 But desert morning, atomic age is born a scientific thunderbolt gives a preview of its destructive force from the instant of that first blast until Hiroshima vanished from the list of living cities closely guarded plants in New Mexico, Tennessee And the state of Washington continued their work to shorten the war Hiroshima one of Japan's arsenal cities was selected as the first to feel the weight of atomic power 21 days after the new mexico dress rehearsal A lone b29 was over Hiroshima carrying an atomic bomb At 8 15 in the morning of august 6 japanese time the first atomic bomb hit an enemy target The bomb was aimed to explode above zero point A spot in the city at the junction of the motoyasu and otorivers The bomb was intentionally set to explode well above the zero point to dissipate its radio activity Here is the pictorial record of the result At zero point directly beneath the explosion The soldier in the scene is pointing at the spot from which all damage to the surrounding area was measured in terms of distance from the center of the blast Within a mile of zero point the devastation speaks for itself But in these very ruins army cameraman have found and filmed pictorial evidence that tells in twisted steel and stone The effect of death dealing atomic power For example, this was the site of the main japanese military headquarters There were approximately 20 000 japanese military personnel stationed here They are among the missing alone concrete smokestack indicates where a bustling factory once stood Reinforced concrete building seemed to have withstood the explosion fairly well The damage varying with their distance from zero point Within an area of a mile to a mile and a half This type of building was the only type to withstand complete demolition and destruction Here's a building that was actually knocked side by giving you an idea of the force of the blast The direction of the blast is graphically told by the slant of this parapet of concrete wall Etched in the stone base of what was the russo-japanese war memorial Artel tail lines Atomic handwriting for all to read Another signpost of the direction and force of the explosion is blasted in the polished granite base of this statue The light surface indicates the angle of the blast Two tenths of a mile from zero point Many of the shattered windows pointed like skeleton fingers the direction of the atomic wind of death On one side blown in On the other blown out With atomic tornado force Inside the flash burns on the chairs give eloquent testimony on the heat of the blast a mile from zero point Which singed the mohair upholstery like a blow torch Hiroshima city hall which stood at an angle of 45 degrees to the direction of the explosion Had its doors and windows blown in But suffered much less damage than building squarely in the path of the blast The windows and doors offer mute evidence of the way the blast swept into the structures The destructive circle within a mile from zero point had a few notable exceptions Mainly reinforced concrete On the edge of the area of greatest damage was a landmark the red cross hospital which never ceased functioning although it sustained damage Today it dominates the desert of a debris that was Hiroshima Another notable exception to the general demolition was the Hikoski railroad station in east Hiroshima A mile and a half from the center of the blast This building however suffered extensive damage The twisted steel beams and concrete wall show the effects of the tremendous concussion What's left of the commercial museum within two tenths of a mile of zero point also gives indication of the tremendous push of the explosion The downward force of the blast turned the roof of the commercial museum into a reservoir Amazingly enough bridges did not suffer too badly at Hiroshima This steel rail bridge one mile from zero point had the side toward the explosion Virtually blasted by flying particles which removed almost all the paint But the side away from the explosion did not need a new paint job Roads in the area fared better than buildings or bridges Shortly after the fires died down traffic was resumed Today these highways through the ruins are again in use Beside our military traffic trudged the survivors of vanished Hiroshima The first city in history to be atom bombed into oblivion Even four miles away the effects of the atomic blast were felt Although a hill between the novitiate of the Jesuits and zero point lessened the intensity Windows of the main building were shattered A group of priests witnessed and survived the Hiroshima blast One of them father John Zeimus tells what he actually saw an eyewitness account I was in my room which faces the baller and suddenly I saw a light like magnesium light flesh light which filled the whole ballet And looking out of my window to find out the reason for this peculiar phenomena I saw nothing beside this light and turning From the window to the door of my room I heard a crash It may be may have been 10 seconds After seeing the light the flesh light And immediately I was covered with splinters of the window frames And glass sticking Into the walls and actually my flesh itself After a while we saw a procession of people coming from the outskirts of the city of the valley Many of them most of them were wounded Especially the parts of the body which were not covered by clothes like hands feet Back All of us who lived through this experience at the spot Estimate the numbers of that at least as one hundred thousand What is your opinion as to the story that the ruins of the city have made a deadly rage? Well, I think that it's just a rumor Because I myself and Others of us have worked in the city itself Immediately after the explosion for several hours and we felt no ill effect at all After Hiroshima, tokyo wondered when the next atom bomb would fall They did not wonder long because the president delivered an ultimatum Surrender or face complete destruction The japanese ignored the ultimatum It was evident that atomic power to break the enemy must become the tale of two cities Nagasaki was selected to become target city number two Exactly three days after Hiroshima a b-29 set out for Nagasaki Instructions were precise to the north japan's greatest torpedo plant To the south steel and arms works were located in the heart of the city The bomb was aimed midway between the two plants to cause greatest possible damage Because the plants were located in a valley Surrounding hills shielded most residential areas and concentrated the damage on the industrial section At 1058 the morning of august 9th the bomb was exploded above the city and in the towering mushroom Japan could read its doom This was more than a routine bombing. It was the funeral pyre of an aggressor nation The bomb had been purposely exploded high so that the greatest part of its radioactive material was dissipated in the stratosphere From the air the skeletons of the Mitsubishi plants made evident that Nagasaki's war making power was totally destroyed For the valley area of little more than three square miles Blast and fire reduced the industrial plants and surrounding buildings to black and rubble The Mitsubishi steel and arms works extended almost a mile in length before the blast These were modern buildings constructed like our own american factories Closer examination of the ruin shows the same complete destruction that characterized the ruins of Hiroshima Damaged to equipment and machinery used in the manufacture of naval rifles AA guns and heavy artillery was such That even if japan had determined to commit suicide by continuing resistance She could not have salvaged much from the ruins Smoke stacks bent but did not break before the blast And roads were unaffected People using them without ill effect shortly after the explosion The ruins revealed beyond doubt the existence of the shadow factories The japanese had set up in the nearby residential areas of the industrial valley You have seen the swath of destruction created by atomic power in this tale of two cities The world's greatest minds in science statecraft and military matters are wrestling with the problems created by the atom On this spot Outlined in stone is a figure representing the average man regardless of his race or creed These atomic footprints on the sands of time can never be erased They point a path which leads to unparalleled progress Or unparalleled destruction Just as in the darkness of the desert morning when the atomic age was born Atomic power puts the question squarely to mankind