:07:15,370
in a rare case, Shields
Warren encounters a doctor

856
01:07:15,414 --> 01:07:17,371
who has actually
benefited from the bomb.

857
01:07:19,792 --> 01:07:23,418
SHIELDS WARREN: One
remembers little oddities.

858
01:07:23,461 --> 01:07:27,045
The professor was
suffering from leukemia,

859
01:07:27,089 --> 01:07:31,716
and he was actually
helped by the bomb.

860
01:07:31,759 --> 01:07:36,094
He got about 300 R and it
shrank his spleen appreciatively.

861
01:07:40,641 --> 01:07:43,559
NARRATOR: It's a singular
case of good fortune.

862
01:07:43,602 --> 01:07:48,229
The team discovers radioactive fallout
extends for 30 miles beyond the city.

863
01:07:49,523 --> 01:07:51,857
In the final toll it's estimated

864
01:07:51,900 --> 01:07:56,610
140,000 people died
from the initial explosions,

865
01:07:56,654 --> 01:08:01,823
but a further 60,000 die from radiation
sickness between August and November.

866
01:08:06,328 --> 01:08:11,246
As the team is ordered home, talk turns
to the helpful role of the local Japanese.

867
01:08:15,210 --> 01:08:18,586
SHIELDS WARREN:
By the 26th of September,

868
01:08:18,629 --> 01:08:21,504
we had located
most of the survivors.

869
01:08:23,884 --> 01:08:28,135
Without the wholehearted
cooperation of the Japanese,

870
01:08:28,179 --> 01:08:33,972
we wouldn't have been able to
accomplish a fraction of what we did.

871
01:08:34,016 --> 01:08:37,059
I was tremendously
impressed by the cooperation

872
01:08:37,102 --> 01:08:39,393
that we had, not only from
the scientific Japanese,

873
01:08:39,437 --> 01:08:40,811
but at every level.

874
01:08:43,356 --> 01:08:44,439
MORRISON: The only

875
01:08:46,068 --> 01:08:49,943
nuanced but clearly
present resistance

876
01:08:49,987 --> 01:08:51,986
that I found from any Japanese,

877
01:08:52,030 --> 01:08:54,489
in my entire tour through Japan,

878
01:08:55,617 --> 01:08:57,157
the radiologist Suzuki

879
01:08:58,202 --> 01:09:00,577
from the University of Tokyo,

880
01:09:00,620 --> 01:09:01,869
very distinguished.

881
01:09:05,123 --> 01:09:07,207
He said the following
thing which I'll never forget.

882
01:09:07,250 --> 01:09:09,292
Very polite, quite good English,

883
01:09:09,336 --> 01:09:10,626
"Dr. Morrison."

884
01:09:11,045 --> 01:09:12,920
"Yes."

885
01:09:13,464 --> 01:09:15,524
"I have some experience in
radiation, whole body radiation,

886
01:09:15,548 --> 01:09:16,964
"but mine was only

887
01:09:17,717 --> 01:09:18,965
"a few dogs.

888
01:09:21,220 --> 01:09:23,552
"You Americans conducted
a human experiment."

889
01:09:26,891 --> 01:09:30,183
NARRATOR: October 1945,
and the scientific mission

890
01:09:30,227 --> 01:09:33,519
to study the effects of the
bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

891
01:09:33,562 --> 01:09:35,104
returns to America.

892
01:09:37,857 --> 01:09:39,690
On landing in Santa Fe,

893
01:09:39,734 --> 01:09:41,775
Stafford Warren is
immediately taken

894
01:09:41,819 --> 01:09:43,860
by General Groves to Los Alamos

895
01:09:43,904 --> 01:09:45,529
for a grand ceremony

896
01:09:45,572 --> 01:09:47,696
celebrating the
success of the bomb.

897
01:09:51,284 --> 01:09:52,492
WARREN: The E ceremony,

898
01:09:52,536 --> 01:09:55,452
a capital E for
excellent performance

899
01:09:55,496 --> 01:09:56,496
during the war.

900
01:09:59,332 --> 01:10:03,209
In any case, the Manhattan
Engineer District job was done.

901
01:10:03,253 --> 01:10:05,377
It had delivered the bombs,

902
01:10:05,420 --> 01:10:08,462
better than they had expected
from the military standpoint of view.

903
01:10:10,633 --> 01:10:13,466
I got home about 9:00 that night

904
01:10:13,510 --> 01:10:15,510
and I slept almost
three days solid.

