1 00:00:01,802 --> 00:00:04,737 Narrator: August 6, 1945. 2 00:00:05,139 --> 00:00:07,506 The first mission of its kind. 3 00:00:07,875 --> 00:00:09,975 Morris Jeppson: The last person to have his hands on 4 00:00:10,044 --> 00:00:12,611 that weapon was me. 5 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:14,346 Narrator: A devastating new weapon is unleashed on the 6 00:00:14,415 --> 00:00:17,616 city of Hiroshima. 7 00:00:17,685 --> 00:00:20,419 Within weeks, the US government mobilizes teams 8 00:00:20,488 --> 00:00:24,723 of scientists and soldiers to assess the damage. 9 00:00:24,925 --> 00:00:27,326 Directly from the pages of their report, the science 10 00:00:27,395 --> 00:00:30,829 of the first atomic bomb, as told by the men who 11 00:00:30,898 --> 00:00:34,400 analyzed the effects of the explosion and the survivors 12 00:00:34,468 --> 00:00:37,503 who experienced them first-hand. 13 00:00:37,571 --> 00:00:41,540 Takashi Tanemori: All of a sudden bang, flash in the sky. 14 00:00:41,809 --> 00:00:43,742 Narrator: Now, what happened in the 24 hours 15 00:00:43,811 --> 00:00:47,279 after the world's first atomic attack. 16 00:01:02,163 --> 00:01:07,866 Morris Jeppson: On August 6th, 1945 I was 23 years old. 17 00:01:07,935 --> 00:01:14,606 I was on board the Enola Gay B-29 flying to Japan. 18 00:01:17,645 --> 00:01:21,513 Shigeko Sasamori: 1945 August 6. 19 00:01:21,582 --> 00:01:24,116 I was 13 years old. 20 00:01:25,519 --> 00:01:29,955 Takashi Tanemori: On August 6th, 1945, I was standing 21 00:01:30,024 --> 00:01:33,325 against the window looking outside. 22 00:01:33,794 --> 00:01:39,465 Koko: On August 6th, 1945, I was 8 months old baby. 23 00:01:39,533 --> 00:01:44,136 And this is the dress I was wearing that day. 24 00:01:48,242 --> 00:01:51,710 Narrator: A day earlier, at a military base on Tinian 25 00:01:51,779 --> 00:01:55,581 Island in the pacific, the world's first combat atomic 26 00:01:55,649 --> 00:01:58,817 bomb is brought out on the tarmac in preparation for 27 00:01:58,886 --> 00:02:00,686 delivery. 28 00:02:01,489 --> 00:02:04,957 The weapon's code name is Little Boy. 29 00:02:05,025 --> 00:02:08,460 Its conception is the most covert operation ever 30 00:02:08,529 --> 00:02:11,563 undertaken by the US Military. 31 00:02:12,766 --> 00:02:16,635 Some say it holds the power of the sun, the stars, the 32 00:02:16,704 --> 00:02:18,470 cosmos. 33 00:02:18,539 --> 00:02:20,973 But for the crew, the bomb looks like something much 34 00:02:21,041 --> 00:02:23,142 less cosmic. 35 00:02:23,511 --> 00:02:25,410 Morris Jeppson: Little Boy was, ten feet long. 36 00:02:25,479 --> 00:02:28,080 A weighing more than the biggest pick up truck you 37 00:02:28,149 --> 00:02:30,249 can buy. 38 00:02:31,519 --> 00:02:34,553 Narrator: Morris Jeppson, is one of twelve Enola Gay 39 00:02:34,622 --> 00:02:38,457 crewmembers, whose mission is to drop Little Boy on a 40 00:02:38,526 --> 00:02:42,728 yet to be identified Japanese city. 41 00:02:44,765 --> 00:02:49,067 At 2:45am, almost 12 hours after loading the four and 42 00:02:49,136 --> 00:02:53,906 a half ton cargo, the mission officially begins. 43 00:02:56,477 --> 00:03:01,480 The Enola Gay takes off and heads west toward Japan. 44 00:03:09,056 --> 00:03:11,890 Morris Jeppson: The first time I saw, Little Boy, was 45 00:03:11,959 --> 00:03:14,826 when I climbed in to the bomb bay. 46 00:03:19,233 --> 00:03:20,832 Narrator: Within this cylinder of armored steel 47 00:03:20,901 --> 00:03:24,937 is 140 pounds of highly enriched uranium. 48 00:03:27,408 --> 00:03:30,442 It's uranium is divided into a projectile and a 49 00:03:30,511 --> 00:03:32,411 target. 50 00:03:32,713 --> 00:03:36,348 The bomb works like a big gun, bags of gunpowder 51 00:03:36,417 --> 00:03:38,984 ignite, creating the pressure to send the 52 00:03:39,053 --> 00:03:43,589 projectile flying forward, smashing it into the 53 00:03:43,657 --> 00:03:45,490 target. 54 00:03:46,927 --> 00:03:50,128 Within seconds, critical mass creates a nuclear 55 00:03:50,197 --> 00:03:54,066 chain reaction releasing a colossal amount of 56 00:03:54,134 --> 00:03:56,735 destructive energy. 57 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:03,342 But because B-29s are known to crash on take off, the 58 00:04:03,410 --> 00:04:07,179 gunpowder is not yet inside the bomb. 59 00:04:09,750 --> 00:04:12,384 Now that they're safely off the ground Jeppson and 60 00:04:12,453 --> 00:04:15,854 Captain Deke Parsons can put the explosives into 61 00:04:15,923 --> 00:04:17,189 place. 62 00:04:20,427 --> 00:04:23,328 It takes Parsons only 15 minutes to place the four 63 00:04:23,397 --> 00:04:27,633 bags of cordite gunpowder inside the bomb's tail. 64 00:04:30,738 --> 00:04:35,774 But Little Boy's detonation system is not yet fully armed. 65 00:04:38,245 --> 00:04:41,513 That's Morris Jeppson's job. 66 00:04:42,249 --> 00:04:46,251 These are the actual plugs he used that day to arm the 67 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:48,854 Little Boy bomb. 68 00:04:51,725 --> 00:04:54,359 The weapon has three green plugs that work like a 69 00:04:54,428 --> 00:04:57,296 safety lock on a gun, preventing it from 70 00:04:57,364 --> 00:04:59,931 activating. 71 00:05:00,367 --> 00:05:05,637 Jeppson must remove the green plugs and swap them out. 72 00:05:06,340 --> 00:05:08,807 The red plugs complete the weapon's electrical 73 00:05:08,876 --> 00:05:14,313 circuitry so that sparks can ignite the gunpowder. 74 00:05:15,549 --> 00:05:19,051 Morris Jeppson: I had to handle, touch, lean on the 75 00:05:19,119 --> 00:05:20,919 Little Boy bomb. 76 00:05:20,988 --> 00:05:24,189 So the last person to have his hands on that weapon 77 00:05:24,258 --> 00:05:25,991 was me. 78 00:05:28,929 --> 00:05:32,597 Narrator: With the last red plug in place, the bomb is 79 00:05:32,666 --> 00:05:34,599 now alive. 80 00:05:37,805 --> 00:05:39,738 There are less than two hours before they reach 81 00:05:39,807 --> 00:05:42,841 Japan yet no one's completely sure that Little 82 00:05:42,910 --> 00:05:45,944 Boy will actually work. 83 00:05:46,013 --> 00:05:47,512 Morris Jeppson: The Hiroshima bomb was an 84 00:05:47,581 --> 00:05:51,783 experimental weapon and it was the first test. 85 00:05:54,521 --> 00:05:57,222 Narrator: Three Japanese cities had been chosen as 86 00:05:57,291 --> 00:06:00,659 potential targets for the attack. 