This is the story of the first ever use of a weapon of mass destruction
Very recently the weapon we are about to deliver was successfully tested in the States.
We've received orders to drop it on the enemy.
It is the most destructive weapon ever produced.
The target was an empire with its own secret weapon:
the suicide bomber.
I trained myself that I could die at any time.
On the 6th August 1945, a bomb unlike any other fell from the skies above Hiroshima.
The bomb was designed by some of the world's finest scientists.
Using it was one of the most momentous decisions ever made.
Soldiers and sailors are the target, not women and children.
A true soldier would rather die than surrender!
This is the story of the Aircrew who flew the mission, and dropped the bomb.
I'm not thinking about the people who got killed or hurt,
I'm thinking about the ones that did not get killed or hurt.
And it's the story of the people of Hiroshima
who were the first ever victims of a nuclear attack.
When something as devastating as a nuclear weapon is used,
people are powerless, just like ants, or insects.
The entire city of Hiroshima was annihilated in just a few seconds.
The bomb helped bring the Second World War to an end,
and it marked the beginning of a new chapter in Human History.
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At the top-secret research facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico,
a heavily armed convoy was loaded with parts for a new kind of bomb.
This was the start of a journey that would end in Hiroshima.
This bomb was the product of three years' research,
and had cost $2 billion to develop.
But at this stage, the technology was still completely untested.
Two days later, there was a chance to find out.
In the desert of New Mexico, the scientists and soldiers of the Manhattan Project
gathered for the first ever test explosion of an atomic bomb.
A hundred to one, we crack the earth's crust, and destroy the whole world.
Fifty to one we ignite the atmosphere, and only destroy New Mexico.
Someone shut Thirmy up, he's frightening the MPs.
Ten to one it fizzles out.
If that weapon fizzles out, each of you can look forward
to a lifetime testifying in front of Congressional Investigation Committees!
Six, five, four, three,
two, one, zero.
The explosion vaporised the stainless steel tower holding the bomb.
The intense heat melted the desert sand,
leaving an area of glass.
The force of the explosion was estimated
to be the equivalent of 67 million sticks of dynamite.
The bomb had originally been intended for use against Nazi Germany,
but its backers now had another target in mind.
- I'm very proud of you! - Thank you.
Well done.
The war's over, General.
Yep! As soon as we've dropped a few of these things on Japan!
Good work.
For Scientific Director, Robert Oppenheimer,
it was a moment of terrible truth.
Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
By July 1945, the war in Europe was over.
Nazi Germany was defeated.
But in the Pacific, the war against Japan was raging on.
After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor,
American forces had fought their way back across the Pacific,
island by island, with savage hand-to-hand fighting.
But Japan's main armies were still intact, and undefeated.
The Americans had tried firebombing the Japanese into submission.
City after city was reduced to rubble,
but still the Japanese refused to surrender.
So the Allies now faced the prospect of a full-scale invasion.
With some estimates putting their losses as high as a million casualties,
and many more Japanese.
In Japan, at the time, the Emperor was Head of State,
and also a living god,
but day-to-day power rested with the Special War Direction Council.
Prime Minister Suzuki and Foreign Minister Togo
were considering a negotiated settlement.
But Army Minister General Koretchika Anami was determined to fight on.
Soviet mediation is still our best hope of holding onto power
Surrender is out of the question
We have to find a way to bring the war to an end quickly
Why?
The navy may have failed us
but the army will show what is possible in this final battle
Anami's plan was for an all-out, final battle.
When our soldiers make the glorious final sacrifice
and attack the invaders head-on before they leave the beaches
then we shall win our greatest victory.
No-one doubts our warrior' spirit
but spirit is no substitide for ammunition or fuel nor will it feed our people
The Americans have no stomach for casualties
We can break their will to continue the fight
all we need is courage and determination
In Hiroshima, as in the rest of Japan,
soldiers and civilians were being prepared for the coming invasion.
The Japanese military were relying on a powerful weapon:
people's willingness to die for the Emperor.
Ordinary soldiers learned how to strap bombs to their bodies
and throw themselves under tanks.
Dr Shuntaro Hida was working at the Army Hospital in Hiroshima.
One of his duties was to train medical orderlies as suicide bombers.
The soldiers were trained to strap bombs to their bodies,
and throw themselves against the tanks.
At the military hospital we had to teach this.
The officers, in particular, were resigned to the fact
that once we had gone to the Front, we would not return, we would die.
I trained myself that I could die, at any time.
The whole population was to be part of the battle against the invaders.
Even schoolgirls were trained to attack American soldiers with sharpened bamboo spears.
