BBC History of World War II Hiroshima

The only place we were able to escape
it was the river that runs behind our school.

Near the station,
about two miles from the flash,

Teruko Fujii thought her tram had
short-circuited on the overhead cables,

and that the whole thing was her fault.

I thought that I'd caused
some kind of disaster.

I thought I'd broken the tram
and done something terrible!

And then I thought, is it a bomb?

That was when I realised it wasn't me
who'd caused all this trouble.

First I thought only
the station area was affected.

Then I saw people
walking towards me with injuries,

and skin hanging from them.

Everybody thought, perhaps
if I go over there, I could be saved.

People to the west thought
the east might be better.

People were going in
every direction, in total silence.

Amid all the destruction,
there was at least one miracle.

Eight-year-old
Takashi Tanemori was carried

through the burning city
by the soldier who rescued him.

At last, the soldier reached the river,

and from the crowds,
the little boy heard a familiar voice.

Somehow my father spotted me!

I guess he called my name,
and maybe I responded,

and I said, that's my daddy!

And then he stood straight
to the soldiers,

and then he bowed many, many times
to the soldiers, said, thank you!You are saviour!

Later on, after we were flying back,
conversation started about,

you know, the war being over,
as a result of this bombing.

Despite the number of people we killed,

we saved multiple numbers
over that from being in a war,

and being killed, on America's side,
and on the Japanese side.

That time, there was such
a hatred for the Japanese,

that the more we killed,
the better off we thought we were,

because that means
there's going to be less

that we're going to have
to contend with during the invasion.

After a six-hour return flight,
the Enola Gay reached Tinian Island.

The following...
Three, four, 500 people there.

And when we got out of the airplane,
of course we were all getting out,we're tired

and I get out, I remember getting out,
carrying my oxygen mask,I'm right behind Paul,

and then some joker
calls us to attention.

I got out of the airplane,like I was told,
he pins this thing on my shirt,

guys are taking pictures of us,I saluted,
and after that was over with.

I'm back to my duty.

We've got to go to de-briefing,
by the intelligence people.

They had certain things to ask,did you see this,
and did you see that, and so forth.

Confirming that we had bombed
the right target.

I said, sure.

Dr Hida escaped from the rubble of
the farmhouse four miles outside Hiroshima.

After checking on the child
he had been treating,

he headed back towards the city.

It's about six kilometres
to Hiroshima from there.

When I was halfway there, suddenly
a strange creature appeared out of nowhere.

As it was summer, if it were human,
it would have been wearing white.

What I saw was all black,
from top to bottom. Pitch black.

I though it was strange.

At the top there was something round,like a head. It had shoulders,something like a body followed.

But it was like it had no face.
It was black.

The area around the eyes had swollen up,
it had no nose,

the lower half of the face was just mouth!
It was frightening!

As a doctor,the first thing you do
is take a pulse.

But when I took his hand,
there was no skin.

There was nowhere I could hold.

So I stood up, saying, please,pull yourself together,and walked around him.

This person gave a small shudder,
and then he stopped moving. He had died.

He had fled three kilometres,
and then he died there.

That man was the first fatality
caused by the bomb, that I saw.

Army recruit, Shigeru Terasawa,had been
stationed seven milesfrom the centre of the blast.

His unit was sent to help survivors,

but they soon
faced a terrible conflict,

between their compassion
and their training.

Even now there are things
that I will never forget.

One is the sound of people
begging me for water.

In those days,we had been told
not to give water to the badly burned.

To tell you the truth,we all had these big,
military water flasks on our hips.

People were begging for water,
but we didn't give them any.

We had been told that if we did,
they would die straight away.

And so I didn't give them any.
A lot of people died.

Now, looking back,
I wish I had given them water.

Burned, and bleeding,
in the intense heat,

people were desperate
to find any water they could.

They fled to the rivers,
to pools, and reservoirs.

Among them, nurse Kinuko.

I knew there was a pool of water,
in the back yard of the hospital.

Lots of people had already got into the pool.
More people had jumped on top of them.

The people underneath drowned.

This is one scene I can never forget.
I still dream about it.

Then came a strange deliverance.

Dark raindrops began to fall
from the clouds above the burning city.

We opened our mouths, and drank it.
Our throats were parched,

but it was difficult to capture
the rain into our mouths.

The rain had been made
black by ash and smoke

which had been sucked into
the rising mushroom cloud.

When these ashes mixed with cool,
humid air in the upper atmosphere,

they formed thick, black raindrops,

and fell back down on to the city.

The drops of rain were big enough to hurt,

when they hit your skin.