87 00:06:00,728 --> 00:06:04,062 The primary is the port city of Hiroshima located 88 00:06:04,131 --> 00:06:07,866 on the delta of the Ota River. 89 00:06:08,402 --> 00:06:11,370 A city of considerable military importance, it 90 00:06:11,438 --> 00:06:14,840 houses a communication center and an assembly area 91 00:06:14,908 --> 00:06:16,875 for troops. 92 00:06:19,113 --> 00:06:22,914 But it's far from just a military target. 93 00:06:22,983 --> 00:06:27,519 Eighty percent of the people here are civilians. 94 00:06:28,222 --> 00:06:32,691 Since the previous March of 1945, almost every major 95 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:37,462 city in Japan has been fire-bombed yet Hiroshima 96 00:06:37,531 --> 00:06:39,731 remains untouched. 97 00:06:40,134 --> 00:06:41,133 Richard Richard Rhodes: The people of the city worried 98 00:06:41,201 --> 00:06:42,534 about that. 99 00:06:42,603 --> 00:06:46,571 Were they being chosen for something especially terrible? 100 00:06:49,676 --> 00:06:52,511 Narrator: But as the Enola Gay reaches Japan, 101 00:06:52,579 --> 00:06:55,814 Hiroshima's fate is still not final. 102 00:06:56,483 --> 00:06:59,584 It all depends on the weather. 103 00:07:00,421 --> 00:07:02,554 One of the requirements for the target is that it has 104 00:07:02,623 --> 00:07:05,657 to be visible from the air. 105 00:07:06,794 --> 00:07:09,428 Weather planes fly ahead to check the conditions over 106 00:07:09,496 --> 00:07:12,364 the three selected cities. 107 00:07:14,301 --> 00:07:18,870 As it happens it is a clear morning at Hiroshima. 108 00:07:19,173 --> 00:07:23,442 The city's fate is now sealed. 109 00:07:25,946 --> 00:07:29,214 Narrator: Thirteen-year-old Shigeko Sasamori can feel 110 00:07:29,283 --> 00:07:32,284 the sun burning down on her on this hot, cloudless 111 00:07:32,352 --> 00:07:34,386 morning. 112 00:07:34,455 --> 00:07:36,288 She runs to join schoolmates in their 113 00:07:36,356 --> 00:07:39,524 assignment to clear the streets for firebreaks in 114 00:07:39,593 --> 00:07:41,927 case of attack. 115 00:07:43,096 --> 00:07:45,530 Shigeko Sasamori: I look up the sky, I saw the 116 00:07:45,599 --> 00:07:52,204 beautiful silver airplane and the white long tail and 117 00:07:52,272 --> 00:07:53,472 the blue sky. 118 00:07:53,540 --> 00:07:55,907 It looks beautiful. 119 00:07:56,376 --> 00:08:00,412 And same time I saw something drop. 120 00:08:02,349 --> 00:08:04,349 Narrator: Shigeko is less than a mile from the Enola 121 00:08:04,418 --> 00:08:08,153 Gay's target, the distinctive T-shaped Aioi 122 00:08:08,222 --> 00:08:10,188 Bridge. 123 00:08:10,591 --> 00:08:13,658 Running across the river in the center of downtown, it 124 00:08:13,727 --> 00:08:18,530 can be spotted easily at even 32,000 feet. 125 00:08:22,236 --> 00:08:24,836 90 seconds before release, the Bombardier sets his 126 00:08:24,905 --> 00:08:28,707 sights on the target about two miles below, and makes 127 00:08:28,775 --> 00:08:32,110 careful last-minute manuevers. 128 00:08:33,680 --> 00:08:36,248 Will they hit the target, and will it explode at the 129 00:08:36,316 --> 00:08:41,786 pre-set altitude of 1900 feet over the city? 130 00:08:42,990 --> 00:08:45,123 Morris Jeppson: There are hydraulic actuated doors, 131 00:08:45,192 --> 00:08:48,560 big long doors 12, 15 feet long, they don't just 132 00:08:48,629 --> 00:08:49,361 slowly open. 133 00:08:49,429 --> 00:08:52,697 They fly open like that. 134 00:09:03,243 --> 00:09:05,010 Narrator: Jeppson and fellow crewmembers had done 135 00:09:05,078 --> 00:09:08,980 the math and expect the bomb to detonate at 42 136 00:09:09,049 --> 00:09:10,615 seconds. 137 00:09:11,318 --> 00:09:15,353 Morris Jeppson: At 43 seconds I was nervous. 138 00:09:15,422 --> 00:09:19,024 I was monitoring the test box. 139 00:09:19,092 --> 00:09:21,560 Thinking and counting in my head. 140 00:09:24,197 --> 00:09:27,198 Narrator: The crew of the Enola Gay are not the only 141 00:09:27,267 --> 00:09:32,470 ones counting down at 8:15 on August 6th. 142 00:09:34,608 --> 00:09:37,876 Eight-year-old Takashi Tanemori, left home at 8am 143 00:09:37,945 --> 00:09:40,111 to get to his school. 144 00:09:40,747 --> 00:09:43,648 He's looking forward to playing with his friends. 145 00:09:45,052 --> 00:09:47,018 Takashi Tanemori: I was excited this particular 146 00:09:47,087 --> 00:09:50,455 morning for the hide and seek because I was chosen 147 00:09:50,524 --> 00:09:52,023 as it. 148 00:09:52,092 --> 00:09:56,828 So I was standing against the window looking outside. 149 00:09:58,765 --> 00:10:00,899 Narrator: While Takashi counts, thousands of others 150 00:10:00,968 --> 00:10:05,837 are outside, on route to work and school. 151 00:10:06,239 --> 00:10:11,743 As the lone Enola Gay flies overhead there's little alarm. 152 00:10:11,812 --> 00:10:14,179 It looks nothing like the bombing squadron most 153 00:10:14,247 --> 00:10:17,115 people fear. 154 00:10:19,086 --> 00:10:20,518 Richard Rhodes: People assumed it was a weather 155 00:10:20,587 --> 00:10:24,255 plane, and instead of doing what the scientists had 156 00:10:24,324 --> 00:10:26,524 assumed would happen which is they would run into bomb 157 00:10:26,593 --> 00:10:30,362 shelters and be safe from the effects of the blast. 158 00:10:30,430 --> 00:10:32,998 People came outdoors to look. 159 00:10:42,242 --> 00:10:45,310 Takashi Tanemori: All of a sudden, bang, flash in the 160 00:10:45,379 --> 00:10:49,280 sky, pure white. 161 00:10:50,183 --> 00:10:52,984 I saw the bones in my fingers as though I was 162 00:10:53,053 --> 00:10:54,986 looking at an x-ray. 163 00:10:55,055 --> 00:10:57,255 So intense. 164 00:11:01,728 --> 00:11:04,562 Narrator: This is the only footage ever taken of this 165 00:11:04,631 --> 00:11:09,501 atomic explosion, scant documentation of an event 166 00:11:09,569 --> 00:11:13,038 that changes the course of history. 167 00:11:15,075 --> 00:11:17,442 Within moments, the mushroom cloud is 10 miles 168 00:11:17,511 --> 00:11:19,244 high. 169 00:11:19,613 --> 00:11:24,082 It spreads 3 miles over the city and its more than 350 170 00:11:24,151 --> 00:11:26,685 thousand inhabitants. 171 00:11:31,825 --> 00:11:34,092 On the day of the attack, the United States has been 172 00:11:34,161 --> 00:11:38,029 in the war for 4 years and has lost over a hundred 173 00:11:38,098 --> 00:11:42,133 thousand men on the pacific front alone. 174 00:11:42,202 --> 00:11:45,070 Despite losing over a million men the Japanese 175 00:11:45,138 --> 00:11:48,206 continue to fight fiercely. 