Genre: Drama/Historical
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Tom Hanks, Ken Watanabe, James Cromwell, David Strathairn, Masato Harada, Andy Serkis, Jason Patric, Michael Rooker, Michael Gambon, Mackenyu
Plot: In April 1945, Franklin Roosevelt dies and Harry Truman (Tom Hanks) takes over the presidency. In Europe, the Germans are close to surrender, but in the Pacific the bloody battle for Okinawa is still underway and an invasion of the Japanese home islands is not foreseen until the autumn. American battle casualties have almost reached 900,000, with Japanese casualties at 1.1 million, and some 8 million Asian civilians have died in the war that began with Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931.
The new president Truman knows nothing about the nuclear weapons being developed at Los Alamos, and he must soon decide on whether to use them and how. The US Secretary of War, Henry Stimson (James Cromwell), has doubts even about the wisdom of the American fire-bombing raids on Japan.
U.S. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes (David Strathairn) advises Truman that just one bomb could end the entire war. When nuclear physicist Leo Szilard (Andy Serkis) delivers a petition signed by 73 scientists urging the president not to deploy the bomb, Byrnes tells him that you don't spend two billion dollars and then show the American voters nothing. Also urging deployment is Maj. Gen. Leslie Groves (Jason Patric), director of the Manhattan Project
In Japan, the strong man is Gen. Anami Korechika (Ken Watanabe), the minister of war, who argues that if the homeland is defended at the cost of every Japanese, the Americans will tire of war and sue for peace. He believes surrendering is out of the question. The voice of reason is the new civilian prime minister, Suzuki Kantaro (Masato Harada), who simply wants the war to come to an end.
A committee appointed by Truman recommends unanimously that he use the bomb on war plants surrounded by worker housing. Gen. George Marshall (Michael Rooker) lays out plans for the invasion of Kyūshū in November and Honshū in March 1946. The civilians in the Japanese cabinet decide to secretly ask for Russian mediation.
On July 16, the Trinity test shows that a plutonium bomb is feasible and that a nuclear blast is even more powerful than scientists predicted. The uranium bomb Little Boy leaves Los Alamos for Tinian island in the Pacific. At the Potsdam conference near Berlin, British prime minister Winston Churchill (Michael Gambon) urges Truman to use the bomb so as to constrain Russian expansion, an argument seconded by Truman's military advisers, who warn that unless Japan surrenders quickly it will have a Russian zone of occupation and the attendant problems.
Truman decides to drop the bomb. The Allied leaders deliver an ultimatum to Japan to give them one last chance to surrender. In Tokyo, prime minister Suzuki tries to keep the army in line by declaring in a press conference that he will ignore the ultimatum.
In deference to Henry Stimson's qualms, Truman strikes Kyoto off the target list, leaving Hiroshima as the primary target, and Enola Gay makes a successful drop on the morning of August 6, 1945. The Japanese war cabinet is told that the blast killed or injured 130,000 people, but the hardliners argue that the U.S. can't have many more such bombs, that world opinion will prevent a repetition, and that Japan can still fight to an honorable peace.
On August 9, the Soviet Union invades Manchuria; next day, the Fat Man plutonium bomb devastates Nagasaki. Emperor Hirohito (Mackenyu) finally intervenes, telling the cabinet that Japan must surrender. Young army officers urge Gen. Anami to join them in a military coup, but the army minister insists that everyone must obey the emperor's words. On August 15, the emperor's surrender message is broadcast to Japan, and Anami commits ritual suicide.
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