Transcripts For DW Nagasaki 20240712

In the summer of 1945 the war in the pacific was still raging americans were flying Bombing Missions over japan. Children took refuge in caves used as air raid shelters i get to one time of year im on august the 9th he stayed in the bomb shelter longer than usual because wed heard of a new kind of the bomb that had just been dropped on hiroshima to say that. Very few on board the u. S. Bombers were aware of the weapons Destructive Force recruiters folder to reclaim. Because whether or not feeling a martyr would get rid of. The thing contained plutonium rather than the uranium used in the hiroshima bomb develop. It cost billions of dollars. Whats interesting about this is they had an atomic bomb. They had the hiroshima bomb but all this effort was put into the boat tony and bob so do you think all of that effort did not contribute to the use of it and nagasaki thats an interesting question. On these people were children back and they are the ones who are still alive. Our how even today they ask why this bond had to be dropped wiping their city from the face of the earth. Did they sing do you hear the victims voices do they still reach your ears now mom please will never let this happen again my love everything burns on. My feet was meet. My home remember world com remember us the victims of the atomic bombings our world has been cloaked in mourning ever since the home was neat. In the air raid shelter death was always close by says she will you know. She was 6 years old at the time. I think everyone looked at that we were hungry every day Young Mothers didnt even have enough milk to nurse their babies. One baby screamed so loudly once that someone complained because you had to be quiet in the air raid shelter. The mother whispered be still and held her hand over the babys mouth so desperately and tightly to chase mother did that was what the war was like. In the end the babys little head just fell to the side kick it that the. Hole i was there that was the spot. The bomb exploded above it the epicenter of. The bomb even destroyed the University Hospital on the outskirts of the city beach yaki kate his mother worked there 1st that. I was collecting shrapnel on the roof with my friend that. His friend had to go to the toilet so they got into the elevator that saved both their lives. But when the elevator door opened we ran into the hallway. So. There was suddenly and im believably bright flash of light. And then i cast out so did a kid station i asked. The flash even penetrated the cave where sucker way was cowering with her sister and a baby. Then the blast wave slammed them against the wall at the rest of the. Almost everyone had already gone out because theyd already sounded the all clear. Then some of them came back and begged for help. Somehow i was unconscious and that will. Still have a huge they were completely disfigured that the bodies were burnt and split open. They often had open wounds with their in and using out still it they did for water to be killed if many died before our eyes. But i just kept looking for my sister and the baby that had laid down next to me a ship gave it. To your daughter and i regained consciousness in the hall of the hospital all i could see was fire everywhere in the flames were coming right at me more coal knew that the floor was covered with grit and bits of broken glass. I crawled to a wall that was still intact then i discovered the nurse that she was covered with blood and crouching in a corner thats what i think i crawled towards her. And she looked at me and shouted hey kid quick call the Fire Department table with all your big you know. The bomb the deer solid church through a break in the clouds and chose it as a target tens of thousands of people around the epicenter were incinerated within seconds or painfully burned to death could have devised such a weapon. The search for answers takes us 1st to the u. S. State of new mexico to a place called los alamos for a long time it was just the site of a Boy Scout Camp then it was rebuilt into a secret facility for developing the atomic bomb. The address was a post office box residence even joke that people were born in their. Numbers replaced names on drivers licenses address specialist to be santa fe. There were very few telephones up here but the ones that they did have were monitored mail was censored so that people couldnt even talk about the weather in their mail to their their families back home because the the security folks were afraid well if they talked about a certain rainstorm that happened on a certain day then someone might be able to pinpoint the location. Hundreds of Nuclear Experts from the u. S. And europe got together here at the start in the end there were more than 8000. 00 of them some even came with their families among the scientists were many future winners of the nobel prize in physics. Even within the government and military only a few people knew of this secret project many of the young technicians handling plutonium were not fully aware of its dangers one was. They were assembling some metallic petroleum parts and the fellow who was right next doing it he dropped it and unfortunately it fell into what was already assembled and it reached the Critical Mass and he died from it 3 other men on there were standing a few feet away. Were affected. And the one i knew lost all of his hair. Everything and it looked like he had a sunburn and a truck considerably he died quite early. On july 16th 1905 workers in the new mexico desert poised at the 1st plutonium bomb to the desired detonation height on a steel tower. The test was complicated 2 tons of conventional explosives were placed around the plutonium core and all of it had to detonate simultaneously with accuracy to a 1000th of a 2nd. The 1st Nuclear Explosion in history was witnessed by those in charge of the project from 9 kilometers away. Afterward a report was released saying a munitions depot