NARRATOR: In the history of modern warfare,
one day stands out above all others,
the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima,
the mission which annihilated a city
and heralded the end of the Second World War.
This is a dramatisation of events as they unfolded
on a day that shook the world.
(CLOCK TICKING)
Tinian Island, Southwest Pacific,
strategic centre of America's air war against the Japanese empire.
In exactly 24 hours,
a B-29 Superfortress, the world's largest bomber,
will take off from this island
and fly 1,700 miles north, up the Pacific Ocean
to the city of Hiroshima, in japan.
Its mission, to drop a bomb unlike any other used in this, or any war.
A bomb which will change the world forever.
NEWSCASTER: Three different cameras recorded, from six miles away,
these views of the most concentrated release of explosive energy
in the history of mankind.
NARRATOR: July 16th, 1945, 5:29 a.m.
The night sky of New Mexico was ripped open
by a new and terrifying phenomenon. The atom bomb.
Code-named Trinity, the test is so successful
its creators fear it may crack the earth's crust
Just four hours later, an American destroyer will leave San Francisco
to sail halfway round the world to Tinian Island.
On board is another atom bomb.
Its final destination,
a city whose name will forever be an emblem of the forces unleashed
by this new and terrible power.
Hiroshima.
In a remote corner of Tinian airbase, one B-29 crew starts the day
like any other of the several hundred crews on this island.
But these men are different
Keep practising with that glove, you might actually catch the ball
Over the past year, they've been training for a mission so secret,
only one of them knows what it is:
their leader, Colonel Paul Tibbets.
You're gonna have to give him some money.
For three months, he was checked out by FBI agents before being selected
by the head of the air force to lead this mission.
TIBBETS: At the age of 29,
I had been entrusted with the successful delivery
of the most frightening weapon ever devised.
One that had been developed at a cost of $2 billion
in a programme that involved the nation's best scientific brains
and the secret mobilisation of its industrial capacity.
Even as all this began to sink in,
it never occurred to me that I might not succeed.
If this bomb could be carried in an aeroplane, I could do the job.
NARRATOR: An innocuous weather report from Guam,
150 miles to the south.
Prediction, that the weather over southern Japan
is expected to improve in the next 24 hours.
The signal is handed to General Thomas Farrell,
Deputy Head of the Manhattan Project,
America's top-secret programme to develop and build the atomic bomb.
Seven days ago, Farrell received the authorisation to drop the bomb
in the week after August 3rd.
The order came direct from President Truman.
The final date is left to Farrell's discretion.
All that matters is the right weather conditions
and today, they look perfect
MAN: We're all right, we're all right, Hank covers that, you got your coffee...
TIBBETS: The word came through Sunday morning, August 5th.
After three days of uncertainty,
the clouds that had hung over the Japanese islands for the past week
were beginning to break up.
Conditions were go, and today was the day.
NARRATOR: Tibbets doesn't break the news to his crew yet,
but after six months of training, all of them are ready.
His co-pilot, Bob Lewis, a tough 26-year-old New Yorker
and one of the most experienced B-29 pilots in the air force.
Come on over here, Sarge, light this baby!
NARRATOR: His tall gunner, 21-year-old Sergeant Bob Caron,
who flew 24 missions with Tibbets over Europe.
He's also a keen amateur photographer.
The key to success of any bombing mission is the man who drops the bomb
and Captain Tom Ferebee, according to Tibbets,
is the best damn bombardier in the air force.
Although he does not know it yet, in exactly 17 hours,
this 26-year-old farmer's son from North Carolina,
whose greatest ambition is to play baseball for the Boston Red Sox,
will press a button on his panel and release a bomb
which will kill over 100,000 people and destroy an entire city.
Hiroshima's fate is sealed by a committee set up by the President
Just three months ago.
General Farrell chaired the meeting.
FARRELL: Hiroshima.
This is an important army depot and port of embarkation
in the middle of an urban industrial area.
It is a good radar target..
