
Atomic People
8/4/2025 | 1h 25m 48sVideo has Closed Captions
"Atomic People" explores the human fallout from the atomic bombs used in an act of war.
Combining their personal accounts with archive footage, "Atomic People" features a number of voices from some of the only people left on Earth to have survived a nuclear bomb.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback

Atomic People
8/4/2025 | 1h 25m 48sVideo has Closed Captions
Combining their personal accounts with archive footage, "Atomic People" features a number of voices from some of the only people left on Earth to have survived a nuclear bomb.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch Atomic People
Atomic People is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipMan: ♪ You are my sunshine ♪ ♪ My only sunshine ♪ ♪ You make me happy ♪ ♪ When skies are gray ♪ [Speaking Japanese] [Laughs] Woman: How did you learn to speak English?
♪ I'm not asking your advice.
♪ Woman: [Laughs] Come on, cowboy.
Understand?
Tarzan.
Ah-ohh!
Ah ah-ah ah-ah ah!
Oh... [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [Muttering] ♪ Woman: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Man: [Speaking Japanese through electrolarnyx] Konnichiwa.
[Speaking Japanese] [Speaking Japanese] [Laughing] ♪ Woman: [Speaking Japanese] Man: [Speaking Japanese] [Speaking Japanese] ♪ [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Woman: So I'd like to begin by asking you, what was life like before the bomb was dropped?
If you close your eyes and think back to before the war, what do you see?
[Speaking Japanese] ♪ [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ Chiyoko: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ Woman: [Speaking Japanese] Hai.
♪ Seiichiro: [Speaking Japanese] Hai.
♪ Announcer: [Speaking Japanese] Film narrator: Germany and Italy, who had plunged Europe into war, became fully united with Japan in the strategy of terror.
[Crowd cheering] ♪ ♪ Franklin Roosevelt: December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy... ♪ [Crowd cheering] Seiichiro: [Speaking Japanese] [People chanting] Film narrator: Pearl Harbor was part of a huge area under simultaneous attack.
Thus the strategy planned in Berlin becomes clear-- world conquest.
♪ Woman: Tell us about Hiroshima.
What was it like during the war?
Hai.
[Laughs] ♪ Hiromu: [Speaking Japanese] Woman: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Film narrator: Under Japanese rule, the live prisoners have been subjected to indescribable suffering.
♪ Woman: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ [Crowd cheering] Film narrator: The end of the war in Europe officially announced by the prime minister.
The German war is at an end.
Film narrator: Everyone realized perfectly well that, although the German war was over, the Japanese war was not.
♪ [Speaks Japanese] [Chanting] ♪ [Chanting continues] ♪ Man: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ [Cheering] ♪ ♪ [Crash] ♪ Harry Truman: There can be no peace in the world until the military power of Japan is destroyed.
Only surrender can prevent the kind of ruin which they have seen come to Germany as a result of continued, useless resistance.
♪ Chieko: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ [Trolley bell ringing] [Melody playing] ♪ Woman: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Birds chirping] ♪ [Indistinct conversation] ♪ [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Woman: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Michiko: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ [Engine thrumming] ♪ [Speaking Japanese] [Thrumming continues] ♪ Reiko: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Reiko: [Speaking Japanese] Michiko: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Chieko: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hiromu: [Speaking Japanese] [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Shigeaki: [Speaking Japanese] [Rumbling] ♪ [Swarming sound] [Swarming sound continues] [Rumbling] [Rumbling] Michiko: [Speaking Japanese] Ano... [Voices echoing] ♪ ♪ ♪ Hiromu: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Shigeaki: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hiromu: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ [Sniffles] ♪ ♪ ♪ Man: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Woman: How far was your house from the center of the explosion?
[Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hai.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Michiko: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [Bird squawking] ♪ ♪ [Static] ♪ A short time ago, an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima and destroyed its usefulness to the enemy.
That bomb has more power than 20,000 tons of TNT.
It is an atomic bomb.
It is a harnessing of a basic power of the universe.
We have spent more than $2 billion on the greatest scientific gamble in history, and we have won.
What has been done is the greatest achievement of organized science in history.
♪ Mm.
[Speaking Japanese] Truman: If they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on this Earth.
The end is not yet.
[Rain falling] ♪ Seiichiro: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ [Engine thrumming] Chiyoko: [Speaking Japanese] [Engine thrumming] Chiyoko: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [Speaking Japanese] [Speaking Japanese] ♪ [Wind blowing] Uh... [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hirohito: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Film narrator: In the bay of Tokyo itself, the complete and formal surrender of Japan.
♪ A better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past.
Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world.
[Crowd cheering] [Car horns honking] ♪ Chieko: [Speaking Japanese] Hiromu: [Speaking Japanese] Chieko: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ Hiromu: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Man: [Speaking Japanese through electrolarynx] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Creaking] Seiichiro: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Film narrator: To the scrap heap went the guns, the ships, the tanks, a growing new idea-- the idea of democracy.
♪ Seiichiro: ♪ You'll never know, dear ♪ ♪ How much I love you ♪ ♪ You are my sunshine away ♪ [Speaking Japanese] Reiko: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ Sueichi: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ [Clock ticking] [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Terumi: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ [Sobs] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hiroshi: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Chieko: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Hiromu: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ Hiroshi: [Speaking Japanese] [Indistinct conversation] ♪ Hiroshi: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ [Speaking Japanese] Hiromu: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ Hiroshi: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Hiromu: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Woman: Of course.
Atomic Bomb-- Bomb Casualty Commission.
[Speaking Japanese] Reiko: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Terumi: [Speaking Japanese] [Speaking Japanese] Woman: [Speaks Japanese] [Laughs] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Terumi: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ Terumi: [Speaking Japanese] Michiko: [Speaking Japanese] Chiyoko: [Speaking Japanese] Terumi: [Speaking Japanese] [Laughs] Michiko: [Speaking Japanese] Mm.
♪ Sueichi: [Speaking Japanese] Woman: When you got married, did you tell your wife you were a hibakusha?
♪ [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Hiroshi: [Speaking Japanese] Oh... Ano... [Laughs] [Both laugh] Hiroshi: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ Michiko: [Speaking Japanese] Hiroshi: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ Keiko: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ Children: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Kikuyo: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Michiko: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ Hiroshi: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Kikuyo: [Speaking Japanese] [Laughs] ♪ Jiro: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Jiro: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Terumi: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ Hiromu: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ Sueichi: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ Antonio Manuel de Oliveira Guterres: [Speaking Portuguese] ♪ [Applause] ♪ Kiyomi: [Speaking Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ Man: [Speaks Japanese] [Bell ringing] [Ringing continues] [Ringing ends] ♪ "Atomic People" is available with PBS Passport and on Amazon Prime Video ♪ ♪
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 8/4/2025 | 4m 5s | Survivors of the atomic bombing in Japan come together to advocate for peace and change. (4m 5s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 8/4/2025 | 5m 49s | Survivors of the Hiroshima bombing retell the moments before and after on August 6, 1945. (5m 49s)
Love and Life After the Bombing
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 8/4/2025 | 4m 41s | Survivors of the atomic bombs in Japan faced challenges later in their personal lives. (4m 41s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 8/4/2025 | 2m 38s | A survivor of the Hiroshima bombing retells how his brother saved him from the blast. (2m 38s)
Preview: 8/4/2025 | 30s | "Atomic People" explores the human fallout from the atomic bombs used in an act of war. (30s)
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