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00:01Previously, on the last days of World War II, in the Pacific, after three months of brutal fighting on Okinawa, the U.S. finally claimed victory.
00:10In the United States, the Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed plans for the invasion of mainland Japan.
00:18And General Dwight D. Eisenhower was given a hero's welcome home on the streets of New York City.
00:24This week, in the Pacific, U.S. troops begin the process of mopping up on Okinawa and rounding up Japanese POWs.
00:35In Moscow, the Soviet Union celebrates victory over Germany with an elaborate parade.
00:42And in the United States, President Truman weighs his options for ending the war against Japan.
00:46He approves plans for a mainland invasion, but keeps close watch on the top-secret development of the world's first atomic bomb.
01:16June the 24th, Okinawa.
01:22After 82 days, Operation Iceberg, the campaign to seize Okinawa, is all but over.
01:28The Pacific island is now under the control of U.S. forces.
01:36American troops begin mopping up operations and prepare facilities for the impending invasion of the Japanese mainland.
01:46Japanese prisoners are moved into tented camps, while U.S. officials determine their fate.
01:54Above their heads, B-24 liberators buzz over the island's interior, scattering leaflets urging other survivors, still in hiding, to surrender.
02:04U.S. troops fluent in Japanese also announce the end of the battle using loudspeakers, mounted on tanks.
02:11They attempt to lure survivors out of their hiding places with the promise of food and water.
02:16But many Japanese still refuse to accept defeat.
02:23Along the shoreline, patrolling U.S. ships pick up swimmers trying to evade capture.
02:29Others would remain hidden in the island's forested bastions for weeks to come.
02:37June the 25th, as the smoke clears, the devastation resulting from the bloody campaign becomes apparent.
02:46The island's infrastructure has been obliterated.
02:49Towns and villages lie in ruins.
02:52Ancient buildings of great architectural and religious significance have been destroyed by air raids and artillery fire.
02:59By the end of the campaign, a third of the Okinawan civilian population is dead.
03:06Most of the historical monuments, most of the historical landscape in Okinawa has been obliterated.
03:12Okinawan families link their heritage to family tombs, many of which have been turned into fortifications by the Japanese troops,
03:19most of which were then destroyed by the Americans.
03:22Peasant farmers have lost their homes, crops and livestock.
03:28The Imperial Command had instilled an intense fear of American troops within the Japanese population.
03:35Entire families willingly lunge off cliffs rather than be taken by American troops.
03:40The native population had been told that we would slaughter, rape, kill, pillage, torture,
03:53that we would do terrible things to them, and women with babies in their arms jumped over the cliff.
03:59We had a very difficult time being able to try and convince them that we weren't going to harm them.
04:05As American ground troops begin to try and restore order on Okinawa,
04:11U.S. bombers continue to unleash a relentless wave of destruction over the Japanese heartland.
04:18Tokyo is in ruins.
04:21It was just burned out. It was bare and concrete buildings still standing,
04:27but burned out completely inside and just completely devastated.
04:32But the determination of the Japanese Supreme War Council to fight to the death remains steadfast.
04:42June 26th. More than 500 B-29s bombard targets in mainland Japan.
04:49The raids devastate armaments factories on Honshu,
04:53including the Kawasaki and Mitsubishi aircraft factories,
04:56and the Osaka and Nagoya arsenals.
04:58The terrifying attacks are part of daily life for Japanese city dwellers.
05:05Thousands have been killed or injured.
05:08Millions more are homeless and starving.
05:10Essential services have ground to a halt.
05:14June 29th.
05:15Three days later, Bomber Commander General Curtis LeMay
05:18estimates that the entire country can be completely annihilated by October 1st,
05:24just three months away.
05:25The Japanese government will still not surrender.
05:33They continue to spread propaganda throughout the populace,
05:36extolling the invincibility of Japanese troops.
05:39But they also realize that with the fall of Okinawa,
05:42900 miles south of Tokyo,
05:45an American ground invasion looms.
05:47Japan's Supreme War Council devises a plan to defend the homeland.
05:54Special attention is paid to Tokyo and the revered Japanese emperor Hirohito.
