Atomic bomb test in new mexico on july 16th 1945. The document key events leading up to the 1945 bombing in hiroshima japan. The author than describes in detail. Thanks very much you can all hear me i hope. Thank you so much for coming on the most wonderful evening and this glorious city. Which my daughter has completely fallen a love with. Its great that you could all come here to this institute to hear about the atomic bomb. I havent really made any notes but i really want to talk to from the heart what this book is and what it means to me, and the journey that i have taken over the last two and a half years since i started the documentary. I was asked to make this documentary back in april 2003. By a friend of mine who owns a company in a london called line television. I did Everything Possible to resist the offer, to make this film. Not because the mommy was appalling which it was. But because this is a really terrifyingly difficult and complex and frightening and challenging subject to have to tackle. You are dealing with one of the several events in World History obviously, people use all kinds of cliches, i use them myself about the world changing forever. Nothing ever being the same again. And yet, actually, what happened in my case was the thought buzz around in my brain and it would not go away and it did not go away and finally, almost reluctantly, i accepted this offer and started to make a film. The film i made, really, was exactly as it was described. It was a 24 hour story, a story that starts at 8 15 on the morning of august 5th 1945. And ends 24 hours later, 1903 feet above a clinic, in the middle of hiroshima on august 6th. It took me to so many different places and people, and became in a way almost an obsession with me, which is a dangerous thing for film maker and writer. But in an instance, i decided after that at this subject was something i could not leave. And i would write a book about it. This is the product of that book now. I just say this, i remember somewhere in the middle of my research, about a year ago, i started a journey that took me around the world. It was a journey i was very privileged to take, thanks to my publishers. I went to, first of all eastern seaboard of the United States, i was in this city, new york, i want to cross the new mexico. A lot of time in new mexico. And then san francisco, and then actually eventually across japan and then finally down to the tiny island of in the western pacific. A little dot in the middle of nowhere. Where is where the first atomic missions actually flew in 1945. It then eyelet, i had a very strong experience i just want to share with you. In some ways it kind of encapsulates the feeling im trying to put a cross in this book. Its a very small its a size of men hannah this island. Its so much so in fact, the cbcs the construction battalions who built the huge air bases from which those missions and others were flown in 1945, actually named the streets after manhattan streets. So there was a broadway, there was a six three, hundred 12 streets. You go down 42nd street, its the middle of jungle, go left on broadway and go up on broadway and somewhere around a 125th street you find yourself a runway which the and no lead to cough to go to hiroshima. These days, the only way you can get to tinian island is from japan. Which is interesting. So in a sense what you do, you take off from japan, you fly 1500 miles to tinian. You land very near belie on saipan. But what you do, you fly that mission backwards. Youre flying over the same feature the sea, you pass over volcanic rock of evil jima, youre flying at approximately the same height that those guys wouldve flown. About 30,000 feet. Its quite a strange sensation. You are surrounded by japanese people on board that plane, and i mentioned two to three of them that this was actually the site of the topic mission they were going back to. What a shot today is a casino. Where people go to gamble. This is a southern and much of the island. If you think of it that way. In fact one case, the japanese tourist or gamblers that were with me, wanted to get their money back because they were so distraught of the idea. A place that was lost in history, was the site of the first atomic mission. I drove up in a sort of, jeep northwards. To find these runways. Which is still there, rotting in the jungle. This is the biggest air base in the world in 1945, it was absolutely massive. For parallel huge runways, the sort of size of kennedy airport. He was huge, its called north field. And it is completely empathy. Theres nothing there at all, its just jungle. And these coral runways, you can just about drive on. The other three have succumbed to that incredibly fertile jungle. And, i then took a walk away from these runways. Down a little pathway that actually traversed a quite think jungle actually. Well winds its way towards the coast, i was quite frightened im terrified of snakes. And god knows what, and i wound my way towards this coast. Through this little path. And found myself where i hoped i would found myself, which was on the site of the actual Assembly Buildings where the bombs which destroyed hiroshima and nagasaki were both built. Or finally assembled. Im standing on the foundations of this building, which ive read about and spend so many scientists, this was pro few short weeks. In the summer of 1945 possibly one of the most secret places on earth. If i had been there 60 years previously, i would have been shot on sight for being in this place. But there was nobody in there now, it is just me and the coin of bird and rustling of leads and the sound of the sea and distance serve breaking. Nothing else, just me. It was a very strange feeling to be in this place, where everyone had gone home so many years ago. For what was one actually one of the most Extraordinary Events in history. After that point, i realize ive traveled in the bomb footsteps. Ive been there in the bomb laboratory, i have been on the site in kyoto. Where the first atomic bomb was tested in the desert. Well talk about that in a moment. I had followed the bomb, the pilots were actually trained to deliver this bomb and this really windy dusty air base hundred 20 miles west of Salt Lake City called very remote. All the guys food from their hated it. It was an extraordinary air base, in which the state line between utah and nevada went right down the middle of the state. Hotel line lobby, so you could be sentenced on one side, and then get drunk on the other side of the lobby. Then i also went to san francisco, and underneath the golden gate bridge, in july 1945, the uss and indianapolis im sure youre familiar with, sailed the cargo of uranium in a 300 pound bucket welded on its way to tinian island. And from there, was taken and delivered and dropped into hiroshima. So in a way, i want to all these places. I follow the bombs footsteps. It gave me the sense of the focus what my book was about. I was going to take the seminal events, the most important three weeks of history of this project, and the most important weeks in history generally. I was going to try and follow, individual stories, from policy makers like president s and secretaries of war and a very key figures in the japanese at the time. Down to ordinary people in hiroshima, scientists bomb makers, people i met, interview, spoken to and obviously the aviators that trained in that windy dusty salt lake airfield and went over for so many months before they were shot off the tinian to do their job. Which they did so remarkably and terrifyingly well. Commemorated if thats the word word. This saturday. What i would like to