World War II in Colour (2009–…): Season 1, Episode 13 - Victory in the Pacific - full transcript
Japan keeps continues its suicidal resistance, and invading it looks costly. After 2 atomic bombs, the Emperor intervenes and stops the War. Stalin grabs territory in East Asia. The War is over, and the Atomic Era and the Cold War start.
[theme song plays]
[background music over dialogue]
[bombs exploding]
[cannon fire]
[woman crying]
[cannon fire]
[narrator] In the first months of 1945,
Japan was on the run.
[fire crackling]
The Americans had fought
their way across the Pacific.
US submarines and aircraft
had destroyed
Japan's merchant fleet
and naval airpower.
[explosion]
The main Japanese home islands
had been cut off
from vital supplies of fuel
and raw materials.
The Japanese were facing defeat.
Yet they refused to surrender,
convinced that if they fought back
with sufficient brutality,
the Americans wouldn't have
the stomach for the fight
and would give in.
Japan made clear that every move
towards the home islands
would be paid for
in Allied blood.
It presented the United States
with a huge problem.
How could Japan be defeated
without a terrible loss
of American life?
[background music over dialogue]
The country would
eventually turn
to the most powerful
and dreadful weapon ever seen.
[explosion]
A weapon that would change
the course of war forever.
In early 1945,
as US military planners considered
the next move against Japan,
their gaze fell on the Japanese
occupied island of Iwo Jima.
It lay a mere 800 miles
from the Japanese mainland
and would be a valuable base
for attacking the country.
The US commander
in the central Pacific,
Admiral Chester Nimitz,
assembled the largest landing fleet
ever brought together
in the Pacific campaign,
and prepared
to invade the island.
Nimitz was taking no risks.
Wave after wave
of American aircraft
paved the way with
a massive aerial bombardment.
[explosions]
[plane engines roaring]
[explosions]
Then, on the morning
of February the 19th, 1945,
the guns of the naval task force
began one of the most prolonged
bombardments of the war.
[explosions]
At the same time, landing craft
set off for the shore.
The marines hit
the beaches of Iwo Jima
along the south-western shore
just after 9 o'clock
in the morning.
For a few moments,
there was an eerie calm.
The massive naval
and aerial bombardment
appeared to have overwhelmed
the Japanese garrison.
Then a hurricane of
Japanese fire swept over them.
[weaponry fire]
General Tadamichi Kuribayashi,
the Japanese commander
on the island,
had told his men to hold their fire
until the Americans were
right under their guns.
[explosions]
Now, the Japanese opened
up from a network
of tunnels, caves and bunkers.
[explosions]
There was carnage.
But gradually,
small groups of US troops
inched their way forward.
[fire crackling]
Finally, by the evening,
the beachhead had been secured.
The task now was to capture
the 550 foot high
Mount Suribachi,
the heavily defended volcano
that dominates Iwo Jima.
[explosions]
For three days,
marines clawed their way up
the steep pitted slopes.
[gunfire]
They were supported
by a constant air
and naval bombardment
from the invasion fleet.
[explosions]
Finally,
on February the 23rd, 1945,
a US platoon, led by
First Lieutenant Harold Schreier,
began the final assault,
carrying with them
a small US flag.
They reached the summit,
and raised their flag
using a piece of piping
as a pole.
Marine Corps photographer,
Staff Sergeant Louis Lowery,
captured the scene
with a few precious photographs.
The hard-pressed marines
on the beaches below
cheered and wept.
Ships sounded their whistles.
Three hours later,
the event was re-staged
with a larger US flag.
The moment was immortalised
by photographer
Joe Rosenthal,
with one of the most
iconic photographs of the war.
But the battle for Iwo Jima
was far from over.
[gunfire]
The rest of the island
was still in Japanese hands.
The next day,
the marines captured the first
of the island's strategically
vital airfields.
[gunfire]
But Kuribayashi had told his men
to take as many of the enemy
with them as possible.
Their duty to the Emperor,
to die on the island.
[explosions]
It meant each assault became
a bloody frontal affair.
It took two weeks before the remaining
two airfields on the island
were in US hands.
Even as the fighting continued,
the US air force began
to make use of Iwo Jima's airfields.
During the late spring
and summer of 1945,
over 2,500 damaged US bombers
made emergency landings
on the island,
often saving the lives
of their crews.
Finally, at the end of March,
after some six weeks
of ferocious fighting,
the last Japanese resistance
was snuffed out.
But the capture of Iwo Jima
had come at a terrible price.
Only 200 of the 22,000-strong
Japanese garrison survived.
The Americans had also
suffered badly.
Nearly 7,000 marines had been killed
and some 18,000 wounded.
The Americans finally
had the base they needed,
but it was now clear
that unless the US could come up
with an alternative,
any invasion of Japan
would be paid for
in tens of thousands
of American lives.
[plane engines roaring]
In the United States,
one group of military planners
had long believed there was
an alternative to invading Japan.
It was called strategic bombing.
This involved carefully
targeted bombing raids,
designed to destroy
Japan's infrastructure,
industry,
and ability to wage war.
But in the first years
of the Pacific war,
there was a problem.
Japan lay beyond the range
of America's bombers.
In April 1942,
the US had managed to launch
a one off bombing raid on Tokyo,
but it had pushed
the bombers to their limits,
and was never
a practical long-term option.
Then, in early 1944,
the Boeing Aircraft Corporation
produced a revolutionary
new heavy bomber,
the B-29 Superfortress.
It could carry
20,000 pounds of bombs
over a range of 3,250 miles.
Suddenly,
Japan was just about in reach
of America's forward bases
in the Pacific.
In summer 1944,
nine months before the assault
on Iwo Jima,
US B-29s stationed at Chengdu
in southwest China,
began a series of
strategic bombing raids on Japan.
But range was still an issue.
It was too far for a fighter escort,
so the Superfortresses
had to fly alone,
staying at high altitude
for their own safety.
