1 00:00:01,440 --> 00:00:06,000 Desperate to end the war, the U.S. is planning to invade Japan. 2 00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:08,120 Largest invasion in World War II. 3 00:00:08,200 --> 00:00:09,680 Would have dwarfed D-Day. 4 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:13,280 Military is talking about the suicide of the 100 million. 5 00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:15,360 A recipe for a mass bloodbath. 6 00:00:15,800 --> 00:00:18,600 But unleashing the elemental power of the atom 7 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:20,160 offers another way out. 8 00:00:20,240 --> 00:00:23,280 Pro-bomb people say, "Look, this is a weapon like any other. 9 00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:25,000 Let's use it to end the war." 10 00:00:25,080 --> 00:00:27,840 President Truman makes a fateful decision 11 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:31,120 to deploy the most deadly weapon ever created. 12 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:32,880 Nothing in the human experience 13 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:38,240 had prepared anybody for such totalizing damage, so instantaneously. 14 00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:41,320 I knew I was facing death. 15 00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:44,160 The final hours of the Second World War 16 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:46,040 changed the course of history. 17 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:49,440 Now, rarely seen archives from around the world, 18 00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:53,120 expertly restored and brought to life in full HD color 19 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:57,520 tells the story of one of the most destructive events of World War II 20 00:00:57,600 --> 00:00:59,840 as you've never seen it before. 21 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:09,400 By early 1945, the war in the Pacific 22 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:11,800 is reaching new levels of savagery. 23 00:01:11,880 --> 00:01:14,400 Fighting is vicious and cruel. 24 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:15,640 It was a war without mercy. 25 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:18,680 The war was brutal on both sides. 26 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:21,080 Prisoners are not taken in many cases. 27 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:24,080 The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor 28 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:26,520 dragged the U.S. into the conflict. 29 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:29,200 Believing the American Navy crippled, 30 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:31,560 the Japanese embarked on a massive campaign 31 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:34,640 across Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific. 32 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:37,520 But the tide turned at the Battle of Midway 33 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:41,680 and now, the Americans are hitting back with a bloody war of attrition. 34 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:44,160 Island hopping across the ocean, 35 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:47,720 the U.S. forces have been capturing occupied territories 36 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:50,200 and steadily pushing the Japanese back. 37 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:53,840 In early 1945, the Americans are closing in on Japan itself. 38 00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:58,240 Every time that the Japanese strategic positions were taken away 39 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:00,720 and the Americans inched closer towards 40 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:03,120 the Japanese islands, then that they realized 41 00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:04,840 that their days were numbered. 42 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:08,960 An island with no natural resources, 43 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:12,040 Japan is totally dependent on imported oil. 44 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:16,000 By systematically targeting their shipping routes, 45 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:20,320 the U.S. Navy has virtually cut off the country from vital supplies. 46 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:22,920 We've choked off their economy, 47 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:24,800 we've sunk most of their merchant fleet, 48 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:26,840 we've sunk most of their navy. 49 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:29,160 They were essentially done. 50 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:32,720 The blockade has left ordinary Japanese civilians 51 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:35,080 facing something approaching famine. 52 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:37,760 The situation in the cities was dire. 53 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:42,600 The evacuated children were slowly starving to death 54 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:46,360 and if they had sores, they would suck on their sores 55 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:49,200 because pus is sweet. It tastes sweet. 56 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:53,280 But even such hardships are not enough to turn the Japanese 57 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:54,720 against the war. 58 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:58,400 That didn't reckon with the peculiar national character of Japan. 59 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:01,560 People there saw Emperor Hirohito as the son of God, 60 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:05,720 saw this war as something divinely ordained and sanctioned, 61 00:03:05,920 --> 00:03:08,760 saw their duty as being to die for the emperor. 62 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:13,400 Most people are willing to put up with what is necessary 63 00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:15,360 for the war to be won. 64 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:18,720 As a consequence, the final stages of the war 65 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:21,640 are becoming increasingly frustrating for the Americans. 66 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:24,440 As the war gets closer to Japan 67 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:26,760 and as Japan gets closer to defeat, 68 00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:30,360 the Japanese fight with greater intensity and greater bitterness. 69 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:33,480 The Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines 70 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:35,800 sees the most extreme measures yet. 71 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:42,840 A very ominous turn happens in late 1944 72 00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:45,000 when the Japanese go to full suicide. 73 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:56,640 The infamous Kamikaze strike. 74 00:03:57,640 --> 00:03:59,880 The tactic is an act of desperation. 75 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:02,920 The best Japanese pilots had long since been killed 76 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:05,240 and the rest were poorly trained. 77 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:08,840 If you have a very limited supply of airplanes, 78 00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:10,560 a limited supply of fuel, 79 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:13,040 and a very limited ability to train pilots, 80 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:17,000 you can probably train them to crash into a ship. 81 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:19,880 Portrayed as fearless warriors, 82 00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:23,920 those undertaking these missions were not always willing volunteers. 83 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:27,560 A lot of the Kamikaze pilots were not allowed enough fuel 84 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:29,000 to come back. 85 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:31,400 They were used as human bombs. 86 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:34,000 With this, the ultimate sacrifice, 87 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:37,720 the Japanese are determined to send the Americans a message. 88 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:42,680 What the Japanese were trying to do was to demoralize the Americans, 89 00:04:42,760 --> 00:04:45,440 but also destroy their naval assets. 90 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:54,160 In total, 34 U.S. ships are sunk 91 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:58,680 and 10,000 men, casualties of Kamikaze attacks. 92 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:02,320 It speaks to and it redoubles the idea 93 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:05,280 of a Japanese fighter as a fanatical fighter, 94 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:07,360 as one who will never give up. 95 00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:12,200 The U.S. soon gets the opportunity to strike back. 96 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:15,240 Their capture of the Mariana Islands 97 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:18,560 means their bombers can now reach Japan itself. 98 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:25,760 General Curtis LeMay orders low altitude area bombing 99 00:05:25,840 --> 00:05:28,640 using napalm-style incendiaries. 100 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:31,600 Their first target is Tokyo. 101 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:35,000 The wooden structures of the city don't stand a chance. 102 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:38,240 The 314th is airborne. 103 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:41,560 One-hundred and forty-five planes, one minute apart, 104 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:43,800 67 tons each. 105 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:47,080 The Japanese defenses by this point were terribly denuded. 106 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:48,680 They were out of fuel. 107 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:51,400 They didn't have enough pilots to defend their cities 108 00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:55,520 and so, the bombers could go in almost with complete impunity. 