1
00:00:01,001 --> 00:00:03,037
Viewers like you make
this program possible.

2
00:00:03,141 --> 00:00:05,177
Support your local PBS station.

3
00:00:15,601 --> 00:00:20,641
[explosion roaring]

4
00:00:22,781 --> 00:00:24,265
[film reel ticking]

5
00:00:26,647 --> 00:00:30,340
A short time ago,
an American airplane

6
00:00:30,444 --> 00:00:33,171
dropped one bomb on Hiroshima

7
00:00:33,274 --> 00:00:36,208
and destroyed its usefulness
to the enemy.

8
00:00:36,312 --> 00:00:40,074
[Slim Gaillard's
"Atomic Cocktail" playing]

9
00:00:40,178 --> 00:00:42,870
♪ It's the drink
that you don't pour ♪

10
00:00:42,973 --> 00:00:45,459
♪ Now, when you take one sip ♪

11
00:00:45,562 --> 00:00:47,668
♪ You won't need any more ♪

12
00:00:47,771 --> 00:00:51,154
♪ You're small as a beetle
or big as a whale ♪

13
00:00:51,258 --> 00:00:52,500
♪ Boom ♪

14
00:00:52,604 --> 00:00:54,192
♪ Atomic cocktail ♪

15
00:00:54,295 --> 00:00:56,021
♪ ♪

16
00:00:56,125 --> 00:00:57,505
JANET FARRELL BRODIE:
There was such delight

17
00:00:57,609 --> 00:00:59,783
in the bomb, the atomic bomb,

18
00:00:59,887 --> 00:01:01,716
and it had ended the war,

19
00:01:01,820 --> 00:01:03,028
and this would be
our major weapon.

20
00:01:03,132 --> 00:01:06,204
[crowd cheering]

21
00:01:06,307 --> 00:01:08,275
ALEX WELLERSTEIN: A number
of polls asked Americans,

22
00:01:08,378 --> 00:01:11,623
"Do you approve of the use
of the atomic bombs?"

23
00:01:11,726 --> 00:01:13,866
And the answer was, "Yeah."

24
00:01:13,970 --> 00:01:17,180
There was a small number
of people who really wished

25
00:01:17,284 --> 00:01:19,700
that more atomic bombs
could've been dropped on Japan.

26
00:01:19,803 --> 00:01:21,943
NARRATOR: America's first
impression about the bomb--

27
00:01:22,047 --> 00:01:24,532
no matter the news source--

28
00:01:24,636 --> 00:01:25,982
comes from press releases

29
00:01:26,086 --> 00:01:28,881
written by a single
"New York Times" journalist

30
00:01:28,985 --> 00:01:32,092
working undercover
for the War Department.

31
00:01:32,195 --> 00:01:35,750
I saw a world blow up
in a burst of cosmic fire...

32
00:01:35,854 --> 00:01:38,270
[explosion roars]

33
00:01:38,374 --> 00:01:42,274
...and a new one
born from its ashes.

34
00:01:42,378 --> 00:01:44,069
BEN YAGODA:
A lot of the coverage was

35
00:01:44,173 --> 00:01:46,623
as if it was like a gigantic
conventional bomb,

36
00:01:46,727 --> 00:01:48,246
just much more powerful

37
00:01:48,349 --> 00:01:49,764
than the ones
that had been used before.

38
00:01:49,868 --> 00:01:53,734
There was very little
written about the radiation.

39
00:01:55,977 --> 00:01:57,600
VINCENT INTONDI:
As long as we're talking

40
00:01:57,703 --> 00:01:59,705
about getting atomic rings
in your cereal box

41
00:01:59,809 --> 00:02:02,674
or school mascots,

42
00:02:02,777 --> 00:02:04,883
we're not thinking

43
00:02:04,986 --> 00:02:07,023
about skin falling off
of human beings.

44
00:02:07,127 --> 00:02:08,197
We're not thinking of,

45
00:02:08,300 --> 00:02:10,371
"Could that happen to us
in an arms race?"

46
00:02:12,753 --> 00:02:14,962
NARRATOR:
As the U.S. and Soviet Union

47
00:02:15,065 --> 00:02:16,929
compete for nuclear supremacy,

48
00:02:17,033 --> 00:02:19,863
the Truman administration
downplays

49
00:02:19,967 --> 00:02:22,590
the weapon's
poisonous radioactive effects

50
00:02:22,694 --> 00:02:24,005
to shore up public support

51
00:02:24,109 --> 00:02:25,938
for the bomb.
[Geiger counter clicking]

52
00:02:26,042 --> 00:02:29,045
You want them to think
that nuclear bombs are okay.

53
00:02:30,771 --> 00:02:33,532
NARRATOR: A few journalists look
beyond the propaganda

54
00:02:33,636 --> 00:02:35,431
to raise ethical concerns

55
00:02:35,534 --> 00:02:37,640
the government
does not acknowledge.

56
00:02:37,743 --> 00:02:40,815
WILFRED BURCHETT: I felt
staggered by what I'd seen.

57
00:02:40,919 --> 00:02:43,542
I write this as a warning
to the world.

58
00:02:43,646 --> 00:02:45,303
NARRATOR:
But the government fights back

59
00:02:45,406 --> 00:02:49,686
to reestablish
its version of the story.

60
00:02:49,790 --> 00:02:51,792
GODFREY TEARLE [as Roosevelt]:
More than an end to war,

61
00:02:51,895 --> 00:02:55,830
we want an end to
the beginnings of all wars.

62
00:02:55,934 --> 00:02:57,763
And if the bomb
shortens the war,

63
00:02:57,867 --> 00:03:00,525
it will save many thousands
of American lives.

64
00:03:00,628 --> 00:03:02,458
Bomb away.

65
00:03:04,322 --> 00:03:06,047
WELLERSTEIN:
These initial narratives

66
00:03:06,151 --> 00:03:09,189
that get set up
between 1945 and 1947,

67
00:03:09,292 --> 00:03:13,123
these are still the terms
in which people, by default,

68
00:03:13,227 --> 00:03:15,540
talk about the atomic bomb,

69
00:03:15,643 --> 00:03:17,335
to the point where, if you tell
somebody this narrative,

70
00:03:17,438 --> 00:03:18,957
they'll say, "Right,
that's the story, right?"

71
00:03:19,060 --> 00:03:21,546
And, in many ways,
it's not true.

72
00:03:21,649 --> 00:03:25,308
♪ ♪

73
00:03:31,935 --> 00:03:37,320
[trumpet holding note]

74
00:03:37,424 --> 00:03:41,911
[drums pounding]

75
00:03:45,535 --> 00:03:47,917
[fanfare playing]

76
00:03:48,020 --> 00:03:49,539
[speaking German]

77
00:03:49,643 --> 00:03:54,613
[responding in German]

78
00:03:58,099 --> 00:04:01,448
NARRATOR:
By 1938, Adolf Hitler

79
00:04:01,551 --> 00:04:04,727
is consolidating Nazi power
in Germany

80
00:04:04,830 --> 00:04:07,177
and marshaling the force
needed for the Nazis

81
00:04:07,281 --> 00:04:08,869
to control all of Europe.

82
00:04:08,972 --> 00:04:14,081
Hitler's intentions on
the battlefield are clear.

83
00:04:14,184 --> 00:04:17,326
Less obvious,
but just as important,

84
00:04:17,429 --> 00:04:21,778
German and Austrian scientists
split a uranium atom in two.

85
00:04:21,882 --> 00:04:25,886
The process, called fission,
gives Germany a head start

86
00:04:25,989 --> 00:04:29,441
toward a new type of weapon--
the atomic bomb.

87
00:04:29,545 --> 00:04:31,271
♪ ♪

88
00:04:31,374 --> 00:04:32,962
FILM NARRATOR:
The nucleus explodes,

89
00:04:33,065 --> 00:04:35,205
giving off dangerous radiations
and heat.

90
00:04:35,309 --> 00:04:36,621
WELLERSTEIN:
When you split atoms,

91
00:04:36,724 --> 00:04:39,140
you're left
with these two half-atoms,

92
00:04:39,244 --> 00:04:40,970
and they are intensely
radioactive.

93
00:04:41,073 --> 00:04:43,110
By the end of the '20s,

94
00:04:43,213 --> 00:04:46,009
people know that radiation
equals death.

95
00:04:46,113 --> 00:04:49,081
And it's a horrible death,
it's a wasting death.

96
00:04:50,324 --> 00:04:51,705
MICHAEL GORDIN:
This is the first time

97
00:04:51,808 --> 00:04:55,018
that an atom
has been broken in two.

98
00:04:55,122 --> 00:04:57,780
But almost no one paid attention
to fission

99
00:04:57,883 --> 00:05:00,265
when it happened
in December of '38.

100
00:05:00,369 --> 00:05:02,923
This new model, however,
the scientists...

101
00:05:03,026 --> 00:05:04,683
NARRATOR: One of the few paying
close attention

102
00:05:04,787 --> 00:05:07,030
is "New York Times"
science writer

103
00:05:07,134 --> 00:05:08,825
William Leonard Laurence.

104
00:05:08,929 --> 00:05:09,930
LAURENCE:
It may be said

105
00:05:10,033 --> 00:05:11,966
that the Atomic Age

106
00:05:12,070 --> 00:05:14,106
is here to stay.

107
00:05:14,210 --> 00:05:17,455
The question is: are we?

108
00:05:17,558 --> 00:05:19,146
GORDIN:
Laurence is excited

109
00:05:19,249 --> 00:05:21,079
when there are reports
coming out of Germany

110
00:05:21,182 --> 00:05:24,324
that chemists have split
the uranium atom.

111
00:05:26,395 --> 00:05:28,535
He makes that
front-page material

112
00:05:28,638 --> 00:05:30,433
for "The New York Times."

113
00:05:30,537 --> 00:05:32,297
Laurence thought,
"This is amazing.

114
00:05:32,401 --> 00:05:34,161
This could be
a source of energy."

115
00:05:34,264 --> 00:05:37,785
But he also thought that maybe
it could be used as a weapon.

116
00:05:38,821 --> 00:05:41,306
The Germans have
extremely good scientists,

117
00:05:41,410 --> 00:05:42,997
they're on a war footing,

118
00:05:43,101 --> 00:05:46,207
and they're very good at
organizing large-scale projects.

119
00:05:48,969 --> 00:05:52,352
NARRATOR: Afraid of Germany's
nuclear intentions,

120
00:05:52,455 --> 00:05:56,010
in August 1939,
Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard

121
00:05:56,114 --> 00:05:58,806
visits Albert Einstein
on Long Island.

122
00:05:58,910 --> 00:06:01,740
Einstein signs Szilard's letter

123
00:06:01,844 --> 00:06:03,984
which urges
President Franklin D. Roosevelt

124
00:06:04,087 --> 00:06:07,953
to create an American
atomic weapons program.

125
00:06:08,057 --> 00:06:10,128
The letter convinces Roosevelt

126
00:06:10,231 --> 00:06:13,234
to establish a secret
advisory committee on uranium.

127
00:06:13,338 --> 00:06:16,514
Publicly, he pledges the U.S.
will stay out

128
00:06:16,617 --> 00:06:18,861
of any European conflict.

129
00:06:18,964 --> 00:06:21,726
This nation will remain
a neutral nation.

130
00:06:21,829 --> 00:06:23,486
But even a neutral nation

131
00:06:23,590 --> 00:06:26,558
has a right to take account
of facts.

132
00:06:27,594 --> 00:06:29,906
HITLER [speaking German]:

133
00:06:41,470 --> 00:06:43,989
[air raid sirens blaring]

134
00:06:50,582 --> 00:06:52,032
NARRATOR:
By 1941,

135
00:06:52,135 --> 00:06:54,241
on the opposite side
of the globe,

136
00:06:54,344 --> 00:06:56,416
Japanese military aggression

137
00:06:56,519 --> 00:06:58,625
has led to the takeover
of all Manchuria

138
00:06:58,728 --> 00:07:02,352
and brutal control
of other parts of Asia.

139
00:07:02,456 --> 00:07:03,940
[applauding and cheering]

140
00:07:04,044 --> 00:07:05,321
NARRATOR: Hitler welcomes

141
00:07:05,425 --> 00:07:07,185
Japan's foreign minister
in Berlin

142
00:07:07,288 --> 00:07:11,638
to celebrate the two countries'
alliance as Axis powers.

143
00:07:11,741 --> 00:07:14,330
CROWD:
Heil! Heil!

144
00:07:14,434 --> 00:07:15,745
NARRATOR:
And, in December 1941,

145
00:07:15,849 --> 00:07:20,474
Japan reveals it has designs
on more than just Asia.

146
00:07:21,958 --> 00:07:23,960
REPORTER:

147
00:07:31,174 --> 00:07:32,590
[explosions pounding]

148
00:07:32,693 --> 00:07:36,076
ROOSEVELT:
December 7, 1941,

149
00:07:36,179 --> 00:07:40,563
a date which will live
in infamy.

150
00:07:40,667 --> 00:07:43,083
NARRATOR:
When the U.S. enters the war,

151
00:07:43,186 --> 00:07:44,809
the Germans
have a three-year lead

152
00:07:44,912 --> 00:07:47,432
in the race to build
an atomic bomb.

153
00:07:47,536 --> 00:07:50,090
Roosevelt gambles $2 billion

154
00:07:50,193 --> 00:07:52,920
to build the weapon
before the Germans do.

155
00:07:53,024 --> 00:07:57,166
This secret science experiment
is known by its code name:

156
00:07:57,269 --> 00:07:58,857
The Manhattan Project.

157
00:08:00,203 --> 00:08:03,103
It will be headed by
an ambitious officer

158
00:08:03,206 --> 00:08:05,346
from the
Army Corps of Engineers.

159
00:08:07,003 --> 00:08:10,179
GORDIN: Leslie Groves is first
and foremost an engineer.

160
00:08:10,282 --> 00:08:13,631
He made his reputation
in building the Pentagon.

161
00:08:13,734 --> 00:08:16,910
He built the Pentagon ahead
of schedule and under budget.

162
00:08:18,221 --> 00:08:21,328
Groves had really wanted
to join the war effort.

163
00:08:21,431 --> 00:08:24,124
And he was disappointed
that he never got that.

164
00:08:24,227 --> 00:08:26,540
[typewriter clacking
in background]

165
00:08:26,644 --> 00:08:28,784
So, when he was asked
to lead the bomb project,

166
00:08:28,887 --> 00:08:31,752
this was a dream come true
for him.

167
00:08:33,858 --> 00:08:36,723
WELLERSTEIN: Leslie Groves saw
the Manhattan Project

168
00:08:36,826 --> 00:08:39,311
as an industrial project,
not a scientific project.

169
00:08:40,796 --> 00:08:42,383
There were scientists involved,

170
00:08:42,487 --> 00:08:44,316
but it was really
about industry.

171
00:08:44,420 --> 00:08:49,183
♪ ♪

172
00:08:49,287 --> 00:08:51,565
NARRATOR: To direct the
project's scientific research,

173
00:08:51,669 --> 00:08:55,051
Groves chooses
a 39-year-old physicist

174
00:08:55,155 --> 00:08:56,501
from Berkeley, California:

175
00:08:56,605 --> 00:08:59,021
J. Robert Oppenheimer.

176
00:08:59,124 --> 00:09:02,024
Groves shocked people
when he chose Oppenheimer,

177
00:09:02,127 --> 00:09:06,062
but it was
a brilliant appointment.

178
00:09:06,166 --> 00:09:09,445
Oppenheimer
could keep in his head

179
00:09:09,549 --> 00:09:12,828
the incredible complications
of the science,

180
00:09:12,931 --> 00:09:14,830
but also handle the people.

181
00:09:16,590 --> 00:09:18,109
WELLERSTEIN:
The biggest tool they had

182
00:09:18,212 --> 00:09:20,180
for keeping
the Manhattan Project secret

183
00:09:20,283 --> 00:09:22,147
was taking all of the scientists

184
00:09:22,251 --> 00:09:23,666
who had worked on the subject

185
00:09:23,770 --> 00:09:26,082
and putting them
under government oaths

186
00:09:26,186 --> 00:09:28,740
and secrecy arrangements.

187
00:09:28,844 --> 00:09:31,260
That deprived journalists

188
00:09:31,363 --> 00:09:33,573
of stories
that they might've written

189
00:09:33,676 --> 00:09:35,644
about atomic bombs
or something like that.

190
00:09:35,747 --> 00:09:37,438
And the journalists
noticed this.

191
00:09:39,509 --> 00:09:41,235
VINCENT KIERNAN:
At "The New York Times,"

192
00:09:41,339 --> 00:09:43,065
William Leonard Laurence
had a very good idea

193
00:09:43,168 --> 00:09:44,791
of what was going on.

194
00:09:44,894 --> 00:09:47,656
He had been putting together
bits of string for months.

195
00:09:47,759 --> 00:09:49,485
NARRATOR:
Years later,

196
00:09:49,589 --> 00:09:51,970
Laurence would recall
his early suspicions.

197
00:09:52,074 --> 00:09:54,455
[typewriter clacking]
"I noticed a strange phenomenon.

198
00:09:54,559 --> 00:09:57,389
"I would come to a meeting,
and a couple of top scientists

199
00:09:57,493 --> 00:09:59,495
"who had always been there
were missing.

200
00:09:59,599 --> 00:10:01,773
"I would call up
their universities

201
00:10:01,877 --> 00:10:04,051
"and I would get
evasive answers.