Even then, the range was
only just within limits
and there was no room
for navigational error.
[explosions]
Many of the bombs
missed their targets.
Then, in July 1944,
there was a development
that gave strategic bombing
a new lease of life.
The US Navy captured
the Mariana Islands
in the central Pacific.
They were only 1,500 miles
from the Japanese homeland.
This was well within
the B-29s operating range.
The odds for a successful
bombing campaign
on Japan had
dramatically improved.
On November the 24th,
over 100 Superfortresses
took off from the Marianas.
Their target,
the Nakajima aircraft factory in Tokyo.
But only 48 bombs struck
anywhere near the target.
For three months, more raids
targeted other industrial sites.
But the B-29s were still flying
without a fighter escort,
and still dropping their bombs
from high altitude.
The targets were often obscured
by cloud,
and jet stream winds made
accurate bomb-aiming impossible.
To make matters worse,
the B-29s suffered
from engine problems.
There were also attacks
from Kamikaze pilots.
[firing]
[explosion]
By the winter of 1944,
it was clear
that strategic bombing
was just not working.
If Japan was to be bombed
into submission,
the US would have to come up
with something else.
So it was that on
December the 18th, 1944,
America tried a new tactic.
Eighty-four B-29s set off
from Chengdu
for Japanese occupied Hankow
on the Yangtse River.
They flew much lower than usual
and carried mostly incendiary,
rather than high-explosive bombs.
[explosion]
Hankow was devastated.
The raid was more effective
than almost any
of the previous strategic
bombing raids.
[fire crackling]
The US appeared to have found
a way forward.
Fire-bombing at low altitude.
The US bomber commander
in the Marianas,
General Curtis LeMay,
now ordered
the systematic fire-bombing
of Japan.
It was the same tactic that
Britain had employed in Germany.
[plane engine starts]
[plane engines roaring]
On the evening
of March the 9th, 1945,
Pathfinder aircraft
roared over Tokyo
dropping
incendiary target indicators.
The fires they started
marked the aiming points
for almost 300 B-29s.
Coming in at just 5,000 feet,
they dropped over 2,000 tons
of incendiary bombs.
[explosion]
The flimsy wooden houses
stood no chance.
Air was sucked in,
creating towering firestorms,
which raced faster
than people could run.
[fire crackling]
[indistinct chatter]
The glow for the burning city
could be seen
over 150 miles away.
[explosion]
When the all clear finally
sounded the following morning,
16 square miles of Tokyo
had been obliterated.
Over 100,000 of its citizens were killed
and a million made homeless.
Tokyo was not the only city to face
this devastating new tactic.
Nagoya was set ablaze
two nights later.
Then, Osaka and Kobe
during the following week.
Firestorms engulfed whole areas,
destroying houses
and industrial facilities.
[explosion]
But American success
was coming at a price.
Without escorts,
the low-flying US bombers
were dangerously vulnerable
to Japanese fighters.
American losses now mounted.
If the bombing campaign
was ever to succeed,
the US needed bases
even closer to Japan.
Within weeks, Iwo Jima fell.
Now, at last, the US air force
not only had a base for its bombers
within easy striking distance
of Japan,
it could finally use
its Mustang fighters to escort them.
[plane engines roaring]
During the late spring
and early summer of 1945,
strikes of up to 500 bombers
attacked Japan every other day.
[explosion]
Once the largest industrial
areas had been crippled,
LeMay moved on
to lesser targets.
Yet, in the face of
catastrophic damage
and an appalling death toll,
the Japanese showed
no sign of cracking.
It finally dawned
on the Americans
that strategic bombing alone
was never going to defeat Japan.
[cheering]
It looked like a full scale invasion
of the country
was becoming inevitable.
[plane engines roaring]
For the US battle planners,
the next logical step
in the land campaign
was the Japanese island
of Okinawa.
It lay a mere 350 miles from
the Japanese homeland islands.
[soldiers marching]
The island was defended
by more than 120,000 men.
The Japanese commander,
General Mitsuru Ishijima,
was determined to turn it
into an American graveyard.
Once again, Admiral Nimitz,
the US commander
in the region,
assembled a huge fleet.
It included 40 aircraft carriers
and 18 battleships.
The opening bombardment
of Okinawa
began on March the 23rd, 1945.
[explosions]
It lasted for a whole week.
[explosion]
[explosions]
Finally, on the morning
of April the 1st,
the assault boats
headed for the shore.
To their surprise,
they met almost no opposition.
By nightfall,
60,000 men had landed
and the beachhead
was up to two miles deep.
For the next two days,
the US forces built up
their strength and
pushed across the island.
[gun firing]
Again, opposition
was unexpectedly light.
By April the 4th,
the Japanese defenders
had been split in two.
Marine divisions
now headed north,
Army units pushed south.
The marines continued to meet
only sporadic resistance,
and within three weeks had cleared
the northern part of the island.
But it was a different story
in the south.
There, the army units
ran into savage fire.
[explosions]
For ten days, the Japanese
held their defensive line.
[cannon firing]
Then, when they could
hold out no longer,
they simply withdrew to
the next defensive position,
and continued to resist
all over again.
Meanwhile,
the Japanese also prepared
to launch an air assault
on the invasion fleet.
Early on the morning
of April the 7th,
kamikaze pilots gathered to drink
their ritual cups of sake
and climb into their aircraft
for the last time.
Over 700 aircraft,
half of them kamikazes,
took off and approached
the US landing fleet.
[plane engines roaring]
[machine gunfire]
A line of
radar-equipped destroyers,
operating about 50 miles out at sea,
was hit first.
[machine gunfire]
By the end of
the first day of the attack,
two US destroyers had been sunk.
[explosion]
Twenty-four other vessels
were also damaged.
But the Japanese had lost
over 300 planes.
Over the following days,
the Japanese introduced
a new weapon.