do if you dont mind, it can be a little dull, but i would want to do this i feel quite strong. Two or three extensive my book, which will give your flavor what this is about and the in which its actually written. Before i do so, let me just stress its very important to understand, although of conceived and written this book in a way that i hope will be engaging to people who might not otherwise touched the subject, theyve been so many books written about hiroshima. But many people dont read about it. Because its daunting, its heavily footnoted, perhaps academic or whatever. But everything that i have written is as far as i can verify, true. Ive used my own historians training to universities to test myself and challenge myself constantly with primary sources. Many many interviews i have done around the world. The stories that i am telling a real stories. These are not fake stories, these are one of the extraordinary situations where the truth is much more extraordinary than fiction. Much more much more, and this instance. So let me start, a good place to start which is the test of the first atomic bomb in the new mexico desert. We are july 16th 1945, 15th or 16th 1945. The worlds first atomic bomb looks like a giant four tons fear. It has wires and things sprouting out of it, and it sits on top of 103 foot tower in the middle of desert and new mexico. There is a massive electrical storm taking place, one of new mexicos worst ever electrical storms taken place. Here is this bomb sitting and a little shack on top of this tower, in the middle of a desert. And everyone is panicking about the weather, because theres all sorts of concerns whether the bomb might actually trigger the bomb. There is also some serious concern that is bomb, once detonated, might possibly set fire to the earths atmosphere and destroy the planet completely. Nobody knows what is gonna happen when an atomic bomb goes off. There actually debates, there are bits taking place in base camp, which is not very far away from this town, obviously a safe distance away. Where nobel prizewinning scientists like family, and regal family are actually taking bets on whether or not this mall might destroy the earths atmosphere. By setting fire to it. This was a serious mathematical probability, all those slight, that this could actually happen. It was actually worked out as a mathematical probability. They dont know whats gonna happen, theres rain, theres win, theres thunder. In the middle of this, general growths, oppenheim or being a balm director and general grounds being this ruthless fat powerful as is owned up you said hard son of a bit, the manhattan prodding was privys job was to build the pentagon. This guy, these two guys together, formed a rather strongly marriage or partnership, decide there might be some security concerns. Theres a possibility that the japanese somehow, might get up there and sabotage this bomb. So they decide to send a man called donald horn, hes a physicist, to go and babysit the bomb, in the middle of the storm, in the very very last hours. He just gets the bombs card, hes the guy whos going to baby said the bomb. Ill just read you how the book starts, this is chapter borrow one of mueller. This is the flavor. This is the story by the way its told me by than a horgan himself. Cambridge massachusetts, and really this is exactly how he told to me. Sunday july the 15th, 9 pm. Trinity test site, 40 miles south of the corona mexico. Don honig, stared up at the tower. The wind and rain ripped through the steel ladders work. The storm that had been building throughout the day, had finally interrupted into all its fury. Flashes of lightning lit the sand andres mountain to the south, and the desert echoed with the crowd of thunder. The tower loomed 103 feet above warnings head. A network of black braces and girders reaching upwards like a giant electric pylon. By now, the clouds were racing solo across the sky, he could barely see the top. Which was just as well really. He did not want to think about what was at the top. He became the climb. The wet steel slipped between his fingers, and the rain stalling his eyes, making it difficult to see. He wore his safety harness. Round by round he put himself of the latter, once or twice he stopped and he could see the guards below him looking up like ants on a desert floor. They seemed a long way down. At the top of the tower, a simple cory dated ten shaq, rested on a square wooden platform. It was a flimsy cheaply made structure, obviously not designed to last. He wasnt much bigger than a garden should. Hornet stepped off the latter beside it, a huge dimly discernible shape crouched inside. There was a bare 60 watt bulb hanging from the roof. Hornet switched it on, and putin side. Hulking on a cradle, was a metallic gray bloated four ton steel drum. It took up almost every inch a space in the shack. Even by day, he would look ominous. But it looked especially so now, with the wind whipping the tin walls and the dim balls swaying from the ceiling. And the lightning and thunder edging near. The fantastic complex cable sprouted from the side, like a spillage of guts or arteries. And it was somehow not organic. A growing living autonomous embryo, waiting its moment of its birth. Acknowledgment of its essence, its creators have even given a name. A number of names in fact. They called it the beast. But gadget. The thing. A device. Sometimes they just called it it. One thing nobody ever called it what it actually was, the worlds first atomic bomb. Honig, squeezed out beside it. The rain pelted on the tin roof like 1000 hammer blows. The wind rattled the thin walls of the bombs cage. In a few hours, a scientist held jeremy mccain, standing in a concrete bunker inlet exactly 10,000 yards south to this tower, would initiate the final act in which was the biggest and most expensive scientific experiment in history. Mccabe would suppress a switch on a panel. And begin a 45 second count down. By the end of the time, a number of Different Things could happen. The bomb could fail to go off. Or could detonate with a very magnitude of explosions. Or is one nobel prize scientists, it could set fire to the earths atmosphere and in the process destroying all life on the planet. But difficulty, was that nobody knew. So that gives you a little flavor of the sort of tensions that were building. I decided to go straight in, i make no apologize for this at all, to go straight in with that story and start with that moment which begins three weeks before the book actually ends in hiroshima. What i think is also very important in the story, obviously very important indeed, is the japanese side of it. When i went to hiroshima, i met a lot of different people in hiroshima. A lot of people who were survivors from the bomb. Had many many stories, some of which i now i use in this vote. This is exactly how they were told to me, through an interpreter. There was one story, that really struck me. Which i never forgot. It kept turning around around in my mind. Ill tell you what the story was. And then how i used it. I met a man he must have been in his mid eighties, it is a name was i met him hiroshima. He was clearly someone who have very badly burned face from a bomb 60 years previously. We were talking about various Different Things. We were talking a little bit what hiroshima was like before the war. What was it lights in the months leading up before the bomb was dropped. He told me about, the good things and the bad things. The movies that people went to, for example the hit movie in hiroshima in 1945 it was a movie called for weddings. In fact, if you look at the