202
00:10:04,155 --> 00:10:05,121
"'They weren't there,'

203
00:10:05,225 --> 00:10:06,778
"'We don't know,'

204
00:10:06,882 --> 00:10:09,781
or, 'They're not coming back.'"

205
00:10:12,439 --> 00:10:14,165
GORDIN: William Leonard Laurence

206
00:10:14,268 --> 00:10:15,925
was born in Imperial Russia.

207
00:10:16,029 --> 00:10:18,548
[people talking in background]

208
00:10:18,652 --> 00:10:21,413
And then he moves
to the United States.

209
00:10:21,517 --> 00:10:24,658
KIERNAN:
He talked his way into Harvard,

210
00:10:24,762 --> 00:10:26,108
but he was caught up
in a cheating scandal

211
00:10:26,211 --> 00:10:27,454
and never earned a degree.

212
00:10:27,557 --> 00:10:30,181
He came to New York
and fell into a job

213
00:10:30,284 --> 00:10:31,389
at "The New York World"

214
00:10:31,492 --> 00:10:33,494
that was very sensationalistic.

215
00:10:36,221 --> 00:10:37,809
It was a great home
for Laurence,

216
00:10:37,913 --> 00:10:39,811
who had wanted to be
a playwright

217
00:10:39,915 --> 00:10:41,261
and had a great flair for drama.

218
00:10:41,364 --> 00:10:44,816
[phones ringing in background]

219
00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:46,991
He wrote several stories
about a researcher

220
00:10:47,094 --> 00:10:48,509
who claimed to have disproven

221
00:10:48,613 --> 00:10:50,235
Einstein's theory of relativity.

222
00:10:50,339 --> 00:10:55,378
♪ ♪

223
00:10:55,482 --> 00:10:57,518
"The New York Times"
saw this story,

224
00:10:57,622 --> 00:11:00,832
hired him away,
and they promoted him publicly

225
00:11:00,936 --> 00:11:03,524
as the first daily
science writer.

226
00:11:03,628 --> 00:11:07,356
♪ ♪

227
00:11:07,459 --> 00:11:08,875
Which meant
that he was under pressure

228
00:11:08,978 --> 00:11:11,463
to be constantly producing
science stories.

229
00:11:13,776 --> 00:11:16,089
WELLERSTEIN: Laurence is part
of a group of journalists

230
00:11:16,192 --> 00:11:17,884
who collectively win
a Pulitzer Prize

231
00:11:17,987 --> 00:11:20,956
for creating this field
of science journalism.

232
00:11:22,958 --> 00:11:25,408
Laurence had come
to Groves's attention

233
00:11:25,512 --> 00:11:27,376
not in a positive way.

234
00:11:27,479 --> 00:11:28,757
He came to Groves' attention

235
00:11:28,860 --> 00:11:31,829
because he was writing stories
about atomic energy.

236
00:11:33,762 --> 00:11:35,315
Groves didn't like that.

237
00:11:35,418 --> 00:11:38,525
Groves didn't want anybody to
be writing about these matters.

238
00:11:42,736 --> 00:11:44,186
KIERNAN:
Laurence ached to write more

239
00:11:44,289 --> 00:11:46,567
about atomic science,
atomic power.

240
00:11:48,293 --> 00:11:51,089
But he was frequently shut down
by the government.

241
00:11:51,193 --> 00:11:53,471
But both he and the "Times"

242
00:11:53,574 --> 00:11:55,162
went along with that,

243
00:11:55,266 --> 00:11:57,233
because they needed
to be on the team

244
00:11:57,337 --> 00:12:00,029
to promote victory
in this total war.

245
00:12:00,133 --> 00:12:04,447
[waves lapping]

246
00:12:13,456 --> 00:12:16,356
[guns firing]

247
00:12:16,459 --> 00:12:19,600
World War II was seen

248
00:12:19,704 --> 00:12:22,086
as a live-or-die affair
for the United States.

249
00:12:22,189 --> 00:12:23,156
[explosion pounds]

250
00:12:26,987 --> 00:12:29,300
♪

251
00:12:30,957 --> 00:12:33,269
And given that total commitment,

252
00:12:33,373 --> 00:12:35,962
journalists found themselves
on the team.

253
00:12:36,065 --> 00:12:37,618
[guns firing]

254
00:12:38,999 --> 00:12:43,279
YAGODA: They were eating the
same food, under the same fire,

255
00:12:43,383 --> 00:12:45,178
wearing the same clothing
and uniforms and helmets

256
00:12:45,281 --> 00:12:46,800
as the people
they were covering.

257
00:12:49,147 --> 00:12:51,046
KIERNAN:
They wouldn't do anything

258
00:12:51,149 --> 00:12:53,738
that would jeopardize
America's chances of winning.

259
00:12:55,602 --> 00:12:57,742
That meant that they went along

260
00:12:57,846 --> 00:13:00,538
with a voluntary code
of censorship.

261
00:13:00,641 --> 00:13:02,609
NARRATOR:
The press corps in Europe

262
00:13:02,712 --> 00:13:05,612
includes 30-year-old freelancer
John Hersey.

263
00:13:07,856 --> 00:13:10,513
KAY CALLISON: Hersey was
overseas as a war correspondent.

264
00:13:10,617 --> 00:13:13,240
He worked both
for "Time" and "Life."

265
00:13:13,344 --> 00:13:16,485
[explosion pounds]

266
00:13:16,588 --> 00:13:18,590
[firing]

267
00:13:18,694 --> 00:13:23,595
[explosions pounding,
artillery firing]

268
00:13:23,699 --> 00:13:26,667
Hersey had been covering
the Italian campaign.

269
00:13:26,771 --> 00:13:29,015
[crowd cheering]

270
00:13:29,118 --> 00:13:31,603
He'd seen war ruins.

271
00:13:31,707 --> 00:13:33,916
He had seen
terrible destruction.

272
00:13:34,020 --> 00:13:36,954
He'd covered war
from all different perspectives.

273
00:13:37,057 --> 00:13:39,025
PHILIP GOUREVITCH:
Near the end of the war,

274
00:13:39,128 --> 00:13:40,958
he had already covered
a lot of combat,

275
00:13:41,061 --> 00:13:43,512
and he had published a novel
that had won a Pulitzer Prize.

276
00:13:45,686 --> 00:13:48,828
YAGODA: Hersey, under obviously
difficult conditions,

277
00:13:48,931 --> 00:13:51,175
just did remarkable work.

278
00:13:51,278 --> 00:13:52,866
[gun firing]

279
00:13:52,970 --> 00:13:55,041
NARRATOR:
And in the Pacific theater,

280
00:13:55,144 --> 00:13:57,319
the "Cleveland Call and Post"
editor, Charles Loeb,

281
00:13:57,422 --> 00:13:59,839
embeds with segregated troops

282
00:13:59,942 --> 00:14:01,737
as a pool reporter
and photographer

283
00:14:01,841 --> 00:14:04,809
for the Black press.

284
00:14:04,913 --> 00:14:07,018
FELECIA ROSS: Charles Loeb logs
more than 4,000 miles.

285
00:14:07,122 --> 00:14:09,227
[guns firing]

286
00:14:09,331 --> 00:14:11,471
He goes to Okinawa,

287
00:14:11,574 --> 00:14:13,335
to Guam...

288
00:14:16,683 --> 00:14:17,891
...covering the activities

289
00:14:17,995 --> 00:14:20,583
of the 93rd unit,
the all-Black unit.

290
00:14:23,863 --> 00:14:27,659
The Black community,
they get to see how their son,

291
00:14:27,763 --> 00:14:30,766
or their brother,
or their husband is doing.

292
00:14:32,250 --> 00:14:34,494
It gives them a sense of pride.

293
00:14:34,597 --> 00:14:36,876
LOEB:
Now, one of our functions is

294
00:14:36,979 --> 00:14:39,637
to tell the Black side
of any story,

295
00:14:39,740 --> 00:14:41,984
because the white media
still suffers

296
00:14:42,088 --> 00:14:44,987
from a lack of believability
in the Black community.

297
00:14:47,162 --> 00:14:49,440
NARRATOR: While journalists
like Loeb and Hersey

298
00:14:49,543 --> 00:14:52,719
cover the war
from the front lines, at home,

299
00:14:52,822 --> 00:14:54,755
General Groves makes sure

300
00:14:54,859 --> 00:14:57,241
that no word
about the bomb project leaks,

301
00:14:57,344 --> 00:14:59,519
especially to the press,

302
00:14:59,622 --> 00:15:01,486
or even to Congress.

303
00:15:02,971 --> 00:15:05,249
GORDIN:
Groves values secrecy.

304
00:15:05,352 --> 00:15:07,285
He wants this project
controlled,

305
00:15:07,389 --> 00:15:09,080
and the basic principle
of security

306
00:15:09,184 --> 00:15:10,530
is compartmentalization.

307
00:15:10,633 --> 00:15:11,807
Everybody knows
what they need to know

308
00:15:11,911 --> 00:15:12,946
and not any more than that.

309
00:15:13,050 --> 00:15:16,329
♪ ♪

310
00:15:16,432 --> 00:15:18,055
Groves builds
three big cities...

311
00:15:18,158 --> 00:15:20,436
FILM NARRATOR:
At Oak Ridge, Tennessee,

312
00:15:20,540 --> 00:15:21,921
at Hanford, Washington,

313
00:15:22,024 --> 00:15:23,646
and at Los Alamos,
New Mexico...

314
00:15:23,750 --> 00:15:24,820
GORDIN: ...because there are

315
00:15:24,924 --> 00:15:26,201
three big aspects
of the project.

316
00:15:26,304 --> 00:15:28,789
One is to separate uranium.

317
00:15:31,137 --> 00:15:32,897
You need to do it in secret
and you need to do it

318
00:15:33,001 --> 00:15:34,726
with a lot of electricity.

319
00:15:34,830 --> 00:15:36,211
There aren't
that many remote places

320
00:15:36,314 --> 00:15:37,522
that have a lot of electricity,

321
00:15:37,626 --> 00:15:38,696
but there is one,

322
00:15:38,799 --> 00:15:41,319
which is Tennessee.

323
00:15:42,872 --> 00:15:44,633
Because
the Tennessee Valley Authority

324
00:15:44,736 --> 00:15:46,635
produced a huge amount
of electricity,

325
00:15:46,738 --> 00:15:49,534
and that electricity gets poured
into Oak Ridge.

326
00:15:51,605 --> 00:15:52,641
WELLERSTEIN:
There's no precedent

327
00:15:52,744 --> 00:15:55,506
for something like Oak Ridge.

328
00:15:55,609 --> 00:15:57,473
This is genuinely a secret city.

329
00:15:59,751 --> 00:16:02,064
[talking in background]

330
00:16:03,376 --> 00:16:05,757
WELLERSTEIN: Tens of thousands
of people and their families

331
00:16:05,861 --> 00:16:08,001
are living there.

332
00:16:08,105 --> 00:16:10,762
They have
intramural sports leagues,

333
00:16:10,866 --> 00:16:13,179
baseball and football.

334
00:16:13,282 --> 00:16:15,077
[whistle blows]

335
00:16:18,287 --> 00:16:20,013
The number of people

336
00:16:20,117 --> 00:16:22,222
who, at one point, worked
on the Manhattan Project

337
00:16:22,326 --> 00:16:24,086
is about 500,000 people.

338
00:16:24,190 --> 00:16:26,813
So if you were not a soldier

339
00:16:26,916 --> 00:16:28,470
or too old or too young to work,

340
00:16:28,573 --> 00:16:30,575
there's about
a one-in-100 chance

341
00:16:30,679 --> 00:16:32,129
you worked on
the Manhattan Project

342
00:16:32,232 --> 00:16:33,130
and probably didn't know it.

343
00:16:33,233 --> 00:16:36,926
♪ ♪

344
00:16:37,030 --> 00:16:40,033
ROSS:
There were 7,000 Black workers

345
00:16:40,137 --> 00:16:42,587
at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, plant.

346
00:16:42,691 --> 00:16:44,486
They did maintenance work,

347
00:16:44,589 --> 00:16:45,866
they did construction work.

348
00:16:45,970 --> 00:16:47,385
And for three years,

349
00:16:47,489 --> 00:16:49,353
these workers did not know

350
00:16:49,456 --> 00:16:50,768
that they were at a plant

351
00:16:50,871 --> 00:16:54,392
that was involved
in making the atomic bomb.

352
00:16:54,496 --> 00:16:57,223
[people talking in background]

353
00:16:57,326 --> 00:16:58,707
Then, when plutonium
is discovered

354
00:16:58,810 --> 00:17:01,399
and people realize
that that could power a bomb,

355
00:17:01,503 --> 00:17:03,574
for that, you need
to have a lot of water,

356
00:17:03,677 --> 00:17:05,645
and you need to be isolated.

357
00:17:05,748 --> 00:17:07,474
So they put it
on the Columbia River

358
00:17:07,578 --> 00:17:09,545
in Washington state.

359
00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:13,860
Then you need a place
for your bomb designers,

360
00:17:13,963 --> 00:17:16,345
and bomb design
requires isolation

361
00:17:16,449 --> 00:17:19,417
and a lot of very
temperamental scientists.

362
00:17:19,521 --> 00:17:22,972
NARRATOR: Oppenheimer, who'd
spent time in New Mexico,

363
00:17:23,076 --> 00:17:26,735
selects a remote spot in the
desert outside of Santa Fe,

364
00:17:26,838 --> 00:17:29,703
in a little town
called Los Alamos.

365
00:17:29,807 --> 00:17:32,706
More than 5,000 scientists
and their families

366
00:17:32,810 --> 00:17:35,537
relocate there.

367
00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:37,401
WELLERSTEIN: Groves had a pretty
bad relationship

368
00:17:37,504 --> 00:17:38,643
with most of the scientists.

369
00:17:39,955 --> 00:17:42,302
He regarded them
as prima donnas,

370
00:17:42,406 --> 00:17:44,408
over-educated eggheads.

371
00:17:45,857 --> 00:17:48,791
You didn't want their advice
on almost any other thing.

372
00:17:48,895 --> 00:17:50,793
You didn't want them
to think about the politics.

373
00:17:50,897 --> 00:17:52,554
They were bad at that,
in his mind.

374
00:17:52,657 --> 00:17:54,728
[people talking in background]

375
00:17:54,832 --> 00:17:57,110
GORDIN: Los Alamos is a bit
of a security risk,

376
00:17:57,214 --> 00:17:59,043
because you have lots of
scientists talking to each other

377
00:17:59,147 --> 00:18:02,943
about work that's going on
in other groups on the mesa.

378
00:18:03,047 --> 00:18:04,738
Groves tries to restrict that,

379
00:18:04,842 --> 00:18:07,189
and Oppenheimer says,
"No, we need that.

380
00:18:07,293 --> 00:18:09,088
"It's important for progress.

381
00:18:09,191 --> 00:18:10,986
We have to have
that kind of thing happen."

382
00:18:12,436 --> 00:18:16,267
MITCHELL: It's hard to believe
that secrets didn't come out.

383
00:18:16,371 --> 00:18:17,441
WELLERSTEIN: Groves is afraid

384
00:18:17,544 --> 00:18:18,683
Congress would cancel
the project

385
00:18:18,787 --> 00:18:20,513
if they knew about it,

386
00:18:20,616 --> 00:18:22,791
because they wouldn't understand

387
00:18:22,894 --> 00:18:26,035
that this science fiction thing
was a good plan.

388
00:18:28,037 --> 00:18:31,386
That's why Groves is committed
to keeping so much secrecy.

389
00:18:35,769 --> 00:18:37,564
MITCHELL STEPHENS:
General Groves knew

390
00:18:37,668 --> 00:18:39,911
that this was going to be,
if it happened,

391
00:18:40,015 --> 00:18:41,672
a shocking event,

392
00:18:41,775 --> 00:18:43,984
and people would have
to be prepared

393
00:18:44,088 --> 00:18:46,815
for their entrance
into a new world,

394
00:18:46,918 --> 00:18:48,092
the Atomic Age.

395
00:18:48,196 --> 00:18:50,370
♪ ♪

396
00:18:50,474 --> 00:18:53,615
GORDIN:
Starting in spring of 1945,

397
00:18:53,718 --> 00:18:58,102
Groves knows he has to manage
the public release of it,

398
00:18:58,206 --> 00:18:59,793
because the whole point
of this bomb

399
00:18:59,897 --> 00:19:01,830
is to change the equation.

400
00:19:04,833 --> 00:19:07,249
WELLERSTEIN: What do you tell
people about this?

401
00:19:07,353 --> 00:19:09,872
What should they know?
What shouldn't they know?

402
00:19:09,976 --> 00:19:14,532
This becomes
a major official goal

403
00:19:14,636 --> 00:19:16,948
of the Manhattan Project.

404
00:19:17,052 --> 00:19:19,158
And so they're going to have
to shift gears

405
00:19:19,261 --> 00:19:21,194
from absolute secrecy

406
00:19:21,298 --> 00:19:23,886
to a incredible amount
of publicity.

407
00:19:25,129 --> 00:19:28,201
GORDIN: There's no way to do
the publicity of the bomb

408
00:19:28,305 --> 00:19:30,238
without somebody
who understands some physics.

409
00:19:30,341 --> 00:19:31,963
They need to explain it

410
00:19:32,067 --> 00:19:34,690
in a way that is both accurate
and obfuscating enough

411
00:19:34,794 --> 00:19:36,796
so that you don't reveal
anything you don't want to.

412
00:19:38,038 --> 00:19:41,041
NARRATOR: Groves knows the right
man for the job.