109 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:59,120 Eight minutes after midnight on March the 10th, 110 00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:04,480 279 B-29s descend on the sleeping city. 111 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:09,240 The incendiary bombs ignite fires that are so intense 112 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:13,880 that buildings and people vanish in a matter of moments. 113 00:06:15,480 --> 00:06:17,640 Flames are leaping from building to building 114 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:19,960 and because so much of it's wood, 115 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:22,520 the fire's spreading faster than people can run. 116 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:26,920 And the winds created by the fire storms are so intense 117 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:32,520 that children are taken from the grasp of their parents and disappear. 118 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:37,400 In one night, the U.S. dropped 1,600 tons of bombs. 119 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:40,080 Kills over 100,000 people 120 00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:43,160 and flattens 16 square miles of city. 121 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:47,560 It is the single most destructive air attack ever carried out, 122 00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:51,760 and the start of a campaign that destroys 67 cities. 123 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:56,120 The act dwarfs any aggression seen in the European theater. 124 00:06:56,440 --> 00:06:59,160 It just seems to be that the Americans would consider 125 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:02,200 doing things against the Japanese they wouldn't do against the Germans. 126 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:05,040 From the start, the war in the Pacific 127 00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:07,160 has a pronounced racist element. 128 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:10,440 Anti-Japanese feeling had been high in the U.S. 129 00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:12,760 for decades before the conflict. 130 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:17,320 The language used by the U.S. and its allies 131 00:07:17,440 --> 00:07:20,920 in describing Japan was highly racialized. 132 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:23,080 They're characterized as vermin. 133 00:07:23,440 --> 00:07:26,960 Apes, monkeys… It's just a representation 134 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:31,120 that devalues and dehumanizes the individual, 135 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:36,160 and in turn, reinforces this idea that you can be more brutal to them. 136 00:07:36,680 --> 00:07:40,320 For the Japanese, too, race is all-important. 137 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:43,440 The Japanese saw themselves as superior, 138 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:46,480 as pure, aesthetically refined. 139 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:50,840 They regarded the Americans as being decadent, pleasure-loving 140 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:55,160 and simply unable to bear up under the harsh demands of combat. 141 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:58,560 This entrenched racism leads both sides 142 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:01,480 to treat human life with disdain. 143 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:06,480 The war in the Pacific is just seen as more exterminatory. 144 00:08:06,560 --> 00:08:07,920 This goes back to Pearl Harbor. 145 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:12,360 Japan is a duplicitous, evil, alien, Asiatic people. 146 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:16,880 You, therefore, can fight them more dirtily, more aggressively. 147 00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:19,680 The rules of war have somehow been suspended. 148 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:24,160 The Japanese treatment of Allied prisoners of war is also brutal. 149 00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:26,720 They face starvation and disease, 150 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:30,160 forced labor, beatings, and beheadings. 151 00:08:31,280 --> 00:08:35,120 In Manchuria, civilians are subject to horrific medical experiments, 152 00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:38,240 as the Japanese seed entire villages 153 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:40,560 with bubonic plague and cholera. 154 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:44,240 But the Allies also commit atrocities. 155 00:08:45,560 --> 00:08:49,320 U.S. troops collect Japanese body parts as war souvenirs, 156 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:53,160 boiling the flesh off skulls before sending them home. 157 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:56,880 In some parts of the Pacific, surrendering soldiers 158 00:08:56,960 --> 00:08:58,920 are even executed in vengeance. 159 00:09:01,680 --> 00:09:06,240 From the American standpoint, Japan had fractured all prior restraints 160 00:09:06,320 --> 00:09:09,760 on the use of firepower and terror against civilians. 161 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:12,760 And therefore, what the Japanese were now receiving 162 00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:15,320 was simply the whirlwind they had reaped. 163 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:20,640 With some three and a half million men committed, 164 00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:24,320 U.S. forces are carrying the burden of the fight in the Pacific. 165 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:26,720 The human cost is proving high. 166 00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:31,120 The Soviet Union, a key ally in the European theater, 167 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:33,280 is not at war with Japan 168 00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:37,280 but President Roosevelt is determined to get their help. 169 00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:40,560 It's Roosevelt who raises the issue 170 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:42,760 with Stalin and he says, 171 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:45,240 "I need Russian help in the Pacific. 172 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:49,680 Can you take on the last largest remaining Japanese force in the far east, 173 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:51,560 that's the Kwantung army in Manchuria?" 174 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:55,320 But Stalin's armies are still battling the Germans, 175 00:09:55,400 --> 00:09:59,360 and Roosevelt finds the Soviet leader difficult to pin down. 176 00:09:59,800 --> 00:10:04,920 Re-elected in late '44 as president for an unprecedented fourth term, 177 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:09,240 Roosevelt is seen as indispensable to U.S. war strategy, 178 00:10:10,240 --> 00:10:14,200 but few know how much authority the president is now delegating 179 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:18,040 to his close friend, Chief of Staff, Fleet Admiral William Leahy. 180 00:10:19,240 --> 00:10:22,560 He very much likes to serve Franklin Roosevelt, his friend, 181 00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:24,640 and he likes to exercise power, 182 00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:27,360 though he doesn't need people to know he's exercising power. 183 00:10:27,840 --> 00:10:30,200 That's one of the reasons Roosevelt trusts him. 184 00:10:30,280 --> 00:10:32,000 Roosevelt trusts nobody. 185 00:10:32,760 --> 00:10:35,040 What only a handful of people know 186 00:10:35,120 --> 00:10:37,200 is that the president is dying. 187 00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:39,680 He has to take weeks off. 188 00:10:39,760 --> 00:10:42,360 At one point he has to take an entire month away from the office 189 00:10:42,440 --> 00:10:44,200 because he's simply too weak to work. 190 00:10:44,800 --> 00:10:46,840 Roosevelt, though, is determined 191 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:49,680 to see the war through to its bitter conclusion. 192 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:53,680 In the Pacific, we are pushing the Japs around. 193 00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:57,480 We shall not settle for less than total victory. 194 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:01,520 The question now is how to end the conflict. 195 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:05,600 Opinions within the U.S. leadership are strongly divided. 196 00:11:06,400 --> 00:11:10,560 Leahy and the navy favor continuing the current tactic 197 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:12,800 of bombardment and blockade. 198 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:15,800 William Leahy says, "Look, we've cut Japan off from the world. 199 00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:18,200 Japanese economy has collapsed. 200 00:11:18,680 --> 00:11:21,440 They won't be able to fight this war in any way. 201 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:23,080 We just need to do what we're doing. 202 00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:26,200 The Japanese will realize they've lost eventually. 203 00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:28,920 It might take longer, but the war will end." 204 00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:33,080 This strategy will sacrifice the least number of American lives, 205 00:11:33,160 --> 00:11:36,800 but many don't believe it will force the Japanese to surrender. 206 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:39,280 As far as the Japanese are concerned, 207 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:42,080 if the Americans want to win this war, 208 00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:46,600 they need to come outside the Imperial Palace and knock at the door 209 00:11:46,680 --> 00:11:49,760 And we'll make that job impossible to achieve. 210 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:52,640 The army, led by General Marshall, 211 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:55,480 insists the only way to force capitulation 212 00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:58,520 is a full-scale invasion of Japan itself. 213 00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:01,000 Code-named "Operation Downfall," 214 00:12:01,080 --> 00:12:04,720 the proposed invasion has already been months in the planning. 215 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:07,240 We're going to invade Japan itself, 216 00:12:07,320 --> 00:12:10,560 starting with the large southern island of Kyushu. 217 00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:13,760 And we will have the largest invasion in World War II. 218 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:15,920 Something that would have dwarfed D-Day. 219 00:12:16,560 --> 00:12:18,720 Cautious of committing so many men, 220 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:22,160 Roosevelt has yet to authorize the massive assault. 