then he is brought to tinian island he's there with the cruise. he's not allowed on the first flight because obviously it's the first flight and they just had 12 men and they work in a spare an extra seed but he does end up going on the second flight, the nagasaki flight. is there a describes as a first-person witness the detonation of the second atomic bomb in warfare. he is a great character and it's a delight to read, think about how you describe the first atomic bomb class? how do you describe seeing atomic bomb take out a city? he does it masterfully. >> the surprising thing almost like a postscript that you wrote about, chris, was that i guess there was a movement, several years later to pull the pulitzer prize from him in the new york times because of the arrangement that had been made at the time. i thought, i would oppose that. but an interesting story. >> yeah because what happened was during that period of time he was behind-the-scenes he was on the government payroll. and again, there was just a different sort of relationship in terms

so he sits in the plane on the ground in tinian island in sweltering heat working on it trying to do it and when they finally take off an unarmed bomb off safely and they are on the way to hiroshima, he gets down cradles in the bomb bay next to little boy and has to take off some of the case and do some of the rewiring and then they have to take off the safety plugs and put in the arming plugs and it's only then midway through the flight that they say the bomb is actually armed and ready to go. so moments like that it's a joy and then there are times that you are just trying to, hideaway told the story and how i put all these different elements together. you think, this is hard work. my daughter is in publishing and at one point, she's been in publishing for 10 years, not my publisher. i said to her, writing a book is hard work and she rolled her eyes and said, g dad, i'm glad you discovered that. [laughter] >> it's tough to make a living. chris, did it surprise you, it did me, that truman didn't know the first thing about the building of this bomb. then i read you had written that h

base on tinian island which will destroy all of us and won't do anything to the japanese. so they suddenly say, this is only about two days before the nation, we can't take off with a live bomb. we'll have to arm the bomb on the plane during the mission, editor of the chief ordnance officer, and they say can you do that? he says, i never have but i guess i will learn. so he sits in the plane on the ground in tinian island in sweltering heat working on it trying to do it and when you finally do take off with an unarmed bomb, get off safely, and they are on the way to hiroshima, he gets down, cradles in the bomb bay next to look at what you take off some of the casing, do some of the rewiring and then have to take off the safety plugs and put in the army plugs. it is only then midway through the flight that they say the bomb is actually armed and ready to go. that's a detail that is just a joy. now to go back to question. so moments like that it's a joy. and then there are times when you're just trying to, how do i tell the story and how to put all of these disparate element

island where the planes took off and it was very humid there and the fear is that his film was not well developed because of the conditions on the island so he lost all of that film so the official images don't exist anymore the only known images so far are those of harold agnew who was the scientist who was aboard who brought his private camera now what's interesting i think is that this relates to social media in this. way that this was the dawn of an era of consumer grade private cameras so it was really the beginning of when private individuals could film historic events and that's why i think tools the same tools used for social media can be used to look at these the stork will images very briefly ultimately a mushroom cloud is a mushroom cloud why is getting the right one so important well i think that's why the mistake was made i think a lot of people have that attitude but in the end if your city was destroyed by a bomb and everyone you know died i think it would be a disservice to you a dishonor to you to keep repeating these images not once or twice but for 75 years i mean as

island where the planes took off and it was very humid there and the fear is that his film was not well developed because of the conditions on the island so he lost all of that film so the official images don't exist anymore the only known images so far are those of harold agnew who was the scientist who was aboard who brought his private camera now what's interesting i think is that this relates to social media in this . way that this was the dawn of an era of consumer grade private cameras so it was really the beginning of when private individuals could film historic events and that's why i think tools the same tools used for social media can be used to look at these historical images very briefly ultimately a mushroom cloud is a mushroom cloud why is getting the right one so important well i think that's why the mistake was made i think a lot of people have that attitude but in the end if your city was destroyed by a bomb and everyone you know died i think it would be a disservice to you a dishonor to you to keep repeating these images not once or twice but for 75 years i mean as if