The Okha, or Cherry Blossom,
was a rocket-powered suicide missile
driven by a kamikaze pilot.
It was launched from a bomber
and carried a massive
2,650 pound warhead.
[machine gunfire]
On April the 12th, another
US destroyer was hit and sunk.
[explosion]
The Okha looked deadly,
but US fighters quickly learned
to intercept and shoot down
the bombers that carried them.
In desperation,
the Japanese navy now sent
a suicide mission of its own.
The Yamato,
Japan's largest battleship,
was loaded with just enough
fuel to reach Okinawa,
and ordered
to fight to the death,
sinking as many US ships
as possible in the process.
But as the giant ship
approached Okinawa,
it was spotted.
Some 400 US aircraft
descended on it.
[explosions]
Within two hours, it blew up.
The fireball could be seen
for over 100 miles.
Back on Okinawa, torrential rain
now turned the battlefield
into a quagmire.
For over a month, US troops struggled
to push their way south.
Every cave or dugout entrance
had to be blasted
by flamethrowers,
grenades, and explosives.
[machine gunfire]
As before, as one defensive line
was overrun,
the Japanese
slipped back to another,
and the whole grim business
would start again.
[gunfire]
US casualties rapidly mounted.
Finally, on June the 1st,
the town of Shuri was captured.
Then, on June the 4th,
a new contingent of marines
landed to the south of Naha,
the island's capital,
and linked up with troops
pushing down from the north.
[gunfire]
Savage fighting continued,
but by June the 17th,
the Japanese resistance
was collapsing.
Five days later, the Americans
finally secured Okinawa.
The Japanese commander,
General Ishijima,
committed ritual suicide,
hara kiri.
Over 7,000 prisoners were taken,
the first time ever
that such large numbers
of Japanese troops
had surrendered.
It had been a bloody
and exhausting campaign.
100,000 Japanese soldiers,
and some 40,000 civilians,
had been killed.
The Americans, for their part,
had lost over 15,000 men.
It was a sobering reminder of
what would await the American forces
if they invaded the main
Japanese home islands.
More than ever,
they needed a solution,
a way to obliterate
Japan's will to fight,
once and for all.
[indistinct chatter]
The victory at Okinawa meant
America's military planners now
had to decide what to do next.
Despite shattering defeats,
the Japanese
still showed no sign
of surrendering.
Some US commanders
argued for a continuation
of the fire bombing campaign,
but by the summer of 1945,
it was clear
that bombing alone
would never defeat Japan.
An invasion seemed unavoidable,
[background music over dialogue]
but the question was,
at what price?
[gun firing]
The Japanese had some one million men
defending the home islands.
They were supported
by about 5,000 aircraft,
and new kamikaze pilots
were being trained all the time.
[soldiers marching]
Mass suicide attacks
by civilian volunteers
could also be expected.
A bloodbath seemed inevitable.
It was estimated that over
a quarter of a million
American lives might be lost.
Then, in July 1945,
the new US President,
Harry S. Truman,
heard about the results
of a top secret Allied
scientific research program.
It was called
the Manhattan Project.
For three years, Allied scientists
had been working
on an atom bomb,
a weapon that draws on
the vast quantities of energy released
when an atom is split.
It would have an unimaginable
destructive force.
The project was led by
US General Leslie Groves,
an Army engineer.
The scientific director
was Robert Oppenheimer,
a 39-year-old physicist from
the University of California.
Over a three year period,
the program had recruited
many of the Allies'
best scientific brains.
Two radioactive materials seemed
to offer most promise as fuels
for the new bombs.
One was a naturally occurring
form of uranium
called Uranium 235.
It was processed at a vast
factory at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
The other was plutonium,
a man-made material
manufactured
in primitive nuclear reactors
at Hanford in Washington State.
The research was
coordinated and conducted
by a team of scientists
at Los Alamos,
a specially built laboratory complex
in the New Mexico desert.
By early 1945,
the Los Alamo scientists
were pretty confident that they had
a uranium bomb that worked,
but it required
huge quantities of Uranium 235,
and the scientists worried
that they didn't have enough of it,
so they also designed
a second bomb that used plutonium.
But this,
unlike the uranium bomb,
was much less well understood,
and they weren't sure
it would work.
Before it could be used,
they would need to test it.
By early July 1945, after
an expenditure of more the $2 billion,
the plutonium bomb
was ready for trials.
The Gadget,
as it was called,
was mounted on a steel tower
in the New Mexico desert.
At 5:30 in the morning
of July the 16th,
the atomic age began.
[explosion]
News that Operation Trinity
had been successful
was swiftly passed
to President Truman.
He had recently arrived at a conference
in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam,
meeting with
Stalin and Churchill,
discussing the future of Europe.
Truman didn't hesitate.
[indistinct chatter]
He ordered his commanders
to prepare to drop
the new bombs on Japan
as soon as possible.
[indistinct chatter]
Two bombs, a uranium device
code-named Little Boy
and a plutonium bomb
called Fat Man,
were now transported
to the Mariana Islands.
There, the immensely experienced
Colonel Paul Tibbets,
leader of the specially trained
509th Composite Group,
prepared his B-29.
At 2:45 in the morning
of August the 6th,
Tibbets lifted his plane,
named Enola Gay after his mother,
off the runway.
On board he was carrying
Little Boy.
[plane engine roaring]
The flight to the target,
Japan's fourth largest city,
Hiroshima,
went without a hitch.
At 8am, on a bright, sunny morning,
Enola Gay approached
the city at 33,000 feet.
Then, at just after 8:15,
Little Boy was released.
[explosion]
The uranium bomb had the power
of nearly 13,000 tons of TNT.
The temperature beneath
the mushroom cloud
reached 5,000 degrees centigrade.
Thousands of people
were instantly vaporised.
Shock waves levelled buildings
up to a five mile radius.
Estimates of the death toll
vary hugely.
