The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2022
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On August 6 and 9, 1945, US B-29 bombers, dropped their nuclear bombs on the two cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands and consigning millions to disease and genetic defects. The accepted wisdom in the U.S. since has been that dropping the bombs on these Japanese cities was the only way to end World War II without an invasion of Japan that would have cost hundreds of thousands of American and perhaps millions of Japanese lives.
Gar Alperovitz is a historian, political economist, activist and writer. A critic of the bombings, Gar joins Dan on the podcast to discuss how the decision to use the atomic bomb was wrapped up in atomic diplomacy: that the U.S. used nuclear weapons to intimidate the Soviet Union in the early stages of the Cold War. To mark the anniversary, we also dug back into the archives to bring you the human story at the heart of the tragedy - Hirata San, a survivor of the Hiroshima attacks, shares his experiences of the bombing.
Produced by Hannah Ward
Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore
If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today!
To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This episode is sponsored by Audible, where you can now stream the new series of that brilliant Stephen Fry's |
| 0:06.7 | Secrets of podcast. It peaks behind the curtain of the 1920s this time. The life and times of the flappers, |
| 0:14.1 | police women, radio, the movies, jazz, the British sense of humour, |
| 0:20.3 | censorship and the secrets and lies, the financial crash. This is another installment of Stephen Fry that listeners love. |
| 0:27.7 | There are some brilliant stories in here, all told in a very Stephen Fry type of way. You're going to love it. Listen now. |
| 0:33.5 | Subscription required see audible.co.uk for terms. |
| 0:38.6 | Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History Head. On August 6th 1945, the first of two nuclear weapons |
| 0:46.9 | was dropped on Japan. These remain thankfully the only time that nuclear munitions have ever been used |
| 0:53.7 | on the battlefield. Two weeks before on the 26th of July 1945, the Allies had called for the unconditional |
| 1:01.8 | surrender of the Imperial Japanese armed forces in Podstown in defeated and occupied Germany at the end of the war in Europe. |
| 1:11.8 | They promised that the alternative to surrender was prompt and utter destruction. |
| 1:16.4 | Arguments have raged ever since as to exactly whether the Japanese did completely choose to ignore that alternative. |
| 1:24.9 | But we're hearing more about that in this podcast. Whilst that demand was being issued, |
| 1:31.1 | the United States Army air forces were training and equipping a special group of Boeing B-29 superfortresses to bomb the |
| 1:40.6 | home islands, the Japanese homeland with atomic weapons if required. Originally the most suitable aircraft to deliver the |
| 1:48.2 | atomic bomb was actually the British Lancaster bomber, but the Americans obviously wanted to use one of their own aircraft. |
| 1:54.2 | And so they produced a specialized version of the Boeing B-29 superfortress. These were deployed to Tinian in the Mariana Islands. |
| 2:04.1 | Many Japanese cities had been incinerated in the fire bombing campaigns of the previous year, but a handful of cities had been spared. |
| 2:14.1 | And they were now seen as the ideal test bed to show the potency of this new weapon to force the Japanese to surrender, |
| 2:21.1 | but argued just importantly to show the rest of the world, namely the Soviet Union is devastating new weapon the Americans could now deploy. |
| 2:30.1 | Kyoto was suitable, but removed from the list because the US Secretary of State for War, Stimpson had spent his honeymoon there and thought was a rather wonderful place. |
| 2:38.1 | The final shortlist was Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagata and Nagasaki. They were large urban areas. They held significant military facilities. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.