00:00At 8.15 a.m. on the 6th of August 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
00:13Three days later, it bombed the southern city of Nagasaki.
00:18It's the only time in history that nuclear weapons have ever been used in warfare.
00:23A land of hell kills you. And that was a man-made hell.
00:33Now, with conflicts being fought across the world, talk about escalation and the threat of a new nuclear arms race is becoming louder and louder.
00:42Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.
00:47We have the right to use nuclear weapons in case of aggression against Russia and Belarus.
00:55It's been a long time ago.
00:58It's been a long time ago.
00:59It's been a long time ago.
01:01It's been a long time ago.
01:02It's been a long time ago.
01:03On the 7th of December 1941, a year after entering World War II, the Japanese Air Force launched a surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing over 2,400 people.
01:23In the months that followed, America began work on a secret operation in New Mexico, using nuclear fission to create the world's first atomic bomb.
01:36Three years later, after Japan rejected an ultimatum to stop fighting following Germany's surrender, America dropped an experimental bomb on the city of Hiroshima.
01:46A short time ago, an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima and destroyed its usefulness to the enemy.
01:56That bomb has more power than 20,000 tons of TNT.
02:01It is an atomic bomb.
02:04Approximately 78,000 of Hiroshima's 350,000 residents were killed instantly.
02:10Three days later, the US launched a second bombing mission on the city of Nagasaki.
02:19Approximately 40,000 of Nagasaki's 240,000 citizens died on impact.
02:29Japan then surrendered, bringing the war in Asia to an end.
02:33Surrender of Japan.
02:35I've been reporting on existential threats for years, but on the eve of the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing,
02:42now feels like the right time to look at the ever-growing threat of nuclear war and what really happened at that time.
02:49And to do that, I'm somewhere I didn't expect to be.
02:51It can feel really distant. The bomb was 80 years ago, it was 9,000 miles away.
02:58But actually, the effects and the legacy of the bomb can be felt here in the UK today.
03:05And I've come to Swansea in Wales to meet someone who's had to live through that.
03:10Kyoko Gibson was born in Hiroshima three years after the bomb exploded.
03:15Your life today is still affected by what happened. Can you tell me some of how it still affects you?
03:23Yeah. I was a physically weak child. I had a stroke. I had a tumour.
03:30And recently, I had two breast cancer operations.
03:36With your family, when you spoke to your husband, were they surprised at what you'd been through as well as your parents?
03:43I think so, but my children never mentioned.
03:48No? No.
03:50So you've not spoken with them?
03:52No. And they probably, they hesitated to ask because it's so painful thing.
04:01Eight decades on, the spectre of nuclear warfare is still with us.
04:06In newspaper headlines, in TV shows, movies and computer games.
04:09But there is one country where that nightmare became a reality.
04:17Here in Hiroshima, I have the chance to speak with some of the few people left on Earth who've actually experienced an atomic bomb.
04:25What can we learn from them in a world where the threat of nuclear war seems less distant and feels like it's edging closer?
04:38No.
04:39No.
04:40No.
04:41No.
04:42No.
04:43No.
04:44No.
04:45No.
04:46No.
04:47No.
04:49Hiroshima was an important part of the Japanese war effort.
04:52Keiko, then aged eight.
04:59Mikio, thirteen.
05:03Kenji, who was six, are the last generation of survivors.
05:07What is this?
05:08It's a experience.
05:09In the past, I don't think it is really about us.
05:14There are people living in Tokyo.
05:16There are people living in Tokyo, but not even there are people living in nearby.
05:22And there are more people living in the distance.
05:24The last night, there were a warning and we rushed to the shelter many times.
05:30This was you and your family?
05:46Shortly after 8 o'clock in the morning,
05:48B-29 bomber Enola Gay was heard in the skies.
05:53The decision to bomb Hiroshima
05:55was confirmed just an hour earlier.
05:58This was its target, the Ao Bridge,
06:00right in the heart of the city.
06:04At exactly 8.15 a.m.,
06:06the atomic bomb named Little Boy was released.
06:09I was alone on the road.
06:11Then I felt the flash.
06:17Everything I was seeing turned to white.
06:20The air is now on the ground.
06:22The air is now on the ground.
06:24The air is now on the ground.
06:26The 2nd floor of the fire was a few hours ago.
06:37The house was completely destroyed and it was dark.
06:45What happened was that it was not a problem.
06:52Nearly a quarter of the city's population were instantly killed. Many of them were school children.
07:00You were only 13 when this happened. Had you any idea what had just happened when you got out of the wreckage of your house?
07:12As our survivors struggled to understand what had happened to them and their families, seemingly healthy people began to die.
07:36When you got out of the wreckage of the wreckage of the wreckage of the wreckage of the wreckage of the wreckage of the wreckage of the wreckage of the wreckage of the wreckage.
07:45Surviving the bomb was just the beginning. The blast released enormous amounts of toxic radiation that made people sick in the following days and weeks.
07:55If the wreckage of the wreckage would be a nightmare, I would get infected when it came from going to the wreckage of the wreckage.
08:10The U.S. occupied Japan for seven years.
08:13The American authorities heavily censored any reporting of the effects of what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
08:20And although the U.S. set up a commission to research the medical effects of the bombings,
08:24it would take decades for the world to discover the impacts on fertility, mental health and physical well-being.
08:33Ignorance surrounding the bombings continues.
08:35There's still no definitive evidence of exactly what illnesses or cancers were caused in the aftermath.
08:42But the survivors feel that the high rates of cancer they experienced came from the bomb.
08:50Even those who weren't there at the time of the blast, like Satoshi Tanaka.
08:54Satoshi wasn't in the blast zone on August 6th, but was exposed to the radiation in the aftermath.
09:16He was just 18 months old when his mum, looking for missing relatives, carried him back into the city.
09:26You've experienced effects from that, you think, too, right?
09:28In 2024, Satoshi and Keiko were part of a group of survivors to receive the Nobel Peace Prize
09:47for their efforts to bring about a world free of nuclear weapons.
09:51But they feel their work is still unfinished.
09:55What was it made you, Saiki-san, decide to share your story?
10:00Many people think these weapons serve a useful purpose and actually prevent war.
10:18They believe that nations will be so afraid of the possible effects of a nuclear war.
10:23They'll avoid any war at all costs.
10:26Deterrence, the fear of a devastating retaliatory attack, is a major reason nukes still exist.
10:37According to the Stockholm International Peace Institute, there are around 12,000 nuclear weapons worldwide
10:44in the hands of nine countries, although Israel has never confirmed or denied having them.
10:50But these weapons are many, many times more powerful than those used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
11:01It's nightmarish, the things that we've been told.
11:05There's this conflict between wanting weapons to protect yourself so this doesn't happen to you,
11:13while at the same time seeing what it's done, I'm wanting nothing to do with them whatsoever.
11:23Kenji and Satoshi have met up next to the Hiroshima Peace Park.
11:28This monument commemorates those whose bodies were never found.
11:32Satoshi's aunt was one of them.
11:33The rest of the world, we're lucky, because here and Nagasaki are still the only one of them.
12:03It's the only places to have experienced a nuclear attack.
12:07Deterrence, compromise has worked so far.
12:12But for the survivors, their worry is that the leaders, the politicians, the generals,
12:16the people in charge of the nuclear weapons aren't listening to their stories or their experience.
12:23They're not making the connection between the weapons and this here.
12:27And what happens when that last generation, the last generation of the only people to really
12:35have experienced what an atomic bomb is like, are gone.
12:39How will we get our leaders to really understand what it means to push the button?
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