Some put it at 40,000 people,
others at 100,000.
Many suffered from
terrible burns and blistering.
Over the course of
the following weeks,
thousands more people died
from radiation poisoning.
On August the 7th, 1945,
President Truman
told the world about the bomb
and issued Japan
with a warning.
Let there be no mistake.
We shall completely destroy
Japan's power to make war.
[Truman] They may expect a rain
of ruin from the air,
the like of which has never been seen
on this earth.
[indistinct chatter]
[narrator] But no Japanese
surrender was received.
Two days later,
on August the 9th,
Fat Man was dropped on the major
military port of Nagasaki.
[explosion]
The plutonium bomb was
even more powerful.
[explosion]
In fact,
the bomb fell way off target,
but it still caused
massive destruction.
Between 35,000 and 50,000
people are estimated
to have died in the explosion.
The Japanese government
could now have no doubt
that they faced
a new and horrific weapon,
but the question remained,
would even this force them
to surrender?
[child crying]
The Nagasaki bomb
was followed by a stark warning
from US Secretary of State
James Byrnes.
There is still time,
but little time,
for the Japanese
to save themselves
from the destruction
which threatens them.
[narrator] The intention was clear.
The atom bomb would be used
again and again,
until Japan gave in.
[indistinct chatter]
That same day, Japan's position
became even more precarious.
[gun firing]
Early in the morning
of August the 9th,
a million and a half Soviet troops
stormed into Manchuria
and northern China.
The Soviet leader, Josef Stalin,
was not only after territory.
He wanted a say in any final
peace settlement in the far east.
There were still over a million
Japanese troops in the area,
but the Red Army blitzkrieg
was unstoppable.
The Japanese position in the war
had become untenable.
[gun firing]
That evening,
Emperor Hirohito met
with his six top military
and political leaders.
The war cabinet was divided.
Three, led by the Prime Minister,
Baron Kantaro Suzuki,
argued for peace.
[background music over dialogue]
The other three wanted
to continue fighting.
[background music over dialogue]
It was deadlock.
Then the Japanese Prime Minister
broke with all precedent,
and asked the Emperor
for his opinion.
Emperor Hirohito voted for peace,
on condition that his position
as head of state was maintained.
The next morning,
a proposal was sent
to the US Secretary of State
James Byrnes.
Byrnes rejected it.
Only unconditional surrender
would do.
[background music over dialogue]
[explosions]
As the Japanese war cabinet
argued amongst itself,
Soviet troops continued
to tear into Mongolia.
At the same time,
American fighters
now roamed freely over Japan,
shooting up military targets
and transport links at will.
[explosions]
Massive air raids continued
to devastate Japan.
[firing]
Then, on August the 14th,
the Truman administration
sent word
that the Emperor's position
would be safeguarded,
provided he agreed
to accept the orders
of the Supreme Commander
of Allied Forces.
Hirohito used his huge prestige
to instruct the war cabinet
to endure the unendurable,
and accept the terms.
That day in Washington,
President Truman announced
that Japan had surrendered
unconditionally.
[Truman] I deem this reply
a full acceptance
of the Potsdam Declaration,
which specifies
the unconditional surrender
of Japan.
[indistinct chatter]
[narrator] Cheering,
singing crowds erupted onto
the streets of every American city.
[cheering]
[cheering]
In Britain, it was midnight
when the new Prime Minister,
Clement Atlee, broadcast the news.
[Atlee] Japan has today surrendered.
The last of our enemies
is laid low.
Peace has once again
come to the world.
Let us thank God
for this great deliverance
and His mercies.
Long live the King.
[crowd cheering]
[narrator] Within minutes,
crowds appeared on
the streets of London.
Many gathered
outside Buckingham Palace.
A giant street party lasted
well into the following day.
[cheering]
The next morning,
August the 15th,
an astounded Japanese people
listened to the voice
of their god Emperor
for the very first time.
[Hirohito]
[speaking Japanese]
[narrator] He told them
that Japan's position
had become impossible,
and the country was obliged
to surrender.
All military forces
must lay down their arms.
Such was the Emperor's prestige
that almost every unit obeyed.
But in Manchuria,
despite the Japanese ceasefire,
the Soviet forces fought on.
[explosions]
For the first time, large numbers
of Japanese troops now surrendered.
Nevertheless, the Soviets,
determined to seize
as much territory as possible,
continued to advance.
Stalin wouldn't stop
the fighting for another week.
By then, the whole of Manchuria,
half of Korea,
and part of northern China
were under his control.
Elsewhere in Southeast Asia,
in the Philippines,
and on many of
the Pacific islands
bypassed by the Americans,
it took weeks for news of the surrender
to reach isolated
Japanese garrisons.
Some Japanese soldiers
would remain hidden
in the jungle
for more than 30 years.
[plane engine roaring]
Finally, on August the 28th,
two weeks after the surrender,
the first US troops
arrived in Japan.
A huge US fleet
gathered in Tokyo Bay,
sailing past the shattered hulks
of the once proud Japanese navy
that they had
so comprehensively defeated.
Several days later,
on September the 2nd, 1945,
a Japanese delegation came aboard
the USS battleship Missouri.
On its quarterdeck,
the new Japanese Foreign Minister,
Mamoru Shigemitsu,
signed the document
of unconditional surrender.
It was countersigned by
US General Douglas MacArthur,
the man who would effectively
run Japan
for the next six years.
As Supreme Commander
for the Allied powers,
I announce it my firm purpose
in the tradition of
the countries I represent,
to proceed in the discharge
of my responsibilities
with justice and tolerance.
[narrator] Then a force of
more than 2,000
Allied aircraft roared overhead.
It was a fitting tribute
to the overwhelming power
which had finally brought
Germany and Japan
to utter defeat.
[plane engines roaring]
World War II was at an end.
Japan's ruthless desire
to wage war
had been crushed by a weapon
of awesome destructive power.