413
00:19:41,145 --> 00:19:43,320
He goes to "The New York Times"

414
00:19:43,423 --> 00:19:46,392
with hopes of recruiting
its science journalist.

415
00:19:47,496 --> 00:19:49,947
KIERNAN: Groves went to
William Laurence's editor,

416
00:19:50,050 --> 00:19:52,536
and, behind closed doors,
asked to use Laurence

417
00:19:52,639 --> 00:19:55,055
for a military project
of some importance.

418
00:19:56,471 --> 00:19:59,163
LAURENCE: I was privileged
to be tapped on the shoulder

419
00:19:59,267 --> 00:20:01,959
by the Army
and given the assignment

420
00:20:02,062 --> 00:20:04,306
that every newspaperman
dreams of.

421
00:20:05,583 --> 00:20:07,413
WELLERSTEIN:
Laurence is plugged in.

422
00:20:07,516 --> 00:20:09,000
He knows about the topic.

423
00:20:09,104 --> 00:20:10,588
He knows
many of these scientists.

424
00:20:10,692 --> 00:20:11,865
And so they agreed

425
00:20:11,969 --> 00:20:14,316
on this relationship
with "The New York Times"

426
00:20:14,420 --> 00:20:17,354
to basically loan them
William Laurence

427
00:20:17,457 --> 00:20:19,735
as a person who would write
press releases.

428
00:20:19,839 --> 00:20:23,187
♪ ♪

429
00:20:23,291 --> 00:20:25,465
STEPHENS: Journalism was still
in the process

430
00:20:25,569 --> 00:20:29,228
of developing its ethical code
during World War II.

431
00:20:31,609 --> 00:20:33,991
For the publisher
of "The New York Times,"

432
00:20:34,094 --> 00:20:36,165
the fact
that one of their reporters

433
00:20:36,269 --> 00:20:38,444
could help with the war effort

434
00:20:38,547 --> 00:20:42,344
seemed to override any
potential conflict of interest

435
00:20:42,448 --> 00:20:44,104
in this dual role.

436
00:20:46,417 --> 00:20:48,247
MITCHELL: Laurence didn't need
any prodding

437
00:20:48,350 --> 00:20:51,146
to picture it
in the most positive way.

438
00:20:52,492 --> 00:20:54,701
KIERNAN: The "Times" got
a really good deal.

439
00:20:54,805 --> 00:20:57,704
Their star science reporter
got sole access

440
00:20:57,808 --> 00:20:59,568
to all sorts of information

441
00:20:59,672 --> 00:21:02,951
that he was able to use
for years afterward.

442
00:21:03,054 --> 00:21:05,643
What he did not get
was a lot of money.

443
00:21:07,024 --> 00:21:09,060
And it remains
as a source of debate

444
00:21:09,164 --> 00:21:12,823
exactly how he was compensated,
but the bottom line is,

445
00:21:12,926 --> 00:21:16,758
he largely worked for
the Manhattan Project for free.

446
00:21:16,861 --> 00:21:19,416
MITCHELL: Laurence's main task
was to write press releases

447
00:21:19,519 --> 00:21:21,521
in the months
before the bomb was dropped.

448
00:21:21,625 --> 00:21:23,765
♪ ♪

449
00:21:23,868 --> 00:21:25,318
They didn't really know

450
00:21:25,422 --> 00:21:26,768
when the bomb
would be ready to be used,

451
00:21:26,871 --> 00:21:29,426
and so the need for all
these background articles

452
00:21:29,529 --> 00:21:30,565
was profound.

453
00:21:30,668 --> 00:21:32,394
[typewriter clacking]

454
00:21:32,498 --> 00:21:34,638
KIERNAN: Groves gave Laurence
great license

455
00:21:34,741 --> 00:21:38,124
to go virtually anywhere
he wanted to.

456
00:21:38,227 --> 00:21:41,265
Doors were unlocked for him

457
00:21:41,369 --> 00:21:44,303
that weren't unlocked
for other reporters.

458
00:21:44,406 --> 00:21:50,239
♪ ♪

459
00:21:50,343 --> 00:21:52,587
Because they knew
that he would produce

460
00:21:52,690 --> 00:21:55,175
the story that they wanted.

461
00:22:05,807 --> 00:22:09,293
GORDIN: He describes Hanford
as "Atomland-on-Mars."

462
00:22:09,397 --> 00:22:12,020
It's so alien,
it's not even on this planet,

463
00:22:12,123 --> 00:22:14,885
and that's good--
that's progress.

464
00:22:16,887 --> 00:22:19,061
WELLERSTEIN:
Laurence was effusive,

465
00:22:19,165 --> 00:22:21,340
perhaps more effusive
than they wanted him to be.

466
00:22:21,443 --> 00:22:25,689
[typewriter clacking]

467
00:22:25,792 --> 00:22:29,106
These stories, they're wild
and woolly and enthusiastic,

468
00:22:29,209 --> 00:22:30,901
and that is not
what these Army lawyers

469
00:22:31,004 --> 00:22:32,316
who are reviewing them
want to see.

470
00:22:32,420 --> 00:22:34,318
♪ ♪

471
00:22:34,422 --> 00:22:36,078
They tone them
way, way, way down.

472
00:22:41,083 --> 00:22:44,224
But for him, this is
the story of the century.

473
00:22:44,328 --> 00:22:47,055
He is the one built
to write this story.

474
00:22:47,158 --> 00:22:49,022
♪ ♪

475
00:22:54,511 --> 00:22:58,756
♪

476
00:23:01,103 --> 00:23:03,934
NARRATOR:
In the spring of 1945,

477
00:23:04,037 --> 00:23:07,109
the U.S. suffers
a staggering loss:

478
00:23:07,213 --> 00:23:10,389
the sudden death
of its commander-in-chief,

479
00:23:10,492 --> 00:23:13,012
President Roosevelt.

480
00:23:13,115 --> 00:23:15,704
His successor is
the little-known vice president,

481
00:23:15,808 --> 00:23:18,362
Harry S. Truman.

482
00:23:18,466 --> 00:23:19,846
GORDIN: Truman was succeeding

483
00:23:19,950 --> 00:23:22,573
this historically
transformative president,

484
00:23:22,677 --> 00:23:24,230
Franklin Roosevelt,

485
00:23:24,333 --> 00:23:26,128
who had reshaped the country
in so many ways.

486
00:23:29,062 --> 00:23:31,617
And Truman was basically
a machine politician

487
00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:33,032
from Kansas City, Missouri,

488
00:23:33,135 --> 00:23:35,103
whose only foreign policy
experience

489
00:23:35,206 --> 00:23:38,209
was being a G.I. in World War I.

490
00:23:38,313 --> 00:23:39,866
NARRATOR:
As vice president,

491
00:23:39,970 --> 00:23:41,627
Truman had not even been told

492
00:23:41,730 --> 00:23:44,388
of the existence
of the Manhattan Project.

493
00:23:44,492 --> 00:23:46,217
He first learns of it

494
00:23:46,321 --> 00:23:49,048
two weeks
after taking his new oath.

495
00:23:49,151 --> 00:23:52,914
♪ ♪

496
00:23:53,017 --> 00:23:56,849
In Europe,
the Allies from the West

497
00:23:56,952 --> 00:23:58,506
and Soviets from the East

498
00:23:58,609 --> 00:24:00,922
keep advancing
on the German capital.

499
00:24:02,406 --> 00:24:05,961
When the Soviets take Berlin,
the Nazis surrender.

500
00:24:06,065 --> 00:24:08,964
[soldiers cheering]

501
00:24:09,068 --> 00:24:10,241
Back home,

502
00:24:10,345 --> 00:24:12,589
Americans are jubilant.

503
00:24:12,692 --> 00:24:14,867
[crowd cheering]

504
00:24:14,970 --> 00:24:18,457
But Truman warns them
not to celebrate too soon...

505
00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:19,837
TRUMAN:
This is a solemn

506
00:24:19,941 --> 00:24:21,943
but glorious hour.

507
00:24:22,046 --> 00:24:24,393
♪ ♪

508
00:24:24,497 --> 00:24:26,637
NARRATOR: ...as U.S. forces
fight their way

509
00:24:26,741 --> 00:24:30,123
from island to island
toward Japan.

510
00:24:30,227 --> 00:24:31,849
TRUMAN:
Much remains to be done.

511
00:24:31,953 --> 00:24:34,438
The victory won in the West

512
00:24:34,542 --> 00:24:37,786
must now be won in the East.

513
00:24:37,890 --> 00:24:41,341
NARRATOR:
With the surrender of Germany,

514
00:24:41,445 --> 00:24:43,965
suddenly, Japan becomes
a potential target

515
00:24:44,068 --> 00:24:46,588
for the atomic bomb.

516
00:24:46,692 --> 00:24:47,796
PAUL ALKEBULAN:
Germans quit,

517
00:24:47,900 --> 00:24:49,488
but that doesn't mean
the war is over.

518
00:24:49,591 --> 00:24:51,628
[explosion pounds]

519
00:24:51,731 --> 00:24:54,320
♪ ♪

520
00:24:54,423 --> 00:24:57,047
By the time the Marine Corps
had got to Iwo Jima,

521
00:24:57,150 --> 00:24:58,324
a lot of blood had been spilled.

522
00:24:58,427 --> 00:25:00,671
STEPHENS:
We were going

523
00:25:00,775 --> 00:25:02,880
one island at a time,

524
00:25:02,984 --> 00:25:05,193
at considerable cost in lives.

525
00:25:05,296 --> 00:25:07,540
And there was talk

526
00:25:07,644 --> 00:25:09,128
Japan was not
going to surrender,

527
00:25:09,231 --> 00:25:12,649
that we would have
to invade Japan itself.

528
00:25:12,752 --> 00:25:14,616
GORDIN:
I think it's hard

529
00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:16,515
for people today to project
back...

530
00:25:16,618 --> 00:25:18,482
[explosions pound]

531
00:25:18,586 --> 00:25:20,311
...what it is like
after four years

532
00:25:20,415 --> 00:25:23,970
of bone-crushing total war,

533
00:25:24,074 --> 00:25:26,110
what people are used to
in terms of violence.

534
00:25:30,459 --> 00:25:32,703
The violence they read about,
the violence they hear about.

535
00:25:34,981 --> 00:25:38,329
You have a very battle-weary
home population.

536
00:25:38,433 --> 00:25:43,162
[film music playing]

537
00:25:44,439 --> 00:25:46,752
FILM NARRATOR: We await eagerly
and passionately

538
00:25:46,855 --> 00:25:49,858
the sacred honor
of dying to halt you.

539
00:25:49,962 --> 00:25:52,274
We will stop
at nothing to crush you.

540
00:25:52,378 --> 00:25:56,037
GOUREVITCH: The Japanese were
represented in American media

541
00:25:56,140 --> 00:25:59,178
as a savage horde.
[guns fire]

542
00:26:00,179 --> 00:26:01,767
They committed
plenty of atrocities.

543
00:26:01,870 --> 00:26:03,562
There's no question about that.

544
00:26:03,665 --> 00:26:05,356
But it was almost
cartoonish, racist,

545
00:26:05,460 --> 00:26:07,842
an often dehumanizing enemy.

546
00:26:07,945 --> 00:26:09,119
And a terrifying one.

547
00:26:10,603 --> 00:26:11,915
ALKEBULAN:
People were very nervous

548
00:26:12,018 --> 00:26:13,019
about the invasion of Japan.

549
00:26:13,123 --> 00:26:15,021
This was going to be

550
00:26:15,125 --> 00:26:17,092
a long and bitter struggle.

551
00:26:17,196 --> 00:26:18,715
When is it going to end?

552
00:26:18,818 --> 00:26:20,337
So that was the mood
of the country, you know?

553
00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:23,409
Glad that victory was in sight,

554
00:26:23,512 --> 00:26:24,997
but what were you
going to have to do

555
00:26:25,100 --> 00:26:26,585
to get your hands
on that victory?

556
00:26:32,211 --> 00:26:33,764
NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: In the
closing stages of World War II,

557
00:26:33,868 --> 00:26:35,594
a historic conference was called

558
00:26:35,697 --> 00:26:38,079
between the leaders of the Big
Three nations of the allies.

559
00:26:38,182 --> 00:26:40,288
Harry S. Truman arrived

560
00:26:40,391 --> 00:26:42,393
aboard the cruiser Augusta
as the replacement

561
00:26:42,497 --> 00:26:44,533
for the late
Franklin D. Roosevelt.

562
00:26:44,637 --> 00:26:46,743
NARRATOR: Two months after
the Nazis surrender,

563
00:26:46,846 --> 00:26:49,435
President Truman sails
to Potsdam, Germany,

564
00:26:49,538 --> 00:26:52,576
to meet with his allies and
divide up the spoils of Europe

565
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:56,097
between the communist East
and the capitalist West.

566
00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:59,203
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin

567
00:26:59,307 --> 00:27:03,794
wants to gain full control
of all Eastern Europe.

568
00:27:03,898 --> 00:27:07,246
Truman wants to avoid
a similar outcome in Asia.

569
00:27:07,349 --> 00:27:11,768
GORDIN: Truman was in a very
difficult place in 1945.

570
00:27:11,871 --> 00:27:15,150
He's in charge of negotiating
with Joseph Stalin,

571
00:27:15,254 --> 00:27:17,049
who has been controlling
the Soviet Union

572
00:27:17,152 --> 00:27:18,326
for as, almost as long

573
00:27:18,429 --> 00:27:20,500
as Truman has been aware
of the Soviet Union.

574
00:27:22,537 --> 00:27:26,092
Truman doesn't quite know
where he is.

575
00:27:26,196 --> 00:27:27,715
But he knows one thing,

576
00:27:27,818 --> 00:27:29,164
which is, he's a person
who makes decisions.

577
00:27:32,789 --> 00:27:35,654
NARRATOR:
Publicly, Truman asks Stalin

578
00:27:35,757 --> 00:27:37,517
to join the invasion of Japan.

579
00:27:37,621 --> 00:27:42,039
Privately, he hopes the war ends
before the Soviets invade.

580
00:27:42,143 --> 00:27:44,214
MITCHELL:
The Russians were going

581
00:27:44,317 --> 00:27:46,492
to sweep in and decimate
the Japanese troops,

582
00:27:46,595 --> 00:27:47,631
and Truman knew that.

583
00:27:48,977 --> 00:27:50,220
He wanted to end the war

584
00:27:50,323 --> 00:27:53,602
before the Russians got
into the war in a big way.

585
00:27:53,706 --> 00:27:55,432
[camera shutters clicking]

586
00:27:57,503 --> 00:27:59,401
NARRATOR:
Meanwhile, the first test

587
00:27:59,505 --> 00:28:01,818
of America's
$2 billion superweapon

588
00:28:01,921 --> 00:28:04,717
is unfolding
in the New Mexico desert.

589
00:28:06,719 --> 00:28:09,170
KIERNAN:
The Trinity nuclear test

590
00:28:09,273 --> 00:28:12,138
was to take place
in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

591
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:16,660
NARRATOR:
Truman needs the results quickly

592
00:28:16,764 --> 00:28:19,145
to gain leverage over Stalin--

593
00:28:19,249 --> 00:28:21,872
if the science works.

594
00:28:21,976 --> 00:28:23,771
WELLERSTEIN:
This was a very tense period.

595
00:28:23,874 --> 00:28:27,671
They did not know whether
this thing was going to work.

596
00:28:29,224 --> 00:28:31,537
ROBERT WILSON: Every time we
tested some component

597
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:33,746
that had to do with the test,
it would fail.

598
00:28:35,748 --> 00:28:37,577
ROBERT KROHN:
There had been some speculation

599
00:28:37,681 --> 00:28:40,270
that it might be possible
to explode the atmosphere,

600
00:28:40,373 --> 00:28:43,687
in which case,
the world disappears.

601
00:28:46,690 --> 00:28:48,968
GORDIN: Groves is worried
about what happens

602
00:28:49,072 --> 00:28:50,073
if there's publicity.

603
00:28:50,176 --> 00:28:53,179
He needs to have
some kind of account.

604
00:28:53,283 --> 00:28:54,594
This is where
Laurence is useful.

605
00:28:56,182 --> 00:28:58,426
KIERNAN: So, Laurence wrote a
series of press releases

606
00:28:58,529 --> 00:29:00,980
of increasing level of mistruth.

607
00:29:01,084 --> 00:29:04,501
♪ ♪

608
00:29:04,604 --> 00:29:06,675
WELLERSTEIN:
Release A was,

609
00:29:06,779 --> 00:29:08,194
"An ammunition dump exploded.

610
00:29:08,298 --> 00:29:10,576
"There were no problems,
no casualties.

611
00:29:10,679 --> 00:29:11,232
Move on."

612
00:29:11,335 --> 00:29:12,647
And if you go down

613
00:29:12,751 --> 00:29:14,511
B, C, D,

614
00:29:14,614 --> 00:29:16,996
increasingly,
things had gone wrong.

615
00:29:17,100 --> 00:29:19,240
And some of them had big spaces

616
00:29:19,343 --> 00:29:21,380
for, "Here's a list of people
who are now dead,

617
00:29:21,483 --> 00:29:22,553
"because this was actually

618
00:29:22,657 --> 00:29:23,762
a scientific experiment
gone awry."

619
00:29:23,865 --> 00:29:29,077
[motor running]

620
00:29:29,181 --> 00:29:30,561
♪ ♪

621
00:29:37,051 --> 00:29:41,089
♪

622
00:29:46,094 --> 00:29:50,029
[explosion roaring]

623
00:29:55,552 --> 00:29:57,519
NARRATOR:
The test releases energy

624
00:29:57,623 --> 00:29:59,349
more than four times the power

625
00:29:59,452 --> 00:30:01,523
of what had been predicted.