221 00:12:24,520 --> 00:12:27,040 In the quiet of the New Mexico desert, 222 00:12:27,400 --> 00:12:30,120 the president funds the Manhattan Project: 223 00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:31,880 A top-secret weapon, 224 00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:35,000 one he believes could bring any country to its knees. 225 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:41,840 Physicists are working to release the incredible forces within atoms. 226 00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:46,760 If a nuclear chain reaction can be harnessed to weapons, 227 00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:49,400 this could become a weapon of incalculable power. 228 00:12:50,240 --> 00:12:52,680 But the intended target is not Japan. 229 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:58,160 In response to reports that Germany had started an atomic weapons program, 230 00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:03,200 Einstein and fellow scientists urged Roosevelt to respond. 231 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:06,481 And they say, "Hey look, you know, the Germans have a nuclear program. 232 00:13:06,520 --> 00:13:08,200 This has military uses. 233 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:10,560 This is a real threat. A kind of super weapon 234 00:13:10,640 --> 00:13:13,120 that could turn, you know, all the military calculations 235 00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:14,360 on their head." 236 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:19,280 With 125,000 staff working across three secret cities, 237 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:23,440 the new weapon is one of the most expensive projects of the war. 238 00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:27,720 Leahy has grave concerns about the ethics of a potential bomb 239 00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:29,520 which he shares with Roosevelt. 240 00:13:29,880 --> 00:13:32,040 He just hates everything about the bomb. 241 00:13:32,160 --> 00:13:35,240 He hates the cost, he hates the science, 242 00:13:35,320 --> 00:13:37,040 but most of all, he hates what it means. 243 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:38,640 He hates it as a weapon. 244 00:13:38,720 --> 00:13:41,560 The president listens, but is silent on the topic. 245 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:45,520 He obviously finds the atom bomb something difficult, 246 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:47,360 that he's wrestling with. 247 00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:50,240 I think that's partly because the man he trusts 248 00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:52,880 more than anyone else in the world in late 1944 249 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:55,040 is relentlessly negative about the bomb. 250 00:13:55,640 --> 00:13:59,640 To the physicists involved, this is primarily a great scientific, 251 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:01,600 not moral, challenge. 252 00:14:01,680 --> 00:14:05,160 They didn't know how to create these nuclear chain reactions. 253 00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:08,120 They didn't know how to build the actual device. 254 00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:11,256 They didn't know how to then weaponize it in a way that it could be delivered 255 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:13,360 to a target, exploded to inflict its damage. 256 00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:16,520 So all of this was probably the supreme scientific challenge 257 00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:17,800 of all of their lives. 258 00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:21,680 But so far, the weapon is still theoretical. 259 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:23,440 Nothing is ready. 260 00:14:24,280 --> 00:14:27,720 No one was confident that a usable bomb would be created 261 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:29,360 before the end of the war. 262 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:31,960 As the fighting inches closer to Japan, 263 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:36,520 and the U.S. grows stronger, invasion looks inevitable. 264 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:39,560 The first stage, Operation Olympic, 265 00:14:39,640 --> 00:14:44,720 would see 650,000 troops storm Japan's southern island. 266 00:14:45,040 --> 00:14:47,880 Six months later, another amphibious invasion 267 00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:50,240 involving over a million men 268 00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:53,040 would take Honshu, the main island. 269 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:57,680 But the Americans worry about fanatical Japanese resistance. 270 00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:01,640 Following economic and political upheaval in the 1920s, 271 00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:04,320 a rise in right-wing patriotism 272 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:07,240 saw the country turn into a fascist state. 273 00:15:07,720 --> 00:15:10,720 Between the middle 1930s and 1945, 274 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:14,040 there were 63 separate episodes of political violence 275 00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:17,080 ending in assassination of people who opposed the policies 276 00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:18,560 of the Japanese military. 277 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:22,600 Everyone was conscious of the fact that if you spoke up, 278 00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:25,280 your next meeting could be with an assassin. 279 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:29,320 Though Emperor Hirohito is head of state, 280 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:32,360 the military effectively rule the country. 281 00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:36,760 Through fear, censorship and fierce indoctrination. 282 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:41,120 The wartime Japanese society was organized by units 283 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:44,640 called Tonarigumi, that's Neighborhood Associations. 284 00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:49,680 That unit really controlled every aspect of civilian life 285 00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:50,920 during the wartime. 286 00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:54,240 Neighborhood Associations became a way 287 00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:58,160 to monitor support for the war in local communities. 288 00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:00,840 So if you said something against the war, 289 00:16:01,080 --> 00:16:04,920 the head of the Tonarigumi would report disloyal citizens 290 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:06,520 to the special police. 291 00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:10,200 So there was this snitching and mutual surveillance basically, 292 00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:13,640 in place down to the level of the neighborhoods. 293 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:17,880 The authorities demand unswerving loyalty to the emperor 294 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:20,880 as a pure being and a living god. 295 00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:23,480 You were not to look upon the emperor. 296 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:26,480 When the emperor's carriage moved about the city, 297 00:16:26,600 --> 00:16:29,680 people would line up, but they would avert their eyes. 298 00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:34,680 But the concept of emperor as a divine being is a manufactured myth. 299 00:16:34,880 --> 00:16:39,000 That kind of deification of the emperor was, surprisingly, 300 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:43,880 a recent invention. And that kind of public ritual 301 00:16:43,960 --> 00:16:47,640 of really treating him as this sacred being 302 00:16:47,840 --> 00:16:49,920 actually began in the 1930s. 303 00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:52,680 The military also hijack 304 00:16:52,920 --> 00:16:55,680 the Bushido Warrior tradition of the samurai, 305 00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:59,080 and use it to manipulate the ordinary soldier. 306 00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:04,480 That code of the warrior was adopted and re-purposed 307 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:06,640 for the modern military. 308 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:09,960 It was a bastardized version, to be sure. 309 00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:14,640 Sacrifice and fighting to the death are glorified. 310 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:18,960 The process is very much a way to romanticize 311 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:23,000 and highlight a sense of commitment. 312 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:28,600 And a sense of purpose related to serving a master, 313 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:30,000 serving the emperor. 314 00:17:30,120 --> 00:17:32,800 And if that means that you're going on a suicide mission, 315 00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:35,120 that's because the emperor is asking of you, 316 00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:37,120 and that's because that's what's required of you. 317 00:17:38,360 --> 00:17:43,280 The authorities do everything they can to cement this sense of devotion. 318 00:17:43,360 --> 00:17:46,520 The Japanese government had been creating these 319 00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:48,280 moments of silence… 320 00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:53,320 where the entire country would face the imperial palace, 321 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:56,400 and observe a minute of silence and bow. 322 00:17:57,280 --> 00:18:00,120 The Japanese are so primed to defend 323 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:03,120 that the Americans fear the invasion will turn into 324 00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:05,200 a Pacific version of Stalingrad. 325 00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:10,160 Resistance so bitter, the battle will be fought street by street. 326 00:18:11,280 --> 00:18:13,240 The worry seemed more than justified. 327 00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:18,080 The Japanese authorities have devised an all-encompassing defense strategy 328 00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:20,040 entitled, Ketsugo, 329 00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:24,080 Operation Decisive, to fend off invaders. 