Nagasaki bomb
Witness History4 Aug 2025

Nagasaki bomb

On 9 August 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing at least 74,000 people.

It led to the end of World War Two in Asia, with Japan surrendering to the Allies six days later.

The Nagasaki bomb, alongside the Hiroshima bomb on 6 August, remain the only times nuclear weapons have been used in a war.

In an interview he gave to the BBC in 1980, British prisoner of war Geoff Sherring describes how he survived the explosion. Produced and presented by Rachel Naylor.

This programme was made in collaboration with BBC Archives.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.

(Photo: The Nagasaki bomb on 9 August 1945. Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

Avsnitt(2000)

The Falklands War - an Argentine account

The Falklands War - an Argentine account

In our second programme on the Falklands War, Witness History hears from an Argentine soldier who fought in the conflict. Miguel Savage recalls the atrocious weather conditions faced by Argentine cons...

5 Apr 20229min

Escaping a Maoist cult

Escaping a Maoist cult

In 2013, three women escaped from a cult that had been based in an ordinary house in Brixton, South London, since the 1970s. The cult was led by Aravindan Balakrishnan, a former student at the London ...

1 Apr 20229min

Selling Van Gogh's Sunflowers

Selling Van Gogh's Sunflowers

Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" was sold at auction at Christie's in London in March 1987 for 39.9 million dollars - then a world record and more than double the previous top price paid for an artwork...

31 Mars 20228min

Afghanistan's women's newspaper

Afghanistan's women's newspaper

Aina-E-Zan, the first women's newspaper in Afghanistan, was launched in 2002. Edited by Shukria Barazkai, the newspaper covered women's rights issues in depth, as well as criticizing the warlords who ...

30 Mars 20229min

Banksy’s first street art mural

Banksy’s first street art mural

World-renowned street artist Banksy started spray-painting the walls of his home city of Bristol in the 1990s. It is widely believed that his first large mural was a piece called Mild, Mild West paint...

29 Mars 20228min

The 'Snow Revolution' against Vladimir Putin

The 'Snow Revolution' against Vladimir Putin

Starting in late 2011, tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets to try to stop what they saw as a power grab by Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The demonstrators wanted to stop what they con...

28 Mars 20229min

Soviet holidays in Crimea

Soviet holidays in Crimea

Artek, on the shores of the Black Sea in Crimea, was the Soviet Union's most popular holiday camp. Thousands of children visited every year. Maria Kim Espeland went there in the 1980s. She spoke to Lu...

25 Mars 20229min

Ukraine's Babi Yar massacre

Ukraine's Babi Yar massacre

During World War Two, Ukraine was occupied by Nazi Germany and on 29th September 1941, the organised massacre of Ukrainian Jews began. In the capital Kyiv, most of the victims were taken to a ravine o...

24 Mars 20229min

Populärt inom Samhälle & Kultur

podme-dokumentar
aftonbladet-krim
gynning-berg
p3-dokumentar
mardromsgasten
en-mork-historia
badfluence
creepypodden-med-jack-werner
skaringer-nessvold
blenda-2
nemo-moter-en-van
killradet
hor-har
flashback-forever
kod-katastrof
rss-sanning-konsekvens
rss-brottsutredarna
vad-blir-det-for-mord
aftonbladet-daily
varvet