06:00A provisional palace is planned on the outskirts of Nagano City,
06:04as construction begins of an underground imperial headquarters
06:08in the mountains of Matsushiro.
06:10The council decides that in the event of a U.S. invasion,
06:15Japan will be defended by all available means.
06:18They plan long-range assaults by submarines and bombers on Allied island bases.
06:23If invading fleets manage to close within 200 miles of the mainland,
06:29they are to be met with long-range artillery fire
06:32and, rising up from the horizon, a cloud of kamikaze aircraft.
06:36The Japanese had by no means eliminated their supply of planes.
06:41They weren't top-of-the-line planes.
06:43A lot of these were poorly maintained.
06:46They weren't the best that the Japanese had to offer.
06:49But American estimates are that there are several thousand,
06:52maybe as many as 6,000 or 7,000, planes being held in reserve
06:55by the Japanese military for the defense of the main islands itself.
06:58They would go after the naval vessels.
07:00They would be used against the landing craft.
07:02There are a variety of different methods
07:04that the special assault units could use to defend against the assault
07:07or to be used once the assault had begun on the main islands.
07:10On land, the Japanese have 2.3 million troops under arms.
07:18Despite the vast firepower available to the Allies,
07:21the landings are expected to constitute
07:23some of the toughest and bloodiest fighting of the war.
07:27If the Allies get off the beachheads,
07:30the entire population of Japan is being organized
07:33to fight as a vast guerrilla army.
07:35They had assembled hundreds of thousands of troops in Kyushu,
07:43where they expected the landing to be.
07:46The idea was simply to throw human bombs,
07:50in a sense, at the American invaders.
07:53It inflicts such heavy losses
07:54on the American invading forces
07:57that, again, the Americans would say,
08:00well, enough is enough and we'll negotiate.
08:03It was expected to make the Americans again cry uncle.
08:08This was the whole point.
08:12As the Imperial Command prepares to defend mainland Japan at all costs,
08:16the last surviving Japanese troops on the Philippines
08:19now face death or defeat.
08:21After a five-month campaign,
08:25General Douglas MacArthur is determined
08:27to weed out the last pockets of resistance.
08:32But despite the grim outlook,
08:34Japanese General Yamashita
08:36is just as determined to maintain resistance.
08:41June the 28th, Luzon.
08:44General MacArthur declares the battle for Luzon is over.
08:47His announcement is welcome news on the home front,
08:50but it is, however, premature.
08:52The enemy has not yet given up.
08:55Thousands of Japanese troops are still at large.
09:02General Yamashita and what remains of his army
09:05are holed up in mountainous terrain.
09:08They will be engaged by US forces
09:10and Filipino guerrillas for weeks to come.
09:14June the 30th, Mindanao.
09:17Two days after MacArthur declares victory on Luzon,
09:20General Eichelberger, commanding the US 8th Army,
09:23reports that the last pockets of resistance
09:25have been wiped out.
09:27Some pockets, in fact, remain,
09:29but Mindanao is under effective US control.
09:31820 American troops have been killed securing the island.
09:39But the Japanese defenders have been slaughtered.
09:4210,000 Japanese troops have been killed.
09:458,000 more die of starvation or disease.
09:4922,000 survive the jungle and surrender at the war's end.
09:54Mopping up in the dense jungle of Mindanao
09:56will continue for weeks.
09:59The US 6th Army in Luzon is now ordered
10:01to prepare for the invasion of Japan.
10:06June the 24th, three RAF squadrons
10:10set off for the River Kwai in Thailand.
10:12Their target, two strategically important railway bridges.
10:17Both had been built with the blood and back-breaking labour
10:20of Allied POWs held by the Japanese.
10:22At each end of both bridges,
10:26there was a gun pit with heavy machine guns.
10:30And these would be firing at the attacking planes,
10:33but the air gunners in the planes would be retaliating.
10:37So you attack the bridge
10:38at an angle of, say, 2, 3 degrees across it,
10:43so that at least perhaps one of your sticker bombs
10:46would make a direct hit.