in the desert that exploded. Was a topic that this would affect not only military targets but wipe out the whole city of course. From the test shots. That obviously wouldnt that they knew the extent of the destruction. The heads of the project posed and what was left of the vaporized steel tower physicist j. Robert oppenheimer and general leslie gross. But there were also critical voices in los alamos. As there were many scientists here who thought that we should do a demonstration for the japanese and they they signed a petition and oppenheimer stopped the petition from Going Forward to the government. The critics remained isolated they read later that america had no bombs to waste so why did it have to drop 2 bombs within days of each other. We had 2 different kinds of bombs we had the uranium bomb that was dropped on hiroshima and we had the plutonium bomb that we dropped at nagasaki had we had authority and bomb we probably would have taken out a 3rd city but it was important to test the plutonium bomb from the standpoint of u. S. Policymakers and military strategists because that was the kind that we were going to bring into effect increasingly over the next period the effort that went into this was the primary. Challenge. That the scientists face that loss at los alamos and the implosion the prize was a much more efficient way of exploding i the uranium or plutonium and that was going to be the future. For the victims of the nagasaki bombing essentially test subjects so bomb builders in the u. S. Could determine which of their models should go into production. For 7 decades during their Memorial Services nagasaki citizens have criticized governments including their own for waging war. Their city was always cosmopolitan even in centuries when japan isolated itself from the world there were european trade missions and Christian Churches and now saki the bomb destroyed those places along with the rest of the city. At the start the plan was only to use the bomb on military installations but later dual targets became the preferred term. It was the target wasnt arms factories but entire cities you mustered and i knew them. So they want us know that both raids were planned for the Early Morning also suggests that they wanted to strike when as many people as possible were out of doors for want of us. The war in the pacific was a desperate conflict japan sacrificed young time late in kamikaze attacks. The americans depleted their forces fighting from island to island they suspected that invading japan would cause enormous casualties and they were counting on the same ally theyd had against nazi germany joseph stalin. When u. S. And soviet leaders met at the potsdam conference stalin already knew about the nuclear bomb project thanks to espionage but he didnt show his hand us president harry s. Truman had hoped that stalin would sign an ultimatum to japan but he feared that stalin might refuse because of the neutrality agreement between the soviets and the japanese. When stalin told truman that he was coming to the war truman writes in his diary stalin will be in the jap war by august 15th 50 japs when that occurs to truman knew that the soviet entry was going to be determinative american intelligence had been saying that repeatedly for months. But then truman suddenly deviated from his plan and even went as far as hindering stalin from signing why. Because on july 16th truman received the decisive report from general groves in los alamos results exceed expectations wrote groves and what counts is the battle test. When truman received the 1st news of success with the nation about that of us. He wrote in a diary theres a real time i got big news big news at night brown successful and this is me no mr bradley kept us the it is so enormous so powerful that the still time 60 feet long melted. And their immediate melted right and immediately after this but were going to use this against against a military target were civilized nation and were not going to use it against women children cant imagine that the powerful weapon youre going to drop in the middle of the city. Youre going to youre not going to affect you know the. Its already already there the process of denial. Started even and. The historian finds it striking that the ultimatum to japans government the potsdam declaration had no deadline and that truman removed a provision to retain the emperor even though the west knew how the japanese revered the imperial dynasty. Tokyos diplomats were by then turning to a possible mediator who appeared neutral to them joseph stalin. The conversation with truman he says we have 2. Japanese 23. 00 and i saw that you know but of course that far from status point of view it is necessary to delay the japanese hair and sort of so that. It could put this bit into my nose i want to give it so that. The United States can draw an arc or code of the bomb. On a farm in the u. S. State of indiana the last surviving person who accompanied the bomber looks back at the mission. To. William barney is 93 years old he was the Radar Operator on a newly assembled bomber grew at an air base in utah. Right out there we met colonel tumults and he was our Commanding Officer and he said you guys are a bunch of elites its a small and its rather british secretive outfit. Heres bomber pilots Charles Sweeney and plaintive its practice the techniques for dropping the bomb. We just dont or fly or not therefore were going to missed it want to have an exploded near it covered so much more territory so we work with them are 2 people who wants out of the mortar those are. Parked and they brought up with us on we didnt know what was needed we dont know what they told us to. Barneys unit and its aircraft were then transferred to the pacific they were based on the island of tinian in the Mariana Islands the 1st operational bomb was loaded onto the aircraft it was the bomb with the along gated shape containing uranium the bombs builders name did little