newspapers from that time, which i have, and the paper because nothing was with you can see before their adverts for weddings. He told me about the grass, the people there, the rumors around the city. The city had not been bombed not significantly bomb compared to almost every single japanese city. And senior fire raids hiroshima not. Obviously had not, because it was becoming quite literally reserve. That is the air force this word for atomic attack. But hiroshima they sorted differently they had 90 what was going on. There was a rumors spreading around the city, which number people told me about. Actually president trumans mother was a prisoner in the city. She was being kept captive. That is why the city had not been destroyed. It was the personal orders of the United States to not bomb it, because his mother wasnt it. His mother was in fact in missouri many miles away, and the president s personal orders were the exact opposite. He told me all these things. We started talking about the day itself. And i just asked him a question, a simple enough question. Do you remember the night before the bomb . And it was a pause. And then he burst into tears. Which was terribly embarrassing to me. I did not want to upset him. And i said it doesnt matter. He said no not i want to tell you something. I want to tell you something that i have never told anybody before. I want to tell it to you. He said the night before the bomb was dropped, was the happiest night of my life. And then he started to tell a story, the story that he told was a love story. About a woman that he had fallen in love with and met earlier that summer, he was about 19 years old he was about 2021. She was sitting on a bridge when they met. They had fallen in love. They had spent most of that summer together, and what made it particularly poignant, respective families were not at this was a romeo and juliet thing. But they persisted because they loved each other. And then came the time when he knew he had to call out papers to the army. Both of his brothers had been killed in the war. He knew that he was facing death. There was no question about it. The americans were very soon going to invade. And he would be dead. He would be another statistic. So that night, he and rake up went to a very beautiful garden she can garden which is still there today, restored after the mom, its a beautiful japanese garden. They went into the garden, at night, the two of them together. And they laid on the grass, under the stars. And they lay for a long time together, and then for the very first time, they held hands. They did not kiss, they just held hands. Is all they did. And they laid like that for a long time, and then around midnight they parted. He went one way, she went the other way. And the next day, the bomb was dropped. And he searched for his lover in the ruins of the city. About the time that they parted, at that garden gate, the crew of a no law would have been just sitting down to their breakfast of pineapple fritters is what they had for breakfast. Pineapple fritters was his favorite, before being shipped out to the in a leg to take off to hiroshima with the bomb that would be dropped on the city. So those kind of contrasts, really made, made really point. Those are the stories that i told, thats what i want to share in this book. I want to start finish the book with that story, for various reasons. Particularly because it moved me hugely. I thought it was an interesting way to start the book, start with a love story. Two people were in the garden on that night, its not any garden its not any night. And its perhaps something some of us might be able to identify with. If i may, i will read you the preface to the book. This is not chapter one which i just went parts of, this is a preface before it. Sunday august the 5th 1945, she can guard in hiroshima. For the rest of his life, so now its why would never forget how beautiful the garden looked at that night. The trees, the lake, a little rainbow bridge, the ancient wooden tea houses dotting the banks. The fresh pines, in the white hair and sleeping on the rock, the perfect stillness of it all. Outside, be on the garden walls, the citys left in the darkness. In the blackout, it was always possible to believe there was no city out there at all. The houses, no harmony, no war. As if him left lied under the stars, were the only people alive in the world. Thats how you remembered it the night before the bomb. As always, they had to be discreet. The authority is not to mention their own families this proved of unmarried couples spending frivolous hours in each others company. This is a time of self sacrifice and denial. Every day the newspaper hiroshima urge the citizens to work harder and longer and faster, to focus alter energy in the single goal of victory. Japan was facing its greatest test in history. This was no moment for love. But raincoat, was beautiful. To now remember the first moment hed seen or. By that summer jovial terrific. She was sitting on the bridge she was laughing. He was very shy, perhaps there was something about his shyness that appeal to her. Theyre perhaps she liked him because there were so few healthy young men left in the city. He was 20, she was younger. And just out of school. Her movements were full of grace, and years later, hed remember there was something in her voice and her smile that was like the breath of summer. They saw each other all through that hot july, sometimes she sent him letters with just the faintest whiff of sent. The luxury in this times of war. But they never kissed. They never even touched. Until that final night. She had cried when he told her, of course it was inevitable he was young, and the war wanted him. Time had run out for both of them. He would be in the army by september, only a short few weeks away. They lay on the grass, and she cried. And that was when they touched hands. He would never forget that. At some point in the evening, it was an air raid alert, but still they did not move. There were often alerts these days, as the americans passed north over the city. They flew high in the silver plans, sometimes so high, that in daylight all you could see was a brilliant white trail in the blue sky. But they always took their bombs elsewhere. A little after midnight, they parted. They said goodbye at the gate, ryka walked away down the street. So now watch to go, until she disappeared around the corner. She never looked back. Then he turned slowly towards his home, in memory of her touch still fresh in his mind. Afterwards, he would remember this as the happiest night of his life. He looked up at the sky, the stars were clear and brilliant. Tomorrow, was going to be a beautiful day. So, thats a little bit of the beginning of the book. If i could, have i got time to move on to . What id like to talk about now is the moment the bomb impacted the city itself. This was a really difficult thing to write about for obvious reasons. Its a fantastically bunnell things to say, obviously it was difficult to write about. From the perspective of the ground, from the plane, from the ball makers, from the politicians as well. It became at one point almost impossible to write. Id love to share with you what that feels like. There is a point at which language stumbles when you try to describe this pain and this horror. And you literally the expression and use the one point was, the adjectives beacon to pile up light dead bodies in the street. That may sound clumsy, but theres literally nothing but silence at some point. You cannot describe some point. Without sounding repetitive, trivial or, pointless. I found