10:48And the rest, of course, would rock the foundations.
10:50The bridges, built two years earlier,
10:54served as vital Japanese supply lines.
10:57Supplies and ammunition cross over them daily,
11:00destined for Japanese troops in Burma.
11:06Several previous attempts by the US Army Air Force
11:09to destroy the bridges had failed.
11:13The RAF is now determined
11:15to knock out this supply route once and for all.
11:18The bridges are hit and destroyed.
11:20Witnessing their demolition is bittersweet
11:27for those who built them.
11:29We saw the planes coming over
11:31and we saw the puffs of smoke and the explosions
11:33and we were cheering, you know, in our way.
11:38We didn't be too euphoric
11:40because the Japs were going berserk.
11:42Can you believe it?
11:44I had mixed feelings.
11:47I thought, damn me.
11:49It took us nine months to build this blessed bridge
11:51and they're going to knock it down in a couple of seconds.
11:56The bridges are gone,
11:57but it would be some time
11:58before the POWs who built them would taste freedom.
12:01As the British advance through Burma,
12:05the Japanese relocate the remaining prisoners.
12:07The bombing of the Burma-Thailand Railroad
12:10is just one more setback for the Japanese in Southeast Asia.
12:14They are also hit hard on Borneo
12:16as the Allies launch a series of air and sea strikes.
12:19June the 24th, Borneo.
12:23Allied bombers pound Japanese positions,
12:26dropping more than 1,000 tonnes of high explosives.
12:30June the 26th, two days later,
12:32under the command of US Admiral Daniel Barby,
12:35an Allied naval force of nine cruisers
12:37and 13 destroyers mounts a massive assault
12:40on Borneo's eastern city of Balikpapan,
12:43an important seaport and oil centre.
12:45The bombardment continues for three days.
12:513,000 tonnes of bombs
12:52and nearly 40,000 artillery shells
12:54rain down on the city,
12:56paving the way for a landing by Australian ground forces.
13:02The Allies are gaining momentum in the Pacific
13:05and on the offensive on all fronts.
13:07In Europe, the fighting is over.
13:16But the victorious Allies now face the gruelling process
13:19of rebuilding the shattered continent.
13:23Following years of bloodshed and battle,
13:26driving rain is not enough to douse the euphoria of Russians
13:29who've taken to the streets to celebrate victory over Germany.
13:33June the 24th, Moscow.
13:39In keeping with Russian tradition,
13:41conquering hero Marshal Zhukov
13:43makes his entrance into Red Square
13:44on the back of a white Tersky stallion.
13:47To the beat of drums,
13:49200 Red Army troops follow,
13:51carrying captured flags of the fallen Third Reich.
13:57They march to the foot of Lenin's tomb
13:59and throw the rain-soaked Nazi flags to the ground.
14:07Stalin looks on from a distance.
14:10For the moment,
14:11the Soviet dictator allows his most successful battlefield commander
14:15to take centre stage.
14:18I can still see it.
14:23It was a summer day.
14:25It was raining.
14:26Red Square was decorated with banners.
14:31People were wearing medals,
14:33and you could see these medals shining all over Red Square.
14:40The Kremlin clock chimed,
14:42and Georgi Zhukov rode in on a white horse.
14:47Three times hero of the Soviet Union.
14:50He looked proud, sturdy, upright.
14:58He sat in the saddle like a young lieutenant.
15:05When Stalin saw this great commander on his white horse,
15:08he felt jealous.
15:11Stalin didn't want Zhukov to overshadow his glory.
15:17And being suspicious,
15:19Stalin couldn't cope with it.
15:24Well aware of Zhukov's popularity amongst Russians,
15:28Stalin's restraint is calculated.
15:30He has every intention of keeping Zhukov under his thumb.
15:33The Soviet marshal addresses the jubilant crowd,
15:38and warns that although the Red Army is the most powerful in the world,
15:42there is no room for complacency.
15:45The Soviet Union rejoices in the victory of communism,
15:48and the defeat of fascism.
15:49June the 29th.
15:54Following the victory parade,
15:56Stalin assumes the title of Generalissimo.
