the only way to solve this problem is to have an international control of atomic weapons and their destruction. in the distant future, if we still exists, the world will come to its senses, we will form a truly well policed, organized organization, part of the united nations, hopefully, and atomic weapons will be destroyed. god if i will live to see it, but maybe people in the audience will see it. it is worth looking forward to. if it happens, it won't happen for a long time, but it might happen. look continue now with our at to the august 1945 atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki, japan. >> each week, american history

tv's reel america brings archival films that help tell the story of the 20th century. "the birth of the b-29" is a war department film. ♪

>> through these for bidding doors, secretly day and night, materials that are welded and riveted into an instrument dedicated at destroying the enemy. when they appeared, just the day before, they were blades building washing machines. when the worker recorder for the first time the nature of what they were building, they knew a giant plane would result, but beyond that it was conjecture. the day came, inevitably, when the pieces of the jigsaw fit together. the day when the melons of material and the millions of man-hours all combined to

confirm the assembly line rumor. they were building the mightiest aircraft in history. they were building a plane to arm the air forces that would reduce fortresses to medium bombers. they were building the boeing designed b-29 superfortress. this is how they built it. and that aluminum is stored here to link a silver type over every street in tokyo. aluminum sheets to be brought to light by these machines and the workers who operate them. their machines, presses, drills pounded, pierce it into the patterns described and 50 tons of blueprints. it was bust up one month ago. minors and i get up in some distant factory, and aluminum

sheet rolled out. one day it will mirror the sun. in a month, out of the ground and into the sky. these will be the wings to take it there. from the confusion of manpower and equipment within this massive place will emerge the massive 117, a completely new design that will carry more weight faster and higher than any other wing. the fixtures and tools were designed so that unskilled workers could be experts in them within a week whether they were cotton pickers are housewives. the wing is an awesome way, yet a girl can lift it, with just the same effort of putting a

flower in her hair. the handling of both imparts -- bulky parts have always been a problem. this would solve the problem. they moved traffic to the ceiling, and thus they allow workers more time at the machines and the machines more time at work. here is the wing in a more advanced stage. if the workers imagine for a moment that they were in a shipyard, it would be understandable. the mayflower was shorter from stern to stern than the wings from tip to tip.

each of these would case an engine, four of them harnessed to one superfortress. what does that mean? horsepower means more than 300 miles per hour. horsepower means flying high enough to see all the new england states at once. horsepower means victory in the air. when these skeleton no sections are enclosed in aluminum glass, they will be the most comfortable cockpits a bomber ever had. the windows cap clout or fog. the instrument handle is less complex than a dashboard of an automobile. soundproofing allows talk without a microphone. the air remains constant. back of the control cabin is a huge center section.

here the wings will be fit. here the bombay small hole that greatest weight ever lifted into the skies. towards the tail, another big pressurized chamber will hold the rest of the crew, except for the rear gunner who have the cabin to himself. if in some emergency, a crew member must travel between the come pressurized -- pressurized cabins, he can flitter through this tunnel. durable, crystal-clear eyes of every superfortress. the pre-fabricated assemblies are shipped to this plant.

what has been shown here is being duplicated in plants all across the country. identical miracles produced by people who think and look like these people -- the fair, the dark, evil with unblinking eyes, the strong with their willing muscles, and those less strong, but as willing, the braided schoolgirls, the white-haired grandmothers, the old, the young, the young-old, the little ones, and the less little ones working together in infinite harmony. their goal, peace. these workers are the lucky ones who see the finished product of their labor roll off the line.

every hour of every day, they are witness to this awe-inspiring ceremony. this wedding of material and man-hours. this climax of man's conquest of air. but what of the others who helped, however remotely, to create a weapon that they have never seen? the lumberjack who chop the trees that became the blueprints.

and the miner of coal. the sweating men who forged the craft. the citizens who paid for the fortress with their purchase of war bonds. their efforts, initiated all across the land and converging in this vaulted roof. here, the sum of their energies assume shape, stature, and meeting. here is the final meeting of every effort in every part -- and every part. a bold insignia will reclaim to the enemy that this is the proud new weapon of the united states army air force's, but it is our plane too, because we the people build that. we conceive that, financed it, and gave it wings.

we power to and arms it and our sons and brothers fly it. the function is to break the race for those who turned their back on reason. it is the people's answer to all this the raids, the death marches, all the stabs in the back. it is our memorial to the fighting men who are not afraid to die, who fought with their lives the time we needed to win the war. like this one, which 50 hours after its test will land in india, china, or any other faraway shangri-la. within the plant, work proceeds. they caught figures -- they cock their ears for a song. this is the song they hear.

♪ the story begins in 1939 when the farsighted army air forces said, we want a plane for our defense that can fly a bomb thousands of miles out to sea

and return. after six months work, there was a tiny model that would spend the next six months in a wind tunnel, then there was a full bottle that was subject to every punishment. after a year of tests did the army late contract to planes that would fight. the b-29 mitchell is a strapping bomber. it could reached up and only if it took off from an aircraft carrier. much bigger is the b-17 fortress. it has ranged one hundred 40 miles over japan's island conquest, but they cannot reach japan itself from any base we now hold. the superfortress, weeks than, 141 feet, longer than the rights

first flight at kitty hawk. very long, very high, and very large. because it is a global bomber, around it has been built an entirely new air force, the 20th. its operations room if the war room of the chief of staff in washington. it's planes will be treated as a major task force, in the same manner as the naval task force. watch it come in for a landing. with a revolutionary set of flats, it has a shorter landing run than a plane half of its size. all of its weight is supported

by tires that require less pressure than a child's bicycle. somewhere in western china, half a million people wrote their role in the saga of the superfortress. these farmers transform rice patties into airfields for our use against the new invader. they had no machinery, as we know it, only their minion hands and the searing memory of gears

since china sent out to annihilate them. so by stone, layer after layer, bound together not just by muddy water, but the blood of their brothers who died under samurais' swords. soon, there were runways. revenge for the nameless people was close at hand. even in china, the arrival of

the superfortress is an occasion for everyone to turn out, and curiosity and welcome. it welcome now, but it is only the beginning of another bigger journey. the tanks would have to be filled, the engines given a final check, the bombs set in the rack, and then briefings. the assembled and men will listen to words that a few years ago would have been fantastic, but today roll casually off of the briefing officers went. the target, gentlemen, is japan. [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]