A bloodbath seemed inevitable.
The man who would have to authorise the invasion was
American President, Harry Truman.
On 16th July he had just arrived in Berlin for the Potsdam Conference,
where he was meeting his fellow Allied leaders.
That very night, came news of the successful New Mexico bomb test.
Listen to this. Operated on this morning, the results seem satisfactory.
The test has already exceeded expectations.
They did it!
Now the boys may be spared an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands.
I'll drink to that.
Truman soon received a more detailed account of the test
and discussed the news of the bomb with the british prime minister Winston Churchill
Then he decided to tell Stalin
so on July 24th after the plenary meeting had ended
Truman took the soviet leader aside
On Truman' staff was a young naval lieutenant George Elsey
the last surviving witness to these events
He remarked to Stalin, the US had a powerful new weapon
and Stalin said, what is the effect
he hoped it would be to put to good use
We have developed a new, very powerful destructive weapon
which we have tested
The exchange was so low-key
that Truman's interpreter wanted to make sure
Stalin had understood a really grasp significance
that "a powerful new weapon" really meant such a weapon
All he said was that he was very happy to hear it
and hope we'd make good use of it against the japanese
Of course, at that time, nobody on our side
knew the depth of soviet penetration into Los Alamos
and that Stalin knew perfectly well what Truman was talking about
The only thing I'd guess that Stalin did not know was the Trinity had taken place
and it's possible that he even knew that
But before going ahead with the new bomb,
Truman gave the Japanese one last chance to surrender.
The Americans had broken the secret Japanese codes,
and could decipher military and diplomatic cables.
So, they knew their demands for total,
unconditional surrender had been seen as a threat to the Emperor.
Now they decided to alter the terms,
and give the Japanese a way out.
The Potsdam Declaration called upon unconditional surrender.
It was modified in the light of this, what we were learning from the intercepts,
to read, unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Japan.
We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim
now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces.
That left the door open for a retention of the Emperor.
The modified ultimatum was broadcast to Japan.
But ironically, the softening of the surrender terms
seems to have backfired.
This is a most promising development
For the enemy to say something like that
means circumstances have arisen that froce them to end of the war
This is why they are no longer insisting on full unconditional surrender
Precisely at a time like this if we hold firm they will yield before we do
Prime Minister Suzuki announced that his government would ignore the Potsdam Declaration.
He used the word, nokusatsu, meaning, to kill with silent contempt.
From that moment,the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima was inevitable.
The bomb left San Francisco on board the USS Indianapolis, two hours
after the successful Trinity test in New Mexico.
It travelled across the Pacific on a ten-day voyage to the island of Tinian,
just six hours flying time from Japan.
The island was the biggest air base in the world, with four large runways,
and it was home to more than 500 B-29 Super Fortresses.
It was also home to the 509th Composite Group,
the men who would drop the atom bomb on Japan.
In charge was Commanding Officer, Colonel Paul Tibbets,
a veteran of the bombing campaign against the Germans.
At 29 years of age I was so shot in the ass with confidence I didn't think there was anything I couldn't do.
The two key members of his crew were bombardier Tom Ferraby,
and navigator, Dutch Van Kirk.
You never heard the word atomic, nuclear, or anything of that type around the group.
We always referred to the weapon as, the gimmick, the weapon, that sort of thing.
And, if you did figure it out,
you'd better be smart enough not to talk about it.
All right, gentlemen, cities have been signed off.
Kyoto is out, Stimpson likes the temples too much,
but we've got Nyagada, Kurkurra, Nagasaki, and Hiroshima.
They're the only major cities left we haven't roasted.
And the primary? The primary is Hiroshima. All right.
Have you worked out an aiming point?
The T-shaped bridge. Here.
That's the most perfect AP I've seen in this whole damn war.
Angle of approach: bomb drop like this.
Prevailing winds from the north. You may want to come in this way,
then you'll be flying with the wind, and you'll clear the target zone.
Too risky. We'll fly into the wind. That way we're slower and more accurate.
You may get caught in the blast.
Once I make the dive turn, I'll have a tail wind,
we'll be out quicker. Anyway, we'll take that risk.
We want to be as accurate as possible, don't we?
Hiroshima was an important military base, the Headquarters of the Second General Army,
with a key role in the defence against the expected invasion.
Akiko Takakura,who was nineteen, and working as a bank clerk in the city centre,
remembers the atmosphere at the time.
People called it an army city.
Everywhere you looked you saw the army,
and there were always a lot of ships transporting soldiers from the port.