15:59The Soviet leader is decorated for his outstanding service
16:02in the Great Patriotic War,
16:04and awarded the highest Soviet military decoration,
16:07the Order of Victory,
16:08set with 110 diamonds.
16:11Stalin,
16:12whose army purges and strategic interventions
16:14nearly lost the war in 1941,
16:17now takes the plaudits.
16:19He is at the height of his power.
16:22Meanwhile, the Western Allies grow anxious
16:24at his vice-like grip on Berlin.
16:28The Iron Curtain did come down incredibly swiftly
16:31after the formal end of the war.
16:35The Soviets made absolutely plain
16:37that they didn't want any Western soldiers of any kind
16:41anywhere near their people.
16:42And just as they'd said all along to their people,
16:45there was to be absolutely no fraternization
16:47with American or British troops.
16:49Stalin continues to keep the Western Allies at bay,
16:52arguing that Berlin is full of mines
16:54and his troops need more time to clear them.
16:58The Soviet leader is intent on claiming what's left
17:01of Berlin's infrastructure
17:02and setting up a local puppet government,
17:04which he can bend entirely to his will.
17:07They began to dismantle what machinery was left
17:09and ship it back to the Soviet Union.
17:11So you had a really paradoxical situation.
17:15Unlike the Americans and the British,
17:17the Russians already had a German communist government
17:20all set up.
17:22They were immediately installed
17:23as the new liberation government.
17:25But this government had a lot of trouble
17:27because the Russians were busy taking everything that moved
17:29and sending it back to the Soviet Union
17:31and actually simply raping women
17:34as an act of real revenge.
17:36We don't know how many,
17:37but we're talking about hundreds of thousands of rapes.
17:40June the 29th.
17:42Allied representatives meet with Marshal Zhukov in Berlin
17:45to determine exactly when they will be given access to the city.
17:49Zhukov skirts the issue.
17:51He knows that Stalin wants to retain control
17:53of the German capital for as long as possible.
17:55I think he wanted to keep his options open,
18:01control that part of Germany that the Red Army occupied,
18:05control it completely.
18:08I don't think there's any doubt that in the long run,
18:11Stalin wanted to have a communist Germany.
18:15The Western Allies are impatient and suspicious,
18:19but it will be days before they gain access to Berlin.
18:25June the 24th, Berlin.
18:29Inside the city, German citizens are exhausted and starving.
18:34Following their rampage of plundering and rape,
18:37the conquering Red Army begins distributing much-needed food and water.
18:43As citizens across Germany cope with defeat
18:46for the second time in less than 30 years,
18:49the Allies continue to round up Nazi officials
18:52seeking to evade justice.
18:53Those that have been captured are quick to deny responsibility
18:56for the horrific list of war crimes.
19:03Hitler's successor, Admiral Karl Dönitz,
19:06refuses to accept accountability for what has been done
19:09in the name of the Third Reich.
19:11When Dönitz says to the investigators after the war
19:14that he had no idea about this, that's simply not true.
19:17That's impossible not to know.
19:18The son of Dönitz's predecessor, Admiral Tirpitz,
19:23who was the great admiral of the First World War,
19:25and he had a son who was in the Navy called Wolfgang von Tirpitz,
19:28and I knew him very, very well.
19:29He once said to me at 2 o'clock in the morning
19:31when we had these long talks, he says,
19:33anybody from my social class who tells you
19:36they did not know what was going on is lying.
19:39As the hunt for war criminals continues,
19:43both the Western Allies and the Soviets
19:45are racing to get their hands on cutting-edge German technology.
19:50June the 24th, Cherbourg, France.
19:53The last of four German Arado 234 jet bombers
19:57acquired by the U.S. Army Air Force comes into land.
20:00The aircraft are to be loaded aboard the carrier HMS Reaper,
20:04along with other advanced German aircraft,
20:06and shipped to the United States.
20:07During the last year of the war,
20:10Allied jet technology, led by the British,
20:13had produced few flying prototypes.
20:15But the Germans were already using
20:17the world's first operational jet bomber,
20:20the Arado AR-234.