It descended in a torrent. Black fluid flowed
where the rain fell.

It was raining black fluid.

What the people
who drank the rain didn't realise,

was that it was highly radioactive.

In time, it would poison many thousands.

On the day the bomb was dropped,

President Truman was still
travelling home from Europe.

On our way back, on the Augusta,
returning to Washington,

we were on the edge of our chairs,

because we expected any day:
any time, any day,

to have a flash from the War Department
that the first bomb had been dropped.

And on August 6th,as we were one day out from Norfolk,that flash came.

George Elsie decoded the telegram

that brought the news
to President Truman on the Augusta.

When something like that came,
we would walk in to him immediately,

we would interrupt
whatever he was doing.

He happened to be having lunch with the crew,
at that point.

I took it to Truman,
who showed it to Secretary Burns,

and to Admiral Leyhey,
and Truman announced to the ship's crew

this great accomplishment.

We have dropped a single bomb
on the Japanese city of Hiroshima,

with the power of 20,000 tons of TNT.

The city has been completely destroyed!

There was cheering, cheering by the crew,and by
the officers,when he read it in the officers' mess.

The Augusta was one of the ships
that was destined for the Pacific,

and would have been involved in the invasion.
The crew knew that.

Just about everybody who was in Europe knew
that they would be headed for the Pacific,

and an invasion of Japan.

So they were just as
overjoyed as the President was,

that this damned thing is over!

We hope this will be
a warning to the Japanese military!

Come on, boys, we're going home!

He was eager to get home,

because he was sure that the
Japanese surrender would come very soon.

In case there was any doubt,

Truman spelt it out to
the Japanese High Command.

It was to spare the Japanese people
form otter destruction

that the ultimatum of July 26th
was issued at Potsdam.

Their leaders promptly
rejected that ultimatum.

If they do not now accept our terms,
they may expect a rain of war,from the air,

the like of which has never
been seen on this earth.

Late that afternoon, the mayor of Hiroshima,

issued his own proclamation.

The present catastrophe is the result of
a horrible and inhuman air raid.

The enemy's intention is clearly to undermine
the fighting spirit

of the Japanese people.

Citizens of Hiroshima,
the damage is great,

but that is only to
be expected during a war.

Keep up your spirits. Do not lose heart.

The morning after the bomb,
a full-scale rescue effort began.

Squads of soldiers from surrounding garrisons
were drafted in to help.

They collected the dead bodies and
disposed of them

before disease could spread.

The wounded were quickly
taken away for treatment.

Makeshift hospitals were set up,although
there were only a handful of medical staff.

Dr Hida found himself
treating 3,000 survivors

in a village outside Hiroshima.

At first we had no medicine,
no equipment.

There was nothing we doctors could do.

However, we gathered up some things,
and started treating the burns.

Nurse Kinuko had an extraordinary escape.

I don't know whether I was
unconscious for hours or for days.

When I did come round,
I thought, so, I'm still alive.

God must have given me strength.

She woke to find that
she had been thrown into a mass grave.

After I crawled out of the hole,
I managed to cross the road,

to get to the entrance of the hospital.

It took me a terribly long time,
as I could not stand,

nor lift my arms,
or move them to the side.

I crawled like an insect,

and finally reached
the hospital entrance.

Dr Hinoki from the pharmacy spotted me,
and exclaimed,

you're still alive!

He picked me up,
and carried me to the surgery area.

The corridor was full of people
lying side by side.

This was where they operated on me,

and removed all of the large pieces
of glass that were stuck in me.

All over the city, relatives searched
the ruins for signs of survivors.

Before midday,
my friend's father came to get us.

But my friend,
who had escaped from the bank with me,

turned out to have a broken spine.

She died a week later.
She was a year younger than me.

I am nearly 80 years old now,
but she was only 18 at the time.

whenever I think of her,
she is still 18 years old.

She was a very pretty, gently person.

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Three days after the Hiroshima bomb,

despite all the destruction,
Japan still hadn't surrendered.

A second bomb was made ready,
and Truman issued another warning.

The world will note that the first atomic bomb
was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base.

If Japan does not surrender,

bombs will have to be dropped
on more industries.

I urge Japanese civilians to leave
industrial cities immediately,

and save themselves from destruction.

I realise the tragic significance
of the atomic bomb.

Having found the atomic bomb,
we have used it.

We have used it against those who attacked us,
without warning, at Pearl Harbour.

Against those who have starved, and beaten,

and executed American prisoners of war.

Against those who have abandoned all pretence
of obeying international laws of warfare.

