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01:59How could Japan be defeated without a terrible loss of American life?
02:10The country would eventually turn to the most powerful and dreadful weapon ever seen.
02:16A weapon that would change the course of war forever.
02:23In early 1945, as US military planners considered the next move against Japan, their gaze fell
02:45on the Japanese-occupied island of Iwo Jima.
02:50It lay a mere 800 miles from the Japanese mainland and would be a valuable base for attacking the country.
02:56The U.S. commander in the Central Pacific, Admiral Chester Nimitz, assembled the largest landing fleet ever brought together in the Pacific campaign and prepared to invade the island.
03:10Nimitz was taking no risks.
03:20Wave after wave of American aircraft paved the way with a massive aerial bombardment.
03:26Then, on the morning of February the 19th, 1945, the guns of the naval task force began one of the most prolonged bombardments of the war.
03:49At the same time, landing craft set off for the shore.
04:04The Marines hit the beaches of Iwo Jima along the southwestern shore just after nine o'clock in the morning.
04:25For a few moments, there was an eerie car.
04:31The massive naval and aerial bombardment appeared to have overwhelmed the Japanese garrison.
04:37Then, a hurricane of Japanese fire swept over them.
04:42General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the Japanese commander on the island, had told his men to hold their fire until the Americans were right under their guns.
05:04Now, the Japanese opened up from a network of tunnels, caves and bunkers.
05:20There was carnage.
05:22But, gradually, small groups of U.S. troops inched their way forward.
05:47Finally, by the evening, the beachhead had been secured.
05:52The task now was to capture the 550-foot-high Mount Suribachi, the heavily defended volcano that dominates Iwo Jima.
06:12For three days, Marines clawed their way up the steep, pitted slopes.
06:22They were supported by a constant air and naval bombardment from the invasion fleet.
06:26Finally, on February the 23rd, 1945, the U.S. platoon, led by 1st Lieutenant Harold Schreier, began the final assault, carrying with them a small U.S. flag.
06:54They reached the summit and raised their flag using a piece of piping as a pole.
07:03Marine Corps photographer, staff sergeant, Louis Lowery, captured the scene with a few precious photographs.
07:15The hard-pressed Marines on the beaches below, cheered and wept.
07:33Ships sounded their whistles.
07:34Three hours later, the event was restaged with a larger U.S. flag.
07:48The moment was immortalized by photographer Joe Rosenthal with one of the most iconic photographs of the war.
07:54But the battle for Iwo Jima was far from over.
08:12The rest of the island was still in Japanese hands.
08:15The next day, the Marines captured the first of the island's strategically vital airfields.
08:26But Kuriba Yashi had told his men to take as many of the enemy with them as possible.
08:42Their duty to the Emperor to die on the island.
08:45It meant each assault became a bloody frontal affair.
09:06It took two weeks before the remaining two airfields on the island were in U.S. hands.
09:15Even as the fighting continued, the U.S. Air Force began to make use of Iwo Jima's airfields.
09:28During the late spring and summer of 1945, over 2,500 damaged U.S. bombers made emergency landings on the island.
09:38Often saving the lives of their crews.
09:40Finally, at the end of March, after some six weeks of ferocious fighting,
09:50the last Japanese resistance was snuffed out.
09:59But the capture of Iwo Jima had come at a terrible price.
10:03Only 200 of the 22,000 strong Japanese garrison survived.
10:20The Americans had also suffered badly.
10:24Nearly 7,000 Marines had been killed and some 18,000 wounded.
10:28The Americans finally had the base they needed.
10:35But it was now clear that unless the U.S. could come up with an alternative,
10:40any invasion of Japan would be paid for in tens of thousands of American lives.
10:45In the United States, one group of military planners had long believed there was an alternative to invading Japan.
11:02It was called strategic bombing.
11:05This involved carefully targeted bombing raids designed to destroy Japan's infrastructure,
11:16industry, and ability to wage war.
11:22But in the first years of the Pacific War, there was a problem.
11:26Japan lay beyond a range of America's bombs.
11:29In April 1942, the U.S. had managed to launch a one-off bombing raid on Tokyo.
11:39But it had pushed the bombers to their limits and was never a practical long-term option.
11:49Then, in early 1944, the Boeing Aircraft Corporation produced a revolutionary new heavy bomber,
11:56the B-29 Superfortress.
11:59It could carry 20,000 pounds of bombs over a range of 3,250 miles.
12:13Suddenly, Japan was just about in reach of America's forward bases in the Pacific.
12:18In summer 1944, nine months before the assault on Iwo Jima,
12:31U.S. B-29 stationed at Chengdu in southwest China began a series of strategic bombing raids on Japan.