626
00:30:01,627 --> 00:30:04,009
[rumbling continues]

627
00:30:04,112 --> 00:30:06,632
SUSAN EVANS:
It felt like an earthquake.

628
00:30:06,735 --> 00:30:10,256
He got out of bed and he says,
"I want you to come look.

629
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:13,777
The sun's rising
in the wrong direction."

630
00:30:13,881 --> 00:30:16,573
ELIZABETH INGRAM:
We were headed up to Albuquerque

631
00:30:16,676 --> 00:30:19,541
when we saw this great, big
flash of light.

632
00:30:19,645 --> 00:30:23,269
And my sister, she said,
"What happened?"

633
00:30:23,373 --> 00:30:24,995
REPORTER: Was there anything odd
about your sister

634
00:30:25,099 --> 00:30:26,169
asking about the light?

635
00:30:26,272 --> 00:30:28,102
INGRAM:
Yes, because she was blind.

636
00:30:30,656 --> 00:30:33,762
MITCHELL: Some of these local
people from dozens of miles away

637
00:30:33,866 --> 00:30:35,281
called their newspapers
and said,

638
00:30:35,385 --> 00:30:36,489
"What, what happened?"

639
00:30:36,593 --> 00:30:38,353
KIERNAN:
The local papers

640
00:30:38,457 --> 00:30:40,010
asked the press office,

641
00:30:40,114 --> 00:30:41,874
"What was going on last night?"

642
00:30:41,978 --> 00:30:43,565
And they provided them

643
00:30:43,669 --> 00:30:47,811
with Laurence's
lowest-level story.

644
00:30:51,401 --> 00:30:55,543
♪

645
00:31:01,790 --> 00:31:04,241
And the local media
just accepted that,

646
00:31:04,345 --> 00:31:05,864
and that's what they wrote.

647
00:31:09,177 --> 00:31:11,455
♪

648
00:31:22,708 --> 00:31:24,503
Laurence does exactly
what Groves wants.

649
00:31:24,606 --> 00:31:26,919
And he's perfectly happy

650
00:31:27,023 --> 00:31:30,198
to work
within those constraints.

651
00:31:30,302 --> 00:31:33,339
KIERNAN:
Laurence's first act of loyalty

652
00:31:33,443 --> 00:31:35,755
was an act of lying,

653
00:31:35,859 --> 00:31:37,274
an act of mistruth,

654
00:31:37,378 --> 00:31:39,690
which is a cardinal sin
for a journalist.

655
00:31:42,452 --> 00:31:46,180
[sheep bleating]

656
00:31:46,283 --> 00:31:47,767
MITCHELL:
It was known from the beginning

657
00:31:47,871 --> 00:31:51,012
that atomic energy
posed risks of radiation.

658
00:31:51,116 --> 00:31:53,187
[shears buzzing, sheep bleating]

659
00:31:53,290 --> 00:31:56,052
Before the Trinity test,
there was much discussion about

660
00:31:56,155 --> 00:31:58,951
whether people who live nearby
should be notified.

661
00:32:01,402 --> 00:32:03,991
NARRATOR: To monitor
the biochemical dangers

662
00:32:04,094 --> 00:32:05,613
of plutonium and uranium,

663
00:32:05,716 --> 00:32:08,719
Groves had hired
Dr. Stafford Warren,

664
00:32:08,823 --> 00:32:11,170
a pioneer in the new field
of radiology,

665
00:32:11,274 --> 00:32:14,656
to be the project's
chief medical officer.

666
00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:17,452
BRODIE: Stafford Warren
is little-known,

667
00:32:17,556 --> 00:32:21,456
but he was a major
medical figure

668
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:23,148
for the Manhattan Project.

669
00:32:24,873 --> 00:32:26,772
As Oak Ridge and Hanford

670
00:32:26,875 --> 00:32:29,809
were picking up uranium
and plutonium production,

671
00:32:29,913 --> 00:32:32,640
they were very concerned,

672
00:32:32,743 --> 00:32:34,538
but-- this sounds so cynical--

673
00:32:34,642 --> 00:32:37,300
their concern
about the radiation poisoning

674
00:32:37,403 --> 00:32:41,166
was to keep the secret
of the Manhattan Project.

675
00:32:41,269 --> 00:32:45,066
If all of a sudden,
this strange sickness

676
00:32:45,170 --> 00:32:48,725
began to emerge
from these secret sites,

677
00:32:48,828 --> 00:32:51,762
some reporter would reveal
what was going on.

678
00:32:51,866 --> 00:32:54,524
[Geiger counter clicking]

679
00:32:55,663 --> 00:32:58,148
Warren was good at secrets.

680
00:32:58,252 --> 00:32:59,874
Groves appreciated that.

681
00:32:59,978 --> 00:33:03,947
So, the two worked pretty well
together.

682
00:33:04,051 --> 00:33:06,122
♪ ♪

683
00:33:06,225 --> 00:33:09,815
NARRATOR: Prior to the Trinity
test, Warren's team outlines

684
00:33:09,918 --> 00:33:13,957
the dangers of radiation
in a memo to Groves.

685
00:33:14,061 --> 00:33:17,064
BRODIE: They wrote
some alarming messages

686
00:33:17,167 --> 00:33:18,686
that Groves would have seen.

687
00:33:23,380 --> 00:33:26,280
That memo was basically ignored.

688
00:33:27,315 --> 00:33:28,868
NARRATOR:
A few days later,

689
00:33:28,972 --> 00:33:32,769
Warren sends a second memo,
more to Groves' liking.

690
00:33:40,052 --> 00:33:42,227
BRODIE:
In the following memo,

691
00:33:42,330 --> 00:33:46,231
Warren minimized the danger
of radiation on the ground.

692
00:33:46,334 --> 00:33:49,234
He said,
"If American combat troops

693
00:33:49,337 --> 00:33:51,443
"have to be sent into Japan,

694
00:33:51,546 --> 00:33:54,584
they're not going to be
in danger from radiation."

695
00:33:55,654 --> 00:33:59,037
That's certainly
what Groves wanted to hear.

696
00:33:59,140 --> 00:34:03,110
Somehow, Warren was able to...

697
00:34:03,213 --> 00:34:05,146
[breathes]

698
00:34:05,250 --> 00:34:07,562
...persuade himself, justify,

699
00:34:07,666 --> 00:34:11,014
forget, deny, uh, repress

700
00:34:11,118 --> 00:34:15,398
his own fears
about the atomic bomb.

701
00:34:15,501 --> 00:34:18,056
[engine starting]

702
00:34:21,714 --> 00:34:23,854
MITCHELL:
After Trinity, the scientists

703
00:34:23,958 --> 00:34:26,857
went out and tracked
the radioactive cloud.

704
00:34:30,309 --> 00:34:33,450
They were shocked to find
it was spreading for many miles

705
00:34:33,554 --> 00:34:36,419
and at a higher level
than they had anticipated.

706
00:34:36,522 --> 00:34:38,973
[cows lowing]

707
00:34:39,077 --> 00:34:41,941
They soon found farm animals,
cattle, with hair burned off.

708
00:34:43,322 --> 00:34:45,600
HOLM BURSON: An old man, Mac
Smith, had a black cat,

709
00:34:45,704 --> 00:34:47,775
just as black
as the ace of spades.

710
00:34:47,878 --> 00:34:49,742
That thing had white spots
all over it.

711
00:34:49,846 --> 00:34:51,054
BRODIE:
By and large,

712
00:34:51,158 --> 00:34:56,059
this huge event
escaped public commentary.

713
00:34:56,163 --> 00:34:58,199
And I think
it speaks to the era.

714
00:34:58,303 --> 00:34:59,545
"This is wartime.

715
00:34:59,649 --> 00:35:01,892
Don't, don't talk about things."

716
00:35:03,998 --> 00:35:06,207
KIERNAN: So, Groves knew
that the radiation existed

717
00:35:06,311 --> 00:35:08,313
and that it was a problem.

718
00:35:08,416 --> 00:35:10,004
But it was not part
of the narrative

719
00:35:10,108 --> 00:35:13,490
that he wanted
to have out there.

720
00:35:13,594 --> 00:35:15,251
WELLERSTEIN:
The radiation is the part

721
00:35:15,354 --> 00:35:17,805
that people are generally
going to grasp onto

722
00:35:17,908 --> 00:35:20,325
as the special nature
of the weapon.

723
00:35:20,428 --> 00:35:23,224
And it's also the one that's
associated with the most horror.

724
00:35:25,192 --> 00:35:28,091
Because of the unique
health effects of radiation,

725
00:35:28,195 --> 00:35:32,130
this puts it in a category
more like chemical weapons.

726
00:35:32,233 --> 00:35:35,650
BRODIE: Groves did not want
any association

727
00:35:35,754 --> 00:35:37,652
with chemical,
biological warfare.

728
00:35:37,756 --> 00:35:41,242
[engine roaring]

729
00:35:41,346 --> 00:35:42,485
[man yelling indistinctly]

730
00:35:42,588 --> 00:35:46,109
The Germans used poison gas
in World War I.

731
00:35:46,213 --> 00:35:47,559
[cannon fires]

732
00:35:47,662 --> 00:35:48,939
[explosion pounds]

733
00:35:49,043 --> 00:35:52,184
Eventually, the British did, too.

734
00:35:52,288 --> 00:35:54,117
[explosion pounds]

735
00:36:06,785 --> 00:36:09,132
BRODIE:
The world was revolted

736
00:36:09,236 --> 00:36:11,030
by that kind of warfare.

737
00:36:11,134 --> 00:36:14,896
It somehow didn't fit
into what was moral in a war.

738
00:36:17,347 --> 00:36:19,832
GORDIN:
There's a lot of concern

739
00:36:19,936 --> 00:36:23,698
about using it in World War II.

740
00:36:23,802 --> 00:36:26,114
Hitler doesn't, the British
don't, the Soviets don't,

741
00:36:26,218 --> 00:36:27,288
the Americans don't,
the French don't.

742
00:36:29,635 --> 00:36:32,293
BRODIE: So, Groves did not want
the atomic bomb

743
00:36:32,397 --> 00:36:34,571
to be seen in that light.

744
00:36:37,643 --> 00:36:40,405
KIERNAN: Groves could see
what was coming down the road.

745
00:36:40,508 --> 00:36:44,340
They would have a bomb
that they could use in war.

746
00:36:44,443 --> 00:36:47,860
NARRATOR: Groves immediately
reports to his superiors

747
00:36:47,964 --> 00:36:52,210
that the test surpasses
all expectations.

748
00:36:54,073 --> 00:36:57,491
♪

749
00:36:59,769 --> 00:37:00,942
WELLERSTEIN:
This news went

750
00:37:01,046 --> 00:37:04,670
to President Truman
at the Potsdam Conference.

751
00:37:04,774 --> 00:37:07,673
He suddenly felt like he was
in a place of great security.

752
00:37:07,777 --> 00:37:10,607
This influenced
how he thought about Japan

753
00:37:10,711 --> 00:37:12,609
and the end of the war.

754
00:37:12,713 --> 00:37:14,232
He made the Potsdam Declaration,

755
00:37:14,335 --> 00:37:17,476
a harsher thing than
he might have otherwise done.

756
00:37:20,445 --> 00:37:22,792
And it influenced how he thought
about the Soviet Union,

757
00:37:22,895 --> 00:37:26,658
how he was going to deal
with them in the postwar.

758
00:37:29,143 --> 00:37:32,353
GORDIN: The Americans don't want
a divided government.

759
00:37:32,457 --> 00:37:33,906
It's an American weapon.

760
00:37:34,010 --> 00:37:35,218
It's not a Soviet weapon.

761
00:37:35,322 --> 00:37:38,083
And that means
the postwar settlement in Japan

762
00:37:38,186 --> 00:37:40,672
will look like
something rather different

763
00:37:40,775 --> 00:37:42,570
than Berlin and Vienna,
which are carved up

764
00:37:42,674 --> 00:37:46,160
into Soviet, British, French,
and American sectors.

765
00:37:47,782 --> 00:37:50,268
BRODIE:
As soon as the Trinity test

766
00:37:50,371 --> 00:37:51,924
was a success,

767
00:37:52,028 --> 00:37:53,029
there were orders

768
00:37:53,132 --> 00:37:55,618
to bring the bomb to Tinian.

769
00:37:57,136 --> 00:38:00,416
NARRATOR: 1,500 miles off
the coast of Japan,

770
00:38:00,519 --> 00:38:04,592
final steps are taken
to ready and activate the bomb.

771
00:38:04,696 --> 00:38:07,181
KIERNAN: Laurence is on the
island of Tinian,

772
00:38:07,285 --> 00:38:10,805
hoping with all his heart
to be on that plane,

773
00:38:10,909 --> 00:38:12,462
to be on that mission.

774
00:38:13,774 --> 00:38:16,811
He wanted to be there
to see the use of the bomb,

775
00:38:16,915 --> 00:38:20,194
but he was not allowed to go.

776
00:38:20,298 --> 00:38:22,334
He was almost in tears that
he was not allowed to be on.

777
00:38:22,438 --> 00:38:25,924
But he had watched it take off,

778
00:38:26,027 --> 00:38:28,167
and he was waiting
for it to come back.

779
00:38:28,271 --> 00:38:33,311
♪ ♪

780
00:38:46,703 --> 00:38:51,674
♪

781
00:38:55,988 --> 00:38:57,714
MITCHELL:
There was a photographer

782
00:38:57,818 --> 00:38:59,647
for Hiroshima's main newspaper

783
00:38:59,751 --> 00:39:01,615
named Matsushige,

784
00:39:01,718 --> 00:39:05,204
who was not far
from where the bomb went off.

785
00:39:06,378 --> 00:39:08,898
MATSUSHIGE
[speaking Japanese]:

786
00:39:17,665 --> 00:39:21,048
MITCHELL: He was so sickened
by what he saw

787
00:39:21,151 --> 00:39:23,050
that he could only
push the shutter

788
00:39:23,153 --> 00:39:25,259
about half a dozen times.

789
00:39:26,812 --> 00:39:27,848
[shutter clicks]

790
00:39:35,787 --> 00:39:36,822
[shutter clicks]

791
00:39:43,795 --> 00:39:44,830
[shutter clicks]

792
00:39:49,283 --> 00:39:51,147
These are the only photos
that survived

793
00:39:51,250 --> 00:39:53,529
of that day in Hiroshima,

794
00:39:53,632 --> 00:39:56,324
and there was only
a handful of them.

795
00:39:56,428 --> 00:39:57,809
[shutter clicks]

796
00:39:57,912 --> 00:40:00,743
His photos were seized
when the Americans arrived.

797
00:40:03,918 --> 00:40:05,610
In 1945,

798
00:40:05,713 --> 00:40:08,682
Americans were only seeing
the mushroom cloud,

799
00:40:08,785 --> 00:40:10,891
destroyed buildings,

800
00:40:10,994 --> 00:40:13,376
and not the human effects
at all.

801
00:40:16,862 --> 00:40:20,452
NARRATOR: On August 6, the day
of the Hiroshima blast,

802
00:40:20,556 --> 00:40:22,972
President Truman
is returning by ship

803
00:40:23,075 --> 00:40:25,250
from the Potsdam Conference.

804
00:40:25,353 --> 00:40:28,736
His public announcement
is filmed on board.

805
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:31,636
We are now prepared to destroy,

806
00:40:31,739 --> 00:40:34,052
more rapidly and completely,

807
00:40:34,155 --> 00:40:39,091
every productive enterprise
the Japanese have in any city.

808
00:40:39,195 --> 00:40:40,817
GORDIN:
The release of the information

809
00:40:40,921 --> 00:40:42,440
is not neutral.

810
00:40:42,543 --> 00:40:45,166
The announcement
is hyped up in order

811
00:40:45,270 --> 00:40:46,651
to induce the Japanese
government to surrender,

812
00:40:46,754 --> 00:40:49,964
perhaps before the Soviets
enter the war.

813
00:40:50,068 --> 00:40:52,898
We have spent
more than $2 billion

814
00:40:53,002 --> 00:40:56,350
on the greatest scientific
gamble in history,

815
00:40:56,454 --> 00:40:58,386
and we have won.

816
00:40:58,490 --> 00:41:00,699
MITCHELL: The goal was
to briefly announce

817
00:41:00,803 --> 00:41:02,114
the use of the bomb,

818
00:41:02,218 --> 00:41:03,840
and then describe the existence
of the Manhattan Project,

819
00:41:03,944 --> 00:41:07,465
which would also be a bombshell
for the American public.

820
00:41:07,568 --> 00:41:09,328
What has been done

821
00:41:09,432 --> 00:41:14,368
is the greatest achievement
of organized science in history.

822
00:41:14,472 --> 00:41:16,025
WELLERSTEIN:
It was really core

823
00:41:16,128 --> 00:41:18,510
that people suddenly know
what had happened,

824
00:41:18,614 --> 00:41:20,478
because that was
the sort of propaganda effect.

825
00:41:20,581 --> 00:41:22,790
That was going to be
all the psychological effect.

826
00:41:22,894 --> 00:41:24,102
[men clamoring]

827
00:41:24,205 --> 00:41:25,621
This was this moment

828
00:41:25,724 --> 00:41:26,760
in which they were going to go

829
00:41:26,863 --> 00:41:29,832
from total secrecy
to partial openness.