176 00:11:48,275 --> 00:11:51,509 Some fear that if the war goes on millions more will 177 00:11:51,578 --> 00:11:54,546 be lost on both sides. 178 00:11:54,614 --> 00:11:57,849 Richard Rhodes: We thus saw the atomic bomb as a 179 00:11:57,918 --> 00:12:01,586 potential way to shock them into surrender. 180 00:12:06,426 --> 00:12:09,027 Narrator: This radically new bomb reduces the 181 00:12:09,096 --> 00:12:13,031 living, breathing downtown of Hiroshima to a 182 00:12:13,100 --> 00:12:16,034 wasteland. 183 00:12:16,103 --> 00:12:21,039 70,000 human beings are dead instantly. 184 00:12:21,975 --> 00:12:25,877 Another 70,000 injured. 185 00:12:25,946 --> 00:12:29,114 It's the highest death toll ever caused by a single 186 00:12:29,182 --> 00:12:31,750 weapon. 187 00:12:32,119 --> 00:12:35,620 Yet Japan continues to fight. 188 00:12:38,725 --> 00:12:41,092 Three days later, on August 9th, 189 00:12:41,161 --> 00:12:43,027 the United States drops a second 190 00:12:43,096 --> 00:12:45,997 atomic bomb. 191 00:12:46,066 --> 00:12:49,601 This time on the city of Nagasaki. 192 00:12:50,337 --> 00:12:54,339 Another 40,000 die. 193 00:12:56,276 --> 00:13:00,578 Japan formally surrenders three weeks later. 194 00:13:01,381 --> 00:13:06,017 The world's bloodiest war is finally over. 195 00:13:16,163 --> 00:13:18,997 Narrator: Just weeks after Japan's surrender, President 196 00:13:19,065 --> 00:13:23,368 Truman orders a report on the physical and medical damage 197 00:13:23,436 --> 00:13:26,437 inflicted by this new weapon. 198 00:13:28,008 --> 00:13:31,042 Hundreds of scientists, engineers and military 199 00:13:31,111 --> 00:13:34,546 personnel are recruited for the job. 200 00:13:36,983 --> 00:13:39,684 Alongside occupation forces, special 201 00:13:39,753 --> 00:13:43,922 investigative teams arrive in Hiroshima. 202 00:13:44,391 --> 00:13:46,825 Working with Japanese scientists, they'll spend 203 00:13:46,893 --> 00:13:51,496 10 weeks amidst the ruins gathering intelligence. 204 00:13:55,135 --> 00:13:57,936 To comprehend the bomb's devastating power, the 205 00:13:58,004 --> 00:14:00,939 analysts break down the three major effects of the 206 00:14:01,007 --> 00:14:03,374 atomic explosion. 207 00:14:06,546 --> 00:14:09,414 Upon detonation, an explosion of energy is 208 00:14:09,482 --> 00:14:13,151 released into a small volume of air. 209 00:14:14,454 --> 00:14:18,156 This creates a searing, white-hot fireball that 210 00:14:18,225 --> 00:14:22,227 flashes hotter than the surface of the sun. 211 00:14:23,663 --> 00:14:26,064 Gamma rays and neutrons from the break-up of 212 00:14:26,132 --> 00:14:32,503 uranium shoot outward as deadly invisible radiation, 213 00:14:32,572 --> 00:14:35,340 as the fireball stops expanding, a wall of 214 00:14:35,408 --> 00:14:40,044 pressure or blast wave, races out at more than 700 215 00:14:40,113 --> 00:14:42,447 miles per hour. 216 00:14:51,524 --> 00:14:54,025 In their report, the scientists describe the 217 00:14:54,094 --> 00:14:57,929 effects of the first stage of the explosion, a thermal 218 00:14:57,998 --> 00:14:59,931 flash. 219 00:15:03,136 --> 00:15:07,105 It generates temperatures of 7200 degrees Farenheit, 220 00:15:07,173 --> 00:15:10,275 twice the melting point of steel. 221 00:15:15,015 --> 00:15:16,881 Because there's so little film footage of the 222 00:15:16,950 --> 00:15:20,585 explosion in Hiroshima, scientists look to atomic 223 00:15:20,654 --> 00:15:25,556 tests, to help them measure the intensity of the heat. 224 00:15:27,193 --> 00:15:29,460 Ted Postol: When the weapon detonates, an enormous 225 00:15:29,529 --> 00:15:31,562 amount of energy is released in a very short 226 00:15:31,631 --> 00:15:34,699 period of time, and a very large amount of the energy 227 00:15:34,768 --> 00:15:38,136 is released simply in the form of light and heat. 228 00:15:39,940 --> 00:15:42,440 The temperatures get extremely high. 229 00:15:42,509 --> 00:15:45,443 Perhaps tens of millions of degrees. 230 00:15:45,512 --> 00:15:47,345 It's as if somebody could reach down into the center 231 00:15:47,414 --> 00:15:51,416 of the sun and place it in the atmosphere and let it 232 00:15:51,484 --> 00:15:54,419 release its energy. 233 00:15:54,721 --> 00:15:56,554 Narrator: This energy is instantly lethal when 234 00:15:56,623 --> 00:16:00,024 released upon human beings. 235 00:16:00,226 --> 00:16:02,193 Ted Postol: If your skin gets illuminated it will 236 00:16:02,262 --> 00:16:04,095 simply be turned into carbon. 237 00:16:04,164 --> 00:16:06,431 And in the case of people who were close enough to 238 00:16:06,499 --> 00:16:09,067 get that much light and heat on their bodies, they 239 00:16:09,135 --> 00:16:12,370 simply ceased to exist as living entities without 240 00:16:12,439 --> 00:16:14,539 them probably even being aware that anything had 241 00:16:14,607 --> 00:16:16,574 happened. 242 00:16:22,849 --> 00:16:25,483 Narrator: It's impossible to know exactly how many 243 00:16:25,552 --> 00:16:29,988 citizens are turned into simple piles of carbon 244 00:16:30,056 --> 00:16:32,557 during those first few seconds. 245 00:16:34,427 --> 00:16:37,862 The US Military maps the casualties. 246 00:16:37,931 --> 00:16:40,131 Within a radius of eight hundred feet from ground 247 00:16:40,200 --> 00:16:44,102 zero, almost no one survives. 248 00:16:44,170 --> 00:16:47,105 Some, exposed directly to the rays of the fireball 249 00:16:47,173 --> 00:16:50,842 seem to vanish completely. 250 00:16:52,178 --> 00:16:56,014 What remains are now called atomic shadows. 251 00:16:58,885 --> 00:17:02,320 These imprints of both people and objects can be 252 00:17:02,389 --> 00:17:05,089 found all over Hiroshima. 253 00:17:09,095 --> 00:17:10,728 Ted Postol: What happened was that the light from the 254 00:17:10,797 --> 00:17:13,598 fireball shined on the ground and it caused the 255 00:17:13,666 --> 00:17:16,534 concrete to actually darken. 256 00:17:16,603 --> 00:17:19,404 The light from the fireball was intercepted by this 257 00:17:19,472 --> 00:17:24,342 railing here, and so this bright area was not exposed 258 00:17:24,411 --> 00:17:27,011 to the extreme light of the fireball. 259 00:17:32,852 --> 00:17:34,986 Narrator: These Atomic shadows give scientists a 260 00:17:35,055 --> 00:17:38,890 tool to analyze the location of the explosion. 