centerpieces home with you. thank you. this concludes our program. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] watching: you are allrican history tv," weekend, every weekend on c-span3. to join the conversation, like cspanhistory. at announcer: 70 years ago, the atomic bomb was tested near los mexico, and a few weeks later, it was dropped on hiroshima, japan and not a sake -- nagasaki, japan. we talk about the race to build the bomb.

this hour-long documentary talks with the scientists and those involved in the operation. things change in time. in a moment in time in 1945, everything changed. the deserts of central new called "therea theney of death," named by spanish conquistadors, because if you ran out of water, you would not survive did in a moment in time in this spot in july, 1945, things changed. of what happened here, the life of a war changed, and changed the course of history. it began in years before and thousands of miles away.

[drumbeats] hador years, adolf hitler forced not to rule on europe, and the rest of the free world saw his intentions were war and brutality was his message. >> i came from hungary and germany. i have seen many things firsthand. i was very, very worried about my family and all of my friends, and i do not believe that people today realized how tremendous things have been, because hitler indeed could have taken over. he had the power to do so. those of us who came from

we saw it came in stages. dr. bethe: from very early on, the jewish were put in concentration camps. they were documented and it kept i think there so was no question that i should emigrate. >> there were other scientists from the best universities and scientific institutions in europe seeking also to get away. when they fled the not seas, they brought with them and international relationship of friendships and acquaintances, along with research they had been doing on a relatively new field of nuclear fission. it had been discovered in germany in 1938 and was an

emerging field that promised massive amounts of energy. there was also the lot that it could -- the thought that it could deliver energy in a bomb. a single, massive amount of energy that could destroy a city. dr. bethe: we knew that there were a number of enemies that .anted it so there was concern that we might be too late. bade know that it was a time and it could quite possibly lead to a problem. >> together with albert einstein

and edward teller, this doctor composed a letter to franklin roosevelt, telling of the terrible possibility that germany had the talent and the knowledge to research and develop an atomic weapon. delivering the letter to roosevelt on the scientists' behalf was dr. sachs. your goalsaid, alex, is to make sure precisely that they germans do not blow us up. intelligence reports from europe indicated that the nazis were working on such a weapon, but no one knew how much effort they were devoting to it. the one certainty was that if hitler developed the om, he would win the war. -- the bomb, he would win the war. it became a top-secret project

and one that would have the tightest security. it would be named the manhattan engineering district. a. teller: finally we became little in doing something. it was a relief. >> the project was massive, it designed and built a project only in theory in a material that didn't exist in any who wereby many people not even u.s. citizens. it was known that the nucleus of splitrm of uranium would when it absorbed a neutron. when this happens, energy is neutronsand more split. when it happens continuously, it is known as a chain reaction. no one knew at the start how much fissionable material would be needed to start an explosive chain reaction. that followed -- volume would be known as the critical mass.

1941. later discovered in was named after the ninth planet from the sun, plutonium. plutoniumtope was 238. by month later i was joined another researcher and we identified in this region -- this room the isotope of importance and isolated it so that it could be, have its fission properties measured. general leslie grove of the u.s. army corps of engineers had just completed a major project at the instruction of the pentagon. create a combat assignment overseas. the superior officer to hold

grove that the secretary of war had selected him for an important assignment in washington. he was appointed the head of the manhattan project. general grove was a very difficult man to sum up. he had enormous devotion to determination to get the work over -- the war over as quickly as he could. spacey worked in a underneath the university of chicago stadium and assembled a large pile of blocks with natural uranium in them. in 1942, they succeeded in bringing about the first man-made controlled nuclear chain reaction. controlled fission could be accomplished, the next steps could proceed. robert oppenheimer was a highly respected 38 year old theoretical physicist in 1942. here been carefully examining the science behind this and in

october of that year, he was at the university of chicago when grove came through on his first inspection two were -- tour. saw something in oppenheimer, a leadership, and an understanding of what needed to be done. or --irst met up in time first met oppenheimer when he was a graduate student at stanford university. he had a reputation for being very quick and easily able to quash a questioner or objective -- objectioner. oppenheimer was extremely intelligent, extremely quick. understood everything when i