it very hard to do, until i found out to write about how difficult it was to write about it. Obviously holding on to individual personal experiences, im not talking about japanese, but people in the plane. The experiences were fascinating and roll on all sides. So what i want to do very briefly, im gonna read you two small sections if i may have a moment of impact. Im gonna read you the first is literally a very clinical description of what actually happened. In the first moments when the bomb was actually dropped. It is not personalized at all, in the way that other bits that ive read here have been. It is simply a clinical description of what happened, when that bomb dropped. Im going to read you a little bit about the reaction from the no way, when the plane was literally just diving away from the bomb having dropped. Just to set a little bit of background here, we are at 31,000 feet over the city, there are three planes up there. One of them one carries observers, the other is you know again carrying the bomb. The bomb is dropped over a tee shape the bridge. The iowa bridge in the center of hiroshima when you look at the a, it looks like a finger announced right hand. A lot of rivers. Very distinct the dom tumbles out of the bomb bay, and it drops for 44 seconds through the air. And indeed, in tests that were done for this particular bomb design, ballistic so the bomb very poor. Which actually it makes the most terrible sound when it dropped. This thing ive never read before ive heard about this from the scientists. It shrieked and whale like a banshee shout as it came all the way down. It really made a terrible racket. One wonders this might have been the certainly been the last sound that thousands of people have heard. This shriek as this bomb kind of ripped almost at the speed of sound. Its terminal velocity towards the ground. The bomb explodes, 1903 free above a clinic. 200 yards away from any point, which is this bridge. I follow the bomb down, at the end of the previous chapter, and then i pick up just in the immediate aftermath of the detonation. Ill just read that the two now. The impact was at once immediate and catastrophic. In the first billions of a second, the temperature at the burst point reach 16 million degrees centigrade. 10,000 times hotter than the suns surface. The heat almost instantaneously expanding outwards across the city in a visible searing alien unimaginably brilliant fashion. Light afterwards they gave the flash a name pika. Or lightning. The opening act in a terrifying trauma substantially beautiful swirling wave of myriad colors of electrically green blues goals that burned into the retina seem to last forever. These witnesses were fortunate. Before the flash even ended, thousands of other human beings were already dead. Burned beyond recognition by the extreme primal heat. Instantly carbon eyes into little charge smoking mindless where they stood or sat or slept or walked. Littering what was left of hiroshima streets. Within a one kilometer radius of the high percent, the thermal energy contained in that single moment flash was intense enough to evaporate internal organs. Literally boiling off intestines in less than a fraction of a second. Birds ignited in midair. Telegraph poles trees clothing matched roofs wooden buildings, household pets, and entire street cars spontaneous combusted. Still from buildings liquefy like wax, rubble and bone fused together in a single amorphous mass. Watches and clocks stopped suddenly. Their hands permanently burned into their faces, forever recording the precise moment of detonation. Hundreds of fires, sprang up spinal tediously all across the city. Omar wellmeaning fire breaks the months before. Accidents of clothing determined how and whether people died. Black or dark color garments, absorb the heat. Making it white or light colors reflected it. In some cases, individuals were so completely incinerated, that nothing remained but theyre shadows. One man, who was sitting on the steps outside of a bank, 260 meters from the hyper center when the fireball struck, all that was ever left of him was the imprint of his pose scorched into the stone like a photograph. The heat was visceral and horrifyingly destructive, as if the sun has suddenly descended to earth. It all happened in the first three seconds. This is 8 15 in the morning. Japan time. 9 15 as far as the cruise concern. So if i may, already finally one other section, which is the view from the same event from the air. This is from the analogy at 31,000 feet. Give you a couple character names, a bit boring,. As you possibly know, the commander of the no paul tickets. He still alive today age 19. And a tail gunner, his name called bob karen, died in 1995 and interviewed a couple people in a world. Including his best friend. He becomes one of the key stories in the book. He was the rear gonna, the analogy was only on with a they strip the planes out. So they were gonna be able to carry this heavy bomb. So basically unarmed part from the tail. Cams very small man, about five five. And he fitted into this claustrophobic you carry with them all the way to hiroshima not any several plaques of strikes that he smoked all the way the back, but a photograph of his wife and his little baby that were dangling in a Photograph Office austin oxygen. Shot they with with them all the way theyre in back. He also carried with him a camera, a little k 20, pistol grip camera that was given to him very last moment by the photographic officer of the squadron. Just before he boarded the plane. The guy said look, youre gonna have a i want you to take any photographs you can. Dont reset the aperture, dont reset the focus, just press the button. Whatever you see, just press the button. So we gave this get the camera, and sure enough, as the airplane dived away from the shock wave of the bomb, trying to flee the blast away as it rushed towards the airplane, bob karen picked up his camera and ill just read you what he said. Bob karen saw it first. From his target in the rear of the plane, he had a ringside view looking directly back at the city as they drove away. One minute he was peering through his world this goggles, barely able to see the sun through the darkness. The next, he was blinded by a terrific flash. At that moment, and only gay was 11 and a half miles from the bomb but dazzling light filled the plane. For several seconds, every part of it was bathed in strange on earthly radiance. To experience a curious tingling sensation on his teeth, and a distinct taste of light on his tongue. His feelings hill he later learned, were interacting with the bonds radiation. Then karen suddenly an incoherent animal shout of warning. Through his goggles, he watched in an astonishment, thats something that looked like the ring of a distant planet has attached itself and come hurtling towards them. Before he could utter another word, the shockwave had caught up with him. Its smashed against the fuselage, tossing the big bomb up in the air like a scrap of paper. A voice shouted over the income panic, the plane booked violently under the impact, tidbits fought to keep it under control. At that point and no lead a was still traveling directly away from the city. Only bob karen ontario could see it. He removed his goggles, and now he was staring through his windscreen in amazement. Boiling up from the ground, was a spectacular and terrifying mushroom shaped cloud. At least a mile wide, with a fiery blood red core. It was climbing and expanding and it is astonishing rate. The monstrous angry purple gray punching up into the sky at almost ten miles a minute. Beneath