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The John Batchelor Show

#Nagasaki: The decision to use the second weapon, Fat Boy, on civilians. Charles Pellegrino, author, To Hell and Back: Last Train from Hiroshima

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Photo: 1920. No known restrictions on publication.
@Batchelorshow


#Nagasaki: The decision to use the second weapon, Fat Boy, on civilians. Charles Pellegrino, author, To Hell and Back: Last Train from Hiroshima
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man

Transcript

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0:00.0

At TFL, we're making journeys safer for everyone, and that includes improving safety on London's roads.

0:07.4

That's why we and London boroughs are lowering more speed limits to 20 miles per hour,

0:12.3

because 20 miles per hour roads have already reduced collisions resulting in deaths or

0:16.8

serious injuries by 24%. That is how we're making journeys in London safer and brighter for everyone.

0:24.8

Such TFL improvement plan to the Mayor of London and TFL every journey matters.

0:35.2

This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batch with my colleague Charles Pelagrino,

0:38.8

the author of To Hell and Back, last train from Hiroshima. The first bomb has dropped.

0:44.7

The observation from the Inola Gay and from the weather,

0:48.5

plane that was flying up beside it is both breathtaking and strange to the men who dropped the bomb

0:55.4

and to the people who are learning about the effects of the bomb in Washington.

1:01.1

The month before in July 1945, the President of the United States wasn't the Potsdam Conference,

1:07.5

along with his allies Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, and they're looking at a post-war period.

1:14.0

Stalin knows about the bomb, but pretends that he's surprised when Truman tells him

1:19.4

after the word comes that the test is successful in New Mexico. The bomb is underway,

1:28.7

and Stalin says something flippin-like. I hope it's a good bomb or a big bomb. That's July of 1945.

1:35.7

We're now in August of 1945. The President's back. They get the information that the first bomb

1:42.3

has been effective. Charlie, did they know what they meant when they set effective?

1:46.6

Did they know about the black rain? Did they know about the breadth of the destruction?

1:53.4

They knew that the center part of Hiroshima had basically disappeared there,

1:59.8

and reconnaissance flights before and afterward, they knew that the wooden buildings would probably

2:07.4

be set afire, that it might create a firestorm. They knew everything wouldn't be knocked down,

2:12.8

and all the factories would be destroyed. One of them aboard Jacob Bezier, he had looked down

...

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