island where the planes took off and it was very humid there and the fear is that his film was not well developed because of the conditions on the island so he lost all of that film so the official images don't exist anymore the only known images so far are those of harold agnew who was the scientist who was aboard who brought his private camera now what's interesting i think is that this relates to social media in this . way that this was the dawn of an era of consumer grade private cameras so it was really the beginning of when private individuals could film historic events and that's why i think tools the same tools used for social media can be used to look at these historical images very briefly ultimately a mushroom cloud is a mushroom cloud why is getting the right one so important well i think that's why the mistake was made i think a lot of people have the attitude but in the end if your city was destroyed by a bomb and everyone you know died i think it would be a disservice to you or dishonor to you to keep repeating these images not once or twice but for 75 years i mean as if

the crew had just delivered atomic bomb parts to tinian island for the weapon that would be used on the city of the hiroshima. surviving crew members, only 317 out of 1196, were not rescued for several days. the national world war ii museum recorded this interview. harlan: i was born in gilbertville, massachusetts, march 10, 1922.

airbase at tinian island and it will not do anything to the japanese. so literally, 24 hours before this whole thing begins, the chief ordinance officer, a fellow named dick parsons, says we cannot take off with this bomb armed, we will have to arm it on the plane. they said have you ever done that? he said no. they said how are you going to learn? he said i have 24 hours. so they get into the enola gay and worked in sweltering heat, 100 degrees in this plane, this metal plane, taking apart the back of the little boy, they arraign him u235 bomb, fiddling with the circuitry, to see how they can keep it disarmed until they take off. so that was concern number one, that the bond might explode when the if the plane crashed on takeoff. then there was concern as to whether on the way there, they might get captured or shot down by the japanese. each member of the crew had a sinai capsule, because they all-- a cyanide capsule because they thought better to kill yourself then be subject to the not so tender mercies of that japanese if they capture you. the other

airbase at tinian island and it will not do anything to the japanese. so literally, 24 hours before this whole thing begins, the chief ordinance officer, a fellow named dick parsons, says we cannot take off with this bomb armed, we will have to arm it on the plane. they said have you ever done that? he said no. they said how are you going to learn? he said i have 24 hours. so they get into the enola gay and he ground on august 5 worked in sweltering heat, 100 degrees in this plane, this etal plane, taking apart the back of the little boy, the with the omb, fiddling circuitry, to see how they can keep it disarmed until they take off. another one was there was considerable concern on their way there, they might get captured or shot down by the japanese. each member of the crew had a cyanide capsule. to use they thought better kill yourself then be subject to the not so tender mercies of that japanese if they capture you. the other great concern, again because the bomb was tested once, july 16, at alamogordo, and nobody has any idea what is going to happen

airbase at tinian island and it will not do anything to the japanese. so literally, 24 hours before this whole thing begins, the chief ordinance officer, a fellow named dick parsons, says we cannot take off with this bomb armed, we will have to arm it on the plane. they said have you ever done that? he said no. they said how are you going to learn? he said i have 24 hours. so they get into the enola gay and worked in sweltering heat, 100 degrees in this plane, this metal plane, taking apart the boy, theye little bomb, him u235 fiddling with the circuitry, to see how they can keep it disarmed until they take off. so that was concern number one, that the bond might explode when the if the plane crashed on takeoff. then there was concern as to whether on the way there, they might get captured or shot down by the japanese. each member of the crew had a sinai capsule, because they capsuleyanide because they thought better to kill yourself then be subject to the not so tender mercies of that japanese if they capture you. the other great concern, again because

they had just delivered parts to tinian island. only 317 out of 1196 were not rescued for several days. the national world war ii museum

the crew had just delivered bomb parts to tinian island. surviving crew members, only 317 out of 1,196, were not rescued were several days. the national world war ii museum recorded this interview. >> i was born in gilbertville, massachusetts, march 10th, 1922. >> you just recently had a birthday too,