NARRATOR: Untouched by American bombs, the Committee decides
Hiroshima provides a perfect opportunity to assess the full impact
of an atomic explosion.
FARRELL: It is such a size
that a large part of the city could be extensively damaged.
There are adjacent hills which are likely to produce a focusing effect
which would considerably increase the blast damage.
NARRATOR: A decision is made to send single, high-flying B-29s over the city
so that the inhabitants would become used to the sight of them
and regard them as harmless.
Dimples' estimated take-off time is 245 hours. Repeat...
NARRATOR: With its unlikely code name, Dimples,
the mission is given a take-off time.
Farrell sends the message halfway round the world
to the man in charge of the Manhattan Project, General Leslie Groves.
7,000 miles away, Groves passes the take-off time
to a ship in the middle of the Atlantic,
to President Truman of the United States.
The decision has been taken,
the power of the atom is about to be unleashed on an unsuspecting enemy.
What happens in the next few hours will determine the fate of the world.
An awesome responsibility rests on the President.
In his diary, Truman writes...
TRUMAN: "The weapon is finally to be used against Japan."
"It seems to be the most terrible thing ever discovered."
NARRATOR: Over the past year, US troops have fought ferocious battles,
island by island towards Japan.
(MACHINE GUNS FIRING)
Tens of thousands of Americans have died fighting in these islands.
But the biggest challenge still lies ahead,
the invasion of Japan itself;
expected to cost a million American lives.
General Marshall, the US Army Chief of Staff, says...
GENERAL MARSHALL: The Japanese had demonstrated they would not surrender
and they would fight to the death.
It was expected that resistance in Japan, with their home ties,
would be even more severe so it seemed quite necessary, if we could,
to shock them into action.
We had to end the war. We had to save American lives.
NARRATOR: With the time for the mission fixed, things moved quickly.
Tibbets consults the expert opinion of his bombardier, Ferebee.
The purpose, to decide where exactly on the primary target to drop the bomb.
- We'll be coming in from the east... - It's a clear day.
TIBBETS: Tom and I studied a huge air photo of Hiroshima.
From this, he chose a geographical feature east of the city
as the initial point from which we would start our bomb run.
MAN: You get the bird here, this is your aim, right here.
TIBBETS: As the aiming point
he put his finger on a T-shaped bridge near the heart of the city.
There were many bridges which divided the city, but this one stood out
because of a ramp in the centre.
It gave it the shape of the letter "T".
To Hiroshimans, it was known as the Aioi Bridge.
We can do a southeast turn...
NARRATOR: But even now, Ferebee has no idea what kind of bomb he is to drop.
eighty knots, that should give us plenty of time.
NARRATOR: In a heavily guarded restricted zone on the airfield,
the bomb is wheeled out of its hangar.
Named Little Boy, one observer calls it an elongated trash can with fins.
Unlike any other trash can, this one cost $2 billion.
The 9,700-pound bomb is so heavy,
special pits have had to be dug into the ground to winch it
into the bomb bay of the B-25.
TIBBETS: With its coat of dull gunmetal paint, it was an ugly monster.
It seemed incredible that a single bomb
should have the explosive force of 20,000 tons of TNT.
40 million pounds. Surely the scientists were exaggerating.
This would equal 200,000 of the 200 bombs I carried
over Europe and North Africa.
NARRATOR: Watching the proceedings are General Farrell
and the man who will take charge of the bomb all the way to the target,
William "Deak" Parsons.
A tough, brilliant naval Captain,
he's the world's greatest expert in the theory of atomic bomb ballistics.
In just a few hours, he will put that theory to the test.
But right now, Parsons has a more immediate concern.
In the past 24 hours,
four heavily-loaded B-29s have crashed on take-off.
(SIRENS WAILING)
Parson's greatest nightmare
is the catastrophic consequences of a similar crash,
this time with a fully-armed atomic bomb on board.