All the major cities of Japan had already been the targets of bombing raids,
so everybody living in Hiroshima expected that Hiroshima would be targeted soon.
What no one could realise was that the city had been preserved for a reason:
the Americans had deliberately avoided firebombing Hiroshima
so they could measure the precise effects of the atom bomb.
On the evening of 4th August, Paul Tibbets called his men together.
The bombing mission was set for the following night,
when the clouds over Japan were due to clear.
The moment has arrived. This is what we've all been working towards.
Very recently the weapon we're about to deliver was successfully tested in the States.
We have received orders to drop it on the enemy.
There will be three possible targets.
In order of priority, they are Hiroshima, Kurkurra, Nagasaki.
The bomb you are going to drop is something new in the history of warfare.
It is the most destructive weapon ever produced.
We think it's going to knock out everything within a three-mile area (4,8km).
Roll film. Kill the lights.
Weapons specialist Deke Parsons
had brought film of the New Mexico explosion.
But the projector jammed.
The film you are now not about to see
was made of the only test we have performed.
I was in a B-29, looking down on the target,
in the darkness, and I can say that it is the brightest
and the hottest thing on this earth since creation.
This is what happened.
The flash of the explosion was seen for ten miles (16km).
A soldier 10,000 feet (3 km) away was knocked off his feet.
Another soldier,more than five miles (8 km) away, was temporarily blinded.
Those of us who were there, knew it was the beginning of a new age.
No one knows exactly what will happen when the bomb is dropped from the air:
that has never been done before.
We expect a cloud, this shape,
rise to at least 30,000 feet (9 km), maybe 60,000 feet (18 km),
preceded by a flash of light much brighter than the sun.
A combat version of the bomb has now been assembled and ready.
All we are waiting for is an end to the rainstorms over Japan,
so we can see our target.
Right, men, I know some of you have seen a lot of action already,
and I picked you because you're the best available,
but let me tell you all, beside this mission,
whatever you've done before in this war is small potatoes.
I am personally honoured, and I'm sure all of you are,
to have been chosen to take part in this raid,
which will shorten the war by at least six months.
You're now the hottest crews in the Air Force.
There will be no talking about this to anyone.
No talking, even among yourselves. No letters, no writing home.
No mentioning of the slightest possibility of a mission.
- Is that clear? - Yes, sir!
The next morning, the aircrew on Tinian woke to a disturbing sound,
once again a B-29 had crashed on the runway.
The crash alarmed Parsons, the weapons specialist.
It was the day of the mission,
and they were planning to load the bomb on to the plane, fully armed.
The bomb's firing mechanism used gunpowder
to force two separate pieces of uranium together,
to start a nuclear reaction.
Parsons' worry was that if the plane crashed on take off,
the firing mechanism would be triggered, and they would blow up the whole island.
So, without authorisation, he changed the plan.
I think it's better I load the powder charges into the gun barrel
after we've cleared the island.
Have you made the assembly with the powder charges before? Do you know how to do it?
Nope. But I've got all day and night to learn.
We don't take off till 02:00. There's time.
If Parsons got it wrong, there was a serious risk the whole mission,
and the bomb, would be wasted.
Parsons sat in that airplane for several hours,
rehearsing exactly what he was going to have to do,
removal of the breechblock, inserting the powder, hooking up the thing.
He made it, this time is when he made his detailed check-off list.
And he practised that for half a day,
and his hands were beaten up from handling this thing.
For God's sakes, man! Why don't you let me lend you a pair of pigskin gloves?
I wouldn't dare! I've got to feel to touch.
Looks like we'll be bombing the Japs with dirty hands!
Paul Tibbets had reached a decision of his own: as commanding officer,
he was also planning to pilot the strike plane. As was traditional, he chose a name for it.
I said, I'd like to name it after my mother.
Her name was Enola Gay, and I know that there'll never be another B-29,
I don't think there'll be an airplane flying, that will have the name Enola Gay on it.
I think the airplane will go down in history,
and I want it to be with a good omen.
Tibbets decision came as a shock to Captain Bob Lewis.
He had always flown that plane, and assumed he would be the pilot.
Why the hell are they putting that on my airplane? What's going on?
Number one, it's not your airplane, it belongs to United States Air Corps,
and number two, I'm the organisation commander,
I can do anything I want with any one of those airplanes, including yours!
He shut up. That was the only discussion.
Dismissed!
For most citizens of Hiroshima,
5th August was uneventful.
As the day closed, people prepared themselves
for more air raid sirens, and more disturbed sleep.
Dr Hida was still on duty after a busy day.
He remembers the 5th quite clearly.