had just glimpsed of what was being talked about. >> grove selected oppenheimer for the leader of the manhattan project to be brought together into one place. oppenheimer came to the project with an immediate controversy. his security was questioned because of college acquaintances within communism. by the time of the start of the war, he had become very leftist. one would undertake such a task, and when i met grove i realized they were very different persons. but they both had an intensity and determination and that is what one over groves. and once, he could see that oppenheimer was a man who understood his job and was determined to do the best he could. >> groves wanted to department

allies each of the positions. oppenheimer immediately disagreed. to him, progress was made through interaction. science was discovered through collaboration. he held weekly colloquium's, scientific meetings - -colloquiums, scientific meetings among the different scientist. dr. bethe: he believe that everybody should know and should consider. >> the new lab would be devoted to experiment and engineering. oppenheimer was a theorist. >> he would question the process and so he would say we do know how star works and we do know how an explosion happens, but everything that goes into understanding our universe has first been tested out right here on planet earth. and that is what an experimentalist does.

he tests those laws and see if they really hold up. the best scientific talent in the country, and even from outside the country, would be working in what would be known as site y. but where? a remotehave to be in and sparsely populated locale, at least 200 miles from the coast line or international boundaries for safety from attacks. good enough for construction to proceed your round and -- year-r ound and enough space for scientists to live. in oakund a location city, utah, but there was too many residents and too many farmland areas. stranger towas no the southwest. his family had a vacation cabin in the pecos wilderness of new mexico. drove toer and groves

new mexico to have a look. ath had a same -- both the same view that the narrow canyon was perfect. oppenheimer had returned often as a visitor. boy's school at a place called los alamos. they drove there and the students were out on the playing this isnd gross said, it. located on the eastern slope of the mountains, loss elements -- dream of anas the extra rough rider named ashley pond. this was based on a vigorous life. students wore shorts year-round and slept in unheated sleeping porches. each student was assigned a horse to care for and pack trips into the mountains were common.

the school had spent its time lately since the nape -- 1920's, but now the school was starting to come to an end. school officials started noticing a low-flying planes going through the area. on december 4, 1942, the school received notice from henry stimson, the secretary of war, that the school was being taken over. condemnation proceedings were used and it was decreed that all records of the acquisition be sealed from public view. almost 54,000 acres were required. almost 9000 acres were public land. the cost of acquisition was $440,000. >> after pearl harbor, we all knew that we were kind of playing an endgame. we would get out of school and we were off to war. and so in the beginning of the '42, there was already

surveyors around here from the government, and then they took it over. they brought around mega bulldozers. actually fantastic construction in a very short. period of time. >> construction crews started throwing up buildings for administration, laboratories, housing, schools, and everything else the community needed to function. it looked more like a boom town that a war camp. all of this was around the ranch school. >> so all of this just before christmas, these two dudes show here, the -- show up first one in a porkpie hat and the second one in a fedora. it took two hours to know that this was oppenheimer and barnes. -- them those of -- oppenheimer and lawrence.

we call them by those names because we recognize them. >> the building was accelerated and the last graduation was held in 1943. new roads of son paved streets streets became mud in the rain. wasuiting scientists difficult because prospective employees were already doing important work and needed good reason to change their jobs. because of security, only scientific personnel could be told anything about the nature of the work. they were to tell no one about what they did, not even their families. new mexico, 15 miles south of los alamos. all parts of

europe were the best scientific minds in the world. , some came dr. bethe: as consultants and the rest of permanent staff. santa fe, new mexico. for those who came across the country, it was hard to see the small town as the state's capital. the first stop was in office at 109 east palace avenue, run by dorothy mckibben, it was the welcome and check-in for all of those who came to disappear up on the plateau. arranged for transportation, housing, and hundreds of other little things that took away from the apprehension of one of the things to come. one wife said: >> i felt a kindred spirit with