Disregarding months of planning, he makes a last-minute decision
to attempt the arming of the bomb in the air and not on the ground,
something which has never been tried outside the controlled,
sterile environment of the laboratory.
Armed with just & screwdriver and a spanner,
he spends hour after hour practising the techniques
required to arm the bomb in-flight.
The temperature inside the bomb bay soars to over 40 degrees,
but he continues, even as his hands start to bleed.
There is no room for error. The next time he does this will be for real,
31,000 feet up in the sky, exactly two hours away from the target.
(CLOCK TICKING)
1,700 miles to the north of Tinian lies the city of Hiroshima.
Despite four years of war, it remains a city at peace.
Occasionally, in the past few weeks,
a single, high-flying B-29 has overflown the city to the north.
But Mister B, as the Japanese call the B-29, has not visited today,
and even when he does, he never drops any bombs.
(TICKING)
TIBBETS: My thoughts turned at this moment
to my courageous red-haired mother,
whose quiet confidence had been a source of strength to me since boyhood.
Her name, Enola Gay, was pleasing to the ear.
It was also unique.
It would be a fine name for my plane, Enola Gay.
NARRATOR: In the last moments of daylight,
Tibbets is handed a special package.
So secret is this mission, that if the Enola Gay ls shot down,
every crewmen faces the risk of interrogation,
torture and possible execution.
TIBBETS: He came to me and said,
I hope it's something that never comes up,
“but just in case, it would be easier to swallow a pill
"than to blow your brains out with a pistol shot."
He assured me that with cyanide, there would be no pain.
NARRATOR: The capsules take less than 10 seconds to kill a man.
There are 12 of them, one for each member of the crew.
Tibbets tells none of them that he has the pills in his possession.
(CLOCK TICKING)
500 metres from the T-shaped bridge
Tom Ferebee has selected for his aiming point,
12-year-old Reiko Watanabe,
a first-year student at Hiroshima's Municipal High School, studies at home.
Like all schoolchildren in the city, she is conscripted to help the war effort
The only schoolwork she is able to do is now, at night
1,500 metres from the same bridge,
little Shinichi Tetsutani opens his birthday present,
a beautiful new tricycle. He is four today.
Tomorrow he will spend the day with his best friend, Kimiko,
playing with his new toy.
(SPEAKING JAPANESE)
But now, it's time for bed.
(SPEAKING JAPANESE)
2,000 metres from the aiming point, Yoshito Matsoshige,
a photographer with the local newspaper,
spends the night developing photos for tomorrow's edition.
Most of the paper is devoted to the expected invasion
of the home islands by the American enemy.
As for Hiroshima itself, there is, as always, little news to tell
1,600 metres from the aiming point, on the other side of the city,
Kengo Nikawa settles down for the night,
his pocket watch with him as always, a special gift from his son.
(TICKING)
TIBBETS: Gentlemen, tonight is the night we've been waiting for.
We've been training for months,
and what happens after this will determine the success or failure
of that hard work.
We're gonna be carrying a weapon on board our bird
that is unlike anything you or I, or the world, has ever seen.
Our primary target is Hiroshima.
The secondary target, Kokura.
Alternate, Nagasaki.
NARRATOR: Distance to target, 1,700 miles.
Flight time, 13 hours there and back.
Three weather planes will fly one hour ahead of the strike force
to each of the designated targets.
A directive from the President
authorises use of the bomb only when the target is visible.
Weather chooses the target.
An hour later, our attack approach begins.
Three B-29s of the strike force
will fly exactly one hour behind the weather planes.
The Great Artiste to carry scientific instruments,
Necessary Evil to carry specialist observers,
Enola Gay to carry the bomb.
Sergeant, first slide please.
NARRATOR: Now Captain Parsons, the weapons specialist, takes the floor,
revealing the power of the bomb the crew will carry tonight
It is the first inkling in six months of training
of what they are about to drop.
This bomb is the most powerful weapon ever devised by man.
We believe that this bomb will destroy everything
within a three-mile radius of its target.