I returned to the hospital around 8 pm.
An officer on night shift came and told me
that four guests from Manchuria were in Hiroshima.
They were high-ranking army doctors.
I was told to look after them.
Eventually I put everybody to bed, and then I lay down beside them.
Then, in the middle of the night, an old man from the village come on his bicycle to see me.
Wake up. My granddaughter has heat stroke
There weren't any doctors where he lived, they were all at the Front.
Thinking it couldn't be helped, I went with him, in the middle of the night.
I was very drunk. There were no cars at that time,
and so I sat on the back of the old man's bicycle.
That is how I survived.
Okay, there are three planes involved in the mission.
That night, in the last minutes before departure,
there was a final briefing for all the crews who were heading to Hiroshima.
There are three planes involved in the mission.
Number one, the Enola Gay, carrying the bomb.
Number two, the Great Artiste, carrying recording equipment.
Number three, the Necessary Evil, we were the photographic ship.
Do your jobs, obey orders, don't cut corners.
That is all.
The mission was so secret,
Tibbets was given suicide pills, in case they fell into Japanese hands.
That evening, when I came out the mess hall,
the Flight Surgeon gave me the pills.
He told me what they were. I hope you don't need them, but, he said, if you do, they're cyanide.
He said, here, if you need them, one for each man of the crew.
He said, you'll never know anything, within six minutes, you're gone.
You never feel anything different, you never feel a thing.
And I told the guys outside the airplane, before we climbed up,
I'll give any one of you the pill, if you want the pill.
And nobody said anything, but Captain Parsons, he said, I'd like to have one.
And I understood his position, because he knew more technical stuff
about that bomb than anybody.
When we got to the Enola Gay, that was our first big surprise,
there were lights all over the place,
And this was not like any mission we'd ever flown.
You know, this was like a Hollywood premiere!
Photographers and film crew had been ordered to record the historic mission.
We had climbed into the airplanes, in order to start the engines, and there were people all around,
there were clegg lights right there, right in front of the number two engine.
And I couldn't do anything with that thing there,
so I opened the window, stuck my head out, I said, stand back!
Move out of the way!
But I just waved my hand like that, and some guy said,wave at us!
So I waved, and that's what you got.
It was another day, it was another morning up. And that was it. It was my responsibility.
Dimples eight two to North Tinian tower.
Taxi out and take off instructions.
The bomb weighed more than four tons, making take off even more dangerous than usual.
15 seconds to go!
The take off I remember, the most dangerous part of flying is in take off.
Five seconds! Get ready!
Everyone on board, I'm sure, felt the same way I did,
waiting for it to lift off.
And it seemed like it took an inordinate amount of time.
I wanted to hold the airplane on the ground, to get all the air flight over the tail that I could get.
I held it down longer than what Bob,
used to see an airplane take off at 140, 145 miles an hour (230 km/h),
I held it down till I was over 150 miles an hour (240 km/h).
He reached for the yoke, tried to pull it back to...
Pull it back! Now!
Get your damn hands off this yoke! I'm flying this airplane,
and he pulled back right quick.
But eventually it lifted off,
an we didn't crash at the end of the runway, so we were off.
Fifteen minutes after take off, with the plane still at low altitude,
Parsons was ready to assemble the bomb.
We're starting!
Dimples Eight two to North Tinian tower. Judge going to work.
I repeat, judge going to work.
It's about, eighty-eight inches (8-8 cm) wide around the outside,
to the back end of the weapon, which had those big fins.
Very cramped quarters,
you had to squat down in order to peer into the back end of this bomb,
and that's the position that Parsons took, is to work inside these fins.
They all knew a mistake would jeopardise the entire mission.
Unscrewing breech!
Inserting charges!
Parsons would then take the powder charges, about the size of a loaf of bread.
He would put those in there, one at a time, then he'd pick up the breech block,
put it into where it was supposed to go turn it, just make the seal.
Inserting breech!
Each one of these manoeuvres he would check off on his check off list,
to ensure that he had made no mistakes.
And retuning home! Check!
Two hours later, the Enola Gay
met up with the scientific and photographic planes.
They were now three hours from Hiroshima.
Dawn was breaking, and it's now just a beautiful, beautiful morning.
We're about 9,000 feet (2.7 km) at that time.
And we all remarked about what a beautiful sunrise it was,that particular morning.
I just want you guys to know we're carrying a bomb with so much power
we've got a good chance to end the war in one go
What is it Colonel? Is it some chemistry's nightmare?
Nope, that's not it
Some kind of physicist's nightmare?
That's closer
Colonel, are we splitting atoms today?