island which is where the planes took off from it was too humid so that's the official account why he lost his footage harold agnew whose footage we still do have who brought his private camera on a plane just thinking ahead thinking that maybe he wanted to film it himself he actually sent his photos to be developed in the us in the contiguous states and it worked and so we have that record of both of the missions that he flew on as a scientific observer and what i think is interesting here it relates to what i said about social media in that this was the dawn of an era of private. commercial cameras that people could take with them places and so it's really the 1st few years that we had historical. events documented by private citizens and i think that plays a role in why there was a mix up here and so this mix up has been widespread and has just gone on for decades. i think it's hard to trace this all back to one source i haven't been able to put my finger on on one moment and say this is where the mix of happened but there was a video produced by the u.s. government in 1905 that se

island which is where the planes took off from it was too humid so that's the official account why he lost his footage harold agnew whose footage we still do have who brought his private camera on a plane just thinking ahead thinking that maybe he wanted to film it himself he actually sent his photos to be developed in the us in the contiguous states and it worked and so we have that record of both of the missions that he flew on as a scientific observer and what i think is interesting here it relates to what i said about social media in that this was the dawn of an era of private. commercial cameras that people could take with them places and so it's really the 1st few years that we had historical. events documented by private citizens and i think that plays a role in why there was a mix up here and so this mix up has been widespread and is just going on for decades right i think it's hard to trace this all back to one source i haven't been able to put my finger on on one moment say this is where the mix of happened but there was a video produced by the u.s. government in 1905 that s

island which is where the planes took off from it was too humid so that's the official account why he lost his footage harold agnew whose footage we still do have who brought his private camera on a plane just thinking ahead thinking that maybe he wanted to film it himself he actually sent his photos to be developed in the us in the contiguous states and it worked and so we have that record of both of the missions that he flew on as a scientific observer and what i think is interesting here it relates to what i said about social media in that this was the dawn of an era of private. commercial cameras that people could take with them places and so it's really the 1st few years that we had historical. events documented by private citizens and i think that plays a role in why there was a mix up here and so this mix up has been widespread and is just going on for decades right i think it's hard to trace this all back to one source i haven't been able to put my finger on on one moment and say this is where the mix up happened but there was a video produced by the u.s. government in 1905 th

the crew had just delivered bomb parts to tinian island. surviving crew members, only 317 out of 1,196, were not rescued were several days. the national world war ii museum recorded this interview. >> i was born in gilbertville, massachusetts, march 10th, 1922. >> you just recently had a birthday too, huh? >> yep. >> now, did you grow up in gilbertville? >> first 18 years i spent in gilbertville. and i have not spent any time since then. >> is gilbertville where you would consider to be your hometown? >> it would be considered my hometown. and how many brothers and sisters did you have growing up? what was your family size and make up? >> two brothers and one sister. >> and where did you fit in? >> i was number three. >> tell me, before we started recording, we were talking a bit about your family and growing up during the depression years. could you tell me a little bit about that, what life was like for you coming up during that time? >> well, my father was an irish-american. he immigrated from ireland to the united states to find a bette

these days, the only way you can get to tinian island is from japan. which is interesting. so in a sense what you do, you take off from japan, you fly 1500 miles to tinian. you land very near belie on saipan. but what you do, you fly that mission backwards. you're flying over the same feature the sea, you pass over volcanic rock of evil jima, you're flying at approximately the same height that those guys would've flown. about 30,000 feet. it's quite a strange sensation. you are surrounded by japanese people on board that plane, and i mentioned two to three of them that this was actually the site of the topic mission they were going back to. what a shot today is a casino. where people go to gamble. this is a southern and much of the island. if you think of it that way. in fact one case, the japanese tourist or gamblers that were with me, wanted to get their money back because they were so distraught of the idea. a place that was lost in history, was the site of the first atomic mission. i drove up in a sort of, jeep northwards. to find these runways. which is still there, ro