boy. We didnt ignore the normal meaning. What are words really who youre going to when were numerous or different want to go to new or point. Colonel paul tibbets head of the no league a painted on his plane that was his mothers name. He had a good 6 hours flight time ahead of him. But tug of furs and technicians were in planes accompanying the bomber to measure the force of the blast they flew at High Altitude out of range of japanese anti aircraft. Aircraft were also deployed to observe the weather and before they dropped the bomb the technicians released radio sun is to record the blast wave and radiation and transmit them back to the aircraft. Some of them on this also made it clear how much and in how many ways they wanted to measure the effect of the new bomb. Us. As occupation troops later discovered more than 100000 people were killed in hiroshima. Many of them left nothing more behind than their shadows. The shadows of objects and people were permanently imprinted on surfaces exposed to the heat of the blast there were even shadows of people who were simply crossing the street. The us authorities recorded pedestrian on a bridge 6 tenths of a mile southwest of the epicenter then the information was kept secret for decades. The news that hiroshima had been wiped out reached president truman at sea he was returning to america from the potsdam conference. That the report that the city of hiroshima had been wiped off the map and he jumped up and said this is the greatest thing in history so for all you know he was so he could no restrain him so he was jumping up and. Why was he saw excited. You know hes not he was decent man you know why he didnt send this kid you know the people but i think my interpretation of bruce happiness is that. It is exactly the way that he planned managed to drop the bomb before service into the fray. Truman imagined hed won the race against time that had started in pants down stalin also believed truman had outmaneuvered him and was frustrated until his hopes were rekindled thanks to new reports from japan. Is starting came back to moscow not all this 5th. And here he resumed his frantic activities or preparing for the war. And then. 6 if you take a look at appointment book blank. And that will show you the extent of the shock he thought. Game its game is up you know. We. Are the real last right and he was sure that your brand were the sun and well and then theres a proof from japanese ambassador. And this is a hard you know about soviet reply to a mediation and then she immediately jumped to action nearly all of the attack moved up their path for about 48 hours. So why didnt the shock of hiroshima forced to pander surrender. Some historians say it wasnt a shock for tokyo civilian suffering had never been a reason for japan supreme military leaders to change tack so why should they do it now ringback ringback ringback. Hiroshima was simply another city that was destroyed there were 68 cities destroyed i think prior to here or hiroshima so this was another one well it happened to be by one bomb ok but the same effect. The real blow to the japanese was the entry of the soviet union. But instead of waiting to see the effects of a soviet attack america seemed to be in a hurry to drop the 2nd bomb. That was the plutonium model known as fat man. Because japan continued to ignore demand. For capitulation truman believed the step was justified he warned japan that it would be struck by a rain of ruin the mission was plagued by one glitch after another the aircraft didnt have enough fuel a 3rd aircraft failed to appear the planned target the port of kokura and the secondary target nagasaki were both covered by clouts. Yeah we did get quite sure that the close one to go down to the weather was sucked in and who is not supposed to restart that run on greater and the canadian just put near their. Own material smaller and last minute he took over. And he got the target but he didnt get to center in 104 but still in all of it covered her. Again tens of thousands of people were killed almost all of them civilians. The number of victims should actually have been higher than in her osama because the explosive force of the plutonium bomb was twice as high. As the search for a witness who is shown in an old photograph has led all across japan it is one of many photos that were found stored in an abandoned house where the photographer had hid them from censors some of them have already been shown in this film. But one image cannot be understood without hearing the story behind it. Its the story of g. 8 colder you who now lives in a home for the elderly. For decades she would not speak of the war. She a go was one of those who survived in a bunker later she found her mother who had not come to the air raid shelter with her all that was left was a pile of ashes ringback ringback. Where is she looking in this picture. You know my scenarios and the house next door belong to a doctor that had its own air raid shelter and i i know that help local my father thought someone might still be in there hi david he went in and actually found a small girl who was still alive or not i mean i hate the dentist now. We asked how she and her father were able to identify her mother. Of course u. K. Who had been we recognized her by her tortoise shell her clip in which i had once given her as a gift so and of what remained of her clothing that was still recognizable because back then we were lots of layers we wrapped up our bodies to protect ourselves from the flames of the bombing that theres still a lot i did i took a look at the. Jade girl you paid her last respects to her mother amidst the rubble mongo and you want her in a band with you there was nothing else we could do hug we couldnt even save anything for her burial though that we didnt have a container im thinking i know. What i know im not at this charred body and thought that was once my mother. I briefly touched her foot and it just fell apart