those who came and were resigned that they were journeying into the unknown. >> after leaving santa fe, the other road up to the site was rough, even for that day. once they cross the bridge over the rio grande, they climbed up a steep road to the top of the mesa. there, they were met by the first security gate. once they made it in, it was a different world. dr. bethe: this was a desolate place. the buildings were just being built, and the one thing that was the view from the other side. dr. teller: my wife and son came

to or three weeks later and we stayed in a big house, and it was sort of a mess. it wasn't easy to sleep. my son was beating his drama, which i did not like, but apart from that, of course, was the surroundings. i knew it was magnificent. it struck me as a military camp, and there were famous in european there and that was quite common to see them walk about. thehe british were part of project and arrived as part of the mission to help work on the bomb. rows of work family houses stretched to the north, named son homes -- sun homes. everyone was a transplant from somewhere else.

this became a tightknit community of scientists, spouses, children, and military personnel. most people were in their 20's or 30's. the average age was 25. they were healthy and middle class. there was no unemployment. it is what you did at the lab dictated your social standing and controlled your social standing and are housing. dr. ramsey: a lot of people there had pretty miserable times in their apartments, which were cheap and rather shoddy of construction, which was the ing to the europeans, when they discovered they did not have bathrooms. the acoustics were not good as well when your neighbors were having a party. some senior lab officials lived in homes previously used by the schoolmasters. it became known as the top row

since they were the only places that had them. 1943, beginning of april, oppenheimer assembled his staff, up thet 30, to sum studies of the weapon from the previous summer in berkeley. it also incorporated research done over the past year. it was determined that explosive means would do the job by taking makingritical mass and it critical so that the radioactive material would detonate. gun method, where it you would have a sub critical material shot together to form the critical mass and starting the nuclear detonation. it was discovered that the gun method would work with uranium but not plutonium. ramsey: it worked with plutonium -- uranium all the time, but if you have the gun

assembly shooting two pieces together, if it got big enough, you would have a the explosion that was called a pre-detonate. we had assembly which there was the and idea of implosion, which in the -- turned out the beetle turned out to be the way to do it. dr. ramsey: we eventually shifted over to the plutonium model. >> this required science and engineering that when an angel -- that would enable the explosive material of plutonium. the plutonium weapon would have to be tested. it would be many months before the material would be delivered. the four that could happen, there were many questions which came down to the central

problem, how to make the uraniumble serial of 235 or the plutonium 239 to release their energy efficiently in a casing that an airplane could deliver? one of the biggest problems of p-238 was u-235 or another location. thousands of miles of piping was remove the metal from the uranium-rich gas. method was used to produce and refine the material. required thousands of workers. there was also a method for extracting plutonium. hanford, washington was selected for the location of refining the plutonium.

dr. seaborg: we had been working with what you called tracer amounts, invisible amounts detected by its radioactivity, but we couldn't deduce the properties with certainty that way. we needed to work with actual w eighable amounts, and that is why we produced weighable amounts of plutonium in this way. the chemists working with me call this the ultra micro chemical weighable. >> slowly, the materials started --ing to los alamos in 1934 1944. all of the material came to po

box 1663 in santa fe. all of the mail came to the same address in santa fe. 80's born at the base had their birth certificates delivered to that address, car insurance, letters, bills, and in the first and, 80 babies were born, by 1945, there were over 300 infants at the site. orderedlmost literally oppenheimer to stop the population explosion. the population doubled every nine months. water was scarce and the electricity was intermittent. the threat of structure fire was always in the back of everyone's mines. then there was security. residents could not travel more than 100 miles from los alamos. if you ran into a friend on the outside of the project, you had

to give a detailed report to security. occupations were never mentioned and everyone was an engineer. saying "physicist" was forbidden. monitored,alls were which was easy, because there was only one phone line in 1940 three. by 1945, there were three. the entire project was surrounded by high, barbed wire tenses and controlled by armed guards. work weeds were six days. 12-13 hour days were normal. saturday nights there were parties. they were big and small and interval parts on the mesa. >> we would tend to go to a dinner with six people. several affairs were usually scheduled every saturday night. single men and women scheduled door and parties -- dorm parties and the furniture was pushed back for dancing and parties often lasted well into the night.