330 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:27,000 The Japanese believed that if they could inflict 331 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:30,080 huge casualties, American will would shatter. 332 00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:33,160 They are convinced a final bloody battle 333 00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:36,240 would turn American public opinion against the war. 334 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:38,360 They're banking on Ketsugo 335 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:41,680 as putting them in a negotiating position to end the war on terms 336 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:42,760 they find acceptable. 337 00:18:43,360 --> 00:18:46,040 Even more ominously, Japanese strategists 338 00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:49,760 predict the exact locations US forces will land. 339 00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:54,680 They identified Okinawa as being the likely American base, 340 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,840 and they simply put their dividers in a map and did an arc, 341 00:18:57,920 --> 00:18:59,920 and that told them that the most likely place 342 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:02,040 for the American landing was southern Kyushu. 343 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:04,600 That was exactly where the invasion was planned. 344 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:08,520 Hundreds of thousands of troops gather in readiness. 345 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:12,080 They'd been evacuating material from China 346 00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:14,560 to fortify the islands for a last hold-out. 347 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:17,200 They'd been mobilizing everybody in Japan to fight. 348 00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:22,920 Ketsugo called for every man, woman and child to resist the Americans. 349 00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:27,640 The military is talking about the suicide of 100 million. 350 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:31,000 And encouraging all Japanese to embrace what was called 351 00:19:31,120 --> 00:19:33,040 the "special attack spirit", 352 00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:35,000 kamikaze spirit. 353 00:19:35,360 --> 00:19:37,720 Even children had been taught how to fight, 354 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:39,760 how to throw a hand grenade. 355 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:45,640 Teenage boys are taught to attach an explosive to their chests 356 00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:47,840 and to run out onto the beach. 357 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:52,440 And to fall on their backs and to wait for tanks to come over them 358 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:54,560 to ignite the explosive. 359 00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:58,320 Even children, like my own parents, they were training 360 00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:02,640 with a bamboo stick to spear the American soldiers if they came. 361 00:20:03,360 --> 00:20:05,880 Though tired and hungry, the people obeyed. 362 00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:09,240 I think all or most Japanese were prepared to die. 363 00:20:11,360 --> 00:20:14,880 By April 1945, the US have a foothold 364 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:16,320 on Okinawa, 365 00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:18,600 less than 400 miles from Japan. 366 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:23,200 Taking the island is critical. As the Japanese rightly predicted, 367 00:20:23,480 --> 00:20:27,920 the Americans need it as a staging post to launch their massive invasion. 368 00:20:28,960 --> 00:20:33,480 In the midst of the battle, America receives unsettling news. 369 00:20:35,360 --> 00:20:39,560 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, their guiding leader through the conflict, 370 00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:40,720 is dead. 371 00:20:42,040 --> 00:20:47,440 The task of commander-in-chief now falls to Vice President Harry Truman. 372 00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:51,000 Inexperienced in foreign affairs, 373 00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:54,200 Truman has been excluded from decision making. 374 00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:56,960 Roosevelt hadn't confided with him. 375 00:20:57,120 --> 00:20:59,880 On the most fundamental level, he hadn't shared secrets with him. 376 00:20:59,960 --> 00:21:03,280 Most famously, he had not said a word to Truman about the bomb. 377 00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:06,200 The Vice President of the United States had no idea 378 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:08,160 the United States was building the atom bomb. 379 00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:11,160 The son of a farming family from the Midwest, 380 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:13,960 Truman suddenly finds himself responsible 381 00:21:14,080 --> 00:21:16,200 for directing a global conflict. 382 00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:20,840 When he takes office, he has no staff, no one around him, 383 00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:23,000 no cabinet members who are his picks. 384 00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:25,440 He is entirely on his own. 385 00:21:26,120 --> 00:21:29,360 Struggling to familiarize himself with the situation, 386 00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:31,440 Truman looks for guidance. 387 00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:34,560 So right away, Truman broadens the circle 388 00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:36,560 of people to whom he listens. 389 00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:41,440 In particular, Truman really starts giving a lot of credence to a man 390 00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:43,560 called Jimmy Byrnes, James Byrnes. 391 00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:45,960 James F. Byrnes is sworn in 392 00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:48,360 as United States Secretary of State before… 393 00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:50,520 Director of the Office for War Mobilization, 394 00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:53,520 Byrnes is a seasoned politician, 395 00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:56,960 but his influence has, until now, been minor. 396 00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:02,080 He takes a tougher line on foreign policy than Leahy and distrusts Stalin. 397 00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:07,680 With Roosevelt gone, Leahy loses his coveted influence. 398 00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:12,160 Truman views Leahy as simply one voice of many 399 00:22:12,360 --> 00:22:15,160 that he needs to listen to in the American government. 400 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:17,320 And in many ways, Leahy's the strangest voice 401 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:20,080 because Leahy has these point of weird positions. 402 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:22,080 He's against the bomb, he's against the invasion. 403 00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:24,720 The new president is immediately faced 404 00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:26,880 with the stark reality of the war. 405 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:30,160 The fighting on Okinawa is proving some of the fiercest. 406 00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:32,880 The losses on both sides are appalling. 407 00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:35,760 That is an intensely bloody battle, 408 00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:38,560 and the Japanese just make the Americans come 409 00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:40,000 and dig them out of every hole. 410 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:43,520 And in doing so, they extract a horrible cost. 411 00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:47,280 Some 100,000 American casualties, 412 00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:50,440 over 100,000 Japanese dead, 413 00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:52,920 150,000 civilians. 414 00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:57,720 Does this foreshadow what the invasion will look like? 415 00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:02,280 On the 18th of June, Truman calls a meeting to decide 416 00:23:02,360 --> 00:23:05,320 if Operation Downfall should go ahead. 417 00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:08,320 Everyone in that room, except for Leahy, 418 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:10,640 is in favor of the invasion at Kyushu. 419 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:12,560 And he's hearing George Marshall say, 420 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:14,000 "We can do it on the whole." 421 00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:16,000 Saying, "The casualties won't be that bad." 422 00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:18,240 That's what the army is saying at that meeting. 423 00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:22,000 Determined to press ahead, General Marshall underplays 424 00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:24,040 the estimated US losses. 425 00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:29,480 If you look at Marshall's projection, you're talking 30 to 50,000 426 00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:31,800 American casualties, which seems very low. 427 00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,520 But even these figures worry Truman. 428 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:37,920 He reluctantly gives the go ahead for the first stage, 429 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:39,440 Operation Olympic. 430 00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:42,080 Truman comes out of that meeting actually rather depressed. 431 00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:46,040 And what they hear afterwards is, oh, the rosy optimism 432 00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:48,840 of George Marshall at that meeting is shown to be wrong. 433 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:53,440 By July, Truman's anxiety grows. 434 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:56,960 Troop buildup on Kyushu is far in excess 435 00:23:57,040 --> 00:23:59,080 of the Allies worst projections. 436 00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:04,000 The Japanese have amassed over double the American estimates, 437 00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:06,320 and are increasing them daily. 