the crew had just delivered atomic bomb parts to tinian island for the weapon that would be used on the city of the hiroshima. surviving crew members, only 317 out of 1196, were not rescued for several days. the national world war ii museum recorded this interview. harlan: i was born in gilbertville, massachusetts, march 10, 1922. >> you just recently had a birthday too huh? harlan: yup. >> did you grow up in gilbertville? harlan: the first 18 years, i was in gilbertville, and i have not spent any time since then. >> is gilbertville where you would consider to be your hometown? harlan: it would be considered my hometown. >> and how many brothers and sisters did you have growing up? what was your family size and makeup? harlan: two brothers and one sister. >> where did you fit in? harlan: i was number three. >> now tell me, before we started recording, we were talking a bit about your family and growing up during the depression years. could you tell me a little bit about that about what life was , like for you coming up during that time? harlan: my father was an irish-american. he emigra

they had just delivered parts to tinian island. only 317 out of 1196 were not rescued for several days. the national world war ii museum recorded this interview. >> i was born in gilbertville, massachusetts, march 10th, 1922. >> you just recently had a birthday, too. >> yep. >> now did you grow up in gilbertville? >> first 18 years i spent in gilbertville. and i have not spent any time since then. >> is gilbertville where you would consider to be your home town? >> it would be considered my home town. >> and how many brothers and sisters did you have growing up, what was your family size and makeup? >> two brothers and one sister. >> and where did you fit in? >> i was number three. >> before we started recording, we were talking a bit about your family and growing up during the depression years. could you tell me about that, what life was like for you coming up during that time? >> well, my father was an irish-american and immigrated from ireland to the united states to find a better place to live. and he and his family came over h

the crew had just delivered atomic bomb parts to tinian island for the weapon that would be used on the city of the hiroshima. surviving crew members, only 317 out of 1196, were not rescued for several days. the national world war ii museum recorded this interview. harlan: i was born in gilbertville, massachusetts, march 10, 1922. interviewer: you just recently had a birthday, too, huh? harlan: yup. interviewer: did you grow up in gilbertville? harlan: the first 18 years, i was in gilbertville, and i have not spent any time since then. interviewer: is gilbertville where you would consider to be your hometown? harlan: it would be considered my hometown. interviewer: and how many brothers and sisters did you have growing up? what was your family size and makeup? harlan: two brothers and one sister. interviewer: where did you fit in? harlan: i was number three. interviewer: now tell me, before we started recording, we were talking a bit about your family and growing up during the depression years. could you tell me a little bit about that, about what life was like for you coming up during

and then they went to tinian island in the northern mary on us. they arrive there on july 26th and that's one commander earl henry received those photographs of the child that he would never meet. four days later, they set out from guam to lay tea on a routine mission. in those, days at that time of the war, that wrote, rod petty, was sort of the backwater of the war. it was considered the rear. the aid did not send an escort ship with the indianapolis. in those days, cruisers did not have sown our or any kind of under water protection equipment. they were usually accompanied by destroyers to protect against enemy submarines. they did not send an escort with captain mcvay, even though the navy had intelligence that a group of four attack submarines was headed down into the southern philippine sea. it was sort of a last-ditch offensive mission they. we're determined to sink as many american ships as they could, because they knew the war was almost over and one way or the other, japan would be on the losing side. a few minutes after midnight, on jul

island. there's no way they could have not informed, you know, the naval supreme commanders out there. so i would assume that nimitz probably knew about it as did, i'm sure, leahy. >> and eisenhower was critical of the bombings. does that -- does that ring true with both of you that it was an honest criticism that if he had been consulted or had been in charge, that he wouldn't have dropped the bombs? or does that seem more like benefit of hindsight from his perspective? >> there was some hindsight on the part of general eisenhower, president eisenhower, and others after the bombings, after the true nature of the destruction and the radiation and the illness was beginning to be learned, people did back off. i don't remember whether or not ike was for it in the beginning or not, although i can't imagine given what -- given the projections for the invasion, i would have thought that he would have agreed with anything that would have stopped that or stalled that because they were -- i mean, the