>> at the lodge, they had a wente dance, and we certainly once a month or twice a month. we went to the mountains, we went to the indian pueblas, we pueblos, weruins -- went to the ruins, it was an intense time. we all worked. by thework, governed urgency from events waged on the battlefields in europe and the pacific, never got easier. what those working on the bomb the science, it was the engineering created the problem. partly regarding the circumstances, we thought about how difficult it was, what an intellectual feat it was. some of it was self-serving.

the scientist like to say it, and it looked difficult, but it wasn't very difficult. i entirely agree with phil morrison on this point. movedk on the gun weapon ahead, but the implosion method was slow, frustrating, and at times, seemingly hopeless. a new weapon was needed, but no one knew how no one knew exactly how powerful the weapon would be. in late 1943, planning for the test had begun. it was 210 miles south of los alamos, 27 miles from the nearest town, and 12 miles from the nearest inhabitant. in november 1944, construction of the base camp began. the test was initially scheduled for july 4. the activity at the test site increased, despite things like

snakes, scorpions, heat, and dust. herds of antelope and some range beef started to disappear, showing up on the menu. hunting often took place with the aid of submachine guns. on april 12, 1945, president franklin roosevelt died. flags across the country and around the world flew at half staff. including the flag at the test site named trinity by oppenheimer. sworn in to taken leadership of the country was then-vice-president harry truman. less than a month later, on may 8, the war in europe, which had been raging since 1939, and it -- ended with the surrender of the german forces. the race to beat hitler in building an atom bomb was at an end.

as worried about the u.s. government developing a nuclear weapon, there had been no effort during the war. as the allies advanced into germany, a team of paramilitary operators searched for evidence of a german nuclear effort. among their finds, germany could not have an atomic bomb and was not likely to have had had one anytime soon. but there was still the war in the pacific against the japanese. they work at los alamos continued. seth and other explosive experts had been laboring to discover the nature of creating a symmetrical implosion. lenses were created. explosive lenses that would focus the shockwaves inward to compress the subcritical mass to critical. at f site, near los alamos, high explosives were mixed to form a cocoon the material

would rest in. the explosives had been cooled just right to prevent air bubbles. the lenses required precision casting with machine finishing. tolerances for the 100 or so pieces had to fit together within a few thousands of an inch. him things still fell behind schedule. the test date was moved back. in order to accurately calibrate the instrumentation for the test, another test, one using only high explosives, was needed. a dress rehearsal of 100 tons of tnt was planned for. hundreds of crates of high explosives were stacked on a platform of a 20 foot tower. tubes of low-level nuclear material were scattered throughout the explosives to simulate the radioactive products of a nuclear blast. everything was set to a scale to match the expected effects of the nuclear test shot. on may 7, the high explosive was himon may 7, the high explosive was detonated.

the orange fireball was seen 60 him miles away. but what if the real test was unsuccessful? the fissionable material might himthe fissionable material might be lost from the detonation of the high explosive surrounding it. the decision was made early on to contain any misfire inside a huge steel vessel. it was 25 feet along, 12 feet in him hi diameter, 14 inches thid weighed 214 tons. it was called jumbo. by the time it was delivered, though, production of the material had increased and there was greater confidence in the success of the bomb. use of jumbo was canceled. instead, it was hung from a tower 800 yards from ground zero. a senior scientist started a hi betting pool on the bomb's yield.

>> i bet on the number that they had predicted, maybe eight kilotons. >> edmond teller bet 45,000 tons. >> i bet i was the only one who lost the pool because i bet too high. [laughter] practically everybody else bet too low. >> norman bet low. >> i bet zero and i think that was the most intelligent because it included not only zero, but the first 35 generations of neutrons. >> i think it gives you a bit of a quantitative assessment how very doubtful we had been at that time. and, you know, i cannot see into the souls of other people. i was very much impressed. if not worried what would

happen. >> los alamos started sending down those who need to be at this test site. as the test date grew closer, there was a nagging uncertainty on whether the bomb would work at all. in a meeting before the test, a description of all that was known about the bomb, and what wasn't. fermi, and that was a very dangerous thing to do because fermi was almost always right. but we overruled him, so i felt uncertain for that reason. >> during the war, very often, we kept saying, maybe they will come across some obstacle which prevents it from working. you can easily imagine those things.