438 00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:09,800 So, the Americans are gonna take 439 00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:12,880 hundreds of thousands, or possibly millions, of casualties 440 00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:14,800 trying to arrest these islands from Japan. 441 00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:18,480 Furthermore, after years of war, 442 00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:21,760 the appalling loss of life is taking its toll. 443 00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:25,880 And Japanese public morale is showing signs of crumbling. 444 00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:31,640 Leahy's bomb and blockade approach might just work. 445 00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:34,280 The major cities were basically gutted 446 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:36,080 by the American fire bombing. 447 00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:38,480 And then, that had a devastating effect 448 00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:41,440 on the general morale of the Japanese people. 449 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:44,360 Even the vaunted Japanese armies 450 00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:47,160 are beginning to show signs of fatigue. 451 00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:50,760 They realize that the war is not going well. 452 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:53,360 The rate of desertion was quite high. 453 00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:56,080 They did not wanna fight till the bitter end. 454 00:24:57,040 --> 00:25:00,840 The infamous Kamikaze pilots are not as fanatical as feared. 455 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:03,960 Actually, they did not wanna die. 456 00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:06,240 A lot of them, the night before their mission, 457 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:09,760 they would cry, they would write some letters. 458 00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:13,880 And also suicide notes, saying things like, "I don't wanna die." 459 00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:15,640 "I wanna go back to my girlfriend." 460 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:19,640 The military leadership is convinced 461 00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:25,240 Japan can resist, but civilian politicians now worry they're losing support 462 00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:26,360 of the populous. 463 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:28,720 The fear is that the Japanese people 464 00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:30,040 are so exhausted 465 00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:34,240 they will collapse and revolt against their political and military authorities. 466 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:39,400 Even the emperor is nervous, fearing for his position on the throne. 467 00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:44,640 Bypassing the right-wing factions, he requests Stalin to be approached 468 00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:46,880 to negotiate with the Americans. 469 00:25:47,120 --> 00:25:51,000 What Japan's great hope in the summer of 1945, 470 00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:54,200 is using their friendly relations with the Soviet Union, 471 00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:56,120 they can find a way out of the war. 472 00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:00,520 The Soviet Union and Japan had signed a non-aggression pact, 473 00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:05,560 in spite of years of hostility over economic interests in the Far East. 474 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:10,920 The Japanese were trying very hard to keep the Soviets friendly. 475 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:15,120 They would, for instance, allow the United States, a combatant, 476 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:19,200 to send equipment directly to Soviet bases in Vladivostok 477 00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:22,640 without torpedoing them as a way of trying to keep 478 00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:24,160 the Soviet Union on side. 479 00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:28,120 In the 1930s, the two countries had fought bitterly 480 00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:29,400 over Manchuria. 481 00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:32,880 Overrun by Japan in 1931, 482 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:36,680 eight years later, the Russians had exacted revenge. 483 00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:40,640 The Soviets had beaten the Japanese at Khalkhyn Gol in 1939. 484 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:43,000 A very bloody battle that virtually destroyed 485 00:26:43,120 --> 00:26:45,560 two divisions of the Kwantung Army. 486 00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:48,760 And so, they'd given the Japanese a bloody nose. 487 00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:51,640 The Soviet Union holds a special place 488 00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:53,360 in the Japanese psyche. 489 00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:56,240 The Soviet Union is the ultimate arch enemy. 490 00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:57,720 It's the one that you fear. 491 00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:01,480 If Russia were to attack northern Manchuria, 492 00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:04,480 it would tilt the balance of power against Japan. 493 00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:08,960 Historically, Japan was really worried about 494 00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:12,920 a southern advance of Soviet geopolitical presence. 495 00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:16,040 And during World War II, there was always this fear 496 00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:18,920 that the Soviet Union was there, sitting there. 497 00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:23,920 Now the Japanese find the Soviets are repeatedly dodging 498 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:25,520 their requests for mediation. 499 00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:28,240 Stalin has other plans. 500 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:35,160 On May the seventh, Germany finally surrenders. 501 00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:38,320 The atrocities of Nazi brutality were reflected 502 00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:40,200 in the delirious joy of the liberated. 503 00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:44,240 Stalin swiftly claims the territories of Eastern Europe, 504 00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:46,040 expanding his reach. 505 00:27:46,360 --> 00:27:50,600 And he now offers the full force of Soviet might against the Japanese. 506 00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:56,560 To Byrnes and the Truman administration, the offer looks ominous. 507 00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:00,880 He wants influence to control a future China. 508 00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:04,520 He wants influence to keep Japan under his thumb, 509 00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:07,640 and he wants influence in terms of his relationship 510 00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:08,720 with the United States. 511 00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:12,360 For Truman now, the question is, 512 00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:16,280 invade without Soviet help and risk huge casualties, 513 00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:20,080 or enlist Russian help and risk communism 514 00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:22,040 spreading through the Pacific. 515 00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:24,400 Now the Americans have buyer's remorse. 516 00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:28,320 Truman has no doubt that once the Soviets get across into Manchuria, 517 00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:30,160 they're gonna take Japan itself. 518 00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:34,200 They will divide Japan the same way Germany's gonna be divided, 519 00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:37,200 into a communist East and a capitalist West. 520 00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:40,600 With the future world order at stake, 521 00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:44,680 Truman heads to Germany to meet with Stalin and Churchill. 522 00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:49,680 Deep in New Mexico, Manhattan Project engineers 523 00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:53,880 are on the verge of opening a new and even darker prospect. 524 00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:57,760 They're quest to unlock the vast energies 525 00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:01,080 trapped within atomic nuclei is complete. 526 00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:14,560 On July the 16th, they test the world's first atomic bomb. 527 00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:20,280 The blast creates a seven-mile high mushroom cloud. 528 00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:25,440 In a few seconds, the terrifying elemental forces 529 00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:28,440 of the atom are unleashed on the world. 530 00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:34,640 And President Truman sees a way to avoid an invasion. 531 00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:39,520 The pressure to deploy the bomb is immense. 532 00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:43,400 He's terrified that if he doesn't use the bomb, 533 00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:47,280 and the Americans straight up have to invade Kyushu and suffer casualties, 534 00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:50,120 and the American people find out he had this bomb and didn't use it, 535 00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:51,400 that he will be crucified. 536 00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:55,360 The majority of those around Truman urge he deploy it. 537 00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:58,800 Pro-bomb people say, "Look, this is a weapon like any other. 538 00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:02,000 I mean we've created a new weapon, let's use it to end the war." 539 00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:05,560 The ethics of this destructive weapon 540 00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:07,680 are not a priority for Truman. 