Now in the East as in the West,
the world would be divided
and shared along new lines.
New allegiances would be formed,
and new enemies would vie
for global influence
under the spectre of nuclear war.
A new era in world history
had begun.
[background music over dialogue]
[bombs exploding]
[cannon fire]
[woman crying]
[cannon fire]
[narrator] In the first months of 1945,
Japan was on the run.
[fire crackling]
The Americans had fought
their way across the Pacific.
US submarines and aircraft
had destroyed
Japan's merchant fleet
and naval airpower.
[explosion]
The main Japanese home islands
had been cut off
from vital supplies of fuel
and raw materials.
The Japanese were facing defeat.
Yet they refused to surrender,
convinced that if they fought back
with sufficient brutality,
the Americans wouldn't have
the stomach for the fight
and would give in.
Japan made clear that every move
towards the home islands
would be paid for
in Allied blood.
It presented the United States
with a huge problem.
How could Japan be defeated
without a terrible loss
of American life?
[background music over dialogue]
The country would
eventually turn
to the most powerful
and dreadful weapon ever seen.
[explosion]
A weapon that would change
the course of war forever.
In early 1945,
as US military planners considered
the next move against Japan,
their gaze fell on the Japanese
occupied island of Iwo Jima.
It lay a mere 800 miles
from the Japanese mainland
and would be a valuable base
for attacking the country.
The US commander
in the central Pacific,
Admiral Chester Nimitz,
assembled the largest landing fleet
ever brought together
in the Pacific campaign,
and prepared
to invade the island.
Nimitz was taking no risks.
Wave after wave
of American aircraft
paved the way with
a massive aerial bombardment.
[explosions]
[plane engines roaring]
[explosions]
Then, on the morning
of February the 19th, 1945,
the guns of the naval task force
began one of the most prolonged
bombardments of the war.
[explosions]
At the same time, landing craft
set off for the shore.
The marines hit
the beaches of Iwo Jima
along the south-western shore
just after 9 o'clock
in the morning.
For a few moments,
there was an eerie calm.
The massive naval
and aerial bombardment
appeared to have overwhelmed
the Japanese garrison.
Then a hurricane of
Japanese fire swept over them.
[weaponry fire]
General Tadamichi Kuribayashi,
the Japanese commander
on the island,
had told his men to hold their fire
until the Americans were
right under their guns.
[explosions]
Now, the Japanese opened
up from a network
of tunnels, caves and bunkers.
[explosions]
There was carnage.
But gradually,
small groups of US troops
inched their way forward.
[fire crackling]
Finally, by the evening,
the beachhead had been secured.
The task now was to capture
the 550 foot high
Mount Suribachi,
the heavily defended volcano
that dominates Iwo Jima.
[explosions]
For three days,
marines clawed their way up
the steep pitted slopes.
[gunfire]
They were supported
by a constant air
and naval bombardment
from the invasion fleet.
[explosions]
Finally,
on February the 23rd, 1945,
a US platoon, led by
First Lieutenant Harold Schreier,
began the final assault,
carrying with them
a small US flag.
They reached the summit,
and raised their flag
using a piece of piping
as a pole.
Marine Corps photographer,
Staff Sergeant Louis Lowery,
captured the scene
with a few precious photographs.
The hard-pressed marines
on the beaches below
cheered and wept.
Ships sounded their whistles.
Three hours later,
the event was re-staged
with a larger US flag.
The moment was immortalised
by photographer
Joe Rosenthal,
with one of the most
iconic photographs of the war.
But the battle for Iwo Jima
was far from over.
[gunfire]
The rest of the island
was still in Japanese hands.
The next day,
the marines captured the first
of the island's strategically
vital airfields.
[gunfire]
But Kuribayashi had told his men
to take as many of the enemy
with them as possible.
Their duty to the Emperor,
to die on the island.
[explosions]
It meant each assault became
a bloody frontal affair.
It took two weeks before the remaining
two airfields on the island
were in US hands.
Even as the fighting continued,
the US air force began
to make use of Iwo Jima's airfields.
During the late spring
and summer of 1945,
over 2,500 damaged US bombers
made emergency landings
on the island,
often saving the lives
of their crews.
Finally, at the end of March,
after some six weeks
of ferocious fighting,
the last Japanese resistance
was snuffed out.
But the capture of Iwo Jima
had come at a terrible price.
Only 200 of the 22,000-strong
Japanese garrison survived.
The Americans had also
suffered badly.
Nearly 7,000 marines had been killed
and some 18,000 wounded.
The Americans finally
had the base they needed,
but it was now clear
that unless the US could come up
with an alternative,
any invasion of Japan
would be paid for
in tens of thousands
of American lives.
[plane engines roaring]
In the United States,
one group of military planners
had long believed there was
an alternative to invading Japan.
It was called strategic bombing.
This involved carefully
targeted bombing raids,
designed to destroy
Japan's infrastructure,
industry,
and ability to wage war.
But in the first years
of the Pacific war,
there was a problem.
Japan lay beyond the range
of America's bombers.
In April 1942,
the US had managed to launch
a one off bombing raid on Tokyo,
but it had pushed
the bombers to their limits,
and was never
a practical long-term option.
Then, in early 1944,
the Boeing Aircraft Corporation
produced a revolutionary
new heavy bomber,
the B-29 Superfortress.
It could carry
20,000 pounds of bombs
over a range of 3,250 miles.
Suddenly,
Japan was just about in reach
of America's forward bases
in the Pacific.
In summer 1944,
nine months before the assault
on Iwo Jima,
US B-29s stationed at Chengdu
in southwest China,
began a series of
strategic bombing raids on Japan.
But range was still an issue.
It was too far for a fighter escort,
so the Superfortresses
had to fly alone,
staying at high altitude
for their own safety.
Even then, the range was
only just within limits
and there was no room
for navigational error.
[explosions]
Many of the bombs
missed their targets.