it, hiroshima had completely disappeared. Everything down there was burning. Thick black smoke cover the entire city. Rolling out into the surrounding foothills, and into the valleys like lava spilling from a volcano. Karen groundless camera, and started shooting. The gun sight, caught in the way he has tips to turn the plant five degrees, pinching the lens and said from one after another he snapped images of the Mushroom Cloud, 7 am and all. Each frozen black and white friend capturing those first instance of hiroshimas destruction. They would stay in his memory forever. I can still see it, he said years later. That mushroom, and that turbulent mass. It was, he said, a peep into hell. The copilot bob lewis, picked up his pencil and turned his log. My god he wrote, what have we done. If i live for 100 years, i will never come get these few minutes out of my mind. In fact the, highlight copilot, bob lewis, who wrote this all the way through i found the facts at the smithsonian museum. Has actually drawing of the mushroom clown he makes minutes after. His previous entry to that is quite extraordinary he says, there will be short intermission while we bomb the target. And then you get this my god what have we done and its quite chilling to read that. That is the moment when it happened. So that also gives you some sense, im dealing with the most difficult part of it all. And the last act of the book is the impact of that moment, and how it affected those people most actively involved in it. So, anyway, that is all really i wanted to say from this perspective, and obviously i know ive gone way over time here. Im gonna get sold off here, so what i take any questions here, if anyone has any questions ill be happy to ask them here. If they ask questions, could you possibly go up to the microphone. Thank you yes . Im very interested in how you both sides. It was their consideration of inaudible actually just before the cruise took off, they were blessed by the priest by the chaplain. Its very standard, who bless the mission and unless the men who were taking the war against our enemies. I actually have to take the text some of the guys there was a very interesting story this guy bob lewis really. Ive known not bob lewis another guy, he was actually the captain of the great artists which was the observer plane. He went to confession that morning, but because of security restrictions was not able to confess exactly what he was confessing. So it made for an interesting confession but on a larger scale its very interesting about that relation. The target Selection Committee i interviewed the last surviving member of the target so target that shows the a target for hiroshima. The first target was supposed to be kyoto as you know. City of 1 million people, japans original capital and obviously the most important Religious Center in japan. One of the reasons it wasnt chosen. And resistance and then secretary of war had visited kyoto as a tourist in the 1920s and love the city. Heat as a result of his love for that city and is appreciation for its importance of japanese culture, he persuaded the president not to drop the ball in kyoto. Because stints in happen to be a very happy tourist in 1926 in kyoto, kyoto was spared atomic destruction. When those guys were sitting around a table deciding which city to bomb, they actually decided or discussed at one point a following the atomic bomb almost immediately with the full scale incendiary red. The idea being to send in the bombers and drop incendiarys and napalm on the city at the point when he was most vulnerable. This was discussed very seriously. The reason they didnt do it was not be for any religious reason, the reason they didnt do it is that it would muddy the effects of the bomb. It would make the impact of this new weapon less discernible. The most important thing here was Public Relations. The word is not mine its theres. Pr of the bahamas is actually as important as the bomb. Itself and could shocked the japanese into surrender that was a key. A very cynical destruction that is a long way from any kind of obvious christina think that i can understand. I can understand the context of the time of which that decision is taken. Sorry yeah. Even if there was just the slightest possibility of the earths atmosphere catching on fire and destroying a life in the planet, that the u. S. Government would take that chance and test the bomb. No. Wasnt because the scientists felt they could rest in the safe in the knowledge that if that did happen, there would be no bad Public Relations . Why would they do . That thats the point that i do make in the book. That is actually true. They wouldnt at the iran have to justify the. The mathematical probabilities of that happening were not huge. It was all to do with the temperature. Was a temperature hot enough to set fire to the eris atmosphere. Mathematician calculated the probabilities they were very small. The impetus to get this thing tested was terrific. Its very important to understand, the rollercoaster the Manhattan Project had become by this. Time it was massive. We talk about a project that cost two billion 1945 taxpayer dollars. Talking a project that employ well over hundred thousand people. Entire cities have been built to man production plants. Which in some case were half the size of the state of rhode island. The entire silver deposits treasury had been melted down to get iranian process plants working. This was huge. For some gotta say there is a slight possibility that we might destroy the planet our life as we know it, lets not do. It it just wasnt real. And exactly the same way as people say why did truman make this decision. Truman said himself it was not a great decision. The reason why he said that which sounds terribly callous to us today is that can you imagine a situation in which truman sent in the boys into japan and then turn around to his taxpayers and said do you know guys i had a bomb that you guys pay for the cost two billion dollars but i decided not to use it and couldve ended the war and your sons needed to die. Its not thankful. Its not real. Thats not how the real world works as we know today. It doesnt work like that. Its a rollercoaster to answer your question. Theres no way these guys could can actually say we had second thoughts were not gonna go away around with it. They were just as worried he was going to be a dud. General grove this enormously large tough guy that ran the Manhattan Project. He was a total chalkaholic. Was more one of his most enduring features. He had an aide whose job was to top up chocolate bars in a safe as well as top secret feels of the files of the atomic bomb. He said if this thing doesnt work, he said they will stick me in a dungeon so deep in fort levine worth theyll have to pump sunlight in. So you know, he was not worried about setting fire to the arrests atmosphere. What channels did the government in tokyo become aware of the extent of the devastation and how long did it take them to get that information . Great question. Its part of the story of my book. Its a very dramatic story. Within there were no sirens when the bomb was dropped. There were warnings coming in as these bombers were approaching but it was too late to start start to sirens. There was an announcer in hiroshimas local radio announcer. He actually began to get the words out over the radio there were three planes approaching and then usually an airplane error rates silent get starts. But then the radio usually goes off air. He was literally hurled up into the air and the entire Radio Station tilted in the air. At that point, tokyo operator of