905
01:10:17,555 --> 01:10:18,804
NARRATOR: One month later,

906
01:10:18,848 --> 01:10:20,848
Groves is called before
a Senate Committee

907
01:10:20,891 --> 01:10:22,306
in Washington DC

908
01:10:23,893 --> 01:10:25,434
convened to understand

909
01:10:25,478 --> 01:10:29,062
whether the billion-dollar
experiment has been a success.

910
01:10:31,357 --> 01:10:35,525
GROVES: The atomic bomb
mission which we had overseas

911
01:10:35,610 --> 01:10:38,945
made no attempt at
Nagasaki and Hiroshima

912
01:10:38,989 --> 01:10:42,614
to secure or estimate
the exact casualties

913
01:10:42,658 --> 01:10:45,449
because the mission
did not survey the cities

914
01:10:45,493 --> 01:10:47,201
until over a month

915
01:10:47,245 --> 01:10:49,786
after the dropping of the bombs.

916
01:10:49,830 --> 01:10:54,290
The best overall estimates
come from the Japanese.

917
01:10:54,333 --> 01:10:58,084
At Hiroshima, the
casualties, dead and missing,

918
01:10:58,128 --> 01:11:02,754
were somewhere between
70,000 and 120,000.

919
01:11:02,798 --> 01:11:06,425
The injured between
75,000 and 200,000.

920
01:11:07,343 --> 01:11:08,926
At Nagasaki,

921
01:11:08,970 --> 01:11:12,512
the dead and missing were
between 40 and 45,000,

922
01:11:12,556 --> 01:11:14,764
and the injured about 40,000.

923
01:11:16,559 --> 01:11:18,058
The atomic bomb

924
01:11:18,102 --> 01:11:19,185
made it impossible

925
01:11:19,270 --> 01:11:21,603
for the Japanese
to continue the war.

926
01:11:24,316 --> 01:11:26,940
Senator, in answer
to your question

927
01:11:27,026 --> 01:11:30,568
as to what are the prospects
of an effective defense

928
01:11:30,612 --> 01:11:32,028
against the atomic bomb,

929
01:11:32,739 --> 01:11:34,654
I would state

930
01:11:34,698 --> 01:11:37,949
that there are no prospects

931
01:11:37,993 --> 01:11:42,203
at the present time of
an effective defense.

932
01:11:42,246 --> 01:11:46,080
NARRATOR: At the hearing, the
Senate accepts Groves' declaration

933
01:11:46,124 --> 01:11:48,415
that because the
bombs ended the war,

934
01:11:48,459 --> 01:11:52,668
hundreds of thousands of Japanese
and American lives were saved,

935
01:11:52,712 --> 01:11:54,212
but he makes no disclosure

936
01:11:54,255 --> 01:11:56,255
of the mission's
findings on radiation.

937
01:11:59,176 --> 01:12:00,675
And the team who went to Japan

938
01:12:00,719 --> 01:12:03,385
are given no time to
write up their results,

939
01:12:04,513 --> 01:12:06,012
as leading members are asked

940
01:12:06,097 --> 01:12:09,474
to help plan the
testing of new bombs.

941
01:12:09,517 --> 01:12:11,475
WARREN: Unfortunately,
when I got home,

942
01:12:11,518 --> 01:12:13,435
I had those two problems,

943
01:12:13,479 --> 01:12:17,813
one was the unwinding
of the military operation,

944
01:12:17,857 --> 01:12:20,398
and the other was
the Bikini preparations.

945
01:12:25,571 --> 01:12:28,363
I was transferred to
the Joint Task Force

946
01:12:28,406 --> 01:12:30,073
by General Groves

947
01:12:30,116 --> 01:12:32,491
very soon after I got back,

948
01:12:32,534 --> 01:12:34,576
before I could
do any writing up.

949
01:12:34,620 --> 01:12:36,994
MAN: Three, two, one.

950
01:12:42,793 --> 01:12:48,170
WARREN: The only write-up is the
Army Historical Unit's report of my office,

951
01:12:48,214 --> 01:12:49,755
and that is rather sketchy.

952
01:12:52,801 --> 01:12:56,218
And then Shields Warren
was appointed as my successor.

953
01:12:57,972 --> 01:13:01,055
SHIELDS WARREN: Eventually,
a monograph on the acute effects

954
01:13:01,099 --> 01:13:04,432
of the atomic bomb
in Japan came out.