541 00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:12,760 Using an atomic bomb was not going to cross any moral lines 542 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:14,920 that hadn't already been crossed. 543 00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:19,200 The attack on Tokyo in March had killed so many people 544 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:24,360 that nothing the atomic bomb could do was going to change the nature 545 00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:26,360 of the bombing campaign. 546 00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:30,120 Rather than having tens of thousands of bombs dropped on a city, 547 00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:31,960 this was going to be one bomb. 548 00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:35,680 Of the president's team, only Leahy is vehemently 549 00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:37,440 against using the bomb. 550 00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:41,560 His opposition is on every level, but the ethics and the morality of it 551 00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:42,960 are the driving force. 552 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:44,800 This is a bomb that can destroy a city. 553 00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:47,400 You know, something that is new and radioactive, 554 00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:50,840 and could kill for God knows how many years afterwards. 555 00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:55,520 But for Byrnes, the bomb deals with two problems at once. 556 00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:58,560 It's their way to warn off the Soviets. 557 00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:02,040 To say, "Look, we can threaten the Japanese with this weapon, 558 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:05,920 but if you try to get involved in further expansion in the Far East, 559 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:07,640 we can threaten you with it as well." 560 00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:11,520 Just hours after the test, the Navy loads the components 561 00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:15,560 for the first of two bombs onto the USS Indianapolis. 562 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:18,640 The destination, Tinian. 563 00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:22,760 A tiny island in the Pacific, where air crews are ready. 564 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:26,640 Truman authorizes the Air Force to use the bomb 565 00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:29,520 where and when it sees fit. 566 00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:34,080 But some of the project scientists express grave doubts. 567 00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:41,080 Led by physicist, Leo Szilard, 70 scientists signed a petition 568 00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:43,400 against the use of the nuclear weapon. 569 00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:46,240 They say, "Look, we have this weapon. It's a trump card. 570 00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:48,240 We now have this massive deterrent. 571 00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:51,400 It would be utterly inhumane to actually deploy this 572 00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:52,800 against human beings." 573 00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:57,240 Szilard takes the petition to Byrnes, 574 00:31:57,760 --> 00:32:00,520 but he never passes it onto the president. 575 00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:05,280 On the 26th of July, the Allies give Japan an ultimatum. 576 00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:08,840 At Potsdam, they demand the unconditional surrender 577 00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:10,720 of Japan's armed forces. 578 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:15,280 The British, Chinese, and United States governments 579 00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:18,680 have given the Japanese people adequate warning 580 00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:20,600 of what is in store for them. 581 00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:24,560 The statement deliberately makes no mention of the emperor. 582 00:32:24,760 --> 00:32:28,960 By hinting that the emperor can stay, the Allies leave the Japanese 583 00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:31,440 with a face-saving path to surrender. 584 00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:33,840 They could have said it more clearly. 585 00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:36,040 It's certainly not a clear enough statement 586 00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:39,320 for the Japanese to automatically know they could keep the emperor. 587 00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:44,080 For military hardliners, surrender under any circumstances 588 00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:45,360 is not an option. 589 00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:49,280 The Allies go on to demand an occupation of Japan 590 00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:51,680 and full disarmament of their forces. 591 00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:56,480 Even for the peace-seeking faction, the terms are too much. 592 00:32:57,240 --> 00:32:59,521 The prime minister makes a statement that they will ignore 593 00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:02,120 or treat with contempt in the Potsdam Declaration. 594 00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:06,960 The statement all but seals the fate of millions of Japanese. 595 00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:09,360 The empire has run out of time. 596 00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:14,840 In the early hours of August the sixth, 597 00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:18,600 three B-29s head towards Japan. 598 00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:22,880 On board the Enola Gay is the bomb, Little Boy, 599 00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:27,720 containing 141 pounds of enriched uranium. 600 00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:30,680 The target, Hiroshima… 601 00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:34,280 a city of 350,000 people. 602 00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:40,720 At 8:15 am during the morning rush-hour, the atomic bomb is dropped. 603 00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:45,960 The bomb was finally released 604 00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:48,560 exactly at the designated hour 605 00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:52,640 and the explosion occurred as planned. 606 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:02,680 It explodes 1,900 feet above the Shima Hospital. 607 00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:08,960 A burst of neutron and gamma radiation emanates out, 608 00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:11,760 along with deadly shockwaves. 609 00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:15,920 At 8:14, it was a sunny day. 610 00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:20,840 At 8:15, it was a hellscape. 611 00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:23,240 What happens on the sixth of August 612 00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:25,560 is absolutely shocking. 613 00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:30,040 People and life were vaporized, incinerated. 614 00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:34,680 Many died from massive doses of gamma radiation. 615 00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:39,480 In less than a second, 70,000 people are killed. 616 00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:43,880 The super hurricane force wind flattened buildings 617 00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:45,440 in instants. 618 00:34:46,080 --> 00:34:48,280 A giant mushroom of smoke 619 00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:52,400 rises from the five and a half thousand-degree fire storm. 620 00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:55,920 Nothing in the human experience had prepared anybody 621 00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:59,680 for such totalizing damage so instantaneously. 622 00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:03,240 One of the eeriest effects of the atomic bomb 623 00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:08,080 was that the shadows of individuals who had been vaporized were preserved 624 00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:11,360 on concrete or stone where they had been standing. 625 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:17,120 Beyond Ground Zero, the human devastation is unprecedented. 626 00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:22,280 Thirteen-year-old Setsuko is in her first class of the day. 627 00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:25,040 I saw the blueish white flash. 628 00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:29,280 I had the sensation of flying up in the air. 629 00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:34,360 I woke up in the total darkness and silence. 630 00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:38,600 And I started hearing faint voices. 631 00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:44,160 There were saying, "God help me. Mother help me." 632 00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:48,760 Those caught outside in the blast suffer hideous burns. 633 00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:51,600 They were begging for water. 634 00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:54,760 "Water, please. Please give me water." 635 00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:59,360 Flesh and skin were hanging from their bones. 636 00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:06,160 Skin from the upper torso hanging like a shirt from the waist down. 637 00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:09,440 They didn't look like human beings at all. 638 00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:12,720 Setsuko is relatively unscathed. 639 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:15,640 Her sister, Iyako, is not so lucky. 640 00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:19,200 My sister and her child 641 00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:23,000 were burned, blackened and swollen. 642 00:36:23,240 --> 00:36:26,120 Just a chunk of flesh melted. 643 00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:28,800 Just unrecognizable. 644 00:36:29,560 --> 00:36:32,840 By the end of the day, thousands more die 645 00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:34,600 from radiation injuries. 