An aerial coverage of Nagasaki, Japan to show the atomic bomb damage which occurred during World War II. Aerial views of the Small Arms Plant, the Nagasaki Medical Center and the Nagasaki Medical School. The Urakami area to water works and reservoir. An Ordnance Plant, Urakami Valley area, a cathedral, a medical center, harbor area, over built area in valleys protected by mountains.
Physical damage caused due to atomic bomb explosion in Nagasaki, Japan during World War II. Deaf and Dumb School, Catholic Missionary School, Urakami Cathedral, Nagasaki Medical Hospital, Nagasaki University. Electric transformer station. Substation with small arms in the background. Mitsubishi small arms plant with woodworking plant, lumber pool, Inasa School and casting plant as seen from across a river. A train moves in the background.
Film showing city of Hiroshima, Japan, before and after the August 6, 1945 dropping of the atomic bomb over the city in World War 2. Sequence opens on what the narrator says is August 5, 1945, the day before the event (but the footage is likely from before that date). Camera pans over the city of Hiroshima before the atomic bomb destroyed the city. Japanese air raid lookouts are seen on watch for allied bombers. View of atomic bomb detonation as seen from aircraft high overhead (this is actually a view of the Nagasaki blast, not the Hiroshima blast despite narrator's comments). Next, the complete destruction of the city of Hiroshima is seen from camera at low altitude showing the four and one half square miles of the city flattened and burned. A Japanese hospital still functioning, with red cross flag on it. Hospital workers retrieving wounded victims of the bombing. Ambulatory victims clustered in doorways and halls. Shadow image of a large industrial valve wheel burned onto wall behind it. Similar image of a ladder burned onto a wall. The decorative pattern on a woman's dress burned onto skin of her back. Japanese physicians treating victims of thermal and radiation burns. Views of various victims, including some children, and their respective injuries. Scene shifts forward one year, to August 6, 1946. Children are lined up outside a school building, and then seen inside their classroom. Disfiguration and wounds on children resulting from injuries are still evident on the children at their desks. Sequence shifts again, this time to an early United Nations meeting with delegates grappling with the issue of controlling nuclear power and atomic weapons. Closeup view of American delegates, including James F. Byrnes (Secretary of State)and James B. Conant, President of Harvard University in the assembly. Closeups of representatives from South Asian nations. Closeup of USSR delegation, headed by Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov. Signs identifying delegates from Colombia, Egypt, Iraq, Bolivia, China. Final sequence shows several U.S. atomic scientists in their respective laboratories, including Enrico Fermi and Vannevar Bush. United States representative to the UN, Warren Austin, speaking about the so-called Baruch Plan, for international control of atomic weapons. (Principal author, Bernard Baruch, is standing behind speaker's left shoulder.) USSR delegation, headed by permanent representative, Andrei Gromyko, who is seen presenting the Soviet plan. View of explosion and mushroom cloud during U.S. Operation Crossroads atomic bomb test in the Pacific.
Farmers harvesting grain and corn with machinery on American farms with a narrow tractor harvester. Steel mills and heavy industry and cargo railroads in the United States. Industrial views with smokestacks releasing much smoke and smog (also pollution scenes). Scenes of New York City with busy streets filled with cars, buses, and truck traffic, together with pedestrians. Many varied 1940s and 1950s cars on the roads. Elevated and also aerial views of U.S. highway networks busy with 1940s and 1950s cars. Views of Jones Beach, on Long Island, New York. Scenes of destruction in Japan from the atomic bomb, with sweeping views of destroyed city in Hiroshima or Nagasaki circa 1945 or 1946. U.S. Army infantrymen engaged in house-to-house fighting in Europe during World War II, firing rifles and moving between points of cover in a city filled with rubble.
April 1, 1946: “Operation “Road’s End.” View from the Destroyer, USS Everett F. Larson (DD-830) as it accompanies Imperial Japanese Navy submarines headed out of Sasebo Bay, headed to "Point Deep Six," (reportedly about 60 km west of Nagasaki and off the Gotō Islands) where they are to be scuttled by demolition charges and/or gunfire from the Larson or the USS Nereus (AS-17) (not seen). Captain Bell and Commander D.A. Mckee are seen on deck of the Larson with a Japanese interpreter who is issuing instructions to the skeleton Japanese crews through a megaphone. Views of the submarines underway.
Damage caused due to atomic bomb explosion over Nagasaki, Japan in World War 2. A group of Japanese men and women laborers pass each other as they carry loads of scrap to the top of a rubble strewn stairway at the Nagasaki medical school. Two fire walls, their relative and original positions. The concrete foundation of the fire walls.