for example, a little delay in the emission of fast neutrons after fission. >> they would know only if the gadget detonated. three areas were of prime importance. first, impose and studies. the release of nuclear energy in the form of gamma rays. second was damage measurement. and third was blast effect. reinforced shelters had been built at 10,000 yards north, west, and south of ground zero for cameras to record and scientists to observe the blast. one camera rigged by berlin brixner would shoot color. the rest, black and white. besides running at normal speed, some would be running as fast as 8000 frames per second. >> it would take pictures and then it would fasten to a steel cable that could be used to pull those cameras out of that area, which would be too radioactive to go in at all at that time.

>> on july 7, norris bradbury, who was group leader for bomb assembly, began putting the components through loading tests and assembly dry runs in los alamos. by the following thursday, the 12th, assembly of the high explosives sphere began at v site. the preassembled explosive unit left for trinity site. they were now working against time, along with everyone else still at los alamos. by now, plutonium delivered to los alamos had been shaped into hemispheres. on july 11, they made the trip to trinity, along with other components in the back seat of a well-guarded sedan. >> i remember being afraid of the fast-driving and woman who drove us down there with us in the convoy. it was a very high-speed pedal to the floor all the way driver. that was the scariest thing. >> at ground zero, a 100 foot prefabricated steel tower had

been built. it was braced for an electric winch to haul the gadget to a platform at the top. friday, july 13, starting at 9:00 a.m., the pit was assembled in a sealed and thoroughly cleaned room near ground zero. before assembly began, a receipt was signed for the plutonium. value -- at least several hundred million dollars. at the moment the receipt was signed, the test shifted to military control. though the number of parts were few, assembly took several hours. the core was then taken to the tower. final assembly of the bomb began in a canvas tent at the base of the tower. there were a few moments of concern when the core did not fit in the center of the device. but once the temperature equalized, the pit slipped smoothly into place. the next day, the tent was removed and a gadget, with its

core, was hoisted to the top of the tower. only the detonators had not been installed. the openings where they would be inserted gave the bomb a bandaged look. >> we made measurements of that thing every few hours to see if it was behaving properly. because it was the first time it had been left out of the laboratory for any length of time. so somebody was there and somebody in my group had to climb up and measure something and come back down again every few hours. >> the weather, still a concern, starting to turn dark with thunder and lightning as test day arrived. it started to rain. would the test be able to go on? >> extraordinary. very hard to sleep, very hard to get your mind off of all the things that could go wrong did but we were consumed in the job, especially this crucial one, a test fire to see if this whole idea would work.

and that was in everyone's mind, i think. >> everyone was extremely excited to see if it would turn out to be that way because no one really knew whether the thing would work or not. >> by 2:00 a.m., the weather started to look better. they shot was postponed until 5:30. at 4:00 a.m., the rain stopped. at 4:45, an updated weather report came in showing improved conditions. the test was a go for 5:30. at 5:09:45, t minus 20 minutes the master switches were unlocked. at the viewing sites around trinity, everyone was told to lie facedown with their feet towards the blast and close and cover their eyes. >> we were given those glasses so we wouldn't be blinded.

i took dark glasses in addition to those glasses. then i put some ointment on my face. and then i put on gloves. to be protected against all eventualities. >> they didn't allow many people, but they did allow me -- and i looked with one eye, i had one eye protected. i couldn't look with both eyes. so i was looking with just one eye. >> the three of us, one of the other people with us was ken, who went to cornell. he'd done his explosive work. and he was next to robbie on one side, i guess. yeah, next to him. he apparently was a couple over. and -- robbie was really getting quite excited. and gryson was very relaxed. robbie said, aren't you going to get excited?