830
00:41:30,902 --> 00:41:33,318
NARRATOR: William Laurence's
monthslong work

831
00:41:33,421 --> 00:41:36,770
suddenly hits front pages
nationwide

832
00:41:36,873 --> 00:41:39,911
and would dominate the news
for weeks to come.

833
00:41:40,014 --> 00:41:43,017
[typewriter clacking]

834
00:41:47,263 --> 00:41:50,369
MITCHELL: Laurence had written
14 press releases

835
00:41:50,473 --> 00:41:54,373
that were ready for release
in a kind of a publicity blitz.

836
00:41:57,066 --> 00:41:59,689
KIERNAN: Newspapers hungered
for these press releases,

837
00:41:59,793 --> 00:42:03,900
and they disseminated them
mostly verbatim.

838
00:42:04,004 --> 00:42:05,799
WELLERSTEIN:
They're military press releases

839
00:42:05,902 --> 00:42:07,939
that are being sort of
laundered through the press

840
00:42:08,042 --> 00:42:11,011
to make it look like it's
organic independent reporting.

841
00:42:11,114 --> 00:42:15,636
[typewriter clacking]

842
00:42:15,740 --> 00:42:17,500
STEPHENS: Part of the PR effort

843
00:42:17,604 --> 00:42:19,675
was not just to explain it
to people,

844
00:42:19,778 --> 00:42:22,470
but to control
what people learned.

845
00:42:23,644 --> 00:42:25,025
So the philosophy was,

846
00:42:25,128 --> 00:42:28,546
"Let's give them everything
we think is safe and useful.

847
00:42:30,030 --> 00:42:32,757
"And maybe that will
satisfy their appetites

848
00:42:32,860 --> 00:42:35,898
and keep them from digging into
places we don't want them to."

849
00:42:38,383 --> 00:42:40,074
KIERNAN: The editors loved it--
they wanted this information,

850
00:42:40,178 --> 00:42:41,248
they wanted to get it out,

851
00:42:41,351 --> 00:42:42,560
they knew the public wanted it,

852
00:42:42,663 --> 00:42:44,769
and so they did not raise
any issues about,

853
00:42:44,872 --> 00:42:46,218
"Well, this is government
propaganda.

854
00:42:46,322 --> 00:42:48,807
Where's the other side
of the story?"

855
00:42:50,637 --> 00:42:52,121
MATTHEW DELMONT: When you look
at white newspapers

856
00:42:52,224 --> 00:42:53,605
after the bomb was dropped,

857
00:42:53,709 --> 00:42:55,089
they're basically just taking

858
00:42:55,193 --> 00:42:56,194
what the War Department
publishes

859
00:42:56,297 --> 00:42:57,402
and publishing that.

860
00:42:57,505 --> 00:42:59,438
So there's very little variety
or nuance.

861
00:43:00,543 --> 00:43:01,751
NARRATOR: The Black press

862
00:43:01,855 --> 00:43:03,442
publishes
the official narrative.

863
00:43:03,546 --> 00:43:06,756
But it also discovers stories
overlooked

864
00:43:06,860 --> 00:43:08,586
by the mainstream press.

865
00:43:11,105 --> 00:43:12,279
DELMONT: And there's a sense
of pride

866
00:43:12,382 --> 00:43:13,591
that shows up in those articles

867
00:43:13,694 --> 00:43:16,352
about the intelligence
of these Black scientists.

868
00:43:17,802 --> 00:43:19,355
ALKEBULAN:
When the bomb was first dropped,

869
00:43:19,458 --> 00:43:21,253
you're going to have stories
about Black scientists

870
00:43:21,357 --> 00:43:22,876
participating in the research
on the bomb

871
00:43:22,979 --> 00:43:24,878
and participating in the making
of the bomb.

872
00:43:26,396 --> 00:43:27,881
DELMONT: This is a moment
where Black Americans

873
00:43:27,984 --> 00:43:29,883
are striving
to break new boundaries

874
00:43:29,986 --> 00:43:31,712
and get entry
into different professions.

875
00:43:33,196 --> 00:43:35,302
But what does it mean
to integrate a profession

876
00:43:35,405 --> 00:43:37,787
that's about causing devastation
at this scale?

877
00:43:37,891 --> 00:43:40,963
NARRATOR: Shortly after
the Hiroshima strike,

878
00:43:41,066 --> 00:43:43,724
Black leaders
raise their voices.

879
00:43:43,828 --> 00:43:45,726
ALKEBULAN: They're going to view
the dropping of the bomb

880
00:43:45,830 --> 00:43:47,486
through a racial lens.

881
00:43:47,590 --> 00:43:49,109
And there's no reason
why they wouldn't.

882
00:43:49,212 --> 00:43:50,869
If something bad
was going to happen,

883
00:43:50,973 --> 00:43:52,837
it's going to happen to us
first, right?

884
00:43:52,940 --> 00:43:54,839
If there's a bomb
and it's going to be used,

885
00:43:54,942 --> 00:43:57,151
it's going to be used
on a person of color first.

886
00:43:59,222 --> 00:44:00,810
ROSS: The Japanese
were people of color,

887
00:44:00,914 --> 00:44:02,087
just like they are.

888
00:44:03,502 --> 00:44:06,782
And so there's an understandable
skepticism.

889
00:44:06,885 --> 00:44:09,716
♪ ♪

890
00:44:09,819 --> 00:44:11,649
DELMONT: One of the first
to comment on the bomb

891
00:44:11,752 --> 00:44:15,514
was Langston Hughes,
the great Black poet and writer.

892
00:44:15,618 --> 00:44:17,620
He had a column
in Black newspapers

893
00:44:17,724 --> 00:44:19,173
called Jesse B. Semple.

894
00:44:20,761 --> 00:44:23,384
Kind of folk hero character
that didn't have

895
00:44:23,488 --> 00:44:26,802
traditional education,
but had kind of folk wisdom.

896
00:44:26,905 --> 00:44:28,700
INTONDI: Jesse B. Semple
asks the questions

897
00:44:28,804 --> 00:44:30,357
that maybe nobody else
wants to ask.

898
00:44:31,599 --> 00:44:34,706
He says, "We didn't want
to use this on white folk.

899
00:44:34,810 --> 00:44:36,397
"We used this on colored folks.

900
00:44:36,501 --> 00:44:37,778
We used this on Japs."

901
00:44:39,159 --> 00:44:41,195
That is the same conversation,
most likely,

902
00:44:41,299 --> 00:44:42,783
that's happening in households

903
00:44:42,887 --> 00:44:44,026
throughout the Black community.

904
00:44:48,513 --> 00:44:49,790
DELMONT: Black intellectuals
and political leaders

905
00:44:49,894 --> 00:44:51,896
are outraged
by the dropping of the bomb.

906
00:44:51,999 --> 00:44:55,416
Zora Neale Hurston called Truman
the "Butcher of Asia."

907
00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:57,280
And W.E.B. Du Bois called Truman

908
00:44:57,384 --> 00:44:59,179
"one of the greatest killers
of our time."

909
00:44:59,282 --> 00:45:01,975
INTONDI:
W.E.B. Du Bois says

910
00:45:02,078 --> 00:45:04,563
that the merging
of science and technology

911
00:45:04,667 --> 00:45:06,980
should be a good thing
for the world.

912
00:45:07,083 --> 00:45:08,671
This is the opposite.

913
00:45:08,775 --> 00:45:11,191
The government has used
science and technology,

914
00:45:11,294 --> 00:45:13,780
and so it's
for the worst thing of mankind.

915
00:45:15,782 --> 00:45:17,853
And he says
what we have done will set back

916
00:45:17,956 --> 00:45:21,649
the progress of "colored nations
for decades to come."

917
00:45:26,896 --> 00:45:28,760
NARRATOR: Black intellectuals
are not alone

918
00:45:28,864 --> 00:45:32,591
in raising alarms
about the bomb's effects.

919
00:45:32,695 --> 00:45:34,386
♪ ♪

920
00:45:34,490 --> 00:45:36,837
MITCHELL:
Harold Jacobson was

921
00:45:36,941 --> 00:45:40,047
a junior Manhattan Project
scientist at Oak Ridge.

922
00:45:40,151 --> 00:45:41,739
No big deal, no key figure.

923
00:45:44,983 --> 00:45:46,295
But in August,

924
00:45:46,398 --> 00:45:49,712
he wrote an article that got
a great deal of attention.

925
00:45:51,818 --> 00:45:54,544
"Hiroshima to be uninhabitable
for 70 years."

926
00:45:54,648 --> 00:45:58,341
♪ ♪

927
00:46:00,723 --> 00:46:01,966
STEPHENS:
That's not the story

928
00:46:02,069 --> 00:46:04,589
the U.S. military wanted out.

929
00:46:05,970 --> 00:46:07,626
GORDIN: Groves wants to argue
that it's not radioactivity

930
00:46:07,730 --> 00:46:09,594
that does the killing.

931
00:46:09,697 --> 00:46:11,941
The killing is caused
by a big explosion.

932
00:46:12,045 --> 00:46:13,874
This is a different kind
of big explosion,

933
00:46:13,978 --> 00:46:15,117
and it's really special,

934
00:46:15,220 --> 00:46:16,843
but it's not
repulsively special.

935
00:46:20,847 --> 00:46:23,435
MITCHELL: And here is Jacobson,
one of our own scientists,

936
00:46:23,539 --> 00:46:27,577
saying Hiroshima would
be uninhabitable for 70 years.

937
00:46:27,681 --> 00:46:30,028
I'm not quite sure
how he arrived at exactly 70,

938
00:46:30,132 --> 00:46:32,341
but, uh,
it made a great headline.

939
00:46:35,378 --> 00:46:37,035
NARRATOR:
Jacobson's prediction,

940
00:46:37,139 --> 00:46:39,520
which turns out
to be inaccurate,

941
00:46:39,624 --> 00:46:42,040
doesn't garner
nearly as much public attention

942
00:46:42,144 --> 00:46:45,561
as the government's
heavy-handed response.

943
00:46:47,390 --> 00:46:50,048
MITCHELL: They got a statement
from Robert Oppenheimer

944
00:46:50,152 --> 00:46:53,396
saying that the lingering
radiation would be minor.

945
00:46:58,746 --> 00:46:59,644
Oppenheimer was complicit

946
00:46:59,747 --> 00:47:01,266
in tamping down the radiation.

947
00:47:01,370 --> 00:47:03,303
I think he had hopes

948
00:47:03,406 --> 00:47:06,824
that atomic weapons could
be contained after the war.

949
00:47:06,927 --> 00:47:08,687
I think he was
denying the same thing

950
00:47:08,791 --> 00:47:11,759
that so many scientists were.

951
00:47:12,726 --> 00:47:15,004
They just didn't want

952
00:47:15,108 --> 00:47:18,490
to be connected
to chemical warfare.

953
00:47:18,594 --> 00:47:20,492
Jacobson was certainly
overstepping his knowledge,

954
00:47:20,596 --> 00:47:22,011
that's for sure.

955
00:47:22,115 --> 00:47:25,843
But the rebuttal, if it had
been a little bit more truthful,

956
00:47:25,946 --> 00:47:27,914
would have said,
"We don't really know,

957
00:47:28,017 --> 00:47:30,261
but we're pretty sure
that isn't the case."

958
00:47:30,364 --> 00:47:32,090
And they didn't quite do that.

959
00:47:33,816 --> 00:47:36,508
This is the first real challenge
they have

960
00:47:36,612 --> 00:47:39,546
to their control
over the narrative of the bomb.

961
00:47:41,410 --> 00:47:45,448
♪

962
00:48:00,084 --> 00:48:02,880
CRYSTAL UCHINO: Leslie Nakashima
was a popular and celebrated

963
00:48:02,983 --> 00:48:06,090
Japanese American journalist
in prewar Hawaii.

964
00:48:06,193 --> 00:48:09,541
[bat strikes, crowd cheering]

965
00:48:09,645 --> 00:48:13,580
He worked primarily
as a sportswriter.

966
00:48:15,444 --> 00:48:18,930
But he also covered culture
and politics, as well.

967
00:48:20,967 --> 00:48:22,244
Nakashima's parents

968
00:48:22,347 --> 00:48:24,556
both came from a very small
fishing village

969
00:48:24,660 --> 00:48:26,386
in Hiroshima prefecture.

970
00:48:26,489 --> 00:48:30,286
And his father was
part of the first wave

971
00:48:30,390 --> 00:48:34,532
of contract workers to work
on Hawaii's sugar plantations.

972
00:48:36,637 --> 00:48:39,399
Many migrant workers
had never intended to stay.

973
00:48:40,607 --> 00:48:43,058
This is the case
for Leslie Nakashima's parents.

974
00:48:43,161 --> 00:48:45,715
They move back to Japan
in the 1930s.

975
00:48:46,958 --> 00:48:48,684
And Nakashima gets offered a job

976
00:48:48,787 --> 00:48:51,342
working for the United Press
in Tokyo.

977
00:48:54,103 --> 00:48:57,935
But when Pearl Harbor is bombed,
Nakashima is out of a job.

978
00:48:58,038 --> 00:49:00,075
And he starts working
for the Japanese press.

979
00:49:00,178 --> 00:49:01,455
So, he actually learns

980
00:49:01,559 --> 00:49:05,252
about the atomic bombing
before the general public.

981
00:49:05,356 --> 00:49:09,947
And at the time, his mother
was still living in Hiroshima.

982
00:49:10,050 --> 00:49:13,295
He immediately books the first
train ticket he can get.

983
00:49:15,538 --> 00:49:16,954
[train whistle blows]

984
00:49:18,541 --> 00:49:19,577
The first thing he sees

985
00:49:19,680 --> 00:49:21,820
when he arrives
at Hiroshima Station

986
00:49:21,924 --> 00:49:23,408
is a sea of destruction.

987
00:49:23,512 --> 00:49:29,069
♪ ♪

988
00:49:29,173 --> 00:49:31,658
He finds his mother alive.

989
00:49:33,763 --> 00:49:35,973
He knows
this is a really big story.

990
00:49:37,595 --> 00:49:40,770
He instinctively starts
to record what he's seeing.

991
00:49:42,531 --> 00:49:43,981
He's looking out

992
00:49:44,084 --> 00:49:47,432
and he sees this city
of 300,000 people

993
00:49:47,536 --> 00:49:50,366
that, as Nakashima said,
had vanished.

994
00:49:52,368 --> 00:49:53,783
[people talking in background]

995
00:49:53,887 --> 00:49:56,510
He also visits a school
near his mother's house

996
00:49:56,614 --> 00:49:59,582
that had been turned
into a makeshift hospital.

997
00:49:59,686 --> 00:50:02,137
And he writes that every day,

998
00:50:02,240 --> 00:50:05,899
there's two or three people
that are dying there,

999
00:50:06,003 --> 00:50:08,591
and not only that,
but the majority of the cases

1000
00:50:08,695 --> 00:50:10,731
that are being treated there

1001
00:50:10,835 --> 00:50:13,562
are considered to be hopeless.

1002
00:50:20,914 --> 00:50:23,020
NEWSREEL NARRATOR:
Nagasaki, target

1003
00:50:23,123 --> 00:50:24,745
for the second atomic bomb.

1004
00:50:24,849 --> 00:50:28,922
Just three days after Hiroshima,
this explosion...

1005
00:50:29,026 --> 00:50:30,165
MITCHELL: Before the Japanese
leadership in Tokyo

1006
00:50:30,268 --> 00:50:31,442
and the emperor

1007
00:50:31,545 --> 00:50:33,927
had time to learn about
and ponder the first one,

1008
00:50:34,031 --> 00:50:36,136
the plutonium bomb
was used against Nagasaki.

1009
00:50:36,240 --> 00:50:39,588
♪ ♪

1010
00:50:39,691 --> 00:50:43,454
So it really was a, as the U.S.
press put it at the time,

1011
00:50:43,557 --> 00:50:47,803
a one-two punch,
the one-two knockout blow.

1012
00:50:49,839 --> 00:50:52,256
KIERNAN: William Laurence was on
one of the chase planes

1013
00:50:52,359 --> 00:50:54,741
that followed the bomber
over Nagasaki.

1014
00:50:54,844 --> 00:50:58,572
LAURENCE:
I saw a great city disappear

1015
00:50:58,676 --> 00:51:00,678
in a mushroom cloud.

1016
00:51:00,781 --> 00:51:02,749
MITCHELL: "The New York Times"
ran his piece

1017
00:51:02,852 --> 00:51:05,510
about flying to Nagasaki
on the mission.

1018
00:51:06,856 --> 00:51:09,169
NARRATOR:
The paper proudly advertises

1019
00:51:09,273 --> 00:51:12,172
Laurence's role
in the Manhattan Project.

1020
00:51:17,453 --> 00:51:19,248
MITCHELL: He goes from being
a chief publicist

1021
00:51:19,352 --> 00:51:21,216
to almost overnight
back at "The New York Times,"

1022
00:51:21,319 --> 00:51:22,527
and then wins a Pulitzer

1023
00:51:22,631 --> 00:51:25,392
for writing pieces that are

1024
00:51:25,496 --> 00:51:29,086
derived from his status
at the Manhattan Project.

1025
00:51:31,502 --> 00:51:34,470
NARRATOR: Yet the reporter
whose firsthand account

1026
00:51:34,574 --> 00:51:35,885
actually breaks the story

1027
00:51:35,989 --> 00:51:37,232
gets overlooked.

1028
00:51:38,647 --> 00:51:41,581
UCHINO: Leslie Nakashima's story
"Hiroshima As I Saw It"

1029
00:51:41,684 --> 00:51:46,482
gets syndicated,
but gets sort of lost.