261 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:41,526 Ted Postol: And this allowed people to measure 262 00:17:41,594 --> 00:17:44,228 the direction and the height of burst of the 263 00:17:44,297 --> 00:17:47,799 nuclear weapon because they could form a plum line and 264 00:17:47,867 --> 00:17:49,801 from many different directions you can actually 265 00:17:49,869 --> 00:17:54,105 get the location of the nuclear explosion. 266 00:17:56,209 --> 00:17:57,942 Narrator: From their calculations, the 267 00:17:58,011 --> 00:18:01,646 scientists discover the Enola Gay hit incredibly 268 00:18:01,714 --> 00:18:08,319 close to the target, just 550 feet, less than two 269 00:18:08,388 --> 00:18:12,824 football fields away from the t shaped bridge. 270 00:18:15,995 --> 00:18:18,796 More than 50% of those killed within a half-mile 271 00:18:18,865 --> 00:18:23,000 of ground zero died of severe burns. 272 00:18:25,138 --> 00:18:29,707 Those who survive at that distance are barely alive. 273 00:18:31,111 --> 00:18:34,011 This man is suffering from the type of burns that 274 00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:37,682 plague Shigeko Sasamori. 275 00:18:38,651 --> 00:18:42,487 The flash burns over two thirds of her body. 276 00:18:42,555 --> 00:18:44,622 The little girl who had left the house that morning 277 00:18:44,691 --> 00:18:48,092 is unrecognizable to her mother when she finds 278 00:18:48,161 --> 00:18:52,063 Shigeko 5 days after the blast. 279 00:18:52,132 --> 00:18:54,999 Shigeko Sasamori: She heard my voice but it didn't look 280 00:18:55,068 --> 00:18:56,367 like me. 281 00:18:56,436 --> 00:19:02,106 Because my face and hair was like a big black football. 282 00:19:02,175 --> 00:19:08,112 All round and where is the nose where is the eyes. 283 00:19:08,181 --> 00:19:10,781 Couldn't tell all black. 284 00:19:11,885 --> 00:19:15,186 Man: Clothing ignited, thatched roofs of houses caught fire. 285 00:19:15,255 --> 00:19:17,355 The flash heat was intense enough to cause fires 286 00:19:17,423 --> 00:19:20,258 despite the distance of the fire ball from the ground.. 287 00:19:20,326 --> 00:19:22,160 Narrator: Anything exposed to the heat of the flash, a 288 00:19:22,228 --> 00:19:25,463 child's notebook, newspapers, the traditional 289 00:19:25,532 --> 00:19:30,168 paper soji screen, ignite instantly. 290 00:19:36,409 --> 00:19:39,977 Temperatures higher than 3200 degrees Fahrenheit 291 00:19:40,046 --> 00:19:45,183 fuse even roof tiles into unrecognizable shapes. 292 00:19:47,020 --> 00:19:49,187 Richard Rhodes: This intense flash of light, 293 00:19:49,255 --> 00:19:56,127 burned granite, burned steel, burned iron and glass. 294 00:19:59,966 --> 00:20:01,999 Whether you lived or died depended on how far away 295 00:20:02,068 --> 00:20:04,702 you were from ground zero. 296 00:20:04,771 --> 00:20:07,572 It didn't matter if you were Japanese or Martian. 297 00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:10,608 This was not an ideological bomb. 298 00:20:10,677 --> 00:20:14,478 This was a weapon of mass destruction, a weapon of 299 00:20:14,547 --> 00:20:16,480 terror. 300 00:20:18,218 --> 00:20:20,184 Narrator: Less than a mile from ground zero is the 301 00:20:20,253 --> 00:20:23,621 3-story school building where Takashi is playing 302 00:20:23,690 --> 00:20:25,923 hide and seek. 303 00:20:26,292 --> 00:20:29,760 The bomb's shockwave is about to hit. 304 00:20:30,363 --> 00:20:32,063 Takeshi Tanemori: I do not know exactly how it 305 00:20:32,131 --> 00:20:36,867 happened but our school building collapsed. 306 00:20:40,807 --> 00:20:45,509 The blast singed the left side of face I do not know 307 00:20:45,578 --> 00:20:48,179 how long under the debris. 308 00:20:48,248 --> 00:20:49,347 Pitch dark. 309 00:20:49,415 --> 00:20:50,915 You cannot see anything. 310 00:20:50,984 --> 00:20:55,486 Even my hands from my nose I could not see. 311 00:20:57,991 --> 00:21:00,057 Narrator: Takashi is not alone. 312 00:21:00,126 --> 00:21:02,960 There are thousands trapped beneath the rubble that was 313 00:21:03,029 --> 00:21:05,896 once downtown Hiroshima. 314 00:21:10,820 --> 00:21:13,721 Narrator: The blast wave created by the Little Boy 315 00:21:13,790 --> 00:21:17,892 atomic bomb flattens the city in less than 10 seconds. 316 00:21:17,961 --> 00:21:19,393 Male Military Voice: Over 60,000 buildings were 317 00:21:19,462 --> 00:21:22,697 destroyed or severely damaged by the atomic bomb. 318 00:21:22,765 --> 00:21:27,368 This represents over 67% of the city's structures. 319 00:21:29,706 --> 00:21:32,373 Narrator: A full minute after detonation the force 320 00:21:32,442 --> 00:21:36,410 of the shock wave jolts the crew of the Enola Gay, 9 321 00:21:36,479 --> 00:21:40,514 miles away, 29,000 feet in the air. 322 00:21:40,583 --> 00:21:42,583 Morris Jeppson: There was a slapping effect on the 323 00:21:42,652 --> 00:21:48,356 airplane it was the passage of a shock wave. 324 00:21:48,424 --> 00:21:51,726 And ok that's expected. 325 00:21:51,794 --> 00:21:57,631 And then a few seconds and another smaller slap and I 326 00:21:57,700 --> 00:22:02,036 don't' think anybody on the airplane knew what that was. 327 00:22:02,872 --> 00:22:05,506 Narrator: That second hit means the bomb has exploded 328 00:22:05,575 --> 00:22:11,846 as planned, 1900 feet above the city. 329 00:22:13,583 --> 00:22:16,984 To understand the dynamic forces of shockwaves, blast 330 00:22:17,053 --> 00:22:21,922 simulations are captured with high-speed photography. 331 00:22:23,393 --> 00:22:25,993 Upon explosion, a super-heated bubble of air 332 00:22:26,062 --> 00:22:31,465 violently pushes outward, creating a shock wave. 333 00:22:31,701 --> 00:22:34,335 Ted Postol: Now this shock wave as it expands outward 334 00:22:34,404 --> 00:22:37,805 will reach the ground and reflect off the ground, 335 00:22:37,874 --> 00:22:41,509 creating a combination of a reflected shock and a 336 00:22:41,577 --> 00:22:45,513 primary shock and so on the ground you will do much 337 00:22:45,581 --> 00:22:48,215 more damage than would otherwise be the case from 338 00:22:48,284 --> 00:22:49,984 the individual shocks. 339 00:22:50,053 --> 00:22:53,554 And this is why the attackers of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 340 00:22:53,623 --> 00:22:55,890 chose to detonate a weapon a couple thousand 341 00:22:55,958 --> 00:22:58,492 feet off the ground, basically to 342 00:22:58,561 --> 00:23:01,495 maximize the destruction to the target. 