| DOCUMENTARY NARRATOR: "On the cruisers | | | | would die from the after effects of those blasts. |
| and destroyers and battleships, our heavy | | | | Japan surrendered, possibly because of the |
| batteries once more leveled against the | | | | psychological impact of such large bombs on the |
| Jap-studded hills of Okinawa. The barking 20's and | | | | nation and its leaders. The war with Japan was |
| 40's sent streams of fiery lead into the world's | | | | over and the U.S. had won. |
| last alien sky." | | | | Avoiding a land-invasion of Japan was believed at |
| In 1945, with war raging in the Pacific, U.S. | | | | the time to have saved thousands of U.S. lives. |
| President Harry Truman was contemplating an | | | | But author Kai Bird, who wrote a biography of |
| invasion of Japan. | | | | Robert Oppenheimer -- one of the developers of |
| Robert James Maddox is a retired professor of | | | | the weapon -- says even Mr. Oppenheimer |
| history, and author of "Weapons For Victory: The | | | | questioned the morality of the decision to use the |
| Hiroshima Decision." He says Truman's decision to | | | | bomb. "He said that this was a weapon of terror |
| drop the atom bomb, rather than invade Japan, | | | | that had been used on a virtually defeated |
| was never really in doubt. | | | | enemy, an already virtually defeated enemy. This |
| "And the predictions were this would be | | | | is an extraordinary thing for the man who |
| enormously bloody because the Japanese were | | | | invented the weapon to say only months after |
| amassing troops, they had millions, literally millions | | | | the use of it." |
| of troops, so estimates ran up to 500,000 | | | | Some critics today believe Japan was about |
| American deaths or more in the event we had to | | | | ready to surrender, and that the Truman |
| undertake this. | | | | administration's real motivation may have been to |
| There really wasn't so much a decision made to | | | | project its newfound military might. |
| use the bomb as it was a question, as one official | | | | Bird added, "And that it would also be useful to |
| put it, of when the bomb would be ready." | | | | send a message in the post war period that |
| NEWSCLIP:"8:15 in the morning found a 400 pound | | | | America had this enormous weapon and that, he |
| [180 kilogram] bomb, with a destructive force of | | | | referred to it as a weapon in our back pocket, |
| 20,000 tons of TNT mushrooming up over the | | | | that would be sending a message, a diplomatic |
| stunned enemy city. To the frightened inhabitants, | | | | message to the Soviets." |
| the end of the world had come." | | | | More traditional historians, like Robert Maddox, |
| When the first Atomic bomb ever used in war | | | | take issue with that analysis. Maddox says, "The |
| exploded over the city of Hiroshima, between | | | | so-called revisionist approach is that dropping the |
| 70,000 to 90,000 people were instantly | | | | bomb was not the last chapter of World War II, |
| incinerated. | | | | it was the opening chapter of the Cold War, and |
| NEWSCLIP:"Japan could not believe the tragedy | | | | that when we dropped the bombs, we knew that |
| that had befallen it. But then three days later, a | | | | Japan would surrender if only we gave them a |
| flock of B-29's soared over the seaport of | | | | chance, but that we dropped it anyhow in order |
| Nagasaki. This was the awesome sight that | | | | to impress the Soviets. That's nonsense.' |
| unfolded for the plane's crew." | | | | It is still a contentious issue. Historians may still be |
| A second bomb destroyed another 40,000 to | | | | arguing about the decision to drop the bomb 60 |
| 60,000 Japanese, mostly civilians, at Nagasaki. In | | | | years from now. |
| the years that followed tens of thousands more | | | | |