Motion Picture MP2002-294
Screen Gems Collection (outtakes from the television series "Decision: The Conflicts of Harry S. Truman")
Administrative Information
Footage
140 feet
Running Time
4 minutes 21 seconds
Film Gauge
35mm
Sound
sound
Color
Black & White
Produced by
Screen Gems in association with Ben Gradus
Restrictions
Undetermined
Description
Harry S. Truman discusses the preparation for the invasion of Japan and the dropping of the atomic bomb. He states he did what he thought was right. Sound only.
Date(s)
ca.
1961 - 1963
SD-quality copies of already digitized motion pictures are available for $20, and HD-quality copies of already digitized motion pictures are $50. Copies of motion pictures not already digitized will incur additional costs.
This item does not circulate but reproductions may be purchased.
To request a copy of this item, please contact truman.reference@nara.gov
Please note that this video belongs to a different video collection than the items available to be borrowed by teachers, from our Education Department.
Moving Image Type
Screen Gems
Shot List
- Reel 1
| 0:00 | Harry S. Truman reads from a script about the preparation for the invasion of Japan and the dropping of the atomic bomb. He talks about the incendiary bombing of Japan. "Firebombs reduced frail Japanese cities to ashes . . . horrible thing to do . . . destroyed more towns and more people" than any other weapon. On March 9, 1945, one incendiary bomb killed an estimated 78,000 people and made one and a half million homeless. | |
| 1:06 | The Chiefs of Staff had to make a plan for the invasion of Japan without the atomic bomb. They planned for 250,000 American men to be killed and 500,000 maimed for life. "You don’t feel normal when you plan . . . " Mr. Truman describes the invasion plans in more detail. "You’ll break you heart and your head trying to figure out a way to save one life." | |
| 2:19 | "No American is ever trained to die . . . Japanese, because of their religion, are." The Japanese are "much more fanatical than the Germans." | |
| 3:01 | "In Okinawa, one out of every three men were killed or wounded. Name of project was “Olympic.” But I saw nothing godly about the killing of all of the people necessary to make that invasion." Churchill and Stimson had estimated one million casualties. | |
| Mr. Truman quotes Gen. Leslie Groves saying "Truman was like a small boy on a toboggan." | ||
| 4:06 | "I couldn’t worry about what history would say about my personal morality . . . I did what I thought was right." | |