Lifting the Fog: The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Overview

On August 6, 1946, the United States dropped the first ever nuclear weapon on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, another nuclear bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians were killed in the explosions and countless others were disfigured, maimed and poisoned by the effects of the bomb’s radiation. Was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary? Lifting the Fog: The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a provocative investigation into the motives that led to the building of the first atomic bomb and the decision to drop the bomb three months after the war ended with Germany. Using dramatizations based on the diaries and notebooks of the major participants in this momentous decision, including President Truman, Secretary of War Stimson and nuclear physicist Leo Szilard, the documentary presents the issues as they appeared to American statesmen.

Cast

Gar Alperovitz

Self - author of Atomic Diplomacy

Barton Bernstein

Self- military historian

Col. Charles Bower

Self

John W. Dower

Self -author of War Without Mercy

Akira Iriye

Self - historian

Philip Morrison

Self - nuclear physicist (part of Manhattan Project)