island. from there was taken and delivered and dropped on hiroshima. in a way, went to all these places. i followed in one's footsteps. it gave me a sense of the focus of what my book was about. i was going to take the seminal events and the most important three weeks in history of this project and perhaps one of the most important three weeks in history generally. i was going to try and follow individual stories from policy makers of presidents and secretaries of wars and very key figures in the japanese at the time down to people. scientists, lawmakers, people who i have met interviewing spoken to and obviously the aviators who trained in that windy, dusty, salt lake airfield for so many months before they were shipped out to do their job wish they did so remarkably and terrifyingly well. that became the core of my book. my book moves between all these different people as the clock ticks down towards that final second on august 6th 1945 which we, in some sense, commemorated, that is even th

tinian in the mariana islands the 1st operational bomb was loaded onto the aircraft it was the bomb with the a long gated shape containing uranium the bombs builder's name did little boy. nor solid metal miming. what are words really who you're going to when we're in movies or different want to go to a new replacement. colonel paul tibbets head no only gay painted on his plane that was his mother's name. he had a good 6 hours flight time ahead of him. but tug refers and technicians were in planes accompanying the bomber to measure the force of the blast they flew at high altitude out of range of japanese anti aircraft. aircraft were also deployed to observe the weather and before they dropped the bomb the technicians released radio sonas to record the blast wave and radiation and transmit them back to the aircraft . some of them on this also made it clear how much and how many ways they wanted to measure the effect of the new bomb. us. as occupation troops later discovered more than 100000 people were killed in hiroshima. many of them left nothing more behind than their shadows. the shad

later on i realized that child must have seen or heard the plane that came from the island called tinian, the plane that brought the atomic bomb to hiroshima. >> why do you think there is a ceremony? >> because of the war and the bomb. it was something like 8:00 in the morning? like that, right? tell me what happened. >> it is when the atomic bomb was dropped on hiroshima. do you understand? >> yes, i do. >> are you sure? >> in that direction where the sun is coming through, there was a blinding light, like a magnesium flash. it looked like lightning. i was thrown about 15 from where i'm standing. there were a lot of broken wood., poles, pieces of all of this rubble thrown on top of me. it was very, very dark. i realized i was thrown somewhere by a bomb explosion. and it just hit me, i was not dead. i was alive. it was during the summer, a very hot time. something lukewarm fell from my forehead down to my face. i realized that must have hurt my head. and if i stayed there, i would keep bleeding and lose consciousness and eventually die. i thought i had to get out of there while my mind w

later on i realized that child must have seen or heard the plane that came from the island called tinian, the plane that brought the atomic bomb to hiroshima. >> why do you think there is a ceremony? because of the war and the bomb. it was something like 8:00 in the morning? like that, right? tell me what happened. it is when the atomic bomb was dropped on hiroshima. do you understand? >> yes, i do. >> are you sure? >> in that direction where the sun is coming through, there was a blinding light, like a magnesium flash. it looked like lightning. i was thrown about 15 from where i'm standing. there were a lot of broken bricks, poles, pieces of wood. all of this rubble thrown on top of me. it was very, very dark. i realized i was thrown somewhere by a bomb explosion. and it just hit me, i was not dead. i was alive. it was during the summer, a very hot time. something lukewarm fell from my forehead down to my face. i realized i must've hurt my head, and if i stayed there, i would sleep -- i would keep bleeding and lose consciousness and eventually die. i thought i had to get out of there wh

tinian in the mariana islands the 1st operational bomb was loaded onto the aircraft it was the bomb with the a long gated shape containing uranium the bombs builder's name did little boy. going to the north from the moment. what was written in your own when we were numerous and different want to got a newer plant. colonel paul tibbets had ino like gay painted on his plane that was his mother's name. he had a good 6 hours flight time ahead of him. but tague refers and technicians were in planes accompanying the bomber to measure the force of the blast they flew at high altitude out of range of japanese anti aircraft. aircraft were also deployed to observe the weather and before they dropped the bomb the technicians released radio saunas to record the blast wave and radiation and transmit them back to the aircraft. some of them out of this also made it clear how much and how many ways they wanted to measure the effect of the new bomb. the u.s. . as occupation troops later discovered more than 100000 people were killed in hiroshima. many of them left nothing more behind than their shadows.

