The Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings

Short History Of...

Noiser

History

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In May 1945, the Second World War ended in Europe, but Japan refused to surrender - despite seemingly facing inevitable defeat. So, confronted by the prospect of drawn-out and costly fighting, Washington sought to bring the conflict in the East to an end as quickly as possible. Many nations had long entertained the idea of developing a nuclear weapon, but it was the Americans who achieved it first. But what were the circumstances that led to the attacks on two Japanese cities? How did the US leadership conclude that using the bomb was their best option? And how did it alter the course of the war, and beyond that, the fate of the world? This is a Short History Of The Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings A Noiser Production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Andrew Rotter, Emeritus Professor of History at Colgate University, and author of Hiroshima: The World’s Bomb. Written by Dan Smith | Produced by Kate Simants | Assistant Producer: Nicole Edmunds | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay, Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley | Fact check by Sean Coleman Get every episode of Short History Of... a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Julie Andrews, and it is my great pleasure to bring you Jane Austen Stories,
0:06.4	the new show from the Noiser Podcast Network.
0:10.2	I'll be reading Pride and Prejudice.
0:13.6	We'll walk grand estates and take tea with well-dressed gentlewomen,
0:18.9	but in this tranquil corner of England, not everything is quite as it appears.
0:25.7	Listen to Jane Austen Stories wherever you get your podcasts.
0:30.9	It is coming up to 8.15 on the morning of the 6th of August, 1945, in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, about 400 miles southwest of Tokyo.
0:42.3	A 15-year-old girl, Terame, has just returned from her tea break and is queuing to take her
0:47.6	spot at one of the desks on the second floor of the city's telephone center. All about her,
0:53.5	phones are ringing, with a small army of students around her own age,
0:57.0	connecting calls to the switchboards in front of them.
1:01.0	With Japan's wartime efforts draining the nation of manpower, the authorities are looking to the youth to fill the gaps.
1:08.0	Tarame swaps places with a young man going on his break and puts her
1:12.3	headset on ready to go. But as she turns to speak to the friend standing next to her,
1:20.1	she is suddenly blinded by an astonishing light. There is a feeling of building
1:26.5	pressure in the air too, though for a moment there is no sound.
1:30.3	But then it comes.
1:33.3	A great rumbling, as if the city's buildings are all collapsing at once.
1:40.3	The ceiling above her starts coming down in chunks, and something hits her, knocking her to the ground.
1:47.0	As she lies, pinned down by rubble, she hears crying young people, pleading for their mothers.
1:55.0	Dust rises all around, and the smell of sulphur that puts her in mind of a volcanic eruption. Managing to free herself,
2:04.3	she crawls to a window. Outside, the sky that was a calm blue just minutes ago is now dark,
	...

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