20:24Named Blitz, or Lightning, by the Germans,
20:28the Arado AR-234 jet bomber
20:30made its operational debut soaring high over France
20:33in the summer of 1944.
20:34Conceived in 1941,
20:38the Arado was originally designed
20:40as a high-speed, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.
20:45Its first operational flight
20:48took place on August 2nd, 1944,
20:51when an Arado pilot photographed Allied activity
20:54on the Normandy beaches.
20:55Unbeknownst to the Allies,
21:00two high-speed, high-flying Arados
21:02flew a total of 13 missions over their lines in three weeks.
21:07With a top speed of 460 miles an hour
21:09and a ceiling of nearly 33,000 feet,
21:12the Arado could outrun any Allied aircraft,
21:15apart from the Gloucester Meteor.
21:17At 30,000 feet,
21:18it was also out of range of anti-aircraft fire.
21:21Even though intended as bombers,
21:24Arados proved superb reconnaissance aircraft.
21:27By March 1945,
21:29the Germans destroyed the Arado factory
21:31to keep it out of Soviet hands.
21:33However, the jets were employed by the Luftwaffe
21:35until war's end.
21:38By then, all eyes were on the Arado.
21:40The British grabbed 12.
21:42The Soviets secured only one.
21:44Four of the remaining Arados
21:46were flown to France by American pilots.
21:48Today, only one Arado, AR-234,
21:52is known to be still in existence
21:53at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
21:58As the Allies race to incorporate
22:00captured German technology,
22:02three years of planning and cooperation
22:04between the Allied nations
22:05is about to bear fruit in San Francisco.
22:10Delegates from 50 countries
22:11have convened to pledge their commitment
22:13to global accord.
22:14June the 26th, San Francisco.
22:21Following nine weeks of intense negotiations,
22:23China becomes the first of 50 countries
22:26to sign the Charter of the United Nations Organization.
22:29The Charter provides that all major issues
22:32brought before the organization
22:33require a two-thirds majority vote.
22:37Emergency decisions, however,
22:38can be reached by the 11-member Security Council.
22:41Five of the 11, the US, UK, Soviet Union,
22:45France and China,
22:46are named permanent members.
22:48The remaining six are to be elected
22:50in rotation every two years.
22:54Witnessed by President Truman,
22:56the last signature on the UN Charter
22:58is that of Edward Stettinius,
23:00US Secretary of State.
23:05Edward Stettinius, known affectionately as Little Stett,
23:08was born into a life of privilege in Chicago in 1900.
23:13The son of a partner at J.P. Morgan,
23:16Stettinius began his career at General Motors in 1926.
23:21In 1934, he joined US Steel
23:24and served as chairman of the board.
23:27Stettinius, however, resigned in May 1940
23:29when he was asked to head up
23:31the newly formed National Defence Advisory Commission.
23:33He was later appointed US Under-Secretary of State
23:38and succeeded Cordell Hull
23:40as secretary in December 1944.
23:45Two months later,
23:47he accompanied President Roosevelt
23:48to the Yalta Conference in the Crimea.
23:51When Truman took over in April 1945,
23:54Stettinius retained his position.
23:55the United Nations,
23:58June 26th.
24:00Following the historic signing of the UN Charter,
24:03President Truman addresses the assembled delegates,
24:06telling them that they have helped to win a victory
24:08against war itself.
24:11The Charter of the United Nations,
24:14which you are now signing,
24:17is a solid structure upon which we can build
24:19for a better world.
24:22If we had had this charter a few years ago,
24:25and above all the will to use it, millions now dead would be alive.
24:34With this charter, the world can begin to look forward to the time
24:38when all worthy human beings may be permitted to live decently as free people.
24:45June the 27th.
24:47The next day, Edward Stettinius resigns from Truman's cabinet
24:51to become the US representative to the United Nations.
24:54The war has left behind its inevitable aftermath of suffering and hunger and starvation.
25:01And crops have failed just when they were needed the most.
25:04We must do more and we shall do more.