1030
00:51:49,347 --> 00:51:52,247
What I think are the most
interesting parts of his story,

1031
00:51:52,350 --> 00:51:56,009
the survivors' experiences,

1032
00:51:56,113 --> 00:51:58,356
many of whom were acquaintances

1033
00:51:58,460 --> 00:52:02,671
of his from Hawaii,

1034
00:52:02,774 --> 00:52:06,157
as well as some of
the more provocative language

1035
00:52:06,261 --> 00:52:07,986
about radiation...

1036
00:52:10,092 --> 00:52:13,854
...many newspapers choose
to excise that out.

1037
00:52:13,958 --> 00:52:16,512
There was a question
of credibility.

1038
00:52:18,273 --> 00:52:20,309
So much of it has to do

1039
00:52:20,413 --> 00:52:25,038
with the anti-Japanese racism
of the time.

1040
00:52:29,456 --> 00:52:30,906
"The New York Times,"
for example,

1041
00:52:31,009 --> 00:52:33,460
buries it several pages in.

1042
00:52:35,186 --> 00:52:37,119
NARRATOR:
Beneath Nakashima's article,

1043
00:52:37,223 --> 00:52:39,259
the "Times"
cites General Groves,

1044
00:52:39,363 --> 00:52:43,574
who calls all reports
out of Japan "pure propaganda."

1045
00:52:45,265 --> 00:52:47,681
[newsreel music playing]

1046
00:52:50,063 --> 00:52:51,823
NEWSREEL NARRATOR:
The battleship Missouri becomes

1047
00:52:51,927 --> 00:52:53,998
the scene
of an unforgettable ceremony.

1048
00:52:54,101 --> 00:52:56,518
General of the Army
Douglas MacArthur,

1049
00:52:56,621 --> 00:52:58,968
supreme allied commander
for the occupation of Japan,

1050
00:52:59,072 --> 00:53:00,556
boards the Missouri.

1051
00:53:04,905 --> 00:53:07,011
Cameramen and reporters
of many countries

1052
00:53:07,114 --> 00:53:09,151
record this historic moment...

1053
00:53:09,255 --> 00:53:11,326
NARRATOR:
After the surrender,

1054
00:53:11,429 --> 00:53:14,121
General Douglas MacArthur
is determined

1055
00:53:14,225 --> 00:53:16,331
to keep American journalists
far away

1056
00:53:16,434 --> 00:53:19,403
from the so-called
"Atomic Cities."

1057
00:53:23,924 --> 00:53:25,409
MITCHELL: One of the first
things MacArthur did

1058
00:53:25,512 --> 00:53:27,687
was enact a strict press code,

1059
00:53:27,790 --> 00:53:30,448
which applied
to American reporters,

1060
00:53:30,552 --> 00:53:33,934
who had to file their articles
through his office.

1061
00:53:35,798 --> 00:53:37,179
NARRATOR:
But at least one reporter

1062
00:53:37,283 --> 00:53:38,836
defies his order.

1063
00:53:38,939 --> 00:53:41,597
"Chicago Daily" newsman
George Weller

1064
00:53:41,701 --> 00:53:44,082
quietly slips away to Nagasaki.

1065
00:53:45,843 --> 00:53:48,432
WELLER: MacArthur didn't want
anybody to go there

1066
00:53:48,535 --> 00:53:52,159
because this would lead to a lot
of very compassionate stories.

1067
00:53:53,299 --> 00:53:57,130
MITCHELL: When he got there,
he found pitiful conditions

1068
00:53:57,234 --> 00:54:00,927
and observed dozens of victims
who seemed to be wasting away.

1069
00:54:04,620 --> 00:54:06,001
And so he wrote about it.

1070
00:54:06,104 --> 00:54:08,762
[typewriter clacking]

1071
00:54:20,049 --> 00:54:23,018
Weller was very patriotic.

1072
00:54:23,121 --> 00:54:24,537
Didn't have an agenda.

1073
00:54:26,193 --> 00:54:28,644
Weller sent his pieces directly

1074
00:54:28,748 --> 00:54:31,026
to MacArthur's headquarters
in Tokyo.

1075
00:54:32,234 --> 00:54:34,305
MacArthur's office held
those stories

1076
00:54:34,409 --> 00:54:36,065
and they didn't surface
for decades.

1077
00:54:50,908 --> 00:54:52,392
NARRATOR:
A month after the blast,

1078
00:54:52,496 --> 00:54:54,774
Australian journalist
Wilfred Burchett

1079
00:54:54,877 --> 00:54:57,190
catches a train to Hiroshima.

1080
00:54:59,986 --> 00:55:01,298
KIERNAN: Wilfred Burchett was

1081
00:55:01,401 --> 00:55:03,955
an extremely
enterprising journalist.

1082
00:55:04,059 --> 00:55:05,509
He went to places he wasn't
supposed to go.

1083
00:55:07,373 --> 00:55:10,168
MITCHELL: Burchett was taken
to a leading hospital.

1084
00:55:11,722 --> 00:55:14,000
BURCHETT: These people are all
in various states

1085
00:55:14,103 --> 00:55:16,451
of physical disintegration.

1086
00:55:16,554 --> 00:55:18,660
Then the flesh started to rot,

1087
00:55:18,763 --> 00:55:20,800
and then gradually, bleedings,

1088
00:55:20,903 --> 00:55:21,801
which they couldn't stop,

1089
00:55:21,904 --> 00:55:24,355
and then the hair falling out.

1090
00:55:24,459 --> 00:55:27,427
And the hair falling out
was more or less the last stage.

1091
00:55:31,742 --> 00:55:33,709
♪

1092
00:55:33,813 --> 00:55:36,229
KIERNAN: People were dying
in a horrible, painful way

1093
00:55:36,333 --> 00:55:38,783
that Americans back home
were being told

1094
00:55:38,887 --> 00:55:40,302
wasn't going on.

1095
00:55:42,546 --> 00:55:45,756
MITCHELL: Burchett's article
appeared in the British press

1096
00:55:45,859 --> 00:55:47,274
and then reprinted
around the world

1097
00:55:47,378 --> 00:55:49,863
with the headline
"The Atomic Plague."

1098
00:55:53,695 --> 00:55:56,801
KIERNAN: Burchett's articles
were not published in the U.S.

1099
00:55:58,838 --> 00:56:01,737
They had to be published
overseas,

1100
00:56:01,841 --> 00:56:04,982
in papers that were not subject
to the rules

1101
00:56:05,085 --> 00:56:08,295
that the government was laying
down for U.S. journalists.

1102
00:56:11,954 --> 00:56:14,060
MITCHELL: Groves
was tremendously concerned

1103
00:56:14,163 --> 00:56:17,995
about batting down claims
of radiation disease.

1104
00:56:18,098 --> 00:56:21,550
♪ ♪

1105
00:56:21,654 --> 00:56:23,414
NARRATOR:
Groves calls Dr. Charles Rea,

1106
00:56:23,518 --> 00:56:25,451
hospital director at Oak Ridge,

1107
00:56:25,554 --> 00:56:28,730
who has no expertise
in radiology.

1108
00:56:29,800 --> 00:56:31,284
MITCHELL:
And a transcript has emerged,

1109
00:56:31,388 --> 00:56:33,390
which is horrifying
in many ways.

1110
00:56:33,493 --> 00:56:36,565
[typewriter clacking]

1111
00:56:46,264 --> 00:56:49,820
The doctor at Oak Ridge
does agree with Groves

1112
00:56:49,923 --> 00:56:51,718
that the Japanese,
no doubt, are exaggerating,

1113
00:56:51,822 --> 00:56:54,411
that people really
aren't dying from radiation.

1114
00:57:00,555 --> 00:57:03,592
BRODIE: It's interesting
why Groves did this.

1115
00:57:08,494 --> 00:57:11,186
Rea was not an important part
of the Manhattan Project.

1116
00:57:11,289 --> 00:57:14,223
He was not a known radiologist.

1117
00:57:16,433 --> 00:57:21,438
It shows how distraught Groves
was about the way

1118
00:57:21,541 --> 00:57:24,095
the bomb was being seen.

1119
00:57:24,199 --> 00:57:28,514
[newsreel music playing]

1120
00:57:29,860 --> 00:57:31,206
NEWSREEL NARRATOR:
A star-shaped crater

1121
00:57:31,309 --> 00:57:33,726
marks the New Mexican desert
near Alamogordo

1122
00:57:33,829 --> 00:57:35,486
where the first atomic bomb
was tested.

1123
00:57:35,590 --> 00:57:38,247
Press representatives
get a personally conducted tour

1124
00:57:38,351 --> 00:57:39,663
by General Groves.

1125
00:57:39,766 --> 00:57:41,285
NARRATOR:
Alarmed by the growing accounts

1126
00:57:41,388 --> 00:57:42,769
of radiation sickness,

1127
00:57:42,873 --> 00:57:44,633
Groves invites
friendly reporters

1128
00:57:44,737 --> 00:57:46,773
to visit the Trinity site

1129
00:57:46,877 --> 00:57:49,086
as further proof
of no lingering radiation.

1130
00:57:49,189 --> 00:57:50,743
KIERNAN:
Groves invited

1131
00:57:50,846 --> 00:57:53,400
a number of journalists,
including Laurence,

1132
00:57:53,504 --> 00:57:55,506
to show that there's no problem.

1133
00:57:55,610 --> 00:57:57,370
Radiation? What do you mean?

1134
00:57:58,440 --> 00:57:59,959
MITCHELL: Geiger counters
were brought out.

1135
00:58:00,062 --> 00:58:02,202
The readings are relatively low.

1136
00:58:02,306 --> 00:58:03,894
And so what are
the Japanese talking about?

1137
00:58:04,929 --> 00:58:06,206
That's how it was reported.

1138
00:58:08,346 --> 00:58:11,246
WELLERSTEIN: Laurence thinks he
is telling you the right story.

1139
00:58:14,180 --> 00:58:17,010
Everything he writes about
how amazing this project is,

1140
00:58:17,114 --> 00:58:19,288
Laurence believes this--
he is a true believer.

1141
00:58:19,392 --> 00:58:21,394
[talking indistinctly]

1142
00:58:21,498 --> 00:58:24,742
ROSS: Meanwhile, in Hiroshima,
there's a press junket

1143
00:58:24,846 --> 00:58:26,710
organized by the military

1144
00:58:26,813 --> 00:58:30,886
to negate what they're calling
Japanese propaganda

1145
00:58:30,990 --> 00:58:33,440
of lingering radiation effects.

1146
00:58:34,752 --> 00:58:37,272
NARRATOR: After covering the
surrender in Tokyo,

1147
00:58:37,375 --> 00:58:40,275
the pioneering African American
journalist Charles Loeb

1148
00:58:40,378 --> 00:58:43,450
turns his attention
to Hiroshima.

1149
00:58:49,180 --> 00:58:50,354
ROSS:
Charles Loeb

1150
00:58:50,457 --> 00:58:54,427
is born in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, in 1905.

1151
00:58:55,739 --> 00:58:57,637
He goes to Howard University

1152
00:58:57,741 --> 00:59:00,088
and studies pre-med.

1153
00:59:00,191 --> 00:59:02,469
He was not able to complete
those studies

1154
00:59:02,573 --> 00:59:04,851
because of finances,

1155
00:59:04,955 --> 00:59:08,268
but he studied it long enough
to understand science.

1156
00:59:09,718 --> 00:59:10,857
And so,

1157
00:59:10,961 --> 00:59:13,688
he was able to carry
that knowledge with him

1158
00:59:13,791 --> 00:59:18,347
when he joined the "Cleveland
Call and Post" in 1933.

1159
00:59:20,695 --> 00:59:24,146
DELMONT: Loeb was in Tokyo for
the surrender ceremony in 1945.

1160
00:59:24,250 --> 00:59:25,251
And at that time,

1161
00:59:25,354 --> 00:59:26,597
a number of the other
U.S. journalists

1162
00:59:26,701 --> 00:59:29,738
traveled to Hiroshima to report
on the bomb impact.

1163
00:59:33,259 --> 00:59:34,847
When they came back,
Loeb described them

1164
00:59:34,950 --> 00:59:36,814
as being "completely
flabbergasted."

1165
00:59:38,782 --> 00:59:40,611
He didn't take that trip
to Hiroshima himself.

1166
00:59:42,371 --> 00:59:44,201
Loeb starts reporting
on this history

1167
00:59:44,304 --> 00:59:45,789
as it was unfolding.

1168
00:59:49,724 --> 00:59:51,415
He approached it clinically,

1169
00:59:51,518 --> 00:59:53,348
almost as though he was
writing a scientific paper.

1170
00:59:55,143 --> 00:59:57,594
He understood and recognized
the human costs of it.

1171
00:59:59,043 --> 01:00:01,598
But he was more focused on the
long-term impact of radiation.

1172
01:00:04,670 --> 01:00:06,326
ALKEBULAN:
Charles Loeb wrote that article

1173
01:00:06,430 --> 01:00:10,054
in the newspaper in 1945
challenging the official story.

1174
01:00:10,158 --> 01:00:12,229
And one of the best ways

1175
01:00:12,332 --> 01:00:14,887
to challenge it was to quote
Colonel Stafford Warren,

1176
01:00:14,990 --> 01:00:17,268
the top physician
for the Manhattan Project.

1177
01:00:18,511 --> 01:00:21,031
Warren was responsible
for evacuating Japanese wounded

1178
01:00:21,134 --> 01:00:23,205
and observing their actions.

1179
01:00:23,309 --> 01:00:24,690
The best thing
he could have done

1180
01:00:24,793 --> 01:00:27,071
was to say that Warren was
the one that was saying this.

1181
01:00:27,175 --> 01:00:29,487
"It's not me, it's not Charles--
I'm just a reporter."

1182
01:00:31,628 --> 01:00:34,527
[typewriter clacking]

1183
01:00:37,910 --> 01:00:39,670
DELMONT: Colonel Warren
actually downplays

1184
01:00:39,774 --> 01:00:41,154
the potential impact
of radiation,

1185
01:00:41,258 --> 01:00:43,363
but Loeb uses it
in a very crafty way.

1186
01:00:43,467 --> 01:00:45,607
Just by the fact
that he quotes Warren on this,

1187
01:00:45,711 --> 01:00:48,127
he introduces the possibility
that radiation is present

1188
01:00:48,230 --> 01:00:50,854
and that it's impacting Japanese
civilians after the bombing.

1189
01:00:52,994 --> 01:00:56,066
And so, Loeb structures
the entire article in a way

1190
01:00:56,169 --> 01:00:58,137
that encourages readers
to be reckoning

1191
01:00:58,240 --> 01:01:00,070
with the long-term impacts
of the bomb

1192
01:01:00,173 --> 01:01:02,520
in ways that are years ahead
of their time.

1193
01:01:02,624 --> 01:01:06,145
[typewriter clacking]

1194
01:01:12,910 --> 01:01:14,049
NARRATOR:
By November,

1195
01:01:14,153 --> 01:01:15,982
a month after Loeb's story runs,

1196
01:01:16,086 --> 01:01:18,778
General Groves
can no longer deny

1197
01:01:18,882 --> 01:01:22,437
that radiation from the bomb
is killing people.

1198
01:01:23,610 --> 01:01:25,371
WELLERSTEIN:
In November 1945,

1199
01:01:25,474 --> 01:01:27,960
there were a lot
of congressional hearings

1200
01:01:28,063 --> 01:01:30,479
on the Manhattan Project,

1201
01:01:30,583 --> 01:01:32,999
and so Groves was asked
to testify many times.

1202
01:01:33,103 --> 01:01:36,969
It is essential
in the highest national interest

1203
01:01:37,072 --> 01:01:40,248
that further development
in the field of atomic energy

1204
01:01:40,351 --> 01:01:42,319
be pursued...

1205
01:01:42,422 --> 01:01:45,218
WELLERSTEIN: Groves was being
asked in particular

1206
01:01:45,322 --> 01:01:48,325
about the radiation effects--
what actually happened.

1207
01:01:50,258 --> 01:01:52,743
And he admitted
that the Japanese reports

1208
01:01:52,847 --> 01:01:55,159
of radiation sicknesses
were correct.

1209
01:01:55,263 --> 01:01:57,852
But Groves tried to put
the most positive spin on that

1210
01:01:57,955 --> 01:01:59,370
that he could.

1211
01:01:59,474 --> 01:02:01,614
And he reported that, according
to the experts he talked to,

1212
01:02:01,718 --> 01:02:03,996
it was a "pleasant" way to die.

1213
01:02:05,238 --> 01:02:06,239
BRODIE:
Many people

1214
01:02:06,343 --> 01:02:08,621
never forgave him for that.

1215
01:02:08,725 --> 01:02:11,210
And it's colored his reputation.

1216
01:02:11,313 --> 01:02:17,250
♪ ♪

1217
01:02:21,082 --> 01:02:24,119
♪

1218
01:02:28,883 --> 01:02:30,194
YAGODA:
"The New Yorker" was known

1219
01:02:30,298 --> 01:02:32,679
as a light, humorous magazine.

1220
01:02:32,783 --> 01:02:34,509
[plane engines roaring,
guns firing]

1221
01:02:34,612 --> 01:02:36,545
But as the war went on...

1222
01:02:38,685 --> 01:02:41,102
...people started to take note

1223
01:02:41,205 --> 01:02:42,897
of the seriousness and extent

1224
01:02:43,000 --> 01:02:44,519
of "The New Yorker"
war coverage.