he said, no. he had been doing a lot of work with explosives. you get calm. i guess you have to. and he was fairly calm. and robbie said, tell me when you get excited. >> general groves had thoughts of his own. >> the quiet grew more intense. as i lay there, i thought of what i would do if the countdown got to zero and nothing happened. >> at the control point, general farrel, grove's deputy, wrote -- >> be seen inside the shelter was dramatic beyond words. it can be safely said that most everyone was praying. oppenheimer grew tenser as the seconds ticked off. >> at 45 second, the automatic timer was gutted. the test was now out of man's control. one physicist, who is normally equal headed one, changed his mind. >> -30 seconds, -15 seconds, he robbie, i'mto

excited. >> 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. [bomb explosion] >> in the dead silence of the morning, at 5:29:45 mountain time, the area was bathed in an intense flash of a light that man had only seen from the stars. >> most experiences in life can be comprehended by previous experience. but the atom bomb did not fit into any preconception possessed by anybody. norris bradbury. >> the light from the blast was the one place where theoretical calculations had been way off. in the instrument bunker at 10,000 north, berlin brixner was

caught off guard. >> then i realized that the ball of fire was moving up, so i grabbed the controls of the camera and turned the camera up. and so you see it abruptly, it jerks straight up. >> i was looking straight at the bright spot that appeared at a very small point of light. and my first impression was, i very distinctly remember, is that all? >> you didn't look at the bomb. i'm looking the other direction. the mountains were like the sun had just risen. >> and then i started to see the point rising and spreading, i did take off the glasses. by that time, i knew it was big. i twisted the glasses and looked down at the sand behind me. you know the whole thing was at dawn, 6:00 a.m., barely light. as i looked down at the sand, it was like you are lifting the curtain in a darkened room. >> before i got my hand up to

start adjusting the goggles, i felt something that i didn't know -- i hadn't been smart enough to interpret to figure out what was going to happen. nobody had thought of it, i think. it was a cool desert morning. the sun had not quite come up. the air was still. it had that curious chill of a hot place, which cools down over -- hot place at its coolest hour of the day. and suddenly on that cold background, the heat of the sun came to me before the sun rose. it was the heat of the bomb. not the light. but the heat was the first thing i could feel. >> physicist frank oppenheimer, standing next to his brother, robert, wrote -- >> and there was this sense of an ominous cloud hanging over us. it was a brilliant purple with all the radioactive glowing and it just seemed to hang there forever. of course, it didn't. it must have been a very short

time until it went up. it was very terrifying. and the thunder from the blast, it bounced on the rocks and then it went, i don't know where else it bounced, but it never seemed to stop. not like an ordinary echo with thunder. it just kept echoing back and forth. it was a very scary time when it went off. and i wish i would remember what my brother said, but i can't. but i think we just said, it worked. i think that is what we both said, both of us. it worked. >> at 4:00 a.m. up on sandia crest, overlooking albuquerque, groups of people who had driven there up the winding dirt road thought the test had failed with nothing happened. those who stayed were amazed by what they saw. >> the world would not be the same. few people laughed. few people cried. most people were silent.

i remembered the line from the hindu scripture, the bhagavad gita. vishnu was trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty. and to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, now i am become death, the destroyer of worlds. i suppose we all thought that one way or another. >> the explosion caused excitement around the state. wire services were swamped with inquiries and the army was prepared. three weeks before the test, a release had been prepared and sent to the headquarters of the almagordo bombing range. it stated that an ammunition dump in a remote part of the range filled with high explosives, gas shells, and pyrotechnics had exploded.

weather conditions affecting the content of gas shells exploded by the blast may make it desirable for the army to temporarily evacuate some civilians from their homes. not long after sunrise, what was left of the cloud had started to dissipate. there was concern that the irradiated dust and debris from the blast -- fallout -- would fall onto neighboring communities. at a few locations, detectors showed rises in radioactivity. but they dropped quickly. oppenheimer returned to base camp from 10,000 south. >> when he came back, there he was with his hat. you have seen pictures of robert's hat. he came to where we were in headquarters and his walk was, like "high noon." i think that is the best i could describe it.