25:07To all the great problems which now and hereafter we must work out together as friends
25:13who speak frankly to one another but who are united by the higher obligations
25:19of the United Nations Charter in the cause of man himself.
25:26Stettinius will be succeeded as US Secretary of State by James F. Burns,
25:30a former Supreme Court Justice.
25:34Following the ratification of the UN Charter in San Francisco,
25:38history is also made in Poland.
25:40June the 28th, Warsaw.
25:43In the ruins of the city, the Polish Government of National Unity is established.
25:48The leadership of post-war Poland was claimed by two rival groups,
25:52a Soviet-sponsored provisional government, dominated by communists,
25:57and members of the Polish Government in Exile in London.
25:59After tense negotiations and Soviet promises of free elections,
26:08the Government of National Unity was formed.
26:11It is, however, decidedly pro-Soviet.
26:14The Poles who wanted a free democracy were simply ruthlessly executed
26:19wherever they were captured.
26:20Some Poles who were serving with the Red Army began to realise
26:24that the Red Army was about to become not their liberator but their oppressor and deserted.
26:28Well, they were all shot too.
26:30Anyone who opposed the will of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe in early 1945 was executed ruthlessly.
26:39Overall, where there's a Red Army, there tends to be a Communist Government by the end of the day.
26:45The following week, the new government is officially recognised by Great Britain and the United States.
26:53From Burma to the Philippines, the Japanese strategic position is hopeless.
26:57But the Imperial Command will still not capitulate.
27:03The American atomic bomb programme is still highly classified.
27:08Most US military planners are not even aware of its existence.
27:11Those that do have no guarantees that the bomb will be completed in time,
27:16that it will work properly, or that it will succeed in forcing Japan to surrender.
27:20The forward base for US troops is now Okinawa, roughly 900 miles south of Tokyo.
27:27The invasion of mainland Japan seems inevitable.
27:30When Okinawa was essentially secured, we were sent back to San Francisco for our overhaul that was well overdue.
27:41But with the idea that when that was completed, we would probably get back out there in time for the invasion of Japan.
27:50June the 29th, Washington.
27:53Truman approves an invasion plan proposed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the direction of General George Marshall.
27:59General George Marshall was appointed US Army Chief of Staff on September 1st, 1939, the day Hitler invaded Poland.
28:10It was more than two years before the US would enter the war,
28:13but President Roosevelt knew that the US might eventually be drawn in.
28:17In anticipation of that day, he wanted a senior military official at his side who understood the challenges that lay ahead.
28:27To fulfil that role, on the recommendation of his trusted advisor Harry Hopkins and General Pershing,
28:34Roosevelt appointed Marshall.
28:36A career soldier, Marshall impressed Roosevelt with his candour and shrewd grasp of strategy.
28:41The US Chief of Staff quickly began to foster relationships with the British Chiefs of Staff.
28:49But following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941,
28:54there were many in the US who argued that the Pacific Front ought to come first.
28:59Marshall was one ardent advocate of Rainbow Five, the codename for the US strategy of Germany First.
29:06Marshall was certain that the war in Europe should have top priority,
29:09and his viewpoint was the one finally adopted.
29:12But he was profoundly disappointed not to be chosen to lead the Allies into occupied Europe following D-Day.
29:19That job went to Eisenhower.
29:22Roosevelt considered Marshall indispensable.
29:25He remained in Washington until the end of the war.
29:29When he stepped down as Chief of Staff, he was replaced by Eisenhower.
29:33In 1947, he was appointed Secretary of State by Harry Truman, replacing James Burns.
29:40I assume the duties with a great feeling of great responsibility.
29:48During his tenure, he established the European Recovery Programme, also known as the Marshall Plan,
29:54in which the US spent billions helping to rebuild the war-torn nations of Europe.
29:59The Marshall Plan provided humanitarian aid, whilst rebuilding markets for America
30:04and undermining the potential spread of communism westward.
30:08To be quite clear, this unprecedented endeavour of the new world to help the old is neither sure nor easy.
30:17It is a calculated risk.
30:19The Soviet Union was already occupying much of Eastern Europe.
30:21That was already a source of great distress to many Americans.