later on, i realized that child must have seen or heard the plane that came from the island called tinian, the plane that brought the atomic bomb to hiroshima. >> why do you think there is a ceremony? >> because of the war and the bomb. it was something like 8:00 in the morning, like that, right? tell me what happened. >> it is when the atomic bomb was dropped on hiroshima. do you understand it all? >> yes, i do. >> are you sure? ♪ ♪ [explosion] >> in that direction, where the sun is coming through, there was a blinding light, like a magnesium flash. it looked like lightning. i was thrown about 15 feet from where i'm standing. there were a lot of broken bricks, poles, pieces of wood. all of this rubble just layered on top of me. it was very, very dark. i realized i was thrown somewhere by a bomb explosion. and it just hit me, i was not dead. i was alive. it was during the summer, a very hot time. something lukewarm fell from my forehead down to my face and i realized that must have hurt my head and if i stayed there, i would keep bleeding, lose consciousness, and eventually die. i tho

tinian in the mariana islands the 1st operational bomb was loaded onto the aircraft it was the bomb with the a long dated shape containing uranium the bombs builder's name did little boy. were going to ignore the normal meaning. what are words really who you are when we are numerous or different want to go to a newer plant. colonel paul tibbets had the nola gay painted on his plane that was his mother's name. he had a good 6 hours flight time ahead of him. but tague refers and technicians were in planes accompanying the bomber to measure the force of the blast they flew at high altitude out of range of japanese anti aircraft. aircraft were also deployed to observe the weather and before they dropped the bomb the technicians released radio sonas to record the blast wave and radiation and transmit them back to the aircraft . some of them on this also made it clear how much and how many ways they wanted to measure the effect of the new bomb. or u.s. . as occupation troops later discovered more than 100000 people were killed in hiroshima. many of them left nothing more behind than their shad

tinian in the mariana islands the 1st operational bomb was loaded onto the aircraft it was the bomb with the along gated shape containing uranium the bombs builder's name did little boy. we didn't ignore the normal meaning. what are words really who you're going to when we're numerous or different want to go to new or point. colonel paul tibbets head of the no league a painted on his plane that was his mother's name. he had a good 6 hours flight time ahead of him. but tug of furs and technicians were in planes accompanying the bomber to measure the force of the blast they flew at high altitude out of range of japanese anti aircraft. aircraft were also deployed to observe the weather and before they dropped the bomb the technicians released radio sun is to record the blast wave and radiation and transmit them back to the aircraft. some of them on this also made it clear how much and in how many ways they wanted to measure the effect of the new bomb. us. as occupation troops later discovered more than 100000 people were killed in hiroshima. many of them left nothing more behind than their

tinian in the mariana islands the 1st operational bomb was loaded onto the aircraft it was the bomb with the elongated shape containing uranium the bombs builders name did little boy. were going to ignore founded normal meaning. on what was written in the old one when we were numerous and different bomb want to go to newer plant. colonel paul tibbets had a nollie gay painted on his plane that was his mother's name. he had a good 6 hours flight time ahead of him. but tug refers and technicians were in planes accompanying the bomber to measure the force of the blast they flew at high altitude out of range of japanese anti-aircraft. aircraft were also deployed to observe the weather and before they dropped the bomb the technicians released radio sonas to record the blast wave and radiation and transmit them back to the aircraft . some of them out of this also made it clear how much and how many ways they wanted to measure the effect of the new bomb. or u.s. . as occupation troops later discovered more than 100000 people were killed in hiroshima. many of them left nothing more behind than th