Then, in July 1944,
there was a development
that gave strategic bombing
a new lease of life.
The US Navy captured
the Mariana Islands
in the central Pacific.
They were only 1,500 miles
from the Japanese homeland.
This was well within
the B-29s operating range.
The odds for a successful
bombing campaign
on Japan had
dramatically improved.
On November the 24th,
over 100 Superfortresses
took off from the Marianas.
Their target,
the Nakajima aircraft factory in Tokyo.
But only 48 bombs struck
anywhere near the target.
For three months, more raids
targeted other industrial sites.
But the B-29s were still flying
without a fighter escort,
and still dropping their bombs
from high altitude.
The targets were often obscured
by cloud,
and jet stream winds made
accurate bomb-aiming impossible.
To make matters worse,
the B-29s suffered
from engine problems.
There were also attacks
from Kamikaze pilots.
[firing]
[explosion]
By the winter of 1944,
it was clear
that strategic bombing
was just not working.
If Japan was to be bombed
into submission,
the US would have to come up
with something else.
So it was that on
December the 18th, 1944,
America tried a new tactic.
Eighty-four B-29s set off
from Chengdu
for Japanese occupied Hankow
on the Yangtse River.
They flew much lower than usual
and carried mostly incendiary,
rather than high-explosive bombs.
[explosion]
Hankow was devastated.
The raid was more effective
than almost any
of the previous strategic
bombing raids.
[fire crackling]
The US appeared to have found
a way forward.
Fire-bombing at low altitude.
The US bomber commander
in the Marianas,
General Curtis LeMay,
now ordered
the systematic fire-bombing
of Japan.
It was the same tactic that
Britain had employed in Germany.
[plane engine starts]
[plane engines roaring]
On the evening
of March the 9th, 1945,
Pathfinder aircraft
roared over Tokyo
dropping
incendiary target indicators.
The fires they started
marked the aiming points
for almost 300 B-29s.
Coming in at just 5,000 feet,
they dropped over 2,000 tons
of incendiary bombs.
[explosion]
The flimsy wooden houses
stood no chance.
Air was sucked in,
creating towering firestorms,
which raced faster
than people could run.
[fire crackling]
[indistinct chatter]
The glow for the burning city
could be seen
over 150 miles away.
[explosion]
When the all clear finally
sounded the following morning,
16 square miles of Tokyo
had been obliterated.
Over 100,000 of its citizens were killed
and a million made homeless.
Tokyo was not the only city to face
this devastating new tactic.
Nagoya was set ablaze
two nights later.
Then, Osaka and Kobe
during the following week.
Firestorms engulfed whole areas,
destroying houses
and industrial facilities.
[explosion]
But American success
was coming at a price.
Without escorts,
the low-flying US bombers
were dangerously vulnerable
to Japanese fighters.
American losses now mounted.
If the bombing campaign
was ever to succeed,
the US needed bases
even closer to Japan.
Within weeks, Iwo Jima fell.
Now, at last, the US air force
not only had a base for its bombers
within easy striking distance
of Japan,
it could finally use
its Mustang fighters to escort them.
[plane engines roaring]
During the late spring
and early summer of 1945,
strikes of up to 500 bombers
attacked Japan every other day.
[explosion]
Once the largest industrial
areas had been crippled,
LeMay moved on
to lesser targets.
Yet, in the face of
catastrophic damage
and an appalling death toll,
the Japanese showed
no sign of cracking.
It finally dawned
on the Americans
that strategic bombing alone
was never going to defeat Japan.
[cheering]
It looked like a full scale invasion
of the country
was becoming inevitable.
[plane engines roaring]
For the US battle planners,
the next logical step
in the land campaign
was the Japanese island
of Okinawa.
It lay a mere 350 miles from
the Japanese homeland islands.
[soldiers marching]
The island was defended
by more than 120,000 men.
The Japanese commander,
General Mitsuru Ishijima,
was determined to turn it
into an American graveyard.
Once again, Admiral Nimitz,
the US commander
in the region,
assembled a huge fleet.
It included 40 aircraft carriers
and 18 battleships.
The opening bombardment
of Okinawa
began on March the 23rd, 1945.
[explosions]
It lasted for a whole week.
[explosion]
[explosions]
Finally, on the morning
of April the 1st,
the assault boats
headed for the shore.
To their surprise,
they met almost no opposition.
By nightfall,
60,000 men had landed
and the beachhead
was up to two miles deep.
For the next two days,
the US forces built up
their strength and
pushed across the island.
[gun firing]
Again, opposition
was unexpectedly light.
By April the 4th,
the Japanese defenders
had been split in two.
Marine divisions
now headed north,
Army units pushed south.
The marines continued to meet
only sporadic resistance,
and within three weeks had cleared
the northern part of the island.
But it was a different story
in the south.
There, the army units
ran into savage fire.
[explosions]
For ten days, the Japanese
held their defensive line.
[cannon firing]
Then, when they could
hold out no longer,
they simply withdrew to
the next defensive position,
and continued to resist
all over again.
Meanwhile,
the Japanese also prepared
to launch an air assault
on the invasion fleet.
Early on the morning
of April the 7th,
kamikaze pilots gathered to drink
their ritual cups of sake
and climb into their aircraft
for the last time.
Over 700 aircraft,
half of them kamikazes,
took off and approached
the US landing fleet.
[plane engines roaring]
[machine gunfire]
A line of
radar-equipped destroyers,
operating about 50 miles out at sea,
was hit first.
[machine gunfire]
By the end of
the first day of the attack,
two US destroyers had been sunk.
[explosion]
Twenty-four other vessels
were also damaged.
But the Japanese had lost
over 300 planes.
Over the following days,
the Japanese introduced
a new weapon.
The Okha, or Cherry Blossom,
was a rocket-powered suicide missile
driven by a kamikaze pilot.
It was launched from a bomber
and carried a massive
2,650 pound warhead.