Yes, we are.
Dick Jepson, Parson's assistant, had one task left,
to arm the bomb.
Before the plane went to altitude, I had to climb into the bomb bay,
and remove these three green plugs, and replace them with three arming plugs,
which enabled the fusing circuit to fire the weapon, causing it to detonate.
And the only time I felt really nervous on this mission,
was the time when I inserted these red plugs into the bomb.
The bomb was now armed and live.
After they were in place, I breathed a sigh of relief,
because nothing had happened at this point in time.
Evidently, with the action of replacing these plugs, or switching these plugs,
I became the last person to put a hand on this bomb.
I hadn't realised that at the time.
We're at 30,000 feet (9 km).
Ahead of the Enola Gay, another B-29 was already flying over Hiroshima,
checking the weather. It triggered an alert.
There was an air raid warning.
It was the type that warned that a raid was a possibility.
As the people waited in air raid shelters,
the weather plane reported its findings to the Enola Gay by coded message.
Cloud cover less than three tenths at all altitudes.
Advice: bomb primary.
It's Hiroshima!
The weather plane now headed away.
For a time, it seemed that the threat had passed.
About 30 minutes later they sounded the all clear.
It meant there was not going to be an air raid,
so everyone went about their business, going to offices and factories.
I think that was the reason why such a large number died,
and could not be found afterwards.
On the drill grounds,
thousands of soldiers were doing their early morning exercises.
Among them cadet Morio Ozaki
The american planes often flew over ahead without dropping any bombs
but I had the feeling that something would happen soon.
Dr Hida had spent the night at a farm outside Hiroshima,
looking after the girl with heat stroke.
It was just after 8 o'clock when I woke up. I was already late.
I had to go back to the hospital.
I got myself ready, took the child's pulse,
and then examined her chest with a stethoscope.
Sixteen-year-old Teruko Fujii had enlisted as a tram driver,
to support the war effort.
The men were sent to the Front, with the army.
Because their numbers gradually declined,
they wanted students to drive the trams.
Clerk Akiko Takakura and her friend
were the first to arrive at the bank in central Hiroshima.
Just 260 metres from the aiming point, the T-shaped bridge.
At the bank, I stamped the arrival book.
You would stamp next to your name when you arrived,so I stamped the book.
In those days, female staff were supposed to arrive 30 minutes before the men,
to do the cleaning.
That sort of thing would be unthinkable now!
Kinuko Doi was working as a nurse at the communications hospital, also near the centre of the city.
My first job of the day was to sterilise the hospital tools,
and prepare the patients for surgery.
The weather was beautiful. The sky was clear blue, not a cloud in sight.
In another part of the city, eight-year-old Takashi Tanemori was on his way to school.
Every morning, as soon as we get to school,
we went and played a game of hide and seek.
Then we stand, picking who's going to be It.
And so we ran to the main gate
and I was to become It that morning.
Shigai Hiratsuka died in 2002,
but her extraordinary story is taken from her written account.
It had just gone past 8 in the morning, we had finished breakfast.
Our two children were playing beside us.
My husband was reading the newspaper.
Paul, Tom, Deke and I
were all three up there, confirming, yes, this was the target,
yes that was bridge, yes that was the aiming point.
You might say we were having a convention in the nose of the plane.
Okay, we're about to start the bomb run! Put on your goggles!
We were on that bomb run
for three, three and a half minutes.
Tom and I were talking.
Christ, Dutch! We never sat on a bomb run this long over Germany!
They'd have blasted us out the sky!
He said nothing there! No opposition, no nothing.
Just, going to bomb the target.
I saw an aircraft, like a tiny silver drop,
entering the sky above Hiroshima.
I instantly recognised it as an American plane,
as no Japanese aircraft could fly at that altitude at the time.
It was just one plane, so I assumed that it was passing by, as usual.
I was counting.
I was wiping the desktop: that was when the bomb was dropped.
Bomb away!
In those days, soldiers were told to take off their clothes
to avoid damaging them.
As it was all clear I went into the baracks
to take my shirt off.
It took about 45 seconds from the time the bomb left the airplane, until it exploded.
And I think there wasn't a man in the airplane that wasn't either timing it with his watch,
or counting or doing something. I was sure the bomb was a dud. I was sure it wasn't going to work.
After falling for 43 seconds,
the time and barometric triggers started the firing mechanism.
A uranium bullet, fired down the barrel, into a uranium target.
Together they started a nuclear chain reaction.
Solid matter began to come apart,
releasing untold quantities of energy.
Enhanced: McHalls, 2007 hufilufi@freemail.hu
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