955
01:13:04,476 --> 01:13:06,226
This was delayed

956
01:13:06,270 --> 01:13:09,186
for a long time through red tape

957
01:13:09,230 --> 01:13:12,106
and did not appear until 1951.

958
01:13:15,026 --> 01:13:17,026
NARRATOR: The film
footage and medical reports

959
01:13:17,070 --> 01:13:18,360
were stored in warehouses

960
01:13:18,404 --> 01:13:19,528
and classified,

961
01:13:21,782 --> 01:13:25,449
deemed too sensitive to be
viewed or shared for decades.

962
01:13:28,745 --> 01:13:30,537
To the future head
of atomic safety,

963
01:13:30,580 --> 01:13:33,664
Shields Warren, it became clear

964
01:13:33,708 --> 01:13:37,083
that most people wanted to
draw a line under the bombings.

965
01:13:43,340 --> 01:13:44,714
NEWSREEL: Washington is jubilant

966
01:13:44,757 --> 01:13:46,215
and in Chicago

967
01:13:46,259 --> 01:13:48,467
more than a million sing
and dance in the streets.

968
01:13:54,640 --> 01:13:57,224
SHIELDS WARREN: I was in
and out of Washington enough

969
01:13:57,268 --> 01:14:00,727
after the Hiroshima
bomb had exploded

970
01:14:00,770 --> 01:14:06,606
to know that there were no
plans to follow up study, medically.

971
01:14:06,650 --> 01:14:11,568
It was quickly apparent that the
general tendency in government,

972
01:14:11,611 --> 01:14:13,862
and indeed the
public as a whole,

973
01:14:13,905 --> 01:14:18,073
once the war and immediate
post-War period was over,

974
01:14:18,117 --> 01:14:21,617
was to go back
to things as usual

975
01:14:22,662 --> 01:14:24,662
and not realize

976
01:14:24,706 --> 01:14:28,206
the entirely new
type of scientific world

977
01:14:28,250 --> 01:14:30,249
into which the development

978
01:14:30,293 --> 01:14:32,668
of the atomic
bomb had thrust us.

979
01:14:40,634 --> 01:14:42,468
NARRATOR: The war
may have been over

980
01:14:42,511 --> 01:14:43,760
but there was great regret

981
01:14:43,845 --> 01:14:46,763
amongst team members
like Philip Morrison.

982
01:14:46,806 --> 01:14:49,973
He'd been part of the atomic
experiment from the beginning

983
01:14:50,017 --> 01:14:52,059
but had also witnessed
the huge impact

984
01:14:52,102 --> 01:14:56,020
the bombs had on
a civilian population.

985
01:14:56,064 --> 01:14:59,898
MORRISON: I was pretty conflicted
about the whole history of the war.

986
01:14:59,941 --> 01:15:01,648
It was such a
terrible thing to do,

987
01:15:01,692 --> 01:15:04,026
but we never saw
that it could be avoided.

988
01:15:05,488 --> 01:15:08,237
In two years the
whole society changed,

989
01:15:08,281 --> 01:15:09,822
and the world changed,

990
01:15:09,866 --> 01:15:12,574
to the murder in
some obscure way

991
01:15:12,618 --> 01:15:13,618
of a whole city.

992
01:15:18,373 --> 01:15:20,413
Nobody really
understood our weapon,

993
01:15:22,667 --> 01:15:24,186
nobody could see
what the future meant,

994
01:15:26,712 --> 01:15:27,912
how great it would come to be,

995
01:15:30,465 --> 01:15:32,048
how numerous they
would come to be.

996
01:15:43,725 --> 01:15:47,601
NARRATOR: In the years that follow
the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

997
01:15:47,645 --> 01:15:51,938
deaths continue to grow with
60,000 more people perishing

998
01:15:51,981 --> 01:15:55,565
from radiation related illnesses
across the next seven decades.

999
01:15:57,861 --> 01:16:01,445
The morality of dropping the
bombs continues to be debated,

1000
01:16:01,489 --> 01:16:03,030
but for those who built them,

1001
01:16:03,074 --> 01:16:05,907
its success remains
a necessary evil,

1002
01:16:05,951 --> 01:16:09,368
to end a war that had
already cost millions of lives.

1003
01:16:11,622 --> 01:16:13,996
Well, the Manhattan Project
is a tremendous project.

1004
01:16:14,040 --> 01:16:15,998
It built three or four cities.

1005
01:16:16,042 --> 01:16:19,918
It managed research in
six or seven universities.