the equivalence National Broadcasting notices hiroshima station it just got off the. Air 40 minutes later, the signals people on the railways japanese railways notice that there was a signal break on the line just north of hiroshima. They couldnt get through to the city. And about two hours after that, a reporter, this is in the book from the dome i news agency who had actually being at the center of the city just before the bomb had gone off. A gonna visit a friend of his and stayed with his friend because he was actually looking for a suit or pair of pajamas to dry. You dont get back to his home in the center of the city ari wouldve been killed. He goes back to the city afterwards in hes a reporter. He sends one of the most famous news flashes of alltime. He manages to get to a telephone. One of the very few lines its still working. He manages to get the news out to tokyo. He says in this news flash that the city has been hit by a huge bomb and at least 80,000 people are dead. Theres a primary source where he describes japan has been translated for me. His boss on the other side in tokyo does not believe him. He was a simply refuses to believe that this is happened. He actually refuses to broadcast this or have anything to do with it. That evening on the 6 00 news there was a reference to some american bombers dropping bombs on japan and some damage on hiroshima forgiven. It was later that evening that it was big become obvious something horrific it happened in the city. At that point, the news the president of the United States stated that an atomic bomb had dropped on the city of hiroshima with a power of 20,000 tons of tnt. Across the airwaves, it was intercepted by a guy in tokyo who made six recordings of the president s statement. And then cycled through glistening potato fields to his superior and very quickly that news was passed to the prime minister. It was obvious then something horrific had happened. As part of that statement the president made, the japanese japanese denounced not surrender, they will face a rain of ruin from the air the like of which is not been seen on this earth before. Yeah. Hello mister walker. I lived in japan for years and ive been in new mexico, some of these places youve been to. Two questions i really like to ask. The relationship between oppenheim are and groves is a bit bizarre say the least. Groves didnt want to be there, he was kind of force. Or oppenheim or was a Security Risk according to the government. Yet they were joined at the head to create this monster of a bomb. Up yet they both somehow benefit from it, whereas prestige in stature. Second question has to do with this bomb has seems to have historically warped the history of this period. At the summit smithsonian the 50th anniversary of the saying they couldnt put anything together because it was kind of got nasty. Or is trying to get rid of the world european colonialism and they dropped a bomb on them. So theres this bomby this monstrosity you talked about historically whole countries and ability to understand the bump. Let me tell you. I devoted. I think the relationship between open high marin groves is is fascinating and comic. Grows is extraordinary large. His weight was a secret almost as classified as that of the Atomic Bomb Program. He was famously rude to everyone he worked with. The only person who did work with them was a secretary, mrs. Jeanne at larry. Who is a widow in her thirties. It was the only person in the Pentagon Office who stood up to gross and simply shut up when he was router. He employed her permanently and she knew more about the Atomic Bomb Program the president the United States. I think he was actually quite scared of her. He was a complete bad person. They called him in sob and also the most capable. This is a 1945, he employed a headset which he bulky mans. His empire was across the world. He was very tough but he was the guy that was needed to get to sing actually working. On the other hand up nine or is the exact opposite. Is a thin course like man. He was 116 pounds. Hes on five packs a day really smoking himself into an early grave. He died of throw cancer in the sixties. Hes very very thin. Hes a very very nervous man indeed. Hes a man who believes in open society, society should be able to talk to each other. Gross thinks hes a security freak. Grows really is a security freak. He set spies an open hammer a tax on everything he was also such a security freak, even his home family and wife and two children who lived quite near here in washington, had absolutely no clue what he was doing every single day of his life. When he went into the office. Running the most expensive and most important Weapons Program in history. And the first time they found out about it, was actually on the day the bomb was dropped in hiroshima, when that he rang up his wife and said, you should listen to the radio today im on it. At 11 00 he said, and they switch on the radio, and they hear that this man thats been living with them for the last three years going to his office just to the new war building across the pentagon, is actually the man who is responsible for the and they actually say we were completely flabbergasted when we heard it was dicks bomb that dropped on the japanese. Which is the expression she uses when shes interviewed in the cbs. Unquestionably, this relationship is an extraordinary one, and yet absolutely pivotal. The one key thing about apart the fact that he terrified everybody was the fact that he was a brilliant judge of character, he had an uncanny instinct for character. Sure he was a war right wing. Oppenheim or had associations with people who were communist or himself, he was never a member of the communist party. He saw that ive been high mueller was not the most brilliant of scientists. In the Nuclear Project its fair share of Super Science egos. He was not a nobel prize whether he saw he was ambitious. He recognized that that by putting in charge egg heads, as he put it would couldnt run a faculty meeting, let alone a bomb program. We realize this guy would actually keep them all in control he was a material brilliant talent and some prove thats what given his prestige they need each other in a way that. As far as your other points are concerned, yes. Its a political football. I think it continues to be a political football for time immemorial. That answers your question. This question addresses the survivors of hiroshima. They have been with living with a second shockwave if you will, and thats a greatly increased risk of cancer due to radiation exposure. Secondly theyve had to deal with survivor guilt. Ive wondered if, when you talk to the survivors, if they talk to you about how they felt about these two issues related to their own survival and this ghastly event. The issue of radiation sickness is obviously a profound and complex one. Ill tell you something quite interesting. From my reading of the archives, i spent some time in the National Archives in washington. And obviously interviewed some key people who were involved in a project, who are still alive. Talk about the privilege and the Twilight Zone which is why i think its so important which is why all right this. But when things very clear, they were not expecting genuinely inspecting the radioactivity of the bomb to be the killer. They were genuinely expecting the heat of the bomb, which i described, and also the blast wave. The shockwave of my book to be the principal killer effectively. Not so much the radioactivity sets in some very specific test, the detonation high forgive me on the bomb out about 1850 feet. And that was designed to be the