12:38But range was still an issue.
12:44It was too far for a fighter escort, so the Superfortresses had to fly alone,
12:49staying at high altitude for their own safety.
12:52Even then, the range was only just within limits, and there was no room for navigational error.
13:01Many of the bombs missed their targets.
13:13Then, in July 1944, there was a development that gave strategic bombing a new lease of life.
13:25The U.S. Navy captured the Mariana Islands in the Central Pacific.
13:31They were only 1,500 miles from the Japanese homeland.
13:40This was well within the B-29's operating range.
13:44The odds for a successful bombing campaign on Japan had dramatically improved.
13:57On November the 24th, over a hundred Superfortresses took off from the Mariana Islands.
14:04Their target? The Nakajima Aircraft Factory in Tokyo.
14:14But only 48 bombs struck anywhere near the target.
14:28For three months, more raids targeted other industrial sites.
14:35But the B-29's were still flying without a fighter escort,
14:39and still dropping their bombs from high altitude.
14:44The targets were often obscured by cloud,
14:47and jet stream winds made accurate bomb aiming impossible.
14:56To make matters worse, the B-29 suffered from engine problems.
15:02There were also attacks from kamikaze pilots.
15:05By the winter of 1944,
15:19it was clear that strategic bombing was just not working.
15:25If Japan was to be bombed into submission,
15:28the U.S. would have to come up with something else.
15:30So it was that on December the 18th, 1944,
15:39America tried a new tactic.
15:4184 B-29s set off from Chengdu
15:44for Japanese-occupied Hangkau on the Yangtze River.
15:48They flew much lower than usual,
15:56and carried mostly incendiary rather than high-explosive bombs.
16:12Hangkau was devastating.
16:13The raid was more effective than almost any of the previous strategic bombing raids.
16:27The U.S. appeared to have found a way forward.
16:31Firebombing at low altitude.
16:33The U.S. bomber commander in the Marianas,
16:38General Curtis LeMay,
16:40now ordered the systematic firebombing of Japan.
16:45It was the same tactic that Britain had employed in Germany.
16:57On the evening of March the 9th, 1945,
16:59Pathfinder aircraft roared over Tokyo,
17:03dropping incendiary target indicators.
17:08The fires they started marked the aiming points
17:12for almost 300 B-29s.
17:18Coming in at just 5,000 feet,
17:21they dropped over 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs.
17:24The flimsy wooden houses stood no chance.
17:37Air was sucked in,
17:39creating towering firestorms,
17:41which raced faster than people could run.
17:43The glow from the burning city
17:53could be seen over 150 miles away.
18:04When the all-clear finally sounded the following morning,
18:0816 square miles of Tokyo
18:10had been obliterated.
18:13over 100,000 of its citizens were killed
18:18and a million made homeless.
18:28Tokyo was not the only city
18:30to face this devastating new tactic.
18:36Nagoya was set ablaze 2 nights later.
18:39Then Osaka and Kobe during the following week.
18:50Firestorms engulfed whole areas,
18:52destroying houses and industrial facilities.
18:55But American success was coming at a price.
19:00But American success was coming at a price.
19:05Without escorts,
19:06the low-flying U.S. bombers
19:07were dangerously vulnerable
19:09to Japanese fighters.
19:14American losses now mounted.
19:16If the bombing campaign was ever to succeed,
19:21the U.S. needed bases even closer to Japan.
19:23Within weeks, Iwo Jima fell.
19:36Now, at last,
19:37the U.S. Air Force not only had a base for its bombers
19:40within easy striking distance of Japan,
19:42it could finally use its Mustang fighters to escort them.
19:55During the late spring and early summer of 1945,
19:57strikes of up to 500 bombers attacked Japan every other day.
20:01Once the largest industrial areas had been crippled,
20:15LeMay moved on to lesser targets.
20:22Yet, in the face of catastrophic damage
20:24and an appalling death toll,
20:26the Japanese showed no sign of cracking.
20:29It finally dawned on the Americans
20:33that strategic bombing alone
20:35was never going to defeat Japan.
20:40It looked like a full-scale invasion of the country
20:43was becoming inevitable.
20:52For the U.S. battle planners,
20:54the next logical step in the land campaign
20:56was the Japanese island of Korea.
20:58It lay a mere 350 miles from the Japanese homeland islands.
21:01It lay a mere 350 miles from the Japanese homeland islands.
21:09The island was defended by more than 120,000 men.
