Watch U.S. B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay decimate Hiroshima with a nuclear bomb in the Pacific War
The B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay took off from the Mariana Islands on August 6, 1945, bound for Hiroshima, Japan, where, by dropping an atomic bomb, it heralded a new and terrible concept of warfare. From The Second World War: Allied Victory (1963), a documentary by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.
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Transcript
NARRATOR: Having ignored American demands for surrender, the Japanese were now to experience the effects of a new weapon of destruction. Atom bombs were to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
[Music in]
A Japanese reported: "Suddenly a glaring light appeared in the sky. In seconds, thousands of people were scorched by a wave of searing heat. Many were killed instantly, others lay writhing on the ground, screaming in agony. By evening the fire began to die down . . .
and then it went out. There was nothing left to burn--Hiroshima had ceased to exist. The bomb had heralded in a new and terrible concept of warfare, but its use probably saved hundreds of thousands of both American and Japanese lives . . . for the fighting was over.
[Music out]
[Music in]
A Japanese reported: "Suddenly a glaring light appeared in the sky. In seconds, thousands of people were scorched by a wave of searing heat. Many were killed instantly, others lay writhing on the ground, screaming in agony. By evening the fire began to die down . . .
and then it went out. There was nothing left to burn--Hiroshima had ceased to exist. The bomb had heralded in a new and terrible concept of warfare, but its use probably saved hundreds of thousands of both American and Japanese lives . . . for the fighting was over.
[Music out]
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