[machine gunfire]
On April the 12th, another
US destroyer was hit and sunk.
[explosion]
The Okha looked deadly,
but US fighters quickly learned
to intercept and shoot down
the bombers that carried them.
In desperation,
the Japanese navy now sent
a suicide mission of its own.
The Yamato,
Japan's largest battleship,
was loaded with just enough
fuel to reach Okinawa,
and ordered
to fight to the death,
sinking as many US ships
as possible in the process.
But as the giant ship
approached Okinawa,
it was spotted.
Some 400 US aircraft
descended on it.
[explosions]
Within two hours, it blew up.
The fireball could be seen
for over 100 miles.
Back on Okinawa, torrential rain
now turned the battlefield
into a quagmire.
For over a month, US troops struggled
to push their way south.
Every cave or dugout entrance
had to be blasted
by flamethrowers,
grenades, and explosives.
[machine gunfire]
As before, as one defensive line
was overrun,
the Japanese
slipped back to another,
and the whole grim business
would start again.
[gunfire]
US casualties rapidly mounted.
Finally, on June the 1st,
the town of Shuri was captured.
Then, on June the 4th,
a new contingent of marines
landed to the south of Naha,
the island's capital,
and linked up with troops
pushing down from the north.
[gunfire]
Savage fighting continued,
but by June the 17th,
the Japanese resistance
was collapsing.
Five days later, the Americans
finally secured Okinawa.
The Japanese commander,
General Ishijima,
committed ritual suicide,
hara kiri.
Over 7,000 prisoners were taken,
the first time ever
that such large numbers
of Japanese troops
had surrendered.
It had been a bloody
and exhausting campaign.
100,000 Japanese soldiers,
and some 40,000 civilians,
had been killed.
The Americans, for their part,
had lost over 15,000 men.
It was a sobering reminder of
what would await the American forces
if they invaded the main
Japanese home islands.
More than ever,
they needed a solution,
a way to obliterate
Japan's will to fight,
once and for all.
[indistinct chatter]
The victory at Okinawa meant
America's military planners now
had to decide what to do next.
Despite shattering defeats,
the Japanese
still showed no sign
of surrendering.
Some US commanders
argued for a continuation
of the fire bombing campaign,
but by the summer of 1945,
it was clear
that bombing alone
would never defeat Japan.
An invasion seemed unavoidable,
[background music over dialogue]
but the question was,
at what price?
[gun firing]
The Japanese had some one million men
defending the home islands.
They were supported
by about 5,000 aircraft,
and new kamikaze pilots
were being trained all the time.
[soldiers marching]
Mass suicide attacks
by civilian volunteers
could also be expected.
A bloodbath seemed inevitable.
It was estimated that over
a quarter of a million
American lives might be lost.
Then, in July 1945,
the new US President,
Harry S. Truman,
heard about the results
of a top secret Allied
scientific research program.
It was called
the Manhattan Project.
For three years, Allied scientists
had been working
on an atom bomb,
a weapon that draws on
the vast quantities of energy released
when an atom is split.
It would have an unimaginable
destructive force.
The project was led by
US General Leslie Groves,
an Army engineer.
The scientific director
was Robert Oppenheimer,
a 39-year-old physicist from
the University of California.
Over a three year period,
the program had recruited
many of the Allies'
best scientific brains.
Two radioactive materials seemed
to offer most promise as fuels
for the new bombs.
One was a naturally occurring
form of uranium
called Uranium 235.
It was processed at a vast
factory at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
The other was plutonium,
a man-made material
manufactured
in primitive nuclear reactors
at Hanford in Washington State.
The research was
coordinated and conducted
by a team of scientists
at Los Alamos,
a specially built laboratory complex
in the New Mexico desert.
By early 1945,
the Los Alamo scientists
were pretty confident that they had
a uranium bomb that worked,
but it required
huge quantities of Uranium 235,
and the scientists worried
that they didn't have enough of it,
so they also designed
a second bomb that used plutonium.
But this,
unlike the uranium bomb,
was much less well understood,
and they weren't sure
it would work.
Before it could be used,
they would need to test it.
By early July 1945, after
an expenditure of more the $2 billion,
the plutonium bomb
was ready for trials.
The Gadget,
as it was called,
was mounted on a steel tower
in the New Mexico desert.
At 5:30 in the morning
of July the 16th,
the atomic age began.
[explosion]
News that Operation Trinity
had been successful
was swiftly passed
to President Truman.
He had recently arrived at a conference
in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam,
meeting with
Stalin and Churchill,
discussing the future of Europe.
Truman didn't hesitate.
[indistinct chatter]
He ordered his commanders
to prepare to drop
the new bombs on Japan
as soon as possible.
[indistinct chatter]
Two bombs, a uranium device
code-named Little Boy
and a plutonium bomb
called Fat Man,
were now transported
to the Mariana Islands.
There, the immensely experienced
Colonel Paul Tibbets,
leader of the specially trained
509th Composite Group,
prepared his B-29.
At 2:45 in the morning
of August the 6th,
Tibbets lifted his plane,
named Enola Gay after his mother,
off the runway.
On board he was carrying
Little Boy.
[plane engine roaring]
The flight to the target,
Japan's fourth largest city,
Hiroshima,
went without a hitch.
At 8am, on a bright, sunny morning,
Enola Gay approached
the city at 33,000 feet.
Then, at just after 8:15,
Little Boy was released.
[explosion]
The uranium bomb had the power
of nearly 13,000 tons of TNT.
The temperature beneath
the mushroom cloud
reached 5,000 degrees centigrade.
Thousands of people
were instantly vaporised.
Shock waves levelled buildings
up to a five mile radius.
Estimates of the death toll
vary hugely.
Some put it at 40,000 people,
others at 100,000.
Many suffered from
terrible burns and blistering.
Over the course of
the following weeks,
thousands more people died
from radiation poisoning.