646 00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:39,240 And when the darkness fell, we just sat on the hill 647 00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:45,480 and watched all night, the entire city burn. 648 00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:50,280 Setsuko loses 351 of her school friends 649 00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:52,400 and eight members of her family. 650 00:36:56,400 --> 00:36:58,600 The Japanese are in disarray. 651 00:36:58,720 --> 00:37:00,880 They have no idea what has hit them. 652 00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:03,520 They knew that it was some really, 653 00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:07,640 really powerful bomb, but they did not know what it was. 654 00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:11,360 Returning from Europe on board the USS Augusta, 655 00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:14,360 Truman receives word of the explosion. 656 00:37:14,720 --> 00:37:19,040 When Truman announces that the atom bomb has been dropped 657 00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:21,520 and everyone cheers, there's one person not cheering, 658 00:37:21,720 --> 00:37:23,880 and that's his chief of staff, William Leahy. 659 00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:27,400 He believes the United States has done something 660 00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:30,240 that was ethically wrong, it didn't have to do, 661 00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:33,280 and that it would have been far better for the world and for US security 662 00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:34,400 not to do. 663 00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:38,200 Sixteen hours later, President Truman 664 00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:41,160 announces to the world that the US has dropped 665 00:37:41,240 --> 00:37:43,320 a nuclear weapon on Japan. 666 00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:47,560 The threat is, that this was simply one of many. 667 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:52,840 If they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin 668 00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:56,920 from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this Earth. 669 00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:01,760 Foreign Minister Togo urges the leadership to assemble 670 00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:04,640 and consider calling an end to the war, 671 00:38:04,720 --> 00:38:08,280 but the military die-hards refuse to even meet. 672 00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:10,400 Most of them said this was just another bombing. 673 00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:12,040 It was just like any other bombing. 674 00:38:12,120 --> 00:38:14,400 They weren't aware this was a special kind of weapon. 675 00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:16,840 And they kind of poo-pooed it and said, "Oh, you know, 676 00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:20,000 this is not worth surrendering over. We've absorbed much worse bombings 677 00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:21,720 in Tokyo with conventional weaponry." 678 00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:25,880 But in the Soviet Union, Stalin looks on with alarm. 679 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:29,720 He brings forward his declaration of war on Japan. 680 00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:31,600 When the atomic bomb went in, 681 00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:34,200 all of his dreams of Soviet influence 682 00:38:34,760 --> 00:38:37,800 were subject to possible disintegration. 683 00:38:38,320 --> 00:38:41,600 Having just one dropped was enough 684 00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:44,520 to cause him to move the attack date up. 685 00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:47,000 The Soviets wanna get into it 'cause they wanna play a role 686 00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:48,160 in the Pacific peace. 687 00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:52,440 If the war ends in July 1945, the Soviets are not a combatant. 688 00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:54,840 They have no say, a seat in the peace table. 689 00:38:56,920 --> 00:38:59,280 On August the ninth, just before 1:00 a.m., 690 00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:03,040 the Soviets invade Japanese held Manchuria. 691 00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:06,720 One-and-a-half million troops simultaneously attack 692 00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:08,280 on three separate fronts. 693 00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:10,760 They caught the Japanese flatfooted. 694 00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:14,240 The Soviet attack accomplishes enough to paralyze 695 00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:16,080 the commanding control of the Japanese. 696 00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:19,480 They very simply outclassed Kwantung Army. 697 00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:25,200 When news reaches Tokyo that the flagship 698 00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:28,240 of the Japanese Imperial Army has been overrun, 699 00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:31,400 Prime Minister Suzuki calls an emergency meeting 700 00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:33,120 of the Supreme War Council. 701 00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:38,000 But the situation is about to escalate yet again. 702 00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:40,680 Four minutes into the meeting, 703 00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:43,560 notice is brought in that a second bomb 704 00:39:43,720 --> 00:39:45,760 has been dropped on Nagasaki. 705 00:39:47,680 --> 00:39:51,400 At 11:01 a.m., the United States had deployed 706 00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:55,000 the plutonium bomb, Fat Man, on the city. 707 00:39:55,240 --> 00:39:56,920 Within the flash of a light, 708 00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:00,440 70,000 people dead and dying. 709 00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:04,240 The ground zero of that target was the Urakami Cathedral, 710 00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:08,680 the largest Roman Catholic cathedral in all of Asia at that time. 711 00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:12,280 Complete and utter devastation. 712 00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:16,040 Almost 10,000 Catholics perish. 713 00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:19,640 Alongside the Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, 714 00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:23,000 even Allied POWs are killed. 715 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:29,760 The Nagasaki bomb is far more powerful than the one used on Hiroshima. 716 00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:34,040 The population suffer gamma radiation levels 717 00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:36,680 17 times the lethal dose. 718 00:40:37,320 --> 00:40:41,160 Individuals who look like they had virtually no injury at all 719 00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:44,560 would suddenly develop symptoms like bleeding from the mouth, 720 00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:46,000 nostrils, and the rectum. 721 00:40:46,240 --> 00:40:47,840 And then they would abruptly die. 722 00:40:48,720 --> 00:40:52,760 The War Council debate the situation for 13 hours. 723 00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:56,120 For the Japanese, the predicament has become infernal. 724 00:40:56,240 --> 00:40:57,800 They're under attack from the Americans 725 00:40:57,840 --> 00:40:59,960 who have unlimited conventional capability. 726 00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:03,160 And now you have one-and-a-half million Red Army troops 727 00:41:03,240 --> 00:41:05,960 marching through Manchuria and prepared to cross 728 00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:07,440 to the Japanese islands. 729 00:41:07,880 --> 00:41:10,440 But even now, the council is divided. 730 00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:14,960 Three favor peace and are willing to accept the Potsdam Declaration. 731 00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:16,800 Three refuse. 732 00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:19,920 There were factions within the military, 733 00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:23,960 particularly in the army, that believe that the surrender 734 00:41:24,040 --> 00:41:25,560 was just out of the question. 735 00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:27,240 They would fight till the end. 736 00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:29,680 With the leadership at stalemate, 737 00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:32,480 and fearing the government will be brought to its knees, 738 00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:36,200 Prime Minister Suzuki makes an extraordinary move. 739 00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:39,960 Not long before midnight on August ninth, 740 00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:42,560 the emperor gets word that he needs to appear 741 00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:43,920 because they're deadlocked. 742 00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:47,240 It comes down to the emperor to make a stand. 743 00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:51,680 Hirohito, until now insulated from the war, 744 00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:55,800 finds himself with the fate of the Japanese people in his hands. 745 00:41:56,400 --> 00:41:58,200 With no Kwantung Army, 746 00:41:58,280 --> 00:42:00,880 there's gonna be one battle left, and that's gonna be in Japan. 747 00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:04,760 It's gonna be against Russians, and it's gonna be against Americans. 748 00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:07,440 And, "Oh, by the way, a lot of Chinese hate us too." 749 00:42:07,720 --> 00:42:11,240 So it's gonna cost the Japanese a large chunk of their population. 750 00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:15,680 Hirohito makes a momentous decision. 751 00:42:16,040 --> 00:42:19,600 At mid-day on August the 15th, the emperor himself 752 00:42:19,720 --> 00:42:22,440 addresses the public on national radio. 753 00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:29,280 It was the first time people had heard the emperor speak. 754 00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:34,600 And so his voice was called the "Gyokuon" or the "jeweled sound". 