21:13The Japanese commander, General Mitsuru Ishijima,
21:17the Japanese commander, General Mitsuru Ishijima,
21:21was determined to turn it into an American graveyard.
21:32Once again, Admiral Nimitz, the U.S. commander in the region,
21:35assembled a huge fleet.
21:37It included 40 aircraft carriers and 18 battleships.
21:40The opening bombardment of Okinawa began on March the 23rd, 1945.
21:42The opening bombardment of Okinawa began on March the 23rd, 1945.
21:58It lasted for a whole week.
22:09Finally, on the morning of April the 1st,
22:15the assault boats headed for the shore.
22:25To their surprise, they met almost no opposition.
22:31By nightfall, 60,000 men had landed,
22:44and the beachhead was up to two miles deep.
22:48For the next two days, the U.S. forces built up their strength
22:56and pushed across the island.
23:00Again, opposition was unexpectedly light.
23:09By April the 4th, the Japanese defenders had been split in two.
23:18Marine divisions now headed north.
23:26Army units pushed south.
23:31The Marines continued to meet only sporadic resistance,
23:35and within three weeks had cleared the northern part of the island.
23:42But it was a different story in the south.
23:44There, the army units ran into savage fire.
24:02For ten days, the Japanese held their defensive line.
24:11Then, when they could hold out no longer,
24:13they simply withdrew to the next defensive position
24:16and continued to resist all over again.
24:28Meanwhile, the Japanese also prepared to launch an air assault
24:31on the invasion fleet.
24:35Early on the morning of April the 7th,
24:37kamikaze pilots gathered to drink their ritual cups of sake
24:41and climb into their aircraft for the last time.
24:52Over 700 aircraft, half of them, kamikazes, took off
24:57and approached the U.S. landing fleet.
24:59A line of radar-equipped destroyers,
25:12operating about 50 miles out at sea, was hit first.
25:24By the end of the first day of the attack,
25:26two U.S. destroyers had been sunk.
25:3524 other vessels were also damaged.
25:44But the Japanese had lost over 300 planes.
25:47Over the following days, the Japanese introduced a new weapon.
25:58The Orca, or cherry blossom,
26:00was a rocket-powered suicide missile driven by a kamikaze pilot.
26:05It was launched from a bomber and carried a massive 2,650-pound warhead.
26:23On April the 12th, another U.S. destroyer was hit and sunk.
26:28The Orca looked deadly, but U.S. fighters quickly learned to intercept
26:39and shoot down the bombers that carried them.
26:50In desperation, the Japanese Navy now sent a suicide mission of its own.
26:55The Yamato, Japan's largest battleship, was loaded with just enough fuel to reach Okinawa
27:04and ordered to fight to the death, sinking as many U.S. ships as possible in the process.
27:12But as the giant ship approached Okinawa, it was spotted.
27:16Some 400 U.S. aircraft descended from it.
27:28Within two hours, it blew up.
27:37The fireball could be seen for over a hundred miles.
27:46Back on Okinawa, torrential rain now turned the battlefield into a quagmire.
27:56For over a month, U.S. troops struggled to push their way south.
28:00Every cave or dugout entrance had to be blasted by flamethrowers, grenades and explosives.
28:17As before, as one defensive line was overrun, the Japanese slipped back to another.
28:22And the whole grim business would start again.
28:32U.S. casualties rapidly mounted.
28:34Finally, on June the 1st, the town of Shuri was captured.
28:54Then on June the 4th, a new contingent of Marines landed to the south of Naha,
28:59the island's capital, and linked up with troops pushing down from the north.
29:04A new contingent of Marines was captured.
29:16Savage fighting continued.
29:18But by June the 17th, the Japanese resistance was collapsing.
29:28Five days later, the Americans finally secured Okinawa.
29:34The Japanese commander, General Ishijima, committed ritual suicide, Harakiri.
29:44Over 7,000 prisoners were taken.
29:53The first time ever that such large numbers of Japanese troops had surrendered.
29:58It had been a bloody and exhausting campaign.
30:07100,000 Japanese soldiers and some 40,000 civilians had been killed.
30:13The Americans, for their part, had lost over 15,000 men.
30:22It was a sobering reminder of what would await the American forces if they invaded the main Japanese home islands.
30:34More than ever, they needed a solution.
30:38A way to obliterate Japan's will to fight, once and for all.
30:43The victory at Okinawa meant America's military planners now had to decide what to do next.
31:05Despite shattering defeats, the Japanese still showed no sign of surrendering.
31:10Some U.S. commanders argued for a continuation of the firebombing campaign.
31:20But by the summer of 1945, it was clear that bombing alone would never defeat Japan.