1006
01:16:21,380 --> 01:16:23,754
It's a miracle that the
bomb was developed.

1007
01:16:23,798 --> 01:16:27,715
It's wonderful that we were
able to use it to end the war.

1008
01:16:28,635 --> 01:16:30,635
The dropping of the atomic bomb

1009
01:16:30,679 --> 01:16:33,595
started the Atomic Age.

1010
01:16:33,639 --> 01:16:35,972
It's the biggest thing
that we have to manage.

1011
01:16:40,936 --> 01:16:43,895
NARRATOR: A message
reiterated by the architect of the bomb,

1012
01:16:43,939 --> 01:16:45,187
J. Robert Oppenheimer.

1013
01:16:46,858 --> 01:16:48,524
I have been asked whether

1014
01:16:48,568 --> 01:16:51,359
in the years to come
it will be possible to kill

1015
01:16:51,403 --> 01:16:53,902
40 million American people

1016
01:16:53,946 --> 01:16:57,406
in the 20 largest American towns

1017
01:16:57,450 --> 01:17:01,576
by the use of atomic
bombs in a single night.

1018
01:17:01,619 --> 01:17:04,161
I am afraid that the answer
to that question is yes.

1019
01:17:05,914 --> 01:17:08,080
NARRATOR: Oppenheimer
will spend the rest of his life

1020
01:17:08,124 --> 01:17:11,292
speaking publicly about
the dangers of his invention.

1021
01:17:12,836 --> 01:17:14,294
OPPENHEIMER:
Members of the academy,

1022
01:17:15,505 --> 01:17:17,379
some of you will have
seen photographs

1023
01:17:17,423 --> 01:17:19,214
of the Nagasaki strike,

1024
01:17:19,258 --> 01:17:23,509
seen the great steel girders of
factories twisted and wrecked.

1025
01:17:23,553 --> 01:17:28,430
Some of you will have seen pictures
of the people who were burned.

1026
01:17:28,474 --> 01:17:31,765
We have made a thing that by all
standards of the world we grew up in

1027
01:17:31,809 --> 01:17:32,809
is an evil thing.

1028
01:17:35,562 --> 01:17:38,062
A most terrible weapon.

1029
01:17:38,106 --> 01:17:39,938
It has altered abruptly
and profoundly

1030
01:17:39,982 --> 01:17:41,356
the nature of the world.

1031
01:17:46,863 --> 01:17:48,278
During our lifetime,

1032
01:17:48,322 --> 01:17:50,947
atomic weapons could be
either a great or a small trouble.

1033
01:17:57,662 --> 01:17:59,871
The pattern of the
use of atomic weapons

1034
01:17:59,915 --> 01:18:00,915
was set at Hiroshima.

1035
01:18:05,836 --> 01:18:07,418
They are weapons of aggression,

1036
01:18:07,462 --> 01:18:09,921
of surprise and of terror.

1037
01:18:14,301 --> 01:18:17,301
For not even a better
understanding of the physical world

1038
01:18:17,345 --> 01:18:19,844
should make us content
to see these weapons

1039
01:18:19,888 --> 01:18:21,554
turned to the
devastation of the earth.

1040
01:18:24,350 --> 01:18:26,141
If they are ever used again,

1041
01:18:26,185 --> 01:18:28,518
I think that it will not
help to avert such a war

1042
01:18:28,561 --> 01:18:31,437
if we try to rub the
edges off this new terror

1043
01:18:31,481 --> 01:18:33,000
that we have helped
bring to the world.

1044
01:18:40,446 --> 01:18:42,487
I think the only hope

1045
01:18:42,531 --> 01:18:44,322
for our future safety

1046
01:18:44,366 --> 01:18:46,241
must lie in the collaboration

1047
01:18:46,284 --> 01:18:49,117
based on confidence
and good faith

1048
01:18:49,161 --> 01:18:50,827
with the other
peoples of the world.

1049
01:18:56,792 --> 01:18:59,960
NARRATOR: 75 years after
the dropping of the bomb,

1050
01:19:00,002 --> 01:19:02,753
the message is echoed
by the Japanese survivors

1051
01:19:02,797 --> 01:19:05,171
for whom the
experiment never ended.

1052
01:20:32,617 --> 01:20:35,158
NARRATOR: Every
year on August 6th,

1053
01:20:35,201 --> 01:20:38,786
Japanese gather with
lanterns to remember the dead

1054
01:20:38,830 --> 01:20:42,122
and remind the world
of the scars of the bomb.