On August the 7th, 1945,
President Truman
told the world about the bomb
and issued Japan
with a warning.
Let there be no mistake.
We shall completely destroy
Japan's power to make war.
[Truman] They may expect a rain
of ruin from the air,
the like of which has never been seen
on this earth.
[indistinct chatter]
[narrator] But no Japanese
surrender was received.
Two days later,
on August the 9th,
Fat Man was dropped on the major
military port of Nagasaki.
[explosion]
The plutonium bomb was
even more powerful.
[explosion]
In fact,
the bomb fell way off target,
but it still caused
massive destruction.
Between 35,000 and 50,000
people are estimated
to have died in the explosion.
The Japanese government
could now have no doubt
that they faced
a new and horrific weapon,
but the question remained,
would even this force them
to surrender?
[child crying]
The Nagasaki bomb
was followed by a stark warning
from US Secretary of State
James Byrnes.
There is still time,
but little time,
for the Japanese
to save themselves
from the destruction
which threatens them.
[narrator] The intention was clear.
The atom bomb would be used
again and again,
until Japan gave in.
[indistinct chatter]
That same day, Japan's position
became even more precarious.
[gun firing]
Early in the morning
of August the 9th,
a million and a half Soviet troops
stormed into Manchuria
and northern China.
The Soviet leader, Josef Stalin,
was not only after territory.
He wanted a say in any final
peace settlement in the far east.
There were still over a million
Japanese troops in the area,
but the Red Army blitzkrieg
was unstoppable.
The Japanese position in the war
had become untenable.
[gun firing]
That evening,
Emperor Hirohito met
with his six top military
and political leaders.
The war cabinet was divided.
Three, led by the Prime Minister,
Baron Kantaro Suzuki,
argued for peace.
[background music over dialogue]
The other three wanted
to continue fighting.
[background music over dialogue]
It was deadlock.
Then the Japanese Prime Minister
broke with all precedent,
and asked the Emperor
for his opinion.
Emperor Hirohito voted for peace,
on condition that his position
as head of state was maintained.
The next morning,
a proposal was sent
to the US Secretary of State
James Byrnes.
Byrnes rejected it.
Only unconditional surrender
would do.
[background music over dialogue]
[explosions]
As the Japanese war cabinet
argued amongst itself,
Soviet troops continued
to tear into Mongolia.
At the same time,
American fighters
now roamed freely over Japan,
shooting up military targets
and transport links at will.
[explosions]
Massive air raids continued
to devastate Japan.
[firing]
Then, on August the 14th,
the Truman administration
sent word
that the Emperor's position
would be safeguarded,
provided he agreed
to accept the orders
of the Supreme Commander
of Allied Forces.
Hirohito used his huge prestige
to instruct the war cabinet
to endure the unendurable,
and accept the terms.
That day in Washington,
President Truman announced
that Japan had surrendered
unconditionally.
[Truman] I deem this reply
a full acceptance
of the Potsdam Declaration,
which specifies
the unconditional surrender
of Japan.
[indistinct chatter]
[narrator] Cheering,
singing crowds erupted onto
the streets of every American city.
[cheering]
[cheering]
In Britain, it was midnight
when the new Prime Minister,
Clement Atlee, broadcast the news.
[Atlee] Japan has today surrendered.
The last of our enemies
is laid low.
Peace has once again
come to the world.
Let us thank God
for this great deliverance
and His mercies.
Long live the King.
[crowd cheering]
[narrator] Within minutes,
crowds appeared on
the streets of London.
Many gathered
outside Buckingham Palace.
A giant street party lasted
well into the following day.
[cheering]
The next morning,
August the 15th,
an astounded Japanese people
listened to the voice
of their god Emperor
for the very first time.
[Hirohito]
[speaking Japanese]
[narrator] He told them
that Japan's position
had become impossible,
and the country was obliged
to surrender.
All military forces
must lay down their arms.
Such was the Emperor's prestige
that almost every unit obeyed.
But in Manchuria,
despite the Japanese ceasefire,
the Soviet forces fought on.
[explosions]
For the first time, large numbers
of Japanese troops now surrendered.
Nevertheless, the Soviets,
determined to seize
as much territory as possible,
continued to advance.
Stalin wouldn't stop
the fighting for another week.
By then, the whole of Manchuria,
half of Korea,
and part of northern China
were under his control.
Elsewhere in Southeast Asia,
in the Philippines,
and on many of
the Pacific islands
bypassed by the Americans,
it took weeks for news of the surrender
to reach isolated
Japanese garrisons.
Some Japanese soldiers
would remain hidden
in the jungle
for more than 30 years.
[plane engine roaring]
Finally, on August the 28th,
two weeks after the surrender,
the first US troops
arrived in Japan.
A huge US fleet
gathered in Tokyo Bay,
sailing past the shattered hulks
of the once proud Japanese navy
that they had
so comprehensively defeated.
Several days later,
on September the 2nd, 1945,
a Japanese delegation came aboard
the USS battleship Missouri.
On its quarterdeck,
the new Japanese Foreign Minister,
Mamoru Shigemitsu,
signed the document
of unconditional surrender.
It was countersigned by
US General Douglas MacArthur,
the man who would effectively
run Japan
for the next six years.
As Supreme Commander
for the Allied powers,
I announce it my firm purpose
in the tradition of
the countries I represent,
to proceed in the discharge
of my responsibilities
with justice and tolerance.
[narrator] Then a force of
more than 2,000
Allied aircraft roared overhead.
It was a fitting tribute
to the overwhelming power
which had finally brought
Germany and Japan
to utter defeat.
[plane engines roaring]
World War II was at an end.
Japan's ruthless desire
to wage war
had been crushed by a weapon
of awesome destructive power.
Now in the East as in the West,
the world would be divided
and shared along new lines.
New allegiances would be formed,
and new enemies would vie
for global influence
under the spectre of nuclear war.
A new era in world history
had begun.