31:27An invasion seemed unavoidable.
31:30But the question was, at what price?
31:49The Japanese had some one million men defending the home islands.
31:53They were supported by about 5,000 aircraft.
32:01And new kamikaze pilots were being trained all the time.
32:05And new kamikaze pilots were being trained all the time.
32:15Mass suicide attacks by civilian volunteers could also be expected.
32:23A bloodbath seemed inevitable.
32:25It was estimated that over a quarter of a million American lives might be lost.
32:35Then, in July 1945, the new U.S. president, Harry S. Truman,
32:41heard about the results of a top secret Allied scientific research program.
32:46It was called the Manhattan Project.
32:53For three years, Allied scientists had been working on an atom bomb.
32:57A weapon that draws on the vast quantities of energy released when an atom is split.
33:02It would have an unimaginable destructive force.
33:16The project was led by U.S. General Leslie Groves, an army engineer.
33:24The scientific director was Robert Oppenheimer, a 39-year-old physicist from the University of California.
33:33Over a three-year period, the program had recruited many of the Allies' best scientific brains.
33:41Two radioactive materials seemed to offer most promise as fuels for the new bombs.
33:50One was a naturally occurring form of uranium called uranium-235.
33:56It was processed at a vast factory at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
33:59The other was plutonium, a man-made material manufactured in primitive nuclear reactors
34:08at Hanford in Washington state.
34:14The research was coordinated and conducted by a team of scientists at Los Alamos,
34:19a specially built laboratory complex in the New Mexico desert.
34:23A few years later, the scientists at Los Alamos were pretty confident that they had a
34:37uranium bomb that worked.
34:38But it required huge quantities of uranium-235, and the scientists worried that they didn't have enough of it.
34:50So they also designed a second bomb that used plutonium.
34:53They had a few years later, and they had a few years later, and they had a few years later.
34:56But this, unlike the uranium bomb, was much less well understood, and they weren't sure it would work.
35:02Before it could be used, they would need to test it.
35:05By early July 1945, after an expenditure of more than $2 billion, the plutonium bomb was ready for trials.
35:19The gadget, as it was called, was mounted on a steel tower in the New Mexico desert.
35:24At 5.30 in the morning of July 16th, the atomic age began.
35:47News that Operation Trinity had been successful was swiftly passed to President Truman.
35:53He had recently arrived at a conference in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam,
35:58meeting with Stalin and Churchill, discussing the future of Europe.
36:04Truman didn't hesitate.
36:08He ordered his commanders to prepare to drop the new bombs on Japan as soon as possible.
36:13Two bombs, a uranium device codenamed Little Boy, and a plutonium bomb called Fat Man,
36:26were now transported to the Mariana Islands.
36:28There, the immensely experienced colonel Paul Tibbetts, leader of the specially trained 509th Composite Group, prepared his B-29.
36:44In the morning of August 6th, Tibbetts lifted his plane, named Enola Gay, after his mother, off the runway.
36:58The flight to the target, Japan's fourth largest city, Hiroshima, went without a hitch.
37:17At 8am, on a bright sunny morning, Enola Gay approached the city at 33,000 feet.
37:30Then, at just after 8.15, Little Boy was released.
37:39The uranium bomb had the power of nearly 13,000 tons of gas.
38:00TNT.
38:03The temperature beneath the mushroom cloud reached 5,000 degrees centigrade.
38:12Thousands of people were instantly vaporised.
38:24Shock waves levelled buildings up to a five-mile radius.
38:30tNT.
38:34Estimates of the death toll vary hugely.
38:37Some put it at 40,000 people, others at 100,000.
38:42Many suffered from terrible burns and blistering.
38:59Over the course of the following weeks, thousands more people died from radiation poisoning.
39:10On August 7th, 1945, President Truman told the world about the bomb and issued Japan with
39:16a warning.
39:17Let there be no mistake, we shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war.
39:26They may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this
39:31earth.
39:35But no Japanese surrender was received.
39:40Two days later, on August 9th, Fat Man was dropped on the major military port of Nagasaki.
39:50The plutonium bomb was even more powerful.
40:07In fact, the bomb fell way off target, but it still caused massive destruction.
40:18Between 35,000 and 50,000 people are estimated to have died in the explosion.
40:32The Japanese government could now have no doubt that they faced a new and horrific weapon.
40:38But the question remained, would even this force them to surrender?
40:54The Nagasaki bomb was followed by a stark warning from US Secretary of State, James Burns.
41:00There is still time, but little time, for the Japanese to save themselves from the destruction
41:08which threatens them.
41:13The intention was clear.