that i could carry down the part like dry sandy. You didnt want to simply turn to dust in them. And i got on with taking. All that remains is a small shrine in honor of her mother and her thanks to the gods she says because she herself was able to live so long. How to do this and since then ive been thankful for every day that ive been healthy. Critter my mother often prayed i believe thats why im still here you know. The young girl suddenly stayed in the air raid shelter until the next day with her sister and the baby. How our teeth were chattering. And we clung to each other throughout the whole night the teller. Mama mama please come quickly. But no one came to help us. After a while they set out to search for their house or what was left of it. That they get we didnt find our National Debt 1st she had died a few 100 metres away from our house. We found the remains of our eldest sister where the house used to be and we had her baby with us she was lying on the ground face down with her hands held in front of her face we didnt know which was horrible or that. It was only when we turned the body over carefully and when able to pull her hands away from the face that we recognize the area around her eyes. But then up at the. Plane from the rubble of the hospital wandered around and then came back and found his mother critically wounded. The how where are they not i mean she was lying face down on the bed and couldnt move on or bit hundreds of bits of glass were stuck in her back. And i hadnt cried before then but when i saw her the tears flowed down my cheeks like how horrible i thought me that more mommy. Everything that was needed to hear from the wounded was in short supply doctors in nagasaki had just begun to treat burn victims who had survived the blast in hiroshima they reported that japans air defenses didnt even see the bombers coming. Most of the doctors and nurses were killed in the bombing the facilities were destroyed the medicines were minimal at best they were using any kind of Home Remedies they could find to treat those victims who were horribly burned. Japan formally surrendered on board a u. S. Battleship in tokyo. The capitulation document was signed on september 2nd 1945. General Douglas Macarthur then became the countrys military governor japans foreign minister represented the government at the ceremony. In the end it was emperor hirohito ordered his squabbling war council to capitulate the American Leadership rejoiced claiming that the atomic bombs that brought peace. Well the official version that the both bombs were necessary in order to bring the japanese around to surrender is not borne out by the facts in the chronology of the surrender process the japanese had been trying to surrender for weeks if not months but they were going to surrender under Unconditional Surrender and they werent going to surrender as long as the emperors life was at stake they hoped that they would get the soviet union to mediate between the United States and japan for better surrender terms they were unable to get that because the soviet union cleared war in japan on august 8th. And that was the end of that idea. Emperor hirohito was spared a war crimes trial but he had to give up his divine status he suggested to his people that the bombing was the reason for japans defeat that was advantages for him because it deflected the issue of his responsibility for the war. Both he and truman and here to the myth that the bombs decided the war and truman wrote in the memoir us that the decision to drop the bomb was a very very heavy i just wanted to avoid well if he wanted to would then the why didnt the invite started to sign the proclamation and when he knew the Japanese Company were in a moscow. Incidentally they knew that they had been discussed this spring who wanted to know the fate of the emperor and then to put a system why then they promised the japanese got the japanese government that you know thats thats a possibility there. And those 2 alternatives were consciously avoided. So thats thats why i think is so. I would argue. That both some pro formation and the one that it was it was issued so already decided that theyre going to drop the. Us military newsreels showed that japan had already been flattened before the nagasaki bomb was dropped just after the end of the war they reported that nearly all major cities from all suffered to tokyo had been destroyed largest japans fleet had been decimated in the ports and the country was no longer able to fight another evidence of them is final and in the words of the announcer scenes like this proved that japan was no longer able to wage war even before the bombs were dropped like these leave no doubt that japan was already beaten before. The atomic bomb. In fact you have to remember that 6 of the 75 star admirals and generals who got their 5th star during world war 2 are on record saying that the atomic bombs were either militarily unnecessary or morally reprehensible and could and probably the most outspoken was trumans own chief of staff admiral William Leahy who said they categorize this with the most atrocious things that ever been done he says war was not it cannot be made that way and he also said that truman karen told me that we would all be hit military objectives he says then we went ahead and killed as many women and children as we could which was just what they wanted all along. By the 1st anniversary of the victory when americans look back there was no longer any downtown tampa right now some tromping 2 bombs. One reduced according to this newsreel account the greatest of all new wars and even year ago and it was not because the socalled japs had too few weapons or soldiers artillery the reporters speaks of large armies and weapons arsenals but says that just as the japanese were ready for the final battle the 1st atomic bomb was dropped they were stunned but still has the tape then 3 days later the 2nd bomb fell on nagasaki 3 days later