most effective height for the maximum demolition of structures. And theyre not talking about radioactivity, so they thought the higher you go, the less rates activity the would you would get. Higher up, lace radioactivity. Theyre looking at other things at that point. There is an extraordinary insight into the mentality of the time. The bomb obviously makes a tremendous flash. And the test in trinity, the flash was so extraordinary, there is a very famous story, of a blind girl called georgia green who was on the way from a music lesson in albuquerque. She was being driven by her brother joe, her brotherinlaw joe. It was still nighttime when the bomb went off. She was 50 miles away, and she grabs her brothers arm and said what is that light . This is a bomb so bright, that it can make a blind girl see it. See the light. So youre talking about an incredible flash, immediately afterwards, key prominent figures in that program wrote a memo to open higher and growths. Which i have a copy of. It is in my book. In which they actually suggest that they could exploit this blinding brightness from this bomb by dropping super its not my word its theirs superpowerful sirens at the same time they dropped the bomb. And so the people we hear the science and look up at the precise moment when the bombs flash. Best blinding them. Even if they dont kill them. This was actually suggested, in a memo very clearly, about a week or two afterwards. They are not looking at radioactivity, they are looking at other things. However of course, people did die of radioactivity. And obviously a lot of survivors. There was one story that hugely affected me of a doctor who told me his story in osaka. He was a remarkable man who actually was in a Little Village called hazza, just six kilometers north of hiroshima. He describes in my book, he was actually looking after a little girl who had a hard condition. It was at the point where he was actually injecting a sedative with a syringe into her arm. When the shockwave struck. It is a grandstand view, kind of like bob karen in the tale of the unknown today. The story is, he tells a story that really stuck in my mind. Where he grabbed a bicycle, and he started to cycle down this long white dusty road towards the Mushroom Cloud in the city. And, he turned the corner and actually was going so fast that point he actually fell off his bike at that point. He fell off his bike fell into the road. And as he got up, he was wiping the dust off his clothes. He saw this object coming towards him. Thats how he describes it, this object coming towards him. And the object had, huge bulging eyes like golf balls. And a massive gaping mouth, like maybe grinning. And there were strips of what he thought was clothing hanging from its arms, i say it because he didnt know it was a man woman or even a human being. He thought it first might be clothing and strips, and then he realized was actually burned flesh. And this thing was staggering towards him. And he was so horrified, he backed away. And as he backed away collapsed, and then convulsed and then appeared to die. And he went towards this thing, this monster, and hes a doctor. And he thought i got to do something, but he didnt know where to touch the flesh at all. And finally he very hesitantly as im telling you this it was extraordinarily told me this, he touched the flesh and it burned black and flesh with this thing. And he said a prayer. And he stood up, to get back on his bicycle to continue the journey down into the there gonna need a doctor. And then as we looked down in this white road, he suddenly saw hundreds if not thousands of these same figures coming up the hill towards him. All looking the same. All with their arms outstretched, in this horrible strip of black and flesh hanging from their arms. All coming towards him, and they were literally became thousands of them. He actually said and i quoted him, he said my god how many of them are there. And they were all coming up the hill. So he tried to treat them, in this Little Village hospital. They had nothing there except soybean oil and rags. They were doing their best. He had a description where he would go out amongst these people, thousands lying in the field with a little torch, and having to make decisions which went to treat, and which ones to not. And the ones that were beyond treatment there was nothing you could do about it at all. Thousands, and one extraordinary story about a naked girl who was rushing shes rushing amongst these bodies and other people trying to get her to cover up her legs. They have not been burned, the bombers so instantaneous her upper park was completely burnt. But her legs were obscene lee naked and white and untouched. He describes that detail in the book. And how other people around are trying to cover her up, give us some sense of modesty in that moment. She was flinging their clothes away. And then what started to happen, people started to get dysentery. And that came later, and as you rightly say it continued and they say some stories argue, 30 to 40,000 people died in the for five months after the first 80 or 90,000 died from the first day or two. From radiation poisoning. And you actually rightly say, many live with those effects to this day. Is it isnt actually possible that you scientists did not know . But they thought the impact would wipe out most of the population, there would not be so many. In fact, that was one of the things they were determining in the test. They were fallout monitors, throughout the state of new mexico and beyond during the test. And chiefs were ready to evacuate entire cities of a fallout went that way. They chose names from the wizard of oz, like the tin woodsman. And the role was basically to evacuate entire populations, so will be sleeping americans. Because the fallout cloud is coming your way. In fact the cloud went five times around the world before dissipated from the atomic test in new mexico. Did truman tell churchill and stalin and passed them or want to wear they find out about the atomic bomb . We are with the japanese fighters well on the first question, truman did actually the british scientists who were involved in a Manhattan Project knew everything about it. In fact when he was told by the secretary of war, and red general groves accounts of the trinity test, famously, he said simpson he said what is electricity meaningless. What is gun power its not planning. This atomic bomb is the Second Coming great churchill phrase. So churchill knew stalin was not supposed to know about the bomb. In a very very carefully staged managed event, in the middle of the conference room, after one of the sessions, truman casually wandered over to stalin and told stalin that they had a weapon of unusual destructive power which they were intending to use on the japanese. Churchill was watching every moment, they work that together like schoolboys. And stalin just said thats great. Do use it. And said nothing more. And churchill and truman were absolutely convinced they got away with it, and stalin knew nothing about this mom. They were very pleased. But stella knew everything about the bomb. He had a spy, who is actually at the trinity test. They were sending back information at the time. There was a recording conversation that took place between molotov the minister and stolen after event. That very night, this is recorded. Were tall in terms of multi of and says, right, we have to get couture tough on to this. And start getting a moving. Cutoff was the soviet oppenheim are. And what they meant by that was, we are now moving in the arms race. We have to get moving. So in a way, the