'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

Hiroshima + 60, part 3

This afternoon, I watched the DVD of the 3-hour Canadian-Japanese movie, Hiroshima. I was previewing it to see if our local peace group, the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice, could use it as part of our observances of the upcoming 60th anniversary of the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I definitely think we can use it. It's beautifully made, with what looks like a fairly meticulous eye to historical accuracy. Mainly, it tells the story of why Truman and Co. ended up making the decisions they did on dropping the bombs. It has good re-enactments of vital meetings and events on both the US and the Japanese sides, mixed in with contemporary newsreel footage. The actors who play Truman, Churchill, Stimson, etc all look reasonably like their subjects. I imagine the actors on the Japanese side do, too? The actors who play the Japanese leaders are Japanese, and speak in Japanese. In our edition, the DVD has English subtitles for the Japanese scenes. (I imagine there may be a Japanese-language edition with subtitles in the English-language scenes?)

Five years ago, Bill and Lorna and I went to Japan, and we spent a couple of days in Hiroshima. Nowadays it is once again a bustling city. It's very modern, with many high-rises. When I was first there, it felt almost unreal. Had I expected it all to stay steeped in black-and-white and charred forever?

We were very warmly shepherded around by a woman in her early 60s who was a hibakusha (bomb survivor.) I should dig out my notes from that trip... I remember the green expanses of the Peace Park in the center of town; the very instructive and somber displays in the peace museum; the schoolkids all flocking to the memorials; the memorial to the Korean indentured/slave laborers who had been working in the city at the time and were incinerated along with nearly everyone else; the stonrg commitment the city authorities have today to campaigning in total opposition to nuclear weapons.

... So here in Charlottesville, Virginia, every year CCPJ does something on the Saturday nearest August 6th to raise awareness about nuclear weapons. This year, August 6 actually is on the Saturday. We had a little planning meeting today to firm up some of our plans for this year's events.

Earlier this week I made an informational brochure to use in our organizing for this. I just thought: Hey, I could upload it onto the blog-- then if any of you wants to use it (adapted) for anything you're doing in your communities-- why go ahead and do so. Attribution to CCPJ- