This film. This program include scenes of atomic bomb victims which some viewers may find disturbing. It was the 6th of august, the enemy which had been known from the night before, was lifted for the time being. It was a calm and clear morning, a few minutes after 8 00, two super squads information appeared over the city. Then a bomb came hurdling down, from one of the giant bombers. There was a blinding flash, and a deafening explosion. In an instant, hiroshima was a scene of unprecedented chaos. Hiroshima, was instantly transfigured, there is nothing left but ruins. Nothing standing, to hinder the full view of the city. The first days in the first days after the atomic bombing of hiroshima, and then nagasaki two days later, it was 75 years ago now, the leading japanese news real team, sent one or more cameramen, to the two cities. And the shot footage, of the aftermath. Not just the buildings, but the survivors and victims. And this footage, we shift back to tokyo. Where it was soon, suppressed by the american occupation, when they arrived in early september. The new israel team tried again, and they said several people, lead people to hiroshima and nagasaki, and they shot extensive footage for the next month. Then when the americans arrived and nagasaki, again the footage you know had seized and the japanese had been there, before the americans. They had totally historic vote footage. That showed medical effects, as physical effects. The americans ordered them to continue their work but under american supervision. The eight japanese went back to work. They shot more footage, they were ordered to add it, and narrate, the documentary which they did. Two hours and 40 minutes. But again under american supervision. They finish this documentary, it was seized by the american military. And basically stressed, for decades. Until the late 1960s. The americans meanwhile, we can get into that though but they began shooting color footage of the aftermath. And then that footage also would be suppressed for decades. So it is a story, in my book in the film, and my current book all talk about, how this footage in black and white, and then in color bolton japanese in american. He was totally suppressed for decades. As a way to control what americans were allowed to see about the aftermath of the bombs. As we drew close to the epicenter, we found that because the blast came from overhead, such perpendicular op projects, remain erect on the ground. This is a commercial, and industrial building buildup brick. 300 meters on the epicenter. Why did the japanese make these films, theyre so scientific and carefully constructed . Well when they first arrived, they did not know what they were going to find. Its quite shocking just to be there. And at first they were, the victims you know we can talk about them, the perpetrators of the war, but in terms of the atomic bombs, they certainly were the victims, 200,000 died. 90 of them were civilians. And even the survivors suffered horribly, from burns, and radiation effects. So they were shooting in the hospitals, makeshift hospitals shacks, documenting the aftermath, where people were suffering from disease. You know you could say it was incredibly important just from a medical standpoint, because they were documenting the emergence of a new disease in the world. The radiation sickness caused by the bomb. A brother and sister who are upstairs in their house, two kilometers southwest of the epicenter, and it was reported that after about a week, they began to develop symptoms, and direct ceo, leading, and fever. Mother and daughter, shown here were both inside their house, two kilometers southwest of the epicenter. The daughter was injured, when icebox fell on top of her. The mother had no visible injuries, and was nursing her daughter outside of the city, won a month later she herself became seriously ill. So that is why they were, intent on capturing that. They did. It was also important for the u. S. , to then hide that footage. Because they did not want americans to see the effects. They wanted the americans to turn the page, war was over and they didnt really want to see what happened to the people to the civilians, and they were almost all women and children, an elderly man. I think we still wanted people to believe we killed soldiers, and bomb military facilities. But it wasnt the case. And the japanese did for posterity, and for the occupiers, the americans. They tried to do an honest job with this. With the footage they had. Came damage three days after hiroshima. The 9th of august, 1945 the day was calm bright and windowless. Since early morning, the alarm was on in the nagasaki area. Then it was lifted. But for two hours and a half, and exactly at 11 00, two super forces appeared over the city. At a high altitude. The first plane dropped three objects spectacular two parachutes. Then the second plane dropped an object. Took about 40 seconds. Then came a blinding flash, followed by an explosion, and ablaze. The destruction was the greatest ever done by man. All buildings, save those of stock reinforced concrete were demolished. All of this neighborhood, once teamed with wooden houses and small factories, now is flattened out. Only pebbles and broken tiles remain. They were directed to make this documentary, focusing on mainly on the physical effects, the effects on plants. The effects on other things, in the Natural World with some focus on injuries to people. So its mainly not, joining the survivors. Its not showing the survivors, i think are scrolling through here and its a good variety of what was shown of shadow effects. Of course quite dramatic, the clash of the bomb, through a permanent shadow on the blinks on the buildings. So footage shows japanese japanese scientists studying measurements, and calculating the direction of the bomb, and so on. So it is quite an amazing document, and people can view it now at the national archives, or even online. Its available. But nobody, in america saw it until around 1970. My film, that will be eventually coming out, we did the first 4k, modern transfer. So quality is much better. If people want to know more about your film that is not released yet but will be soon, tell us what they can do. Well they can go to my blog, pressuring issues, where i have put up floor for brief clips from the film. These club to short. But they do include, footage of the black and white footage, and the color footage about what is being shown. Its a very good gives you good idea of what my film is about. And about the footage is what its about, and why its important. There is really quite a dramatic story, about this project, and after the japanese completed this 240 minute documentary, the americans seized not just the original print, but every scrap of outtake, everything that was not used, hours of footage, and that footage has never surfaced. Its known as the phantom film in japan. Because even though this two hour and 40 minute documentary, all the outtakes, and what they call scraps, and left or material, has never surfaced. Its still buried, or was destroyed by the americans. So that is the phantom film. But what happened is that when the japanese newsreel team, found out they were going to be raided, by the americans they did spirit out, one original print and had a copy made at great risk. Risk of imprisonment by the americans. They had one copy made, and he had that copy in the ceiling, of an editing suite. Were it remained for several years. So Everything Else will ship back to the u. S. , the japanese kept it, and the occupation was still going on. It was hidden in the ceiling. And after several years, they brought out. And then even small bits of it, that anyone saw, in the west, was sort of smuggled out to renee, for his famous feature, hiroshima, which you know is not a documentary its a drama set in hiroshima. But he used small bits of that in his movie. The foreign film. So that is how the west saw even tiny bits of it. But a larger part of it was never seen until you know we can talk about this if you want, but to aired on pbs, just after 1970. So tell us about this film. Well eric maher now, found out in this 1960s, he was a writer on documentaries films, so he found out that this footage had been declassified at the national archives. And so he then made a 15 minute, artful, understated documentary. Which we are looking at right now parts of it. This is hiroshima nagasaki 1945. And managed to get public television, to arit. Around another august six anniversary. And this caused great controversy at the time. Some people thought it wasnt a proper id. And one station refused to run it. And when it was aired there was a panel that came out afterwards to discuss it. To give it more of a context, rather than let it speak for itself. But he basically took the two hours and 40 minutes, and took 15 minutes of highlights, with the narration, and it did cause quite a stir. That was available for many years, and a vhs type tape. In hiroshima on that day, half the doctors were killed. At the hospitals, between three and 10,000 people came each day for help. And each day, 2000 of them died. They were buried together, because there were too many to bury separately. And so it was a historic moment, and like i said it was 1970, 1971 and the color footage, shot by the americans at that point, is still unknown, and no one has ever seen. And now we are seeing the foot the first bits of it here. Actually that car there, its very interesting story in itself, if you want to hold that. Camera man harry mimura, he was a wellknown japanese cindy top refer. Cinematographer. He was the prominent, and he was then enlisted by the americans to shoot most of their footage. And that is the level of quality that went into this. And harry mimura shot much of this footage that youre going to see now. This scene here, is nurses marching into the red cross hospital, in hiroshima. The footage was shot, in the fall or winter, following the atomic bomb. Where was all this color footage then, its marked at the national are caves, as the United States air force, but when did people first learn about this . Well, i guess its a long story but, one of the handful of men, who took part in this project, was herbert sussen and he turned out to be a director producer. So he was trying for years to get at this footage, which was kept basically on the military archives for so long. And it was never loud. Then it was the late 1970s, he attended a un exhibit of photos, from hiroshima, and saw an image, which was basically a still from this footage. And he told the organizer, i shot that are my team shot that. Shes like this is footage i shot back in 1945 1946. And that led for the japanese to investigate, and they found out that the color footage had been declassified, years earlier but nobody knew about it. So its like it was not declassified. So the japanese, had the what they called the ten foot campaign, so if you put a certain amount of money, you could buy ten feet of this footage, and they ended up getting all of the relevant footage back in japan and started making films in the early 1980s. And the first time i was exposed to this was, in new york in 1982, when that first japanese documentary was shown. And herbert sussen spoke before. It and i became good friends with him, and i edited a magazine called nuclear times, the first article about this. Suppressed footage. Then it became i guess a mini sensation, documentary. Filmmakers then started to use it everyone knew about it, and so its thanks to herbert sussen and the japanese that the footage finally emerged after 35 years. Have you seen the japanese documentary using this footage. And how would you compare to american works. Well they did an interesting thing, from the very start they you know this was a big project in the news in japan a big project. As you can imagine it covered this incredible finding. So the press covered this, and they located some of the people who were shown in this footage. In fact a couple of them i met myself years later. So they track down some of the people shown in the original footage, and they would show the original footage and then talked to the person in 1980, about how they felt about it. Or the story behind it. And that is pretty much how they angled it. Kind of a before and after treatment in most cases. Do you know if president truman, or other policy leaders, ever saw these films . I dont really you know they were classified, top secret, at the start and the kind of remain there. They got shuffled in military repositories. But as far as i know, no no top person, you know there was a screening of the black and white footage which i documented. Where