this kind of strut. he had done it. >> he looked very relieved, as to be expected. after all, it had worked. and the tension was over. >> later in the morning, fermi and herbert anderson wore surgical scrubs and rode into -- in two tanks to ground zero. fermi's got stuck. anderson went on and surveyed the bomb's crater through a periscope. the 100 foot tower had been pulverized.

all that remained were the twisted stumps at the footing, which were anchored 20 feet into the ground. covering the ground was a green grass like substance. it would later be called trinitite. the bomb blast was estimated at 21 kilotons. the bet in the pool was 19 kilotons. he won. there was still a great deal of work to be done. >> we went up to los alamos and the interesting thing about that was the collapse of security in the dining halls. that evening. because everyone was exchanging experiences about the explosion. where they saw it from, where it was, and so on. not just a few people, but a roar. >> in potsdam, yugoslavia, president truman and british prime minister churchill were meeting with joseph stalin to decide how to end the war in the pacific. it was not their preference to include russia unless absolutely necessary.

>> we were very -- to hear that when truman had asked stalin about our test, we were told, yes, truman had mentioned it and stalin had reacted -- he did not in a noncommittal way. >> because he already knew. >> he already knew. >> after the successful test at trinity, the man who began what became the manhattan project was concerned that the weapon, which was made to stop hitler, should not be used. he and other scientists felt it should be demonstrated to japan to encourage them to surrender. he started a petition among the scientists to appeal to the president to consider alternative plans. >> even before the test, sometime i believe end of june, i got a letter from a very good friend, leo, whom i had driven to see einstein at the time and he signed the letter that got things going.

and he had circulated a petition. that the bomb should not be dropped. before the japanese were first notified. would i please sign it and circulate it in los alamos? he was in chicago. i wanted to sign it. but i felt i could not circulate it without showing it to oppenheimer. that i did. and oppenheimer got very excited. that is completely wrong. we scientists have one job, to solve the technical problems. we don't know anything about the japanese, we don't know anything about politics, we should shut up about all those things. now, i had strong feelings about it and i wanted to sign it and i

wanted to circulate it, but on the other hand, what oppenheimer said made a sense and he also had tremendous prestige with everybody, including me. i did not sign the letter. >> oppenheimer and others, maybe fermi, came together in a meeting and -- and decided they did not know any other way to use the weapon effectively. -- effectively than to actually drop it. and i retrospectively -- i agreed at the time that it should be dropped.

and i agree even more today. >> you knew definitively one week later, when kenny gave his famous lecture on the effects of bomb at the colloquium on the thursday afternoon after the monday -- again, would probably end the war. >> but by then, the die was cast. the bomb was under control of the military and the targets had been selected. >> we are now prepared to destroy more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the japanese have in any city. we shall destroy their docks, their factories, and the communications. let there be no mistake, we shall completely destroy japan's power to make war.

it was to spare the japanese people from ultimate destruction that the ultimatim of july 26 was issued at potsdam. their leaders rejected the ultimatum. if they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth. >> a few hours before dawn on july 16, while the scientists at trinity site waited for the test in the new mexico desert, the primary components of the gun type uranium weapon were being hoisted aboard the indianapolis. the ship set sail. a few weeks later, on august 6, 1945, a b-29 named enola gay took off in the early morning hours. just after 8:00 a.m., it dropped the weapon named little boy,

which exploded approximately a thousand feet over the japanese city of hiroshima. ♪ ♪ three days later, another mission carrying the plutonium implosion weapon named fat man detonated over nagasaki. ♪ a few weeks later, the war ended with the japanese surrender on the battleship missouri in tokyo bay. world war ii was over. >> let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that god will preserve it always.

these proceedings are closed. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

him quite on "q and a," kevin or talks about detroit's financial issues and the job overseeing the largest municipal bankruptcy in u.s. history. taken thedetroit had money they borrowed in 2006, when the stock market went down to 6700, and invested it in an index fund, the stock market is now trading at 18,000, almost three times what it was. not only would it tripled their money, they could have paid the pensions in full and gotten back in business giving