This is Hiroshima, the day after the atom bomb exploded over Japan's seventh largest city
and etched its message of doom to an empire.
Heat traveling at the speed of light cast a shadow over Hiroshima and over the land of the rising sun.
These films, taken by the Japs and confiscated after the armistice,
tell a dramatic story of destruction and terror that followed in the wake of the first atom bomb loosed over a military target.
Thirty percent of the city's population was killed,
some by radioactive gamma rays and others by the heat of radiation that showed its intensity in many freakish ways.
And this is Hiroshima one year after.
The release of these films by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey
coincides with the anniversary of the blast which hastened the end of the war.
They show Hiroshima still bearing the scars of atomic energy,
still a city of rubble and destruction.
A life of bare essentials is the lot of the little men who dreamed of world rule
and ended up as hosts to Uncle Sam's occupation army.
The trolleys are running, but a year later it's still a city of the dead,
first victim of the atom bomb.
Eighty-seven ships take positions three miles off Bikini to suffer the shattering impact of the fifth atomic bomb.
Here will be tested the capacity of modern armament to withstand the crushing shock of compressed water traveling a mile per second.
The evacuated ruler of Bikini, King Judah, gets a front row seat at the bomb blast
as he arrives aboard the mountain of Hiroshima.
And is greeted by Admiral Blandy, Joint Task Force One Commander.
The bomb raft for Test Baker is ready.
The abandon ship signal is hoisted and the scientific staff and crew are checked off.
The bomb raft for Test Baker is ready.
The abandon ship signal is hoisted and the scientific staff and crew are checked off.
Last man off the deadly weapon carrier is Admiral Parsons, who set the switch for the blow-off.
These historic pictures are the result of the joint efforts of Army, Navy, Marine, Air Force, Coast Guard, and New Zealand cameraman.
It's a graphic record of one of the most terrifying happenings in world events.
Admiral Parsons, Navy's number one atomic bomb expert, reports to Admiral Blandy aboard the flagship that all is in readiness for the test.
Close by, the Los Alamos firing ship receives the staff of scientific personnel,
which will time the experiment and set off the blast by radio beam.
These are the instruments that will loose the bomb on the test area.
Striking just below the surface, the nuclear release smashes at five times the speed in the compressed water as it would in the air.
The signal, two minutes to go, and everyone in the fleet stands by to picture history in the making,
a scene that excites even the most experienced newsmen.
Throughout the observant fleet, all eyes are trained on the blast point.
Throughout the observant fleet, all eyes are trained on the blast point.
Twenty-five seconds, twenty seconds, fifteen seconds.
Dr. Holloway, leader of the Los Alamos group and the entire fleet, waits in almost agonized tenseness.
Now but five seconds to go, and...
The awful roar of the blast, equal to a discharge of 60,000 death charges, each weighing 600 pounds, strikes the ears of the observers.
Many miles away, the raging might of searing flame, crushing force, and deadly radioactive water is seen falling in a killing mist
as the great circular wall of sea closes in on the guinea pig fleet.
The combined forces let loose swamp the nearby ships and crush their thickly armored hulls like cardboard.
Seen from the air, the towering waves set in motion appear to be only shallow ripples.
An ancient bikini gets a pounding.
A television screen records an on-the-spot picture story.
Drone planes fly through the turbulent air mass above Bikini Lagoon, deadly with its radioactive gases,
and for days it was not safe for salvage crews to board the damaged ships.
Geiger counters recorded the intense rays, which would have proved fatal if the ships had been manned.
When task force observers under Admiral Blandy made the final tally of ships sunk or damaged,
they found the Jap battleship Nagato badly damaged. She later sank.
The destroyer Hughes was beat to prevent its sinking.
Five submarines were listed as sunk or damaged, and the historic old battleship New York was a battered hulk,
its superstructure twisted and torn.
The proud Saratoga, veteran of many naval campaigns, goes down many hours after the blast.
Efforts were made to salvage the historic carrier the Japs could never sink,
but old Sara finally goes down in the cause of science.
And now I've shown the most dramatic pictures of the underwater blast, taken from a photographic plane.
Here is the motion picture spectacle of all time.
A million tons of water, alive with deadly rays.
Awe inspiring in its significance for man who learned how to control the atom,
but must now learn to control himself.
But one defense against the atom bomb, and that is distance.
Distance will mean nothing without...