41:15The atom bomb would be used again and again until Japan gave in.
41:25That same day, Japan's position became even more precarious.
41:33Early in the morning of August 9th, a million and a half Soviet troops stormed into Manchuria
41:39and northern China.
41:46The Soviet leader, Josef Stalin, was not only after territory.
41:50He wanted a say in any final peace settlement in the Far East.
41:59There were still over a million Japanese troops in the area, but the Red Army Blitzkrieg was unstoppable.
42:06The Japanese position in the war had become untenable.
42:17That evening, Emperor Hirohito met with his six top military and political leaders.
42:25The war cabinet was divided.
42:27Three, led by the Prime Minister, Baron Kantaro Suzuki, argued for peace.
42:36The other three wanted to continue fighting.
42:42It was deadlock.
42:44Then the Japanese Prime Minister broke with all precedent and asked the Emperor for his opinion.
42:53Emperor Hirohito voted for peace, on condition that his position as head of state was maintained.
43:01The next morning, a proposal was sent to the U.S. Secretary of State, James Burns.
43:08Burns rejected it.
43:10Only unconditional surrender would do.
43:18As a Japanese war cabinet argued amongst itself, Soviet troops continued to tear into Mongolia.
43:27At the same time, American fighters now roamed freely over Japan, shooting up military targets and transport links at will.
43:36Massive air raids continued to devastate Japan.
43:45Massive air raids continued to devastate Japan.
43:51Then, on August the 14th, the Truman administration sent word that the Emperor's position would be safeguarded, provided he agreed to accept the orders of the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces.
44:12Hirohito used his huge prestige to instruct the war cabinet to endure the unendurable and accept the terms.
44:27That day in Washington, President Truman announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally.
44:34I deem this reply a full acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, which specifies the unconditional surrender of Japan.
44:43Cheering, singing crowds erupted onto the streets of every American city.
44:50In Britain, it was midnight when the new Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, broadcast the news.
45:15Japan has today surrendered.
45:20The last of our enemies is laid low.
45:23Peace has once again come to the world.
45:26Let us thank God for this great deliverance and his mercies.
45:31Long live the King.
45:36Within minutes, crowds appeared on the streets of London.
45:40Many gathered outside Buckingham Palace.
45:50A giant street party lasted well into the following day.
46:05The next morning, August the 15th, an astounded Japanese people listened to the voice of their god-emperor for the very first time.
46:17He told them that Japan's position had become impossible, and the country was obliged to surrender.
46:30All military forces must lay down their arms.
46:39Such was the emperor's prestige that almost every unit obeyed.
46:50But in Manchuria, despite the Japanese ceasefire, the Soviet forces fought on.
46:55For the first time, large numbers of Japanese troops now surrendered.
47:14Nevertheless, the Soviets, determined to seize as much territory as possible, continued to advance.
47:30Stalin wouldn't stop the fighting for another week.
47:35By then, the whole of Manchuria, half of Korea, and part of northern China were under his control.
47:51Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, in the Philippines, and on many of the Pacific islands bypassed by the Americans,
47:57it took weeks for news of the surrender to reach isolated Japanese garrisons.
48:08Some Japanese soldiers would remain hidden in the jungle for more than 30 years.
48:12Finally, on August 28th, two weeks after the surrender, the first U.S. troops arrived in Japan.
48:25A huge U.S. fleet gathered in Tokyo Bay, sailing past the shattered hulks of the once proud Japanese navy that they had so comprehensively defeated.
48:41Several days later, on September 2nd, 1945, the Japanese delegation came aboard the USS battleship, Missouri.
49:01On its quarterdeck, the new Japanese foreign minister, Mamoru Shigemitsu, signed the document of unconditional surrender.
49:19It was countersigned by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, the man who would effectively run Japan for the next six years.
49:26As Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, I announce it my firm purpose, in the tradition of the countries I represent,
49:38to proceed in the discharge of my responsibilities with justice and tolerance.
49:45Then a force of more than 2,000 Allied aircraft roared overhead.
49:49It was a fitting tribute to the overwhelming power which had finally brought Germany and Japan to utter defeat.
50:09World War II was at an end.
50:11Japan's ruthless desire to wage war had been crushed by a weapon of awesome destructive power.
50:22Now, in the East as in the West, the world would be divided and shared along new lines.
50:30New allegiances would be formed.
50:32And new enemies would vie for global influence under the spectre of nuclear war.
50:41A new era in world history had begun.
50:44A new era in world history had begun.
50:47THE END
50:49BEGUN
50:53A new era
50:57Transcription by CastingWords
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