30:26And communist parties were emerging after the war in most of the Western European nations.
30:33And this was why the United States launched the Marshall Plan.
30:37And it's to a large degree why the United States launched the containment policy and created NATO,
30:45and did a whole range of things to try to draw these Western Europeans into the orbit of the United States
30:51and out of the reach of communism.
30:53It is a difficult programme, and you know far better than I do,
30:59the political difficulties involved in this programme.
31:03But there's no doubt whatever in my mind,
31:06that if we decide to do this thing, we can do it successfully.
31:10During the Korean War, Marshall was appointed Secretary of Defence.
31:14Truman had already described him as the greatest living American.
31:18He retired in 1951.
31:20Two years later, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
31:27June the 29th.
31:29It is decided that the planned invasion of Japan will be led by General Douglas MacArthur,
31:34Supreme Allied Commander of the Southwest Pacific.
31:38MacArthur was seen as a forceful spokesman for the army's interests,
31:45and as someone who could marshal resources,
31:47and as someone who could organise a campaign like this,
31:51and therefore would be a natural participant in taking Japan.
31:56Code-named Operation Olympic,
31:58the first landings are to take place on the southern island of Kyushu.
32:02It was supposed to involve 650,000 assault troops
32:07who would land at three separate areas, three divisions apiece,
32:10and you have at least two divisions in reserve,
32:12others that you could throw in.
32:14They hope to overrun Kyushu, which was defended by about a quarter of a million Japanese troops,
32:22but this would be the prelude to invading the main island.
32:26The second landing, dubbed Operation Coronet,
32:30will be on the main island of Honshu, set for March 1st the following year.
32:35MacArthur believes that the assault on Kyushu will require 13 divisions,
32:39Honshu, 23.
32:41The two-stage invasion will call upon as many as 5 million troops,
32:45most of them American, including the U.S. First Army from Europe.
32:49In the light of the prolonged and bloody battle for Okinawa,
32:52the invasion of Japan is expected to be hard-fought, to say the least.
32:56And they're also generating a great deal of intelligence
33:00about Japanese troop movements in Japan itself,
33:03about the relocation of troops to Kyushu,
33:05the placement of troops and planes in reserve on the main islands themselves,
33:09which also gives them some sense of what the defense is going to be like
33:12for what the invasion might look like later that year.
33:17A Japanese colonel had prophesied to U.S. General Jonathan Wainwright,
33:21then a prisoner on Formosa,
33:23you have no chance of beating Japan.
33:25There are 100 million people in the Japanese Empire.
33:29It will take 10 times 100 million to defeat Japan.
33:32It will therefore become a matter of generations.
33:37We already knew how sincerely the Japanese followed orders.
33:45It would have been a slaughterhouse on both sides there,
33:49and everybody knew it.
33:51As plans for the invasion of mainland Japan are finalized in Washington,
33:55a secret and untested weapon is in the advanced stages of development in the deserts of New Mexico,
34:01under the scientific direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
34:04This new weapon has the potential to end the war in days.
34:08They were working on a weapon of mass destruction.
34:14But Oppenheimer gave them a sense that this had a larger function and purpose as well.
34:19And that was, as he told them when he recruited them,
34:22we'll probably be able to put an end to this war.
34:24Everybody had great faith that it was going to come about.
34:31The skepticism, if involved, as far as I could understand, was win.
34:36And the urgency of the situation made it such that everybody was pushing to make the win as short as possible.
34:41June 30th, the McDonald Ranch, Los Alamos, New Mexico.
34:48On land once dotted with livestock and corrals,
34:51preparations for the detonation of the world's first nuclear device are in full swing.
34:55The discovery of how to release nuclear energy had been made in Nazi Germany in 1938.
35:04Within a week of the news of the discovery of nuclear fission,
35:11that is to say the discovery of how to release nuclear energy,
35:14an enormous new source of energy,
35:17scientists, physicists everywhere in the world were aware that with so much energy possible,
35:23a bomb was possible.