343 00:23:04,634 --> 00:23:07,134 Narrator: If Little Boy had been dropped on the ground 344 00:23:07,203 --> 00:23:09,236 the earth would have absorbed most of its 345 00:23:09,305 --> 00:23:11,038 energy. 346 00:23:11,107 --> 00:23:15,209 But detonation in the air forces the shock wave out 347 00:23:15,278 --> 00:23:18,979 flattening just about everything in its path. 348 00:23:22,185 --> 00:23:25,086 There is heavy damage for three miles in every 349 00:23:25,154 --> 00:23:27,221 direction. 350 00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:33,561 More than a half a century later, the once devastated 351 00:23:33,629 --> 00:23:37,698 city of Hiroshima is completely rebuilt. 352 00:23:37,767 --> 00:23:41,569 Few visible scars remain from the bombing. 353 00:23:41,637 --> 00:23:44,572 But there is one building that stood almost directly 354 00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:49,009 under the bomb's detonation and it is still here today 355 00:23:49,078 --> 00:23:52,113 as a symbol of peace. 356 00:23:52,181 --> 00:23:54,515 Once an exhibits building for local business and 357 00:23:54,584 --> 00:24:00,121 government, everyone inside was killed instantly. 358 00:24:01,657 --> 00:24:04,892 But the building still stands. 359 00:24:05,228 --> 00:24:08,395 Ted Postol: The dome was built of copper and copper 360 00:24:08,464 --> 00:24:12,266 melts at a low temperature, light from the fire ball 361 00:24:12,335 --> 00:24:15,936 was so intense that it basically melted the copper 362 00:24:16,005 --> 00:24:18,772 before the shockwave arrived. 363 00:24:18,841 --> 00:24:21,509 The shock wave came down vertically blew through 364 00:24:21,577 --> 00:24:25,079 this opening and just knocked each floor down as 365 00:24:25,148 --> 00:24:27,548 it propagated through. 366 00:24:27,617 --> 00:24:30,351 So this building is standing because of the 367 00:24:30,419 --> 00:24:33,554 peculiar accident that it was almost directly under 368 00:24:33,623 --> 00:24:35,689 ground zero. 369 00:24:36,726 --> 00:24:38,692 Narrator: Windows and flying debris become 370 00:24:38,761 --> 00:24:43,264 shrapnel as far as 12 miles away from the blast. 371 00:24:43,633 --> 00:24:46,100 The damage from the explosion is well 372 00:24:46,169 --> 00:24:51,372 documented after US troops arrive but on August 6th 373 00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:54,942 the violence of the moment is captured only in the 374 00:24:55,011 --> 00:24:57,478 survivor's memories. 375 00:24:59,148 --> 00:25:01,649 Many of Hiroshima's survivors have painted 376 00:25:01,717 --> 00:25:03,717 those first hours. 377 00:25:09,559 --> 00:25:14,528 Years later, Takashi Tanimori also wrote about them. 378 00:25:14,830 --> 00:25:18,265 Takashi Tanimori: Beneath the heap, I lay buried on 379 00:25:18,334 --> 00:25:23,604 my back, unable to move. 380 00:25:26,375 --> 00:25:28,976 Narrator: Trapped less than a mile from ground zero, 381 00:25:29,045 --> 00:25:32,279 Takashi can no longer hear the cries of help from his 382 00:25:32,348 --> 00:25:33,847 classmates. 383 00:25:36,085 --> 00:25:39,486 A young soldier digs him out from beneath the rubble. 384 00:25:39,555 --> 00:25:42,122 But he's not out of danger yet. 385 00:25:42,858 --> 00:25:44,692 Takashi Tanemori: The soldier carrying me weaved 386 00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:49,697 in and out of throngs of people who were screaming 387 00:25:49,765 --> 00:25:56,837 in agony, charred, dead or just barely alive. 388 00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:01,875 Creeping, stumbling, dragging their feet, 389 00:26:01,944 --> 00:26:06,780 looking for any escape the blazing inferno. 390 00:26:13,256 --> 00:26:16,090 Narrator: The military analysts studying the destruction 391 00:26:16,158 --> 00:26:18,692 report the beginning of a rare phenomenon. 392 00:26:20,229 --> 00:26:23,297 Man: In Hiroshima fires sprang up simultaneously 393 00:26:23,366 --> 00:26:26,900 all over the wide flat central area of the city. 394 00:26:28,371 --> 00:26:29,903 Richard Rhodes: People don't seem to understand 395 00:26:29,972 --> 00:26:33,607 about this bomb that it's main effect is fire. 396 00:26:33,809 --> 00:26:35,676 It's not as if a bomb started a fire in one 397 00:26:35,745 --> 00:26:39,013 corner of a street and the fire slowly worked its way 398 00:26:39,081 --> 00:26:40,681 up to the other corner. 399 00:26:40,750 --> 00:26:45,085 Everything was lit instantaneously. 400 00:26:46,822 --> 00:26:48,956 Narrator: These small flames represent the many 401 00:26:49,025 --> 00:26:51,692 fires burning in Hiroshima. 402 00:26:51,761 --> 00:26:54,762 Fires that were set not only by the initial flash 403 00:26:54,830 --> 00:26:57,564 but also by the collapse of gas lines and broken 404 00:26:57,633 --> 00:26:59,967 cooking stoves. 405 00:27:01,170 --> 00:27:04,238 The fires could be seen by the Enola Gay's crew from 406 00:27:04,307 --> 00:27:07,775 almost 30,000 feet above the city. 407 00:27:08,944 --> 00:27:11,011 Richard Rhodes: What they saw really rather horrified 408 00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:12,446 them. 409 00:27:14,317 --> 00:27:17,818 Morris Jeppson: Down on the ground was a spreading mass 410 00:27:17,887 --> 00:27:22,222 of flickering lights, which had to be flames of things 411 00:27:22,291 --> 00:27:23,991 burning. 412 00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:26,560 Richard Rhodes: There were fires everywhere. 413 00:27:26,629 --> 00:27:29,430 One of the crew said, "I looked for a while and 414 00:27:29,498 --> 00:27:32,032 counted for a while and then I stopped counting." 415 00:27:35,404 --> 00:27:38,072 Morris Jeppson: Now the comprehension of what was going 416 00:27:38,140 --> 00:27:41,041 on down there was settling on people's minds, including 417 00:27:41,110 --> 00:27:43,944 mine, that there was bad destruction and loss of 418 00:27:44,013 --> 00:27:46,947 life down below. 419 00:27:47,016 --> 00:27:52,453 And the hope in everyone's mind was that the explosion 420 00:27:52,521 --> 00:27:57,658 was of magnitude that it might affect the end the 421 00:27:57,727 --> 00:28:01,295 war which it did. 422 00:28:03,232 --> 00:28:04,932 Narrator: The flaming points of light below the 423 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:10,170 Enola Gay are about to turn into something much worse. 424 00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:14,541 To see what happens when many small fires are set 425 00:28:14,610 --> 00:28:18,479 off simultaneously, Hughes Associates, a group of fire 426 00:28:18,547 --> 00:28:22,416 protection engineers, designed a simulation. 