We have used it in order to
shorten the agony of war,

in order to save the lives of thousands
and thousands of young Americans.

A second bomb was intended
for the city of Kokura,

but it was too cloudy,
so the plane moved on to Nagasaki.

Desperately short of fuel,

the crew released the bomb,
despite more clouds.

The bomb missed the aiming point,
and fell into a valley.

This time there was no firestorm,

but even so,
more than 50,000 people were killed.

The Supreme War Direction Council in Tokyo
was meeting on the same day.

By now, the Russians had
declared war on Japan.

Then came the news from Nagasaki.

Then, Prime Minister Suzuki
did something unheard of.

He asked the Emperor to break the deadlock,
and make a decision.

Emperor Hirohito told them he wanted to
end the suffering,

and bear the unbearable.

Four days later,

radical soldiers attempted a coup,

to prevent the surrender. They failed.

At dawn on the day that Emperor Hirohito
was to broadcast an announcement

to the Japanese people
that the war was over,

General Anami prepared to end his life

in the time-honoured tradition of seppuku.

His suicide note read:

"My death is my apology for my great crime. "

The war was over.
At last the troops were going home.

There was jubilation around the world.

But then, came something that would
forever change perception of the bomb.

It started in the hospitals.

A mysterious illness began to spread.

I noticed it from about the fourth day.
Of course, it had been there all along,

but I thought people
were dying of severe burns.

The woman who lost her children in the fires,
Shigei Hiratsuka, and her husband,

were amongst those affected.

They lined my bed up next to my husband's,
and took his test first.

When they had taken enough blood for
the sample,they withdrew the needle.

But the blood wouldn't stop.
Nothing worked, whatever they did.

Even when they applied pressure,
he carried on bleeding.

During this time, purple spots began
breaking out

all over my husband's body.

He then vomited
a large amount of brown liquid.

Afterwards he went limp,
and died an hour later.

He had managed to survive that far,

but then even he was taken away from me.

Her husband was one of thousands

who would die from
this new and untreatable condition.

They were rotting. It was necrosis.
There were no white blood cells,

so the blood had no power
to fight against infection,

and so, suddenly, the rotting set in.

In the end, the hair would start to fall out.

When you put your hand
on the patient's head,

tufts of hair would come away in your hand.

It emerged that those
who were worst affected

had been close to the hyper centre,

or had swallowed radioactive material,
like the people who drank the black rain.

In hindsight, we realised
that it was radiation,

but at that time,
we didn't know what it was.

Radiation sickness has become the single
most disturbing legacy of the bomb.

American scientist had always known
the bomb would produce radiation,

but the scale of the after effects
came as a shocking surprise.

Today Hiroshima is a thriving city
of over a million people.

Japan, too, has been transformed
into a prosperous country

that has renounced the use of war entirely.

Although no one has used
a nuclear weapon since,

arguments continue as to the
morality of dropping the bomb.

Was it really necessary?
Could it have been avoided?

The nation had no rice to eat,

people had not eaten
white rice for a whole year.

How could such a country go to battle?

The Americans knew that, very well,
and still dropped the atomic bomb. Why?

It was an experiment!They knew that
the bomb had enormous explosive power.

What they did not know was
how much damage the radiation would cause.

Some scientists thought they knew,
but they had not tested it,

so they made an experiment, to find out,
by testing it on human beings.

The final decision that resulted in
the two bombs, Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

was not made in Potsdam,

it wasn't made by Truman,
it was made by the Japanese militarists

when they rejected any opportunity
to surrenderjust their armed forces,

and save further massive loss of life.

Today there are just a few places that

bear the scars of August 6th 1945.

There are burn marks on trees,

the shadow of a vaporised man, left on stone.

First hand memories are fading too.

Akiko Takakura, the bank clerk,

who had been just 260 metres
from the hyper centre,

is one of the last witnesses
to the full horror of the bomb.

There is a department store called Sogo,
in Hiroshima,

where I stop sometimes for tea.

From the tearoom,

I can see the road from the bank
to the drill ground, where we escaped.

I see old people
walking happily down the street.

Young people holding hands,
and enjoying each other's conversation.

Children holding their parents' hands,
and looking happy.

And I think about those awful scenes
that I experienced, many years ago,

now, and all the people
that lost their lives.

I think to myself, what was all that?
Did it really happen?

Every year, on 6th August,
there are ceremonies

to recall what took place on that day,

to make sure that
these events are never forgotten,

or repeated.

At sunset, tens of thousands of candles
are released on the river in Hiroshima,

each candle representing
the soul of one of the dead.

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