Lieutenant Dan McGovern was a cameraman for the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey that studied the impact of bombs. On September 9, 1945, he went to Nagasaki to document ground zero. The airman filmed the realities of nuclear war, which included skulls and bones, teenagers suffering from radiation sickness, and a city in ruin. When he arrived back in the United States, he made secret copies of the footage so it wasn’t suppressed by authorities.
Many years later a 1967 U.S. Congressional committee that included Robert Kennedy asked to see the atomic bomb footage. The material had been declassified but no one could find the originals. McGovern, by now a lieutenant colonel, directed the authorities to his copies.
McGovern’s clandestine copies shocked the world. In 1970 the general public got its first viewing of the footage that has been used in a film called Hiroshima Nagasaki – August 1945. When it premiered at New York’s Museum of Modern Art a packed auditorium was stunned into silence by what they witnessed.
Akira Mimura was born on January 1, 1901 in Hiroshima, Japan. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Desertion at Dawn (1950), Around the World in 80 Days (1956) and Soman kokkyô 2-gô sakusen: Kieta chûtai (1955). He died on December 23, 1985.
Physical damage, blast effect, Hiroshima, 1946-03-13〜1946-04-08
Color Film footage taken by Daniel A. McGovern and Harry Mimura (Akira Mimura) in Hiroshima in early 1946. The precise dates in March and April 1946 are shown on each clapperboard within the video. (USSBS : United States Strategic Bombing Survey)
Life among the rubble in Hiroshima in March and April 1946.
Film footage taken by Lieutenant Daniel A. McGovern (director) and Harry Mimura (cameraman) for a United States Strategic Bombing Survey project.
Color Film footage taken by Daniel A. McGovern and Harry Mimura (Akira Mimura) in Hiroshima in early 1946. The precise dates in March and April 1946 are shown on each clapperboard within the video. The opening frame of the video displays reference number “342.USAF.11078”. The first clapperboard at 0:07 is : “USSBS Motion picture proj. / Lt. Mc Govern / Date April 8 46 / Roll 219, Project 30 / Take 1 , Scene 60 / Sequence / Hiroshima” (USSBS : United States Strategic Bombing Survey)
The clapperboard at 3:36 displays : “USSBS Mot. Pic. Proj. / Cameraman Harry Mimura Tono / Director 1st Lt. D.A. Mc Govern AAF / Location Hiroshima Date March 27 ?? / Proj No 10 Seq No 2 Scene No 1 / Roll No 339 Mag No – Take No 2”.
Color Film footage taken by Daniel A. McGovern and Harry Mimura (Akira Mimura) in Hiroshima on 23 March 1946. Precise footage information is shown on each clapperboard within the video. (USSBS : United States Strategic Bombing Survey).