427 00:28:22,618 --> 00:28:23,817 Jason Floyd: First the fire will be very small and 428 00:28:23,886 --> 00:28:25,719 eventually we'll start to see an effect developed as 429 00:28:25,788 --> 00:28:27,588 what happened at Hiroshima. 430 00:28:27,656 --> 00:28:29,556 Think of it as rather than being cylinders to being 431 00:28:29,625 --> 00:28:31,992 city blocks of burning buildings. 432 00:28:35,030 --> 00:28:36,497 In the city is you have uneven terrain, you have 433 00:28:36,565 --> 00:28:39,133 hills, you have buildings of different sizes so you 434 00:28:39,201 --> 00:28:41,368 have uneven airflow we've set up these sheets of dry 435 00:28:41,437 --> 00:28:44,104 wall with gaps in them to sort of represent this idea 436 00:28:44,173 --> 00:28:47,207 of having uneven terrain which is going to introduce 437 00:28:47,276 --> 00:28:51,011 a bit of a swirl into the flow feeding the fire. 438 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:52,880 Narrator: The heat of the flames sucks in air from 439 00:28:52,948 --> 00:28:54,915 the ground. 440 00:28:55,117 --> 00:28:59,653 This creates gale force winds of up to 50 miles per hour. 441 00:29:00,022 --> 00:29:01,588 Jason Floyd: At points of time over the city you 442 00:29:01,657 --> 00:29:03,657 would have had "fire whirls" these tornados of 443 00:29:03,726 --> 00:29:05,959 flame which would appear and disappear as the air is 444 00:29:06,028 --> 00:29:08,729 entrained into the fire and forms these vortexes, much 445 00:29:08,798 --> 00:29:12,132 like a dust devil on a hot summer day. 446 00:29:12,468 --> 00:29:15,269 Narrator: Whether flames from candles, canisters or 447 00:29:15,337 --> 00:29:19,506 city blocks, the fires merge as the heat and winds 448 00:29:19,575 --> 00:29:22,276 become more intense. 449 00:29:22,344 --> 00:29:26,046 In Hiroshima the mass fire burns for 6 hours and 450 00:29:26,115 --> 00:29:30,083 consumes 4 and-a half-square miles. 451 00:29:31,821 --> 00:29:36,757 What remains is what survivors call a "city of death." 452 00:29:39,195 --> 00:29:43,063 Shigeko Sasamori: Hiroshima city was red ocean, red 453 00:29:43,132 --> 00:29:48,635 ocean fire burning whole entire city is burning. 454 00:29:50,773 --> 00:29:52,706 Narrator: The rivers of Hiroshima are one of the 455 00:29:52,775 --> 00:29:56,243 only safe havens for survivors seeking safety 456 00:29:56,312 --> 00:29:58,812 from the heat and flames. 457 00:30:01,617 --> 00:30:05,085 Despite her serious burns, young Shigeko Sasamori makes 458 00:30:05,154 --> 00:30:08,889 it to a river bank, only to be surrounded by 459 00:30:08,958 --> 00:30:11,758 death and suffering. 460 00:30:11,827 --> 00:30:14,595 Shigeko Sasamori: I heard a baby screaming. 461 00:30:14,663 --> 00:30:18,432 I still remember very clearly the mother was 462 00:30:18,501 --> 00:30:25,105 bleeding all over and, and tried to nurse baby and 463 00:30:25,174 --> 00:30:30,911 baby was so , when I remember that part of it I 464 00:30:30,980 --> 00:30:33,947 just can't take it. 465 00:30:41,323 --> 00:30:42,723 Narrator: The river is choked with floating 466 00:30:42,791 --> 00:30:44,892 corpses. 467 00:30:45,127 --> 00:30:49,196 Many of those still alive are barely recognizable. 468 00:30:50,132 --> 00:30:53,867 Shigeko Sasamori: People themselves just horrible 469 00:30:53,936 --> 00:30:59,473 looking, the hair with ashes, and kinked up, and 470 00:30:59,542 --> 00:31:03,110 some were skin hanging on. 471 00:31:04,413 --> 00:31:09,316 Just dead people walking, like a ghost. 472 00:31:12,721 --> 00:31:14,721 Gusterson: Eye witnesses will talk about survivors 473 00:31:14,790 --> 00:31:16,957 walking out with their hands in front of them, 474 00:31:17,026 --> 00:31:19,793 apparently it dulled the pain of skin that was 475 00:31:19,862 --> 00:31:22,729 falling off, but it also made people look like 476 00:31:22,798 --> 00:31:25,198 walking ghosts. 477 00:31:26,302 --> 00:31:28,168 Richard Rhodes: I remember one woman described seeing 478 00:31:28,237 --> 00:31:31,238 a man walking down the road holding his eyeball in his 479 00:31:31,307 --> 00:31:33,240 hand. 480 00:31:33,309 --> 00:31:37,778 It's hard for us to imagine how dantesque the world was 481 00:31:37,846 --> 00:31:40,647 that was created by the explosion of this beautiful 482 00:31:40,716 --> 00:31:43,750 invention of physics. 483 00:31:44,086 --> 00:31:48,555 Shigeko Sasamori: If there is a hell, that was a hell. 484 00:31:49,625 --> 00:31:52,059 Narrator: Thousands, in desperate need of help, 485 00:31:52,127 --> 00:31:55,829 have nowhere to turn and no one to treat them. 486 00:32:02,054 --> 00:32:04,021 Man: Medical facilities, crowded into the heart of the 487 00:32:04,089 --> 00:32:08,926 city were crippled or wiped out by the explosion. 488 00:32:08,994 --> 00:32:10,661 The impact of the atomic bomb disrupted. 489 00:32:10,729 --> 00:32:13,830 Narrator: The normal fabric of life in Hiroshima is shattered. 490 00:32:15,301 --> 00:32:18,001 Before the attack there are more than 200 doctors in 491 00:32:18,070 --> 00:32:23,774 the city, 90 percent are killed or injured that day. 492 00:32:24,343 --> 00:32:26,109 Gusterson: The scale of destruction was so 493 00:32:26,178 --> 00:32:30,414 enormous, it's not just the 10s of 1000s of dead and 494 00:32:30,482 --> 00:32:33,951 incinerated bodies, there were hardly any hospitals 495 00:32:34,019 --> 00:32:37,087 functioning, hardly any doctors functioning. 496 00:32:37,156 --> 00:32:39,122 You have thousands of people dying, gravely ill 497 00:32:39,191 --> 00:32:42,326 with very little infrastructure to help them. 498 00:32:44,830 --> 00:32:50,167 Narrator: Of the area's 45 hospitals only 3 were usable. 499 00:32:50,703 --> 00:32:54,771 But more than the city's infrastructure is wiped out. 500 00:32:55,341 --> 00:32:57,307 Richard Rhodes: When you destroy a city you're 501 00:32:57,376 --> 00:33:01,511 destroying an intricate web of social and personal 502 00:33:01,580 --> 00:33:03,914 connections. 