1225
01:02:44,622 --> 01:02:47,315
[engines droning]

1226
01:02:47,418 --> 01:02:49,800
NARRATOR: In the months
following the atomic bombings,

1227
01:02:49,904 --> 01:02:53,562
"The New Yorker" commissions
an article on Hiroshima.

1228
01:02:53,666 --> 01:02:55,495
Editor William Shawn meets

1229
01:02:55,599 --> 01:02:59,258
with freelance journalist
John Hersey.

1230
01:02:59,361 --> 01:03:01,985
CALLISON: Everything written
about the bomb at that point

1231
01:03:02,088 --> 01:03:04,470
was focused
on the property damage.

1232
01:03:04,573 --> 01:03:06,886
That's what
they were interested in.

1233
01:03:06,990 --> 01:03:09,199
Well, John Hersey
wasn't like that.

1234
01:03:09,302 --> 01:03:12,685
♪ ♪

1235
01:03:12,789 --> 01:03:14,791
MITCHELL: When he sat down
with William Shawn,

1236
01:03:14,894 --> 01:03:16,482
he said,
"I don't really want to do

1237
01:03:16,585 --> 01:03:18,795
"another piece
on the level of destruction.

1238
01:03:18,898 --> 01:03:21,142
I want to do it
on how it affects people."

1239
01:03:22,315 --> 01:03:24,697
GORDIN: John Hersey was
a quite remarkable writer

1240
01:03:24,801 --> 01:03:27,010
with a very long career
ahead of him.

1241
01:03:31,014 --> 01:03:33,223
YAGODA:
Hersey was born in 1914.

1242
01:03:33,326 --> 01:03:36,088
He was the son of American
missionaries in China.

1243
01:03:37,123 --> 01:03:38,815
CALLISON:
Being a mish kid,

1244
01:03:38,918 --> 01:03:41,921
they're a very distinct kind
of person, he thinks.

1245
01:03:42,991 --> 01:03:45,131
HERSEY: Mish kids,
as we call ourselves,

1246
01:03:45,235 --> 01:03:47,685
are a strange lot.

1247
01:03:47,789 --> 01:03:49,929
By and large,
they turned out either to be

1248
01:03:50,033 --> 01:03:54,209
very interesting scholars,
preachers, doctors,

1249
01:03:54,313 --> 01:03:56,039
or drunks.

1250
01:03:56,142 --> 01:03:59,180
YAGODA: Hersey was an extremely
moral person

1251
01:03:59,283 --> 01:04:01,078
with humanistic principles.

1252
01:04:01,182 --> 01:04:03,770
He wasn't religious
in the conventional sense,

1253
01:04:03,874 --> 01:04:05,565
but deeply, deeply moral.

1254
01:04:07,119 --> 01:04:09,880
NARRATOR:
By the spring of 1946,

1255
01:04:09,984 --> 01:04:12,227
America's nuclear program
is ramping up...

1256
01:04:14,885 --> 01:04:17,025
...with more testing
in the Pacific.

1257
01:04:18,785 --> 01:04:21,996
Hersey is finishing up
an assignment in China

1258
01:04:22,099 --> 01:04:24,239
when he learns
of pending nuclear tests

1259
01:04:24,343 --> 01:04:26,276
in the Bikini Atoll.

1260
01:04:27,622 --> 01:04:28,968
GOUREVITCH:
Hersey was feeling cold feet

1261
01:04:29,072 --> 01:04:30,556
about "The New Yorker"
assignment.

1262
01:04:30,659 --> 01:04:33,248
He thought, "Timing is wrong,"
and there were going to be

1263
01:04:33,352 --> 01:04:35,630
more nuclear tests
on the Bikini Atoll.

1264
01:04:37,528 --> 01:04:39,082
YAGODA:
He wondered and cabled to Shawn

1265
01:04:39,185 --> 01:04:41,153
whether that might be
such an important news peg

1266
01:04:41,256 --> 01:04:43,810
that writing about Hiroshima

1267
01:04:43,914 --> 01:04:46,641
would no longer be of interest
to people.

1268
01:04:47,676 --> 01:04:49,402
Shawn cabled him back,
and he said,

1269
01:04:49,506 --> 01:04:52,129
"The more time that passes,
the more convinced we are

1270
01:04:52,233 --> 01:04:54,752
"that piece
has wonderful possibilities.

1271
01:04:54,856 --> 01:04:57,928
Think it best,
time it for anniversary."

1272
01:04:58,032 --> 01:04:59,723
[horn blowing]

1273
01:04:59,826 --> 01:05:01,621
NARRATOR:
With just four months to go

1274
01:05:01,725 --> 01:05:03,900
before the anniversary
of August 6,

1275
01:05:04,003 --> 01:05:07,904
Hersey hops on a naval destroyer
for Japan.

1276
01:05:08,007 --> 01:05:09,388
GOUREVITCH:
When Hersey was on the ship,

1277
01:05:09,491 --> 01:05:10,561
he was sort of thinking, like...

1278
01:05:10,665 --> 01:05:13,081
[exhales] "This Hiroshima
thing.

1279
01:05:13,185 --> 01:05:14,911
"I can't get my mind
around how on Earth

1280
01:05:15,014 --> 01:05:17,223
I want to do this."

1281
01:05:17,327 --> 01:05:19,398
HERSEY:
While I was on the destroyer,

1282
01:05:19,501 --> 01:05:20,917
I came down with the flu.

1283
01:05:23,850 --> 01:05:26,267
And they brought me some books
from the ship's library.

1284
01:05:26,370 --> 01:05:28,269
One of them was
"The Bridge of San Luis Rey,"

1285
01:05:28,372 --> 01:05:33,101
which is about five people
who are on a rope bridge.

1286
01:05:34,551 --> 01:05:36,967
NARRATOR:
The novel had just been adapted

1287
01:05:37,071 --> 01:05:38,382
into a Hollywood film.

1288
01:05:38,486 --> 01:05:41,006
GOUREVITCH: And the book weaves
together each one's story

1289
01:05:41,109 --> 01:05:43,077
that led them to be randomly

1290
01:05:43,180 --> 01:05:44,906
on this bridge
at the same moment.

1291
01:05:45,010 --> 01:05:48,737
YAGODA: And a light bulb
went off in Hersey's head.

1292
01:05:48,841 --> 01:05:50,256
[man screaming]

1293
01:05:51,671 --> 01:05:54,088
The bomb-- the bomb has a moment

1294
01:05:54,191 --> 01:05:57,056
when it affects everybody
all within a split second.

1295
01:06:00,163 --> 01:06:01,578
HERSEY:
And I saw, reading that,

1296
01:06:01,681 --> 01:06:03,580
a way of approaching Hiroshima

1297
01:06:03,683 --> 01:06:05,858
by settling on a few people

1298
01:06:05,962 --> 01:06:10,035
and trying to make
their lives real to the reader.

1299
01:06:12,175 --> 01:06:16,938
Journalism would be enriched
by using the methods of fiction,

1300
01:06:17,042 --> 01:06:20,252
because the reader
can identify with the character

1301
01:06:20,355 --> 01:06:23,910
and almost feel what
the character's experiencing.

1302
01:06:34,093 --> 01:06:37,200
♪

1303
01:06:41,618 --> 01:06:43,896
YAGODA: Shortly after getting
to Hiroshima,

1304
01:06:44,000 --> 01:06:46,588
he met Father Kleinsorge,

1305
01:06:46,692 --> 01:06:49,764
who proved to be a wonderful
subject for interview.

1306
01:06:51,559 --> 01:06:53,664
One of the things reporters
do when they do an interview,

1307
01:06:53,768 --> 01:06:55,252
they say,
"Who else should I talk to?"

1308
01:06:55,356 --> 01:06:57,599
HERSEY:
Father Kleinsorge introduced me

1309
01:06:57,703 --> 01:07:00,671
to Mr. Tanimoto,
the Methodist preacher,

1310
01:07:00,775 --> 01:07:03,467
and he then introduced me
to others.

1311
01:07:05,814 --> 01:07:08,093
CALLISON:
He wanted people whose lives

1312
01:07:08,196 --> 01:07:11,717
had somehow intersected
in those immediate days.

1313
01:07:13,857 --> 01:07:16,066
YAGODA:
He'd found his six subjects.

1314
01:07:17,757 --> 01:07:20,450
Without a doubt,
they took to Hersey.

1315
01:07:23,108 --> 01:07:26,007
GORDIN: He doesn't have
many of the American prejudices

1316
01:07:26,111 --> 01:07:28,975
towards East Asians
or East Asian societies.

1317
01:07:29,079 --> 01:07:31,392
He sees them as people.

1318
01:07:31,495 --> 01:07:33,152
And that's how
they appear in the text.

1319
01:07:34,671 --> 01:07:36,845
They appear as people
who are confronted

1320
01:07:36,949 --> 01:07:39,089
by an enormous horror of war.

1321
01:07:39,193 --> 01:07:43,335
CALLISON: He was telling each
person's story in their voice,

1322
01:07:43,438 --> 01:07:45,958
just strictly what happened.

1323
01:07:46,993 --> 01:07:49,479
HERSEY: "At exactly 15 minutes
past 8:00 in the morning

1324
01:07:49,582 --> 01:07:52,378
"on August 6, 1945,
Japanese time,

1325
01:07:52,482 --> 01:07:55,278
"at the moment when the atomic
bomb flashed above Hiroshima,

1326
01:07:55,381 --> 01:07:57,349
"Miss Toshiko Sasaki,

1327
01:07:57,452 --> 01:07:58,833
"a clerk in the personnel
department

1328
01:07:58,936 --> 01:08:00,455
"of the East Asia Tin Works,

1329
01:08:00,559 --> 01:08:03,182
"had just sat down at her place
in the plant office

1330
01:08:03,286 --> 01:08:04,597
"and was turning her head
to speak

1331
01:08:04,701 --> 01:08:06,565
to the girl at the next desk."

1332
01:08:13,227 --> 01:08:15,574
GOUREVITCH: He's less interested
in how they remember it

1333
01:08:15,677 --> 01:08:17,783
than in reconstructing

1334
01:08:17,886 --> 01:08:20,130
the experience of having
no idea what was going on.

1335
01:08:20,234 --> 01:08:22,788
HERSEY: "As Mrs. Nakamura
started frantically

1336
01:08:22,891 --> 01:08:24,962
"to claw her way
toward the baby,

1337
01:08:25,066 --> 01:08:27,413
she could see or hear nothing
of her other children."

1338
01:08:29,726 --> 01:08:32,487
GOUREVITCH: You, the reader, are
being told for the first time

1339
01:08:32,591 --> 01:08:37,665
what it's actually like to
experience a nuclear bomb blast.

1340
01:08:39,425 --> 01:08:42,221
HERSEY: "Everything fell and
Miss Sasaki lost consciousness.

1341
01:08:42,325 --> 01:08:45,224
"The bookcases right behind her
swooped forward

1342
01:08:45,328 --> 01:08:48,054
"and the contents
threw her down,

1343
01:08:48,158 --> 01:08:49,711
"with her left leg
horribly twisted

1344
01:08:49,815 --> 01:08:51,023
"and breaking underneath her.

1345
01:08:52,162 --> 01:08:53,784
"There, in the tin factory,

1346
01:08:53,888 --> 01:08:55,959
"in the first moment
of the Atomic Age,

1347
01:08:56,062 --> 01:08:59,169
a human being
was crushed by books."

1348
01:09:06,349 --> 01:09:09,904
♪

1349
01:09:10,007 --> 01:09:13,010
YAGODA: Hersey comes back
and then holes himself away,

1350
01:09:13,114 --> 01:09:15,254
takes about a month
to write this piece.

1351
01:09:16,911 --> 01:09:18,430
GOUREVITCH: He had originally
thought he was writing

1352
01:09:18,533 --> 01:09:21,157
a standard "New Yorker" piece
of about 7,500 words,

1353
01:09:21,260 --> 01:09:23,159
which is a decent-sized length.

1354
01:09:24,919 --> 01:09:28,612
But when he started typing,
he ended up with 30,000 words.

1355
01:09:30,027 --> 01:09:32,237
YAGODA:
The editor had the idea

1356
01:09:32,340 --> 01:09:35,171
that we'd publish it
all in one piece.

1357
01:09:35,274 --> 01:09:37,380
So if it was gonna be
in one issue,

1358
01:09:37,483 --> 01:09:40,452
it would have to be
the entire issue,

1359
01:09:40,555 --> 01:09:43,213
which had never happened before.

1360
01:09:45,319 --> 01:09:47,355
GOUREVITCH: Harold Ross,
who started "The New Yorker,"

1361
01:09:47,459 --> 01:09:48,977
liked the idea
of emptying the magazine

1362
01:09:49,081 --> 01:09:51,221
and putting in this one thing,
but it was also, like,

1363
01:09:51,325 --> 01:09:52,774
is that too at odds

1364
01:09:52,878 --> 01:09:54,983
with the larger identity
of "The New Yorker"?

1365
01:09:56,675 --> 01:09:58,504
And he went back
and looked at the original

1366
01:09:58,608 --> 01:10:00,230
statement of purpose
he had put out

1367
01:10:00,334 --> 01:10:02,336
when he started the magazine
in 1925.

1368
01:10:02,439 --> 01:10:08,100
♪ ♪

1369
01:10:08,204 --> 01:10:10,758
And it said, "'The New Yorker'
is an undertaking

1370
01:10:10,861 --> 01:10:13,139
of serious purpose,"
and he thought,

1371
01:10:13,243 --> 01:10:14,934
"That's it"-- like,
"Serious is enough for me.

1372
01:10:15,038 --> 01:10:16,419
I can do this."

1373
01:10:18,559 --> 01:10:21,182
YAGODA: The illustration had
been commissioned weeks before.

1374
01:10:23,288 --> 01:10:26,291
So Ross and Shawn
decided that they would

1375
01:10:26,394 --> 01:10:28,327
put words on the cover.

1376
01:10:29,432 --> 01:10:31,951
GOUREVITCH: Then they sent it
off to the printers.

1377
01:10:34,644 --> 01:10:36,128
YAGODA:
Shawn sent someone

1378
01:10:36,232 --> 01:10:38,406
to Grand Central Station
to see if people were buying it.

1379
01:10:38,510 --> 01:10:39,718
He was a little concerned.

1380
01:10:40,719 --> 01:10:43,411
GOUREVITCH: It was people
walking past the newsstand,

1381
01:10:43,515 --> 01:10:45,896
and word of mouth within a day

1382
01:10:46,000 --> 01:10:47,829
sold out
the entire newsstand run.

1383
01:10:50,280 --> 01:10:53,076
CALLISON: Everybody at
"The New Yorker" was astonished.

1384
01:10:53,179 --> 01:10:55,803
Nobody expected this.

1385
01:10:57,218 --> 01:10:58,426
GOUREVITCH:
Einstein tried to buy

1386
01:10:58,530 --> 01:11:00,428
a thousand copies
of the magazine,

1387
01:11:00,532 --> 01:11:02,258
and couldn't get any
because it sold out

1388
01:11:02,361 --> 01:11:04,121
the day it hit the stands.

1389
01:11:08,574 --> 01:11:10,852
YAGODA: It was the biggest story
of the year.

1390
01:11:10,956 --> 01:11:12,820
It was written about
in all the papers

1391
01:11:12,923 --> 01:11:14,960
and "Time" and "Newsweek."

1392
01:11:16,548 --> 01:11:18,343
WELLERSTEIN: It got immediately
turned into a book.

1393
01:11:21,587 --> 01:11:24,210
This was the sensation
of the season.

1394
01:11:26,040 --> 01:11:27,800
MITCHELL:
The entire article was read

1395
01:11:27,904 --> 01:11:29,112
over national radio.

1396
01:11:29,215 --> 01:11:30,631
MAN: "Hiroshima"

1397
01:11:30,734 --> 01:11:31,977
by John Hersey.

1398
01:11:32,080 --> 01:11:33,806
This chronicle of suffering
and destruction

1399
01:11:33,910 --> 01:11:35,221
is broadcast as a warning

1400
01:11:35,325 --> 01:11:38,501
that what happened to the people
of Hiroshima a year ago

1401
01:11:38,604 --> 01:11:40,330
could next happen anywhere.

1402
01:11:41,504 --> 01:11:43,920
WELLERSTEIN: It's written in
this very dispassionate way.

1403
01:11:44,955 --> 01:11:47,855
MAN: "And every one of them
seemed to be hurt in some way.

1404
01:11:47,958 --> 01:11:50,236
"On some undressed bodies,
the burns had made

1405
01:11:50,340 --> 01:11:52,894
"patterns of undershirt straps
and suspenders.

1406
01:11:52,998 --> 01:11:55,207
"And on the skin of some women,

1407
01:11:55,311 --> 01:11:58,003
the shapes of flowers
they had had on their kimonos."

1408
01:11:59,556 --> 01:12:03,698
CALLISON:
He wanted us to see the Japanese

1409
01:12:03,802 --> 01:12:07,115
as people, not as monsters.

1410
01:12:08,427 --> 01:12:10,774
WELLERSTEIN: They're just trying
to live their lives,

1411
01:12:10,878 --> 01:12:12,017
and this is the world
they happen to live in,

1412
01:12:12,120 --> 01:12:14,502
and then this horrible thing
happens to them.

1413
01:12:17,091 --> 01:12:22,130
To me, that's a really
profound shift in perspective.

1414
01:12:25,202 --> 01:12:27,722
MITCHELL: Various things that
have been done to keep a lid

1415
01:12:27,826 --> 01:12:30,518
on images from Hiroshima,
radiation sickness.

