Nagasaki: Friendly Fire

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Warning: The events recounted in this episode may be distressing to some listeners

At 11.02 am on August 9 1945, America dropped the world's most powerful atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The Japanese port city was flattened to the ground 'as if it had been swept aside by a broom', with over 70,000 people killed.

At that time, hundreds of Allied prisoners of war were working close to the bomb's detonation point, as forced labourers in the shipyards and foundries of Nagasaki. Having survived four years of malnutrition, disease, and brutality, they now faced the prospect of the US dropping its second atomic bomb on their prison home.

In this episode James is joined by John Willis, whose new book Nagasaki: The Forgotten Prisoners paint a vivid picture of defeat, endurance, and survival against astonishing odds.

Edited by Aidan Lonergan.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The famous five are away on a splendid weekend adventure.
0:03.5	Do we have to go home today?
0:05.5	sighed Anne.
0:06.5	I agree said Dick.
0:08.0	Even Timmy looks sad.
0:09.5	Cheer up everyone.
0:11.5	Beams Julian, I booked long weekend tickets we can return anytime on Monday
0:17.0	Oh you are clever Julian said Anne save over 50% with the long weekend a ticket from Great Western Railway.
0:24.4	Adventures start here.
0:25.9	Selected routes turn supply.
0:27.6	Saving in comparison to an anytime return fare.
0:30.0	It was at 11.02 a.m. on an August morning in 1945 that America dropped the world's most powerful atomic bomb on the Japanese Port city of Nagasaki.
0:42.8	The city was flattened to the ground as if it had been swept aside by a broom.
0:47.6	More than 70,000 Japanese were killed.
0:50.8	At the time, and unbeknownst to the pilots carrying the bomb, hundreds of
0:54.8	Allied prisoners of war were working close to the bomb's detonation point as forced laborers
1:00.0	in the shipyards and foundries of Nagasaki. These men from the Yorkshire dales and the dusty
1:05.2	outback of Australia, from the fields of Holland and the remote towns of Texas from all
1:10.3	over the world had already endured an extraordinary lottery of life and death that
1:15.8	had changed their lives forever.
1:18.2	After living through nearly four years of malnutrition, disease and harsh labor, their prison home was now the target of America's second atomic bomb.
1:27.0	I'm your host James Rogers. This is the Warfare Podcast, and to take us through this history on its anniversary,
	...

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