cold war is born in that conversation in that conversation in very briefly the fighter planes, the window fighter planes, nothing happened. There was no flak, there were no anti aircraft. There was nothing. One of the reasons that happened, the japanese, there had been a number of Practice Mission these guys have flown. Caring what they call pumpkin bombs. The called their very big bombs, whether conventional bombs. They were flying one of these missions quite unlike the big bomber raid that the americans are usually flying. And they were doing it with the express and specific purpose of getting the japanese used to high flying airplanes that didnt do damage at all. And it worked. Until it says is very expressly in his autobiography, they flew one or two or three planes gonna do nothing. They are not dangerous, maybe reconnaissance or whatever. And theres so little fuel left, theyre saving their fighter planes for the serious stuff. So they were not touched, actually, you know something, timid said after war Hiroshima Mission was the most boring mission hed ever flown. Which in a way, is it terrifying but its also astonishingly revealing about how perfect that mission was. It was the perfect mission. Last week first of all i would like to say today is the last day for me to be a japanese. Tomorrow im going to be a u. S. Citizen. After living here for 35 years im filing in the u. S. Citizen. I am really looking forward to read your book to get more detail and information. Two very basic questions. Number one is that when this Manhattan Project has been conceived, has this been specifically designed to bomb japan . Has america ever thought of dropping this bomb on germany in the war . Thats number one. Number two. You say somebody like kyoto so much he wanted preserves kyoto. So why not hiroshima . Why not tokyo or any other place . To take each question briefly. I let me tell you very briefly little story. The scientists lose a hungarian scientist fled berlin in 1933. He was working at the geyserville institute which is a major physics department. Nuclear physicists this is before anybody thought about adam bombs. He came to london and he was standing on a Street Corner in bloomsbury. He was staring at the traffic light and in the moment the traffic light changed, these are his words not mine, from red to green, he suddenly saw how an atom bomb would work. Actually saw what we can now call a Chain Reaction in that instant. And abyss open up in front of him. He come from nazi germany and he thought, my god if i thought of this, there might be some german scientists on the street quarter balloon who has exactly the same inspiration and some other traffic light junction. Its so terrified him that he then campaigned to get the atomic bomb built by the americans or the british to stop or get ahead of the germans doing exactly the same thing. He finally managed to enlist the help of his teacher einstein, and together they drafted a letter to the president roosevelt at the time and which they urged the president to construct atomic bombs to get a program going. Roosevelt famously told his aid jackal general watson, he opened up bottle of napoleon brandy and he said, this requires action. Thats what we call the Manhattan Project. Its fundamental purpose was to make sure that the americans had an answer to a german atomic bomb, not to a japanese atomic bomb. When it was quite clear by late 1944, early 1945 the germans did not have have an atomic bomb. They were actually way behind the americans, partly because hitler loathe what he called george jewish victory physics, he associated einstein with it. The next obvious target was japan. The chip japanese out a very fledgling Atomic Program but hardly got anywhere at all. But people exhilarating turned against the pro bryant that he been campaigning so hard for. He couldnt see the point for any longer. What on earth are we developing this weapon for that will be such a terror for future generations when actually the japanese are not an atomic threat. Even petitioned the president at one point to stop kissing from being dropped. This petition was signed by 69 scientists at the university of chicago actually went via general groves and as a result of that general groves stuck the petition in his drawer and never got to president truman. He never saw it. Youre absolutely right, it wasnt japan. Very briefly on the issue of hiroshima. Why that was a chosen target. Hiroshima satisfied a number of criteria that expressly and explicitly described in the minutes of the target Selection Committee a lot loss animals and the pentagon. The target was the perfect target. It was untouched by bombs virtually. All these other cities had been pulverized. It could show the effects of an atomic bomb very clearly. It also had one very major advantage. He was surrounded on three sides by mountains. Very expressly, number of people involved in that targets Election Committee described how the mountains would increase the blast. It was untouched, its geography was bomb perfect, the weather patterns look good there. They check the weather for the last hundred 50 years. 150 years to see where the best balmy days would be and it came down to sunday in early august. Depicted two or three possible days. The weather was good there it was in some sense also a Japanese Military installation. There were three or 4000 japanese troops in the city. There were not interestingly, not when the president made a statement, and broadcaster statement to the world that he dropped this bomb, ive seen various different drops of that statement. And earlier drops of that statement, it just says, 16 hours ago a bomb was dropped on blank. City need to be provided. When the name hiroshima was put in, whos a series of debates and discussions put in and it was decided to add the phrase an important Japanese Army base. That was actually added at the last moment, hours before the president actually broadcast that statement to the world. That was not an earlier drops of the statement. It was important to provide rule wide justification for the dropping of the bomb even. Answer your question. Thank you. Weeknights this month were featuring American History programs as a preview of whats available on weekends and cspan 3. Friday night at eight eastern, a look at hiroshima nagasaki in the end of world war ii. For the 75th anniversary of hiroshima. Well show you a documentary examining the august 6th, 1945 by atomic bombing of here she may, japan. The film also features a young family at hiroshima showing after the bat building. Were trying to make sense of the bombing. Takes experience real American History weekend this weekend every weekend on cspan three. American history tv on cspan 3. Exploring the people and events to tell the american story. Every weekend. Coming up this weekend. Sunday marks the 75th anniversary of the bombing of nagasaki, japan. Three days after the bombing of hiroshima. Live at 9 am eastern, will look at back at how the bombings the world war ii and the aftermath in the decades ahead. With Richard Frank author of down fill, the end of the japanese and in empire. And peter cousin, eric American University professor. Well take your tweets and facebook questions. The 1946 film, a facts of the atomic bomb on hiroshima and nagasaki and 1000 cranes, documenting the origins of hiroshimas peace park. Then it 8 pm eastern, the pro the 75th anniversary of the potsdam conference. Truman in forager chilled england and stalin of the soviet union about the new u. S. Super weapon. Exploring the american story. Watch American History tv. This weekend on cspan three