1416
01:12:32,382 --> 01:12:34,177
Now in one fell swoop,

1417
01:12:34,280 --> 01:12:37,422
John Hersey threatened
to disrupt that.

1418
01:12:39,320 --> 01:12:41,357
GORDIN: That puts
the Truman administration

1419
01:12:41,460 --> 01:12:43,359
into a bit of a panic,
and they start to organize

1420
01:12:43,462 --> 01:12:47,363
a second wave,
reinterpreting the narrative

1421
01:12:47,466 --> 01:12:51,056
of what the bomb means in
order to counter Hersey's story.

1422
01:12:51,159 --> 01:12:54,231
[explosion roars]

1423
01:12:56,648 --> 01:12:58,339
MITCHELL:
This was a key moment,

1424
01:12:58,443 --> 01:13:01,756
because U.S. nuclear bomb tests
were really ramping up.

1425
01:13:01,860 --> 01:13:04,690
We were on the verge
of developing the hydrogen bomb,

1426
01:13:04,794 --> 01:13:06,658
and of course, the Soviets
were full speed ahead.

1427
01:13:06,761 --> 01:13:08,867
Uh, behind us,
but full speed ahead.

1428
01:13:08,970 --> 01:13:12,767
So this was
a kind of turning point.

1429
01:13:12,871 --> 01:13:14,907
GORDIN: The audience
is the American public

1430
01:13:15,011 --> 01:13:17,807
that you want not to turn
against the nuclear deterrent.

1431
01:13:18,877 --> 01:13:19,912
FILM NARRATOR:
If you are at home

1432
01:13:20,016 --> 01:13:21,293
when a surprise attack occurs,

1433
01:13:21,397 --> 01:13:24,054
crawl beneath a table
if it is very near the window.

1434
01:13:24,158 --> 01:13:25,780
[glass shatters]

1435
01:13:25,884 --> 01:13:28,473
If the people of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki had known

1436
01:13:28,576 --> 01:13:30,889
what we know
about civil defense,

1437
01:13:30,992 --> 01:13:33,443
thousands of lives
would have been saved.

1438
01:13:35,411 --> 01:13:37,861
You want them to think
that nuclear bombs are okay,

1439
01:13:37,965 --> 01:13:39,656
that we should have them,

1440
01:13:39,760 --> 01:13:42,141
and that nothing untoward
happened

1441
01:13:42,245 --> 01:13:45,800
when they were used to destroy
two Japanese cities.

1442
01:13:45,904 --> 01:13:47,284
WELLERSTEIN:
So a number of people associated

1443
01:13:47,388 --> 01:13:49,528
with the Manhattan Project--
James Conant,

1444
01:13:49,632 --> 01:13:51,081
the president of Harvard,

1445
01:13:51,185 --> 01:13:53,394
General Groves,

1446
01:13:53,498 --> 01:13:55,914
Secretary of War Stimson--
they collaborate

1447
01:13:56,017 --> 01:13:59,814
and produce
this multiple-authored article

1448
01:13:59,918 --> 01:14:01,609
that's going to come out
under Stimson's name,

1449
01:14:01,713 --> 01:14:03,300
and it's going to be
the official

1450
01:14:03,404 --> 01:14:05,061
"Why we dropped
the atomic bomb."

1451
01:14:06,752 --> 01:14:08,582
The United States built
this weapon

1452
01:14:08,685 --> 01:14:10,549
because
it was afraid of the Nazis.

1453
01:14:12,344 --> 01:14:14,657
[crowd chanting and exclaiming
in German]

1454
01:14:14,760 --> 01:14:16,762
It didn't really want
to use this weapon,

1455
01:14:16,866 --> 01:14:18,902
but Truman had this choice
in front of him.

1456
01:14:19,006 --> 01:14:20,525
Do we invade Japan?

1457
01:14:20,628 --> 01:14:22,285
[explosion pounds]

1458
01:14:22,388 --> 01:14:25,150
GORDIN: There is a very
elaborate narrative

1459
01:14:25,253 --> 01:14:27,911
that such an invasion
would have been enormously

1460
01:14:28,015 --> 01:14:30,189
destructive of American lives,

1461
01:14:30,293 --> 01:14:33,986
and even more destructive
of Japanese lives.

1462
01:14:34,090 --> 01:14:36,955
And so the atomic bomb
was a merciful way

1463
01:14:37,058 --> 01:14:39,889
to end the war with
the fewest casualties possible.

1464
01:14:41,131 --> 01:14:44,100
And that's a way
of trying to erode

1465
01:14:44,203 --> 01:14:47,724
the moral clarity
that Hersey is putting forward.

1466
01:14:47,828 --> 01:14:50,278
♪ ♪

1467
01:14:50,382 --> 01:14:52,246
MITCHELL:
Similar to the Hersey piece,

1468
01:14:52,349 --> 01:14:54,835
"Harper's" hyped it heavily,

1469
01:14:54,938 --> 01:14:57,700
and it gained
a very wide audience.

1470
01:14:57,803 --> 01:15:00,254
Newspapers reprinted
parts of it.

1471
01:15:00,357 --> 01:15:02,290
A lot of people basically said,

1472
01:15:02,394 --> 01:15:07,088
"Well, we've, we've had our
doubts, but this settles it."

1473
01:15:09,919 --> 01:15:13,370
"Now that we understand
why the bomb was used,

1474
01:15:13,474 --> 01:15:14,855
"we don't have to hear
about people

1475
01:15:14,958 --> 01:15:16,891
raising moral issues"
or something.

1476
01:15:20,274 --> 01:15:23,070
WELLERSTEIN:
This becomes the definitive way

1477
01:15:23,173 --> 01:15:24,727
to attack the criticisms,

1478
01:15:24,830 --> 01:15:27,108
by saying,
"It was the lesser of two evils.

1479
01:15:27,212 --> 01:15:29,041
"We agree it's really cruel,

1480
01:15:29,145 --> 01:15:30,629
"but they put us
in that position,

1481
01:15:30,733 --> 01:15:31,975
and we had no alternative."

1482
01:15:35,807 --> 01:15:38,292
MITCHELL: So what did we learn
from Hiroshima?

1483
01:15:38,395 --> 01:15:42,538
We should have been able to see
the horrible effects on humans

1484
01:15:42,641 --> 01:15:45,368
and long-term effects,
aftereffects, and so forth.

1485
01:15:45,471 --> 01:15:46,611
But instead, it was, like,

1486
01:15:46,714 --> 01:15:48,509
"Okay, well, we got away
with that."

1487
01:15:50,580 --> 01:15:53,825
GORDIN: The constraints on
journalism in the mid-'40s

1488
01:15:53,928 --> 01:15:55,067
are overwhelming.

1489
01:15:57,276 --> 01:15:59,244
So, it's very hard for me
to fault the journalists,

1490
01:15:59,347 --> 01:16:00,832
because they're up against
a secrecy apparatus

1491
01:16:00,935 --> 01:16:02,040
that is brand-new.

1492
01:16:02,143 --> 01:16:03,041
So they don't even know

1493
01:16:03,144 --> 01:16:04,076
what they don't know.

1494
01:16:04,180 --> 01:16:05,112
They don't know where to ask,

1495
01:16:05,215 --> 01:16:06,527
and no one's allowed to talk
to them.

1496
01:16:08,494 --> 01:16:11,981
STEPHENS: Censorship mostly
worked during World War II

1497
01:16:12,084 --> 01:16:14,742
and after the dropping
of the two atomic bombs

1498
01:16:14,846 --> 01:16:18,194
because General Groves
put together

1499
01:16:18,297 --> 01:16:20,817
a very effective PR effort.

1500
01:16:23,164 --> 01:16:24,545
One of the odd things is,

1501
01:16:24,649 --> 01:16:27,893
after the bombs were dropped,
the war ended.

1502
01:16:27,997 --> 01:16:31,483
And the effort to control
information continued.

1503
01:16:34,486 --> 01:16:36,522
WELLERSTEIN:
One of the more creative ways

1504
01:16:36,626 --> 01:16:38,904
to get even more
of this narrative out there is,

1505
01:16:39,008 --> 01:16:42,598
Groves worked with MGM
to make a movie

1506
01:16:42,701 --> 01:16:45,946
about the creation and use
of the atomic bombs.

1507
01:16:46,049 --> 01:16:47,741
♪ ♪

1508
01:16:47,844 --> 01:16:49,397
MITCHELL: General Groves was
the key character

1509
01:16:49,501 --> 01:16:50,882
in the movie.

1510
01:16:50,985 --> 01:16:53,298
Our country must have
an atomic bomb.

1511
01:16:53,401 --> 01:16:57,854
This must be the best-kept
secret in all history.

1512
01:16:57,958 --> 01:16:59,960
[signal buzzes]
MITCHELL: Anyone who saw it

1513
01:17:00,063 --> 01:17:02,203
would have seen
pro-bomb propaganda.

1514
01:17:02,307 --> 01:17:03,377
MAN [on speaker]: Mr. President,

1515
01:17:03,480 --> 01:17:04,792
your press secretary, Mr. Ross,
is here.

1516
01:17:04,896 --> 01:17:06,829
And all these advisers
tell me

1517
01:17:06,932 --> 01:17:10,004
the bomb will shorten the war
by at least a year.

1518
01:17:10,108 --> 01:17:12,455
And if the bomb
shortens the war,

1519
01:17:12,558 --> 01:17:15,113
it will save many thousands
of American lives.

1520
01:17:15,216 --> 01:17:17,563
INTONDI: The American public
took the narrative

1521
01:17:17,667 --> 01:17:19,427
hook, line, and sinker,
and said,

1522
01:17:19,531 --> 01:17:20,566
"Okay, this was, we, we trust
the government

1523
01:17:20,670 --> 01:17:21,982
"that this was what was needed.

1524
01:17:22,085 --> 01:17:23,224
"Thank God we got it,

1525
01:17:23,328 --> 01:17:25,088
"and it wasn't, you know,
another country,

1526
01:17:25,192 --> 01:17:26,331
"and that we have this,

1527
01:17:26,434 --> 01:17:27,953
and it was
the right thing to do."

1528
01:17:28,057 --> 01:17:30,784
And this is a remarkably
resilient narrative

1529
01:17:30,887 --> 01:17:33,338
to the point where, if you tell
somebody this narrative,

1530
01:17:33,441 --> 01:17:35,133
they'll say, "Right,
that's the story, right?"

1531
01:17:35,236 --> 01:17:39,102
And no, that didn't get
really solidified until 1947.

1532
01:17:39,206 --> 01:17:42,071
So, like, quite a ways
after Hiroshima.

1533
01:17:43,313 --> 01:17:44,694
And in many ways, it's not true.

1534
01:17:44,798 --> 01:17:47,179
♪ ♪

1535
01:17:47,283 --> 01:17:49,975
There was no deep deliberation
over whether to use the bomb.

1536
01:17:50,079 --> 01:17:53,358
There was no deep concern
about the Japanese victims.

1537
01:17:53,461 --> 01:17:56,844
The plan was to bomb and invade,
not one or the other.

1538
01:17:58,915 --> 01:18:03,368
The bombs weren't used
to end the war promptly.

1539
01:18:03,471 --> 01:18:06,509
The bombs were used
to scare the Soviet Union

1540
01:18:06,612 --> 01:18:08,062
into submission.

1541
01:18:09,408 --> 01:18:11,756
They were not the last salvos
of World War II,

1542
01:18:11,859 --> 01:18:13,481
but the first salvos
of the Cold War.

1543
01:18:13,585 --> 01:18:16,484
America sees itself
as taking on the mantle

1544
01:18:16,588 --> 01:18:18,970
of leading the world
into freedom.

1545
01:18:19,073 --> 01:18:21,006
[explosion pounds]

1546
01:18:21,110 --> 01:18:24,976
And the bomb is just
an element of that story.

1547
01:18:33,260 --> 01:18:35,365
[Morse code beeping]

1548
01:18:35,469 --> 01:18:37,471
PROGRAM ANNOUNCER:
The Longines Futurscope.

1549
01:18:37,574 --> 01:18:41,337
A television production
of "Men and Ideas."

1550
01:18:41,440 --> 01:18:43,753
In this field of science,
what would you say was

1551
01:18:43,857 --> 01:18:46,860
the most exciting event
that you have ever reported?

1552
01:18:46,963 --> 01:18:49,690
One night on the desert
of New Mexico,

1553
01:18:49,794 --> 01:18:52,451
on July 16, 1945...

1554
01:18:52,555 --> 01:18:55,523
GORDIN: Into the early 1950s,
Laurence continues

1555
01:18:55,627 --> 01:18:58,354
to fashion himself as an expert
on all things nuclear.

1556
01:18:58,457 --> 01:19:00,839
There won't be any wars
in the second millennium.

1557
01:19:00,943 --> 01:19:01,909
Because science...

1558
01:19:02,013 --> 01:19:02,910
MAN: You think war can be
eliminated?

1559
01:19:03,014 --> 01:19:04,015
I think so-- I think science

1560
01:19:04,118 --> 01:19:05,257
is going to make it unnecessary.

1561
01:19:05,361 --> 01:19:07,604
KIERNAN: Laurence became known
as "Atomic Bill."

1562
01:19:07,708 --> 01:19:09,606
He did other things
for the "Times."

1563
01:19:09,710 --> 01:19:11,298
He continued to write
other science stories,

1564
01:19:11,401 --> 01:19:14,301
but his brand was
the atomic bomb.

1565
01:19:15,578 --> 01:19:17,718
In a lot of ways,
it is a sad legacy.

1566
01:19:17,822 --> 01:19:20,686
He was a journalist
who was in a singular moment

1567
01:19:20,790 --> 01:19:24,000
with singular access,
and he squandered it.

1568
01:19:26,313 --> 01:19:28,142
ROSS:
After Loeb leaves Japan,

1569
01:19:28,246 --> 01:19:30,386
he returns to Cleveland,

1570
01:19:30,489 --> 01:19:32,698
where he serves
as a managing editor

1571
01:19:32,802 --> 01:19:34,735
of the
"Cleveland Call and Post."

1572
01:19:35,978 --> 01:19:38,808
He is called
"the Dean of Black Journalism."

1573
01:19:39,844 --> 01:19:41,121
INTONDI:
Without Charles Loeb,

1574
01:19:41,224 --> 01:19:43,813
you don't get the Black
journalists that you have today.

1575
01:19:43,917 --> 01:19:45,746
You don't get the reporting
that you have today.

1576
01:19:45,850 --> 01:19:48,473
It's one giant, long
struggle for freedom.

1577
01:19:48,576 --> 01:19:51,579
And Charles Loeb is
an essential piece of that.

1578
01:19:53,650 --> 01:19:54,928
GOUREVITCH:
John Hersey wrote

1579
01:19:55,031 --> 01:19:56,999
one of the most important pieces
of reporting

1580
01:19:57,102 --> 01:20:00,002
from the war and of a defining
new event in world history.

1581
01:20:01,935 --> 01:20:06,594
STEPHENS: This was a patriotic
American reporting

1582
01:20:06,698 --> 01:20:10,288
on the horrors that
the United States had caused.

1583
01:20:10,391 --> 01:20:13,878
That's journalism
at its most important.

1584
01:20:15,949 --> 01:20:18,986
HERSEY: If people could imagine
what it was like to be

1585
01:20:19,090 --> 01:20:20,643
one of the survivors,

1586
01:20:20,746 --> 01:20:22,438
and then, on top of that,

1587
01:20:22,541 --> 01:20:26,097
realized that a nuclear weapon

1588
01:20:26,200 --> 01:20:29,065
2,900 times as powerful
as the Hiroshima bomb

1589
01:20:29,169 --> 01:20:30,273
has been tested...

1590
01:20:30,377 --> 01:20:33,380
[explosion roars]

1591
01:20:33,483 --> 01:20:36,486
...then I think that memory
would have moved us much faster

1592
01:20:36,590 --> 01:20:38,868
toward getting rid
of these weapons.

1593
01:20:40,318 --> 01:20:41,802
NARRATOR:
In 1952,

1594
01:20:41,906 --> 01:20:44,632
seven years after
the atomic bombings,

1595
01:20:44,736 --> 01:20:49,051
the U.S. occupation of Japan
ends and censorship is lifted.

1596
01:20:50,466 --> 01:20:52,226
NARRATOR: Americans finally get
to see

1597
01:20:52,330 --> 01:20:55,851
what the attacks looked like
from the ground,

1598
01:20:55,954 --> 01:20:58,232
a view they had never seen
before.

1599
01:20:58,336 --> 01:21:02,512
"Life" magazine publishes
Yoshito Matsushige's photographs

1600
01:21:02,616 --> 01:21:04,825
in a special spread.

1601
01:21:06,240 --> 01:21:08,104
MITCHELL: One of Matsushige's
most famous photos

1602
01:21:08,208 --> 01:21:10,935
is a picture of people on
a bridge leading into Hiroshima,

1603
01:21:11,038 --> 01:21:14,490
and you can still see
this dust cloud down the road.

1604
01:21:14,593 --> 01:21:17,113
And so the symbolic value to me
was always,

1605
01:21:17,217 --> 01:21:20,323
ever since that day, we've all
been on that road to Hiroshima,

1606
01:21:20,427 --> 01:21:24,465
in this nuclear threat that
we've lived with since 1945.

1607
01:21:24,569 --> 01:21:27,883
♪ ♪

1608
01:21:38,824 --> 01:21:45,003
♪

1609
01:22:04,643 --> 01:22:11,167
♪

1610
01:22:21,005 --> 01:22:24,249
♪