It's powerful enough to crack the crust of the surface of the earth.
TIBBETS: The men sat there in shocked disbelief.
They were unable to imagine a single bomb with such explosive force.
Frankly, neither could I
PARSONS: The equivalent of the centre of this bomb, once it hits,
is 1 million degrees centigrade.
The light that it gives off, 10 times more powerful than the sun.
So you could be blinded.
That's why everyone on this mission, in this crew,
is going to be issued special goggles, and you will wear them,
so that you can Look your grandchildren in the eye
and tell them what happened this evening.
This bomb is gonna save lives.
Not only is this bomb gonna save lives but it's going to end the war.
(WOMAN SINGING IN JAPANESE)
After this mission,
you're gonna be famous, you're gonna be more famous than Clark Gable.
And everyone's gonna be reading about this mission in history books
for 100 years to come.
TIBBETS: There stood the Enola Gay,
bathed in floodlights like the star of a Hollywood movie.
I'd known there would be some routine picture taken before departure
but I was unprepared for this.
For the next 20 minutes
we were put through a photo routine to which none of us were accustomed.
As the crew posed for the press,
the three weather planes take off for their destinations,
Kokura, Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
Without their knowing it the lives of hundreds of thousands
of now-sleeping Japanese men, women and children
depend on what the weather is like when they wake up tomorrow morning.
(AIRCRAFT HUMMING)
Dimples 8-2, clear to taxi, baker echo.
MAN ON RADIO: Altimeter two-niner point niner-three.
Clear to taxl, baker echo, two-niner point niner-three.
MAN ON RADIO: Dimples 8-2 from North Tinian tower,
clear take-off from point "A" for Abel
wind 160, seven knots.
MAN 2: Dimples 8-2, clear for take-off.
NARRATOR: Tibbets will need every inch of the runway to take off,
and at the far end is a cliff with a 600-foot sheer dropped to the sea.
TIBBETS: Now had come the moment of truth.
More than a mile and a half of runway stretched before me in the darkness.
The blackened skeletons of four B-29s that had crashed the night before
had not yet been cleared away.
We were heavily loaded.
7,000 gallons of gas and the 9,000-pound bomb.
I glanced at my wristwatch. It was 2.45 a.m.
(TICKING)
(CLOCK TICKING)
(BEEPING)
NARRATOR: In the operations bunker on Tinian,
General Farrell immediately flashes the take-off time
7,000 miles across the world to General Groves at the Pentagon.
In turn, Groves sends it on
a further 2,000 miles to the U.S.S. Augusta,
sailing in mid-Atlantic.
President Truman is just about to sit down to dinner
when he receives the signal
One obstacle has already been cleared.
Enola Gay ls safely in the air, the bomb is on board.
All the President can do now is wait.
Enola Gay climbs to 4,700 feet
as the island of Tinian falls behind in the darkness.
Below is nothing but empty ocean for the next six hours.
MAN 1 ON RADIO: Dimples 8-2, Tinian tower. Position?
MAN 2 ON RADIO: 158 nautical miles north of Tinian,
heading 338 degrees...
NARRATOR: On board, the flight settles down to routine.
MAN 2: Indicated airspeed, 213 knots.
Repeat, position, 158...
NARRATOR: Tibbets' co-pilot, Bob Lewis, begins a log of the flight.
It is written in the form of a letter to his parents,
halfway round the world in Richfield, New Jersey.
LEWIS: "Dear Mom and Dad, at 45 minutes out of our base",
"everyone is at work."
"Colonel Tibbets has been hard at work with the usual tasks"
"that belong to the pilot of a B-29."
"Dutch Van Kirk, navigator, and Sergeant Stiborik, radio operator,"
“are in continuous conversation
"as they are shooting bearings on the Northern Marianas"
"and making radar wind runs."
TIBBETS: Having had little sleep in the past 48 hours,
I was operating on nervous energy alone.
A bone weariness told me I needed to relax, if only briefly,
in order to be reasonably sharp for the work ahead.