503 00:33:05,784 --> 00:33:09,186 One of the horrors for the survivors was that their 504 00:33:09,254 --> 00:33:11,922 world had been burned away. 505 00:33:11,991 --> 00:33:16,026 They were left with their burns trying to decide 506 00:33:16,095 --> 00:33:18,462 where the world was. 507 00:33:19,765 --> 00:33:21,131 Narrator: People who had managed to survive the 508 00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:24,301 attack are suddenly struck down with a mysterious 509 00:33:24,370 --> 00:33:29,239 illness some called "Disease X." 510 00:33:29,308 --> 00:33:32,242 Thousands of survivors report vomiting, purple 511 00:33:32,311 --> 00:33:36,113 sores and hair loss in the days and weeks after the 512 00:33:36,181 --> 00:33:37,681 blast. 513 00:33:39,485 --> 00:33:43,587 The US Government knows it's radiation poisoning. 514 00:33:43,655 --> 00:33:46,390 But they don't fully understand it. 515 00:33:46,759 --> 00:33:47,991 Richard Rhodes: The only studies that had been done 516 00:33:48,060 --> 00:33:51,528 prior to that time, had been done on rabbits. 517 00:33:51,597 --> 00:33:54,031 There was almost no literature about whole body 518 00:33:54,099 --> 00:33:56,833 exposure in human beings. 519 00:33:59,638 --> 00:34:01,972 Narrator: Two years after the bomb was dropped the U.S. 520 00:34:02,041 --> 00:34:04,808 government creates the Atomic Bomb Casualty 521 00:34:04,877 --> 00:34:08,645 Commission, the ABCC. 522 00:34:12,217 --> 00:34:15,085 Their mission is not to treat the survivors, but to 523 00:34:15,154 --> 00:34:19,956 observe and study them to see what radiation exposure 524 00:34:20,025 --> 00:34:23,427 would do to their health and mortality. 525 00:34:26,465 --> 00:34:30,400 Koko Tanimoto Kondo was one of their subjects. 526 00:34:30,803 --> 00:34:33,470 Less than a mile from ground zero, Koko was an 527 00:34:33,539 --> 00:34:36,373 eight-month old baby in her mother's arms when the bomb 528 00:34:36,442 --> 00:34:37,941 exploded. 529 00:34:38,010 --> 00:34:41,411 Koko Tanimoto Kondo: This is area where our house was 530 00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:42,913 located. 531 00:34:42,981 --> 00:34:45,515 Now it's a new building It's kind of difficult to 532 00:34:45,584 --> 00:34:49,886 tell but yes, this is the place. 533 00:34:50,122 --> 00:34:54,491 At 8:15 I was with my mother and the house was 534 00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:56,960 destroyed. 535 00:35:00,632 --> 00:35:02,566 Narrator: Although Koko survived the blast and the 536 00:35:02,634 --> 00:35:06,536 fire what was not known was the effect radiation would 537 00:35:06,605 --> 00:35:09,239 have on her body. 538 00:35:11,210 --> 00:35:14,077 In the first milliseconds of Little Boy's detonation, 539 00:35:14,146 --> 00:35:17,447 electromagnetic energy, in the form of gamma rays, 540 00:35:17,516 --> 00:35:21,084 neutrons and x-rays, sprays up to 2 miles in every 541 00:35:21,153 --> 00:35:23,086 direction. 542 00:35:24,056 --> 00:35:26,823 The waves and tiny particles, invisible and 543 00:35:26,892 --> 00:35:32,496 odorless, bombard anyone exposd with cell-damaging energy. 544 00:35:32,564 --> 00:35:37,267 For almost all within a half-mile, the rays are deadly. 545 00:35:38,670 --> 00:35:40,003 Hugh Gusterson: Many of the survivors carry around with 546 00:35:40,072 --> 00:35:42,239 them the fear that the radiation is, like, a sort 547 00:35:42,307 --> 00:35:44,641 of time bomb in their bodies. 548 00:35:44,710 --> 00:35:46,109 They've lived with the constant fear that they 549 00:35:46,178 --> 00:35:48,879 would come down with leukemia or cancer, that 550 00:35:48,947 --> 00:35:50,547 they would give birth to children with birth 551 00:35:50,616 --> 00:35:52,716 defects and so on. 552 00:35:56,522 --> 00:35:58,355 Narrator: Several years after her house collapsed 553 00:35:58,423 --> 00:36:03,894 around her, Koko became part of the ABCC's study. 554 00:36:04,263 --> 00:36:07,397 Koko Kondo: The whole world wanted to know how the 555 00:36:07,466 --> 00:36:10,700 radiation affected the human body. 556 00:36:10,769 --> 00:36:13,904 The best way is to check the children. 557 00:36:14,406 --> 00:36:16,806 Narrator: For a decade, Koko spends one day of 558 00:36:16,875 --> 00:36:20,310 every year being examined. 559 00:36:20,879 --> 00:36:23,947 Thousands of survivors are still participating in what 560 00:36:24,016 --> 00:36:26,816 is now one of the longest running medical studies in 561 00:36:26,885 --> 00:36:29,052 the world. 562 00:36:31,056 --> 00:36:33,857 The ABCC, now the Radiation Effects Research 563 00:36:33,926 --> 00:36:38,161 Foundation, has collected data from over 120,000 564 00:36:38,230 --> 00:36:41,398 atomic bomb survivors. 565 00:36:43,335 --> 00:36:44,935 Today, with the collaboration of the 566 00:36:45,003 --> 00:36:48,205 Japanese government, their information continues to 567 00:36:48,273 --> 00:36:52,475 shed light on how radiation affects the human body. 568 00:36:52,544 --> 00:36:54,878 Evan Douple: The reason we as mamals die 569 00:36:54,947 --> 00:36:59,416 from radiation exposure is simply because cells have 570 00:36:59,484 --> 00:37:04,754 DNA damage, chromosone damage and they stop dividing. 571 00:37:04,990 --> 00:37:08,825 Narrator: When cells stop dividing the immune system 572 00:37:08,894 --> 00:37:14,497 fails, internal organs shut down, fetuses stop developing. 573 00:37:14,566 --> 00:37:17,367 The process of life ends. 574 00:37:19,771 --> 00:37:21,972 But this understanding comes at a cost for 575 00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:24,407 survivors like Koko. 576 00:37:26,778 --> 00:37:30,313 As she hits puberty, the examinations at the ABCC 577 00:37:30,382 --> 00:37:32,782 become difficult. 578 00:37:33,986 --> 00:37:38,188 At 14, Koko is ushered from her private exam room to an 579 00:37:38,257 --> 00:37:40,523 auditorium. 580 00:37:41,293 --> 00:37:44,294 Koko Kondo: The doctor told me to go up the stage. 581 00:37:44,363 --> 00:37:47,897 But the spotlight was so strong so I could not see 582 00:37:47,966 --> 00:37:51,134 how many people inside, but I could hear the different 583 00:37:51,203 --> 00:37:54,971 languages so I could guess this must be the doctor's 584 00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:56,673 meeting. 585 00:38:02,681 --> 00:38:06,416 Then doctor said, "Please take off your gown." 586 00:38:08,353 --> 00:38:09,719 Puberty age. 587 00:38:09,788 --> 00:38:14,658 Your body change from childhood to adult woman. 588 00:38:16,995 --> 00:38:19,496 I was just so furious. 589 00:38:19,564 --> 00:38:23,633 Yes August 6th, 1945 I was in Hiroshima but I didn't 590 00:38:23,702 --> 00:38:25,035 started that war. 591 00:38:25,103 --> 00:38:27,737 Why do I have to show almost naked body to the 592 00:38:27,806 --> 00:38:29,906 people? 