Matthew Carney reported this story on Wednesday, August 5, 2015 08:26:37

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Seventy years ago the world changed forever when America dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.



The Americans said they took the drastic step to put an early end to World War 2 and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of US soldiers.



But as North Asia correspondent Matthew Carney reports, this official narrative is now being overturned.



MATTHEW CARNEY: On the 6th of August 1945, the world's first atomic bomb was exploded over Hiroshima, wiping out the city centre and killing about 140,000 by the year's end.



Keiko Ogura was eight at the time and only 2.4 kilometres from the hypocenter.



KEIKO OGURA (translated): I was engulfed with a dazzling flash of light and the blast slammed me to the ground and I lost consciousness. I woke up, it was dark and everyone was crying.



MATTHEW CARNEY: Keiko says the atomic bombings of Hiroshima, and another at Nagasaki three days later, were war crimes.



Many historians say the bombings did not lead to the Japanese surrender and that the Soviet declaration of war on Japan two days later was a bigger shock. It put an end to any hope that the Soviets would negotiate a favourable surrender for Japan.



The severely weakened Japanese Imperial Army had no capacity to fight the Soviets on a second front in China and Northern Japan.



Yuki Tanaka, a Japanese historian, says the country had no choice. The Soviets would have killed Emperor Hirohito. He was seen as the heart and soul of imperial Japan.



YUKI TANAKA: The Soviet Union would demolish the emperor system and they will execute the emperor as well as all other members of the royal family.



MATTHEW CARNEY: America believed the shock and awe of the devastating power of the new bombs would force Japan into surrender but experts say inside Japan it was viewed very differently.



The Americans had already destroyed 66 Japanese cities with a massive fire bombing campaign. In just one night, 100,000 civilians were killed in Tokyo.



Jeffrey Kingston is director of Asian Studies at Tokyo's Temple University.



JEFFREY KINGSTON: If you look at it from the perspective of the Japanese military, it doesn't really make a big difference whether people are dying from fire bombs or atomic bombs. So it's two additional city centres that are destroyed.



MATTHEW CARNEY: The atomic bombings probably did play part in averting a bloody ground invasion and saving thousands of US lives. But historians say the bombs were also about sending a message to the Soviets.



Jeffrey Kingston again:



JEFFREY KINGSTON: We have this incredible new weapon, we have a monopoly on it and we are going to emerge from this war the strongest superpower. And so in a sense, this was the opening salvo of the Cold War.



(Sound of children singing)



MATTHEW CARNEY: On the eve of 70th anniversary, the children of Hiroshima sing for a future free of nuclear weapons. But today more countries than ever have the bomb.



America's atomic attacks on Japan started a nuclear arms race which has brought the world to the brink of destruction.



This is Matthew Carney reporting for AM in Hiroshima.