NARRATOR: As Enola Gay continues northwards,
Tom Ferebee and Deak Parsons also snatch some rest
Like their Captain, their moments are yet to come.
(CLOCK TICKING)
In Washington, General Groves,
the man in charge of the programme which built the bomb Enola Gay ls carrying,
sits by his telephone.
GROVES: There was nothing to do but sit back and wait
I told my family I would have to stay in my office all night
The hours went by more slowly than I ever imagined hours could go by,
and still there was no news.
TIBBETS: 5:51. The first signs of dawn. That's a nice sight
I think we will have clear sailing for a long spell
I think everyone will feel relieved
when we have left our bomb with the Japs and get halfway home.
Or better still, all the way home.
NARRATOR: With the rising sun, Enola Gay starts the long climb
to its final operational altitude of 30,700 fest
A few miles ahead lies the island of Iwo jima,
a harsh, volcanic rock in the Pacific, and a halfway point to Japan.
(TELEGRAPH BEEPING)
On Tinian, General Farrell receives the signal
that Enola Gay has reached Iwo Jima.
Tibbets now links up with The Great Artiste and the Necessary Evil,
the two other B-29s that make up the strike force.
Together they set course for Japan.
TIBBETS: As we took leave of Iwo Jima,
we were slightly more than three hours away from our target.
Our target? We weren't sure where we were going
or on what unlucky city our atomic lightning would strike.
It would be one of the three, Kokura, Nagasaki or Hiroshima.
(CLOCK TICKING)
NARRATOR: In his stateroom, President Truman opens a dossier
containing a prepared statement to the world
on the first use of an atomic bomb,
due for release just 16 hours after the bomb has been dropped.
The name of the city has been left blank.
In just over an hour,
the three weather planes will reach their respective destinations.
Only then will the city have a name.
300 miles to the Japanese coast
and Captain Parsons, the weapons specialist,
prepares for his toughest moment
in the next few minutes, he will enter the bomb bay and arm the bomb,
just the way he practised all yesterday afternoon.
PARSONS: I am now entering the bomb bay.
NARRATOR: 70 access the detonation system at the rear of the bomb,
Parsons must negotiate a catwalk just one foot wide.
Only the bomb doors separate him from 30,000 feet of thin air.
The temperature inside the bomb bay is -57 degrees,
colder than the coldest Arctic winter,
as he prepares the intricate business of arming an atomic bomb.
(CLOCK TICKING)
1,400 miles to the south,
General Farrell waits for a signal from the strike force
that the bomb is finally armed.
Nobody wants to consider the implications
if Parsons makes a single mistake.
(HEAVY BREATHING)
The critical stage of the operation starts here.
Parsons first removes the fuse assembly from the rear of the bomb.
There is no room for error.
PARSONS: I am now going to insert
the first cordite charge.
NARRATOR: One by one,
Parsons must insert four cordite charges into the fusing system.
Together they will fire a uranium bullet resulting in an atomic explosion.
Parsons is now effectively handling volatile explosives
in close proximity to nuclear sub-assemblies.
PARSONS: I am now going to Insert the first live detonation plug.
(HEAVY BREATHING)
NARRATOR: This is the most dangerous part of the whole operation.
Each of the three plugs is part of a chain activating the bomb's circuits.
Despite every precaution, nobody knows exactly what will happen
the moment Parsons inserts the final plug
and the detonation circuits activate.
(TELEGRAPH BEEPING)
From the strike force,
a coded signal is flashed to General Farrell on Tinian.
Farrell immediately opens the sealed document which accesses the code.
At this point, nobody knows
whether Parsons' efforts have been successful or catastrophic.
He checks the code word.
The bomb is armed and ready.
The coded signal is immediately flashed to General Groves in the Pentagon.
32 minutes from the Japanese coast, Little Boy ls live
TIBBETS: Captaln Parsons has put the final touches on his assembly job.
