This film is a U.S. Army documentary on the aftermath of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 6 and August 9, 1945.
The United States, with the consent of the United Kingdom as laid down in the Quebec Agreement (1943), dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945 respectively, during the final stage of World War 2 (1939-45). The two bombings remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history.
In the final year of the war, the Allies prepared for what was anticipated to be a very costly invasion of the Japanese mainland. The war in Europe had concluded when Germany signed its instrument of surrender on May 8, 1945. The Japanese, facing the same fate, refused to accept the Allies' demands for unconditional surrender and the Pacific War continued. Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945 - the alternative being "prompt and utter destruction". The Japanese response to this ultimatum was to ignore it.
On July 16, 1945, the Allied Manhattan Project successfully detonated an atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert and by August had produced atomic weapons based on two alternate designs. The 509th Composite Group of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) was equipped with the specialized Silverplate version of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, that could deliver them from Tinian in the Mariana Islands. The B-29 christened Enola Gay (after the mother of its pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets).
On August 6, the U.S. dropped a uranium gun-type atomic bomb (Little Boy) on the city of Hiroshima. The explosion immediately wiped out 90 percent of the city. U.S. President Harry S. Truman called for Japan's surrender 16 hours later, warning them to "expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth." Three days later, on August 9, the U.S. dropped a plutonium implosion-type bomb (Fat Man) on the city of Nagasaki.
On August 15, six days after the bombing of Nagasaki and the Soviet Union's declaration of war, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender to the Allies in a radio address. The news spread quickly, and “Victory in Japan” or “V-J Day” celebrations broke out across the United States and other Allied nations. The formal surrender agreement, that effectively ended the World War 2, was signed on September 2, aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.
The bombings' role in Japan's surrender and their ethical justification are still debated.
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