more of the top brass was shown. You know heres what we have. And out of that came, okay you have to keep the secret. So that just endured. Once things are classified, in only if you take a step to declassify, it or release it to the media, nobody knows about it. And that is what happened in this case. Do you think, that americans in 2020, should watch these films . Well obviously i do, because as i just made a film, based on them. Why . You know the selections you are showing, they are representative, in some ways the footage could be edited, into a long feature, with subtlety, not necessarily focusing on the most graphic images. These images are hard to take. And i understand that. So i wouldnt expect, you know and i didnt make a film where people have to sit there for an hour to, watching this. You put it in context, and you see the stories of the filmmakers, which is what my film is about. Its really about the japanese and american filmmakers. Their stories, the whole story is told their first person. Talk about what they saw, how they experienced it and the american filmmakers. This is entirely from the point of view of the filmmakers. And a half of them, or american soldiers or officers. So it is very sympathetic, to the american military, in trying to shoot this footage. And the people who did. But ultimately, the same military, and government hit the footage. Its kind of a story of these elite filmmakers, versus government and versus the public right to know. Or should the public have been allowed to see, this footage from the start. What i have made a difference . In my latest book, its about how india made a film, that was revised and sabotaged by the white house, and the military, the very same year they were suppressing this footage. So its part of an overall, drive by those in authority, to manage what i call the hiroshima narrative. To keep the story focused on the use of the bomb, and that was the only thing to end the war this with the said, and so on so forth. It was important to keep that noninterrupted, buy images and stories, that might make people have second thoughts about that. Thats all part of this whole post more teen. Your new book, the beginning or the end how hollywood and american learn to stop worrying and love the bomb. What is that film about basically . As i mentioned, immediately after very shortly after the bombing, a group of atomic scientists, and the Manhattan Project approached him gm. And the actor was donna read the sort of interesting. But they wanted to make a film, that would warn the world about the dangers of continuing down this path. You dont nuclear arms race, hydrogen bomb, and so forth. So could they make a big hollywood drama, and louis b may or, of mgm said yes we can do this. And they embarked on this, first scripts were very balanced, they showed the effects of hiroshima, on the ground, they raised questions about the use of the bomb, and the creation of the bomb, and then mgm, allowed general groves who was the head of the Manhattan Project. To have script approval. So both the military, and president truman intervened, in an unprecedented fashion, to revise the script, cut things in like it, all like the bombing of nagasaki. Which somehow was entirely eliminated. Didnt show up once in the film. And basically shape a movie, that was built on propaganda. It was came out in 1927. And the very same month, this footage was suppressed. So the kill the film eventually came out, and hollywood has only made to movies about the bomb. About the creation and use of the bomb since. So thats kind of remarkable when you think about it. Three films, but the book goes back to the origins. And how this first film, was totally turned in a different direction. The whole thing is terrifying, you must have spent many sleepless nights over it. Ive consulted with mr. Churchill, with all my top military naval advisers, ive talked to civilian heads, and all these advisers tell me that the bomb will shorten the war but least a year. Where will we use it . Thats another question i had think about. Any president that has the ok to launching. It polls show, recent polls show that a good number of americans, 30 to 45 , say they would support the first strike on north korea, or around but they if they started making threatening noises towards u. S. Even though in the polls, even if this would kill 1 million civilians . And people say sure. So this goes back to the hiroshima narrative that only our bombs couldve ended the war that time. And so that narrative, has a word in the media, even today, most of the media for a few in the media every challenge that. Certainly officials rarely challenge that. So it is something that has endured for 75 years. And its not a black and white debate, its worth a debate, i always welcome a debate studying evidence. But the fact is, the fact that Many Americans and most of the media, continue to endorse that. Only makes further use more likely. And not only is it a precedent, but its a president thats a precedent that is being endorsed every year. You know maybe this is the last time such a major anniversary is marked. But again i dont see much evidence, that media or officials or anyone, is particularly rising up to challenge this. And myself in a few others so. That is what has driven me i guess, it is not just a matter of the past. This is very much relevant topical issue today. Because how we respond, how we look at the fact that we use the bomb twice. Informs todays policies, todays attitudes, and just imagine, a Nuclear Threat crisis today. Call it what you will. Suddenly a world crisis, some of arrivals or enemies. Making threatening noises. And any president , with Nuclear Codes as you know its called the nuclear football. Always within a few yards. Who could launch a Nuclear Attack anytime. So i think that hiroshima and nagasaki matter very much today, even if there is nothing we could do to change what was done in 1945. Well Greg Mitchell thank you very much, for joining us in helping us understand these films. Im very happy to do this thank you. The days of hiroshima nagasaki, tragic scenes of devastation, have begun to recover, over the passage of time. Slowly but surely, efforts are being made. Insufficient though the studies of the scientists may have been, theyve given hope and light, to these cities and their citizens