We are now loaded. The bomb is now live.
It's a funny feeling knowing it's right in back of you.
Knock wood.
Outside, it is a very beautiful day.
We are now about two hours from bombs away.
NARRATOR: But even now, as Enola Gay approaches the Japanese coast,
no one on board knows its final destination.
150 miles to the north, Hiroshima basks in sunshine,
a perfect, cloudless summer's morning.
At exactly 731, Straight Flush, the B-29 weather plane,
appears overhead the city.
(SIRENS WAILING)
Despite triggering a yellow alert,
very few of the city's inhabitants bother to look up.
B-29s have been passing this way for days.
(TICKING)
And who wants to hide in an air-raid shelter on this perfect summer's day?
(SIRENS WAILING)
This perfect summer's day.
Almost exactly the description which Straight Flush, 30,000 feet above,
is sending back to the men in Enola Gay, 45 minutes behind.
(TELEGRAPH BEEPING)
MAN ON RADIO: Two-tenths cloud cover, lower and middle...
TIBBETS: 7:31. We receive a report from our radio operator
that our primary is the best target.
We have started our second climb to our final altitude.
With everything going well so far, we will make the bomb run on Hiroshima.
We are now only 25 miles from the Empire.
Everyone has a big, hopeful look on his face.
NARRATOR: Like many schoolchildren her age in Hiroshima,
Reiko Watanabe prepares for another day of fire prevention work
under the student mobilisation order.
By this stage of the war, her lunch of boiled rice and peas is a rare feast
a special treat from her mother.
After a long night in his darkroom,
Yoshito Matsoshige sits in his garden, enjoying the glorious weather,
an opportunity to play with his camera in the perfect light conditions.
MAN ON RADIO: Nav to pilot,
heading 264, wind 170 degrees, eight knots.
Estimated time to aiming point, 16 minutes,
time check, 0759.
NARRATOR: Undisturbed by flak or fighters,
Enola Gay reaches the Japanese coast
The crew take up their battle stations.
Taking his camera, tall gunner Bob Caron
moves to his isolated position in the rear of the plane.
As Enola Gay dives away from the target after the drop,
he will have a grandstand view of the blast
His intention is to capture the moment for posterity.
TIBBETS: We have now set the automatic pilot
for the last time until bombs away.
I have checked with all concerned, and all stations report satisfactorily.
Well, folks, it won't be long now.
MAN ON RADIO: Bomber to pilot, visual with target.
Heading 264, repeat, heading...
TIBBETS: Now it was up to Tom and me.
We were only 90 seconds from bomb release
when I turned the plane over to him on autopilot
My eyes were fixed on the centre of the city
that shimmered in the early morning sunlight
MAN ON RADIO: Wind 170 degrees, eight knots.
Two minutes to drop.
NARRATOR: This time there are no sirens.
MAN ON RADIO: Okay, I got the bridge.
NARRATOR: The moment Ferebee activates a high-pitched warning tone,
the crew know they have one minute before the bomb is released.
Exactly 42 seconds later, Little Boy will explode.
LEWIS: 8:15, there will be a short intermission
while we bomb the target
(LONG HIGH-PITCHED BEEP)
(CLOCK TICKING)
(LOUD EXPLOSION)
TIBBETS: The first shockwave hit us.
The whole aeroplane cracked and crinkled from the blast
Where before there had been a city with distinctive houses, buildings
and everything you could see from our altitude,
now you couldn't see anything
except the black, boiling debris down below.
No one spoke for a moment, then everyone was talking.
I remember Lewis pounding my shoulder, saying, "Look at that, look at that"
He said he could taste atomic fission. He said it tasted like lead.
NARRATOR: In the tail of Enola Gay, Bob Caron starts taking photos
of the huge mushroom cloud.
CARON: The column of smoke is rising fast
It's nearly level with us and climbing.
It has a fiery, red core. It's all turbulent.
Fires are springing up everywhere,
like flames shooting out of a huge bed of coals.