593 00:38:33,445 --> 00:38:37,347 I couldn't tell that to my father, or my mother or my 594 00:38:37,416 --> 00:38:44,521 friends, it's something deep inside for a long time. 595 00:38:50,996 --> 00:38:52,962 Evan Douple: It's quite reasonable that they might 596 00:38:53,031 --> 00:38:56,366 feel they were treated like guinea pigs. 597 00:38:56,435 --> 00:38:59,135 But because they have been so faithful and loyal and 598 00:38:59,204 --> 00:39:03,306 contributing, their legacy is that their information 599 00:39:03,375 --> 00:39:07,177 is going to benefit all of mankind. 600 00:39:09,047 --> 00:39:11,614 Narrator: Koko has never been able to have children, 601 00:39:11,683 --> 00:39:15,018 a possible result of radiation exposure. 602 00:39:16,321 --> 00:39:19,089 But her participation in the study is part of a 603 00:39:19,157 --> 00:39:22,292 different sort of legacy. 604 00:39:22,828 --> 00:39:26,496 The ABCC data is used to help treat others exposed 605 00:39:26,565 --> 00:39:31,267 to radiation, like the victims of Chernobyl. 606 00:39:31,636 --> 00:39:40,910 Koko Kondo: When I heard that, I was pleased that my 607 00:39:40,979 --> 00:39:44,814 data is useful for others. 608 00:39:46,284 --> 00:39:48,918 Narrator: Today scientific details about radiation 609 00:39:48,987 --> 00:39:53,323 studies are freely shared internationally. 610 00:39:53,825 --> 00:39:56,393 But there are other aspects of the atomic bombing of 611 00:39:56,461 --> 00:39:59,629 Hiroshima that are not easy to uncover. 612 00:40:01,583 --> 00:40:04,517 Secrecy has always enshrouded the world of 613 00:40:04,586 --> 00:40:08,221 atomic science from the conception of the bombs 614 00:40:08,290 --> 00:40:10,490 even to today. 615 00:40:10,559 --> 00:40:11,891 For years, the U.S. 616 00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:14,928 government confiscated and suppressed nearly all 617 00:40:14,996 --> 00:40:17,931 images and first-person accounts of the bombing of 618 00:40:17,999 --> 00:40:21,301 Hiroshima and its immediate aftermath. 619 00:40:25,140 --> 00:40:30,276 It wasn't until 1952, seven years after the bomb fell, 620 00:40:30,345 --> 00:40:34,414 that these images, the only photos taken on the day of 621 00:40:34,483 --> 00:40:38,118 the bombing, were made public. 622 00:40:42,557 --> 00:40:44,991 Gusterson: Military censors were aware that public 623 00:40:45,060 --> 00:40:48,528 opinion back home could turn to some degree against 624 00:40:48,597 --> 00:40:52,165 the bombing if they were exposed to images that are 625 00:40:52,234 --> 00:40:54,768 very painful to see of what exactly the atomic bomb had 626 00:40:54,836 --> 00:40:58,071 done to human bodies on a large scale. 627 00:41:01,743 --> 00:41:04,477 Narrator: While the military didn't want to share details of 628 00:41:04,546 --> 00:41:07,447 the aftermath with the public, they did want to 629 00:41:07,516 --> 00:41:10,683 understand the power of these new weapons. 630 00:41:11,353 --> 00:41:15,722 And they used film footage of later atomic tests to do it. 631 00:41:43,351 --> 00:41:46,119 The footage showed not only effects of the heat ray and 632 00:41:46,188 --> 00:41:49,923 shock wave on different materials and structures, 633 00:41:49,991 --> 00:41:53,026 but by studying the explosion itself, analysts 634 00:41:53,094 --> 00:41:57,197 could measure a weapon's distance and yield. 635 00:41:59,701 --> 00:42:02,569 Many of these films were placed under lock and key 636 00:42:02,637 --> 00:42:05,672 and to this day remain classified. 637 00:42:12,514 --> 00:42:15,248 The military analysts, who witnessed the enormous 638 00:42:15,317 --> 00:42:19,018 scale and chilling effects of atomic weapons, close 639 00:42:19,087 --> 00:42:22,255 their report with a grim observation. 640 00:42:23,024 --> 00:42:24,524 Man: There is no more forceful argument for 641 00:42:24,593 --> 00:42:28,862 peace than the sight of the devastation of Hiroshima. 642 00:42:33,835 --> 00:42:36,469 Ted Postol: These weapons, they are so indiscriminate. 643 00:42:36,538 --> 00:42:38,404 They are so murderous. 644 00:42:38,473 --> 00:42:41,107 You have to ultimately conclude that these are 645 00:42:41,176 --> 00:42:43,443 weapons of mass genocide. 646 00:42:47,449 --> 00:42:50,116 Narrator: By the mid-1950s the US military was in a 647 00:42:50,185 --> 00:42:53,653 global nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, and 648 00:42:53,722 --> 00:42:57,123 was testing nuclear weapons up to 1000 times more 649 00:42:57,192 --> 00:43:00,693 powerful than those used on Japan. 650 00:43:13,008 --> 00:43:15,742 Richard Rhodes: We're balanced on a knife-edge. 651 00:43:15,810 --> 00:43:17,744 And until we get rid of all the nuclear weapons in the 652 00:43:17,812 --> 00:43:19,913 world and keep it that way, we're always going to be 653 00:43:19,981 --> 00:43:21,147 balanced. 654 00:43:21,216 --> 00:43:23,283 In fact even without nuclear weapons we're 655 00:43:23,351 --> 00:43:25,718 always going to be balanced on the knife-edge because 656 00:43:25,787 --> 00:43:28,488 we know how to make them. 657 00:43:30,325 --> 00:43:32,625 Narrator: Today, it's difficult to see evidence 658 00:43:32,694 --> 00:43:35,161 of the once-devastated Hiroshima. 659 00:43:37,532 --> 00:43:40,333 The museums and monuments of Peace Park are a 660 00:43:40,402 --> 00:43:46,039 reminder of what happened on August 6th, 1945. 661 00:43:48,410 --> 00:43:52,712 Inside this mound are the remains of thousands bodies 662 00:43:52,781 --> 00:43:56,349 not recognizable and never claimed. 663 00:43:57,152 --> 00:43:59,552 But the most powerful reminders come from those 664 00:43:59,621 --> 00:44:03,723 who survived the only ones who can tell us what it's 665 00:44:03,792 --> 00:44:08,261 like to live through an atomic attack. 666 00:44:09,130 --> 00:44:14,067 Koko: Only one bomb changed the whole thing. 667 00:44:14,135 --> 00:44:17,236 We have to learn. 668 00:44:17,305 --> 00:44:19,739 We cannot make the same mistake. 669 00:44:19,808 --> 00:44:22,008 No. 670 00:44:22,711 --> 00:44:26,546 Takashi: The greatest way to avenge your enemy is by 671 00:44:26,614 --> 00:44:29,482 learning to forgive. 672 00:44:29,985 --> 00:44:34,354 I hope I am able to give my children a better world 673 00:44:34,422 --> 00:44:40,360 than I received, by telling the story, the lessons that 674 00:44:40,428 --> 00:44:45,131 we have learned, so that's my desire.