that three-day spread is made by scientists an air force, army air force on the island of tinian, it's not a truman decision, it's not a simpson decision, it's not a general groves decision. it's a battlefield decision. so three days. after the atomic bombings, what effect does this have on sloan? everybody was worried about stalin's reaction and of course, they were right. paul lattice love soup back, a very well-known russian historian the new move of hiroshima and nagasaki struck stalling like a thunderbolt. he was shocked. there was a wonderful memorandum of a conversation about a week later that stalin had, with ambassador harrabin, who's the american ambassador to the soviet union and george cannon, who is the number two man is there and he takes the notes and writes this memorandum. and there are a couple of lines and it, stalin says to heroin, we have entered the war in spite of your attempt to end its before we did so. and he replies, the atomic bomb will end the war, we have its and it was very expensive to build. it will have a great impact on postwar international relations

those pictures and those drawings of tinian of the pits, that was in a remote part of the island, all the way down to the end of the island. everyone else on the island had no idea what we were doing down there. that is how we loaded them. , ithe best of my knowledge am the last guy that had his hand on that bomb that blew up nagasaki. signing theere all bomb. i'm the last guy to sign it. since then, the last guy dropped dead. he's gone. the plane takes off. well, they had to pick a target at the last minute. but, it's interesting. smithereens.aki to built back completely by the japanese. a beautiful city. detroit got ruined a little later than that and it is still ruined. it was something. when those people, when the japanese knew what happened to them, all they wanted to do was put things back together. and that surrender was by the emperor, it was not by anybody else. he just made up his mind when he saw what those two bombs did. of course, they thought we had more. we didn't have more. we had one more but it wasn't ready. if he was not going to see another bomb land on his country

that surrounded tinian and we drop one. now they had dynamite in them, that's all. so they would hit in there be a tremendous boom. the people on the island, normally mostly japanese soldiers got used to seeing these big bombs coming down and they knew all they were gonna get was a big blast now was it. so we were doing that regularly and that's how it got to be routine with us. they would just go and come back. didn't work? yeah i worked, fine. they never got to see the people. nagasaki those people never saw what it. i never went on any other mission with those dummy bombs or anything. i would participate and loading and getting them out of there. that was part of our procedure, that's all. >> how long did you stay at tinian after the bomb? >> -- i didn't stay too long because i told you wanted to get back and get mary. general fowler was nice enough to let me do it. i only stayed about two or three weeks something like that. then i went back. >> how soon after that could you talk about your involvement? >> as soon as i g

those pictures and those drawings of tinian of the pits, that was in a remote part of the island, all the way down to the end of the island. everyone else on the island had no idea what we were doing down there. that is how we loaded them. to the best of my knowledge, i am the last guy that had his hand on that bomb that blew up nagasaki. because we were all signing the bomb. i'm the last guy to sign it. since then, the last guy dropped dead. he's gone. next day, early, the plane takes off. goes to -- well, they had to pick a target at the last minute. but, it's interesting. we blew nagasaki to smithereens. nagasaki is built back completely by the japanese. a beautiful city. detroit got ruined a little later than that and it is still ruined. it was something. when those people, when the japanese knew what happened to them, all they wanted to do was put things back together. and that surrender was by the emperor, it was not by anybody else. he just made up his mind when he saw what those two bombs did. of course, they thought we had more. we didn't have more. we had one more but it was

those pictures and those drawings of tinian of the pits, that was in a remote part of the island, all the way down to the end of the island. everybody else on the island had no idea what we were doing down there. that is how we loaded them. to the best of my knowledge, i am the last guy that had his hand on that bomb that blew up nagasaki. because we were all signing the bomb. i'm the last guy to sign it. since then, the last guy dropped dead. jepson he's gone. , next day, early, the plane takes off. goes to -- well, they had to pick a target at the last minute. but, it's interesting. we blew nagasaki to smithereens. nagasaki is built back completely by the japanese. a beautiful city. detroit got ruined a little later than that and it is still ruined. it was something. when those people, when the japanese knew what happened to them, all they wanted to do was put things back together. and that surrender was by the emperor, it was not by anybody else. he just made up his mind when he saw what those two bombs did. of course, they thought we had more. we didn't have more. we had one more