The city must be below that.
8:18.
My God, what have we done?
If I live for 100 years,
I'll never get these few minutes out of my mind.
NARRATOR: One millionth of a second after detonation,
Hiroshima ceases to exist.
Later tests reveal the full force of a nuclear shock wave
as it tears through buildings, cars and flesh at the speed of sound.
Over 100,000 people and 47,000 buildings are, quite literally, obliterated.
500 metres from the bridge Tom Ferebee selected as his aiming point,
Reiko Watanabe is instantly incinerated by the blast
1,500 metres from the bridge,
Shinichi Tetsutani and his best friend are also killed,
his new tricycle's steel frame twisting and melting in the million-degree heat
1,600 metres from the epicentre,
Kengo Nikawa is exposed to the same intense heat
But his watch survives,
its hands forever frozen at the exact moment Little Boy explodes.
Within minutes of the explosion,
Hiroshima's fate is signalled around the world to the men who devised it
(TELEGRAPH BEEPING)
The culmination of three years' work and $2 billion expenditure
is transmitted in one sentence of code.
Clear-cut, successful in all respects.
Visual effects greater than Trinity test.
Target Hiroshima.
NARRATOR: On board the U.S.S. Augusta,
President Truman is just about to have lunch
when he receives the message.
He says, "This is the greatest thing in history."
Miraculously surviving the blast,
Yoshito Matsoshige, the photographer, moves directly towards the epicentre.
He takes just five photographs,
the only ones ever taken of Hiroshima on the day the bomb fell
MATSOSHIGE: The scene I saw through the viewfinder was too cruel
Among the hundreds of injured persons,
you cannot tell the difference between male and female.
There were children screaming, "It's hot it's hot."
and infants crying over the body of their mother,
who appeared to be already dead.
I tried to pull myself together by telling myself,
"I'm a news cameraman and it is my duty to take a photograph,"
"even if it's just one."
"Even if people take me as a devil, or a cold-hearted man."
I finally managed to press the shutter,
but when I looked through the finder a second time,
the object was blurred with tears.
NARRATOR: Its mission successfully accomplished,
Enola Gay ref urns home.
TIBBETS: It was 2:58 p.m. when we touched down on the long runway
from which we had taken off with such apparent effort 12 hours before.
(PEOPLE CHEERING)
I was unprepared for the welcome which awaited us when,
after landing, I taxied to the hard-stand
from which we had departed in the early morning hours.
One after another shook my hands or slapped my back,
Jubilant over the success of our mission,
wanting to hear more about the bomb and the destruction it had caused.
NARRATOR: The crew barely have time to step off the plane
before they're all awarded medals in front of the world's press.
Later that night, tall gunner Bob Caron
writes a letter to his wife back in New York.
CARON: "Hi, sweetie. I received this medal today."
I can't tell you just yet why I got it
"In fact, our whole crew got one."
"Seems our crew and airplanes made history or something."
"Write my mother and tell her to collect"
"all the newspaper stories on the biggest story."
"P.S. Collect all the stories of the new bomb for our scrapbook."
NARRATOR: Three days later, a second atom bomb is dropped on Nagasaki,
killing 86,000 people.
On August the 14th,
exactly eight days after Enola Gay's mission to Hiroshima,
the Japanese finally surrender.
Shinichi Tetsutani was buried in the front garden
where he was playing on the day he died.
Because his father felt that laying a four-year-old in a grave alone
was too pitiful, he burled his tricycle with his son.
Thirty years later,
Shinichi's bones were dug up and placed in a formal grave.
Reiko Watanabe's body was never found.
For two days, her father, mother and sister searched the city ruins in vain.
But all they ever found was her lunchbox,
buried under a fallen mud wall,
its contents carbonised by the heat of 10 suns.
Kengo Nikawa died from burns two weeks after the bomb fell
Many years later, his son donated the watch to the Hiroshima Peace Museum
where it remains to this day, a symbol of the moment the world changed forever.