another bomb fell on august. That was the final so they surrendered its perfectly understandable i mean the United States was the only country that has used atomic bombs it used them on what Robert Oppenheimer the director of los alamos called an essential a defeated enemy this was our good war we will fight. Adding fascism in europe we were fighting militarism in the far east and to end the war with something that. Has a negative context something that puts a black mark on this war is something that the United States cant quite absorb and so it was justified by the idea that we would have have lost a 1000000 a 1000000 troops in an invasion there was not going to be an invasion the japanese were going to surrender clearly before. November 1st 1945. Ringback the end of the war brought little relief to those suffering from radiation sickness at 1st many were taken in by relatives. But soon she and her sister went back to living in the rubble their illness had made them outcasts. Ringback a bit at the coming i lost my hair and i had no. Money but i didnt even notice. I only saw the stain in the blood dripped onto my clothes and. I could see what the other kids were saying dont come any closer thats we had just disgusting. Workers registered that the death rates for nagasaki victims were rising again the deaths came not from injuries but because more and more children were throwing themselves in front of trains and. They came a point when my sister said lets just die to where our mother has. Kept trying to talk her out of it but then she just didnt come home and i found her on. Tracks a couple quite a plane is. Sock away wanted to end her own suffering too but she jumped out of the way of the black locomotive at the very last moment. A. O. L. The american set up a secret commission to investigate the long term effects of the bomb effects that were new to them human. Reports released later said they observed the same phenomena in nagasaki as in hiroshima. The experts called it radiation sickness. Others called it radiation plague because there was no known treatment for it d. The Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission that was set up by the United States after the war was there to study the victims now to treat them. There in fact if they died there remains were often sent to the United States for further testing which is why so many of the japanese see themselves as having been guinea pigs for the american experiment i have a lot of friends who are survivors. And they felt that many of them feel that they were treated terribly in the aftermath and many were humiliated they were forced to get up on those stages get naked in front of this auditorium full of doctors so they could be further examined many of them were young at the time some were teenagers and it left a lot of very very deep scars so the american role in the aftermath i think was pretty regrettable at best criminal worst. These are the few survivors still alive today. They have survived despite the trauma and cancer diagnoses and a childhood in which many of them were shunned as outcasts even by their own people. They say who will talk about what happened to us when we are no longer around in the. Final muscle you dont believe we were really Something Like lab animals for the americans. It was just that the bomb had already been dropped on hiroshima. That building the plutonium bomb would have been senseless if they didnt use it on. So they had to do it quickly before japan surrendered to me and i. So does that mean the americans were war criminals and are the japanese the victims no they say that would be too easy to night coming when they were. Its often said that were the victims. But we were the victims of 2 perpetrators we were americans victims and victims of our own wartime government. Japan was to blame for the war and also to blame because it did not surrender much earlier if i will score time until. We ask the historians one last question 70 years after the tragedies of hiroshima and nagasaki where do you place the blame for dropping the atomic bombs. By bombing cities not only in hiroshima and nagasaki america had crossed the threshold leading to a war on civilian. So. Before that only hitler in gannicus spain and the japanese in china did that. And the west called it barbarism. But then the british did the same thing in dresden and the americans in tokyo. And with the 2 atom bombs they ultimately went beyond the point of no return when i guess when i was very young i said perhaps theres an argument for the 1st but the 2nd one was clearly a necessary. But the more. I learned. With the evidence that has come out both in the United States and in japan and in the soviet union its quite clear that neither bob. This is polar ice in the in slices and he can interpret it physicist christine has how just ice change how does it expand in winter and how does it melt in summer and what does this mean for the earths climate Big Questions big expedition we let ourselves freeze in to morrow to do. Its job you. Mixed ethnic fat cats until one Dance Company 12 exceptional dancers from across the globe are brought together by one of the most exciting choreographers of our time. To actually kind of care you a Church Scholar and found they have to for 21. 160 minutes. I was here when i arrived here i slept with 6 people in a room. It was hard. I even got white hair. Language. This keeps me and they go but you. To entrap the slaves you want to know their story lines reliable information for margaret. This is d. W. News live from a passenger planes for runway in india and into the area in India Express flight from dubai with nearly 200 people on board slid off the runway in conditions while landing in the state of caracas well bring you the latest from india also on the program. The u. N. Warns of an impending humanitarian disaster and following deadly blasts ripped through the capital their roots of course was complete team just