755 00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:38,120 He tells the nation that the attack is so horrific 756 00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:40,320 they cannot continue the war. 757 00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:44,160 It is time for Japan to surrender. 758 00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:48,360 People just stood there in a stunned way. 759 00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:49,840 Just stunned. 760 00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:52,680 There was sense of relief. 761 00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:57,080 The end of war, that means peace. 762 00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:01,960 But after decades of being told Japan is invincible, 763 00:43:02,200 --> 00:43:05,040 the humiliation is unbearable. 764 00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:08,320 Many Japanese feel sorry for the emperor. 765 00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:10,680 They feel as though they've let the emperor down. 766 00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:17,160 I did see several soldiers just throwing themselves onto the ground, 767 00:43:17,240 --> 00:43:19,440 just sobbing and… 768 00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:23,520 That was an unthinkable announcement. 769 00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:28,440 As expected, factions of the military refused to obey. 770 00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:32,080 He was immediately informed that two of the overseas commanders 771 00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:34,160 initially announced they would not comply 772 00:43:34,240 --> 00:43:37,320 with the surrender order even from the emperor. 773 00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:40,440 In a bid to avoid insurrection, 774 00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:44,280 Hirohito delivers a second message to the armed forces. 775 00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:48,360 This time, stressing the entry of the Soviets into the war against them. 776 00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:51,920 The emperor cites Soviet intervention as a factor 777 00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:55,560 on the belief that that is going to be far more persuasive 778 00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:58,320 to those commanders than atomic bombs. 779 00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:01,400 Just weeks after the atomic attacks 780 00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:03,040 and the Soviet invasion, 781 00:44:03,240 --> 00:44:06,480 all the armed forces are persuaded to lay down their arms. 782 00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:09,200 …which was the brutal, costly, Eastern half 783 00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:12,560 of the most horrible worldwide war in human history 784 00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:14,960 is now within minutes of ending for good. 785 00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:16,160 General MacArthur… 786 00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:18,080 On the second of September, 787 00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:21,240 General MacArthur accepts the official surrender. 788 00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:25,080 And begins a six year Allied occupation of Japan. 789 00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:30,560 The Americans form the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission 790 00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:33,320 to assess the effects of the explosions. 791 00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:37,640 Staffed by some 1,000 US and Japanese medics, 792 00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:40,680 the Commission's work draws serious criticism. 793 00:44:41,240 --> 00:44:44,720 The broken, surviving people 794 00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:49,280 were marched in front of doctors to be examined, 795 00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:53,800 to be inspected like rats in a lab. 796 00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:57,720 Their scarring was measured, 797 00:44:57,840 --> 00:45:00,760 their injuries were noted. 798 00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:05,360 They were not treated in any way, shape or form. 799 00:45:05,840 --> 00:45:08,080 That's a level of inhumanity 800 00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:12,520 that is almost indescribable. 801 00:45:12,720 --> 00:45:15,960 And you can imagine how we felt. 802 00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:19,040 We were used as guinea pigs twice. 803 00:45:19,320 --> 00:45:25,000 First as a target, second as an object of medical research. 804 00:45:25,680 --> 00:45:27,760 But the nightmare is far from over. 805 00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:30,960 Victims are often shunned for fear of contagion. 806 00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:35,600 And the steady passage of time reveals the insidious nature 807 00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:38,320 of radiation's long-term effects. 808 00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:42,200 Birth deformities, cardiovascular diseases, 809 00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:43,920 and deadly cancers. 810 00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:47,440 The violence that was initiated on August sixth 811 00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:49,840 and August ninth in 1945, 812 00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:52,520 continues to this day. 813 00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:57,560 Using nuclear weapons is really like waging war on the future. 814 00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:01,840 Chillingly, the world is not to know what the victim's suffer. 815 00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:08,000 The US suppresses virtually all film and images from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 816 00:46:08,840 --> 00:46:13,960 Japanese newsreel is confiscated and American military footage classified. 817 00:46:14,760 --> 00:46:17,840 The images that were distributed 818 00:46:17,920 --> 00:46:22,080 were the sort of grainy films that primarily showed 819 00:46:22,200 --> 00:46:24,520 the destructiveness of the blast. 820 00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:29,400 They did not show bodies of burnt children and women, 821 00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:32,080 and the absolute carnage that was caused. 822 00:46:32,720 --> 00:46:37,480 It was not until 1970 that footage showing the human suffering 823 00:46:37,560 --> 00:46:40,000 is broadcast on US television. 824 00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:44,560 By the river, people lay bleeding from their faces or hands, 825 00:46:44,960 --> 00:46:46,600 and died without weeping. 826 00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:50,080 People trapped under fallen houses called patiently, 827 00:46:50,200 --> 00:46:53,360 meekly, "Help, if I may ask." 828 00:46:55,560 --> 00:46:58,840 The public finally learns the true extent 829 00:46:59,040 --> 00:47:01,600 of the effects of deadly radiation. 830 00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:06,880 Serious questions are now asked about the decision to drop the bombs. 831 00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:11,000 There is a sense in Japan that the second bomb 832 00:47:11,080 --> 00:47:12,880 was the unnecessary bomb. 833 00:47:13,120 --> 00:47:16,200 This is no longer a science project. 834 00:47:16,640 --> 00:47:20,720 This is something that has brought devastation and destruction 835 00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:25,840 in ways that had never experienced by humans throughout their entire history. 836 00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:27,800 How can that possibly happen? 837 00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:31,760 The atomic bombs close a chapter 838 00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:34,280 on the deadliest conflict in history. 839 00:47:34,920 --> 00:47:37,360 Germany and Japan's aggression 840 00:47:37,440 --> 00:47:40,680 left almost no corner of the globe untouched, 841 00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:44,680 but their defeat came at a huge human cost. 842 00:47:44,960 --> 00:47:48,760 And the consequences reverberate to this day. 843 00:47:50,640 --> 00:47:54,600 Across East Asia, there is still great bitterness towards Japan 844 00:47:55,040 --> 00:47:57,200 for its violent expansionism. 845 00:47:58,680 --> 00:48:02,400 Twenty-five million people died in the Pacific War. 846 00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:06,120 Every day the war continued in 1945, 847 00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:11,560 at least 10,000 other Asians were dying in China, Vietnam, 848 00:48:11,640 --> 00:48:13,240 and what's now Indonesia. 849 00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:15,320 About 90 percent of them were non-combatants. 850 00:48:16,120 --> 00:48:18,880 Ten thousand every single day. 851 00:48:19,640 --> 00:48:21,760 But in the aftermath of the war, 852 00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:25,280 it becomes expedient to downplay the barbarities. 853 00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:28,240 And re-frame Japan in a fresh light. 854 00:48:28,760 --> 00:48:33,760 The world faces new threats, Stalin and the rise of communism. 855 00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:38,000 To maintain stability and American authority, 856 00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:41,160 the US retains Emperor Hirohito. 857 00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:45,960 Japan changes from being seen as an enemy 858 00:48:46,040 --> 00:48:47,720 that needs to be transformed 859 00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:51,000 to actually, a very important bulwark against communism. 860 00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:53,280 As sort of a large American military base. 861 00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:57,840 Japan becomes the Pacific outpost of American democracy, 862 00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:04,360 but in 1949, the Soviets test their first atomic weapon. 863 00:49:06,040 --> 00:49:10,280 Today, there are over 15,000 nuclear weapons on the planet. 864 00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:13,949 We've lived for decades under the shadow 865 00:49:14,029 --> 00:49:16,480 of possible nuclear annihilation. 866 00:49:16,560 --> 00:49:19,000 And those weapons that were available in 1945 867 00:49:19,120 --> 00:49:20,840 were veritable firecrackers 868 00:49:21,017 --> 00:49:23,120 compared to the weapons that are available today. 869 00:49:23,880 --> 00:49:27,560 With global tensions mounting, the threat of nuclear war 870 00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:29,640 is rising once again. 871 00:49:31,261 --> 00:49:35,761 Re-sync and redact: BLU DUAINE blu.duaine@protonmail.com