35:24And within the next year, 1939,
35:28every major country that had the possibility of working on a bomb started a bomb program,
35:35because it was clear from the beginning that there was no defense
35:39against such a small and portable and holocaustal weapon,
35:45except to have such weapons yourself and to threaten retaliation.
35:50Nearly two months after Germany's surrender,
35:55scientists recruited for the top-secret Manhattan Project continue to work with the utmost urgency.
36:01As the war in the Pacific rages on,
36:03the bomb has the potential to force Japan to surrender
36:06and prevent the horrific casualties projected in a mainland invasion.
36:10There was a lot of anger at that point in the war.
36:17The Japanese refusal to surrender infuriated us.
36:22People were still being killed.
36:26The Japanese had no air force left.
36:28They had no Navy left.
36:30We had completely blockaded the home islands.
36:33Their food supply was down to about 1,000 calories a day of weeds and buckwheat hulls.
36:38And yet they wouldn't surrender long after any other, I think, nation would have said,
36:45all right, we lost.
36:46What did we do now?
36:47And that was part of the whole Japanese Bushido military tradition.
36:52But from our point of view, it was maddening.
36:57Dubbed the gadget,
36:59U.S. military officials estimate that the first test of this atomic device
37:03would result in a blast of unparalleled force.
37:06I mean, this was a very dramatic weapon.
37:11There was nothing even close to it that had ever been used during the war,
37:15even though we had 1,000-pound bombs in those days
37:18and had rained them on Germany and eventually Japan.
37:25There were nothing compared to what this would be.
37:29It's decided that gadget will be tested on the Alamogordo bombing and gunnery range
37:33in the empty deserts of New Mexico.
37:36Seven other sites had been considered for the test,
37:42including an army training area in the Mojave Desert,
37:45San Nicolas Island off the coast of Southern California,
37:49and Padre Island in the Gulf of Mexico.
37:51Alamogordo is chosen primarily because it offers isolation,
37:57meaning secrecy and safety.
38:00Alamogordo is in the southernmost part of New Mexico.
38:03It is barren, lonely, there's nothing there.
38:11A wonderful place to erect a test site.
38:13The site is just 230 miles south of Los Alamos.
38:20The valley is now called the Trinity site.
38:23The Trinity test, the first nuclear detonation,
38:27would take place on July the 16th,
38:30a little more than two weeks away.
38:32The two- to three-week period prior to the test
38:37showed a much greater activity in the areas of the people responsible
38:43for putting the bomb together,
38:45for assuring that each and every component pre-tested perfectly,
38:52and in the last week to pack everything up,
38:57to send it all down to the desert,
38:59rebuild it and put it up over there,
39:02bring it up on the tower,
39:03and that was it.
39:07Final preparations for the test,
39:09including the assembly of the bomb's plutonium core,
39:12would begin on July the 12th.
39:14The world inches closer to the dawn of the atomic age.
39:19Next, on the last days of World War II,
39:22U.S. and British troops get their first glimpse
39:25of the previously forbidden German capital, Berlin.
39:28In Berlin,
39:29we definitely got the sense that
39:32there was a split amongst the Allies.
39:36The Russians were there,
39:37and they did not welcome us.
39:39In Washington, Operation Overcast,
39:42a top-secret plan to snatch the best German scientists
39:45before they fall into Soviet hands, begins.
39:50Werner von Braun was highly sought-after commodity.
39:54He also happened to have been a Nazi.
39:57And in Britain,
39:58the country goes to the Poles
40:00to elect a post-war government
40:01with shocking results.
40:03Churchill, of course,
40:05was devastated by election defeat.
40:08And he felt that
40:11it was facing gratitude
40:13by the British people
40:14after all he'd done to save them.
40:16of the Roman cosmopol diagram.
40:20Of course
40:21all this country will not be informed
40:22about what they've noticed
40:23during pueblos as the
40:24women from about chi-basals
40:25before
40:26ê²°êµ
40:26Peter
40:27who lucky
40:28would
40:28for their
40:30Einhorn
40:30in science.
40:31This is the
40:33complete
40:34from every
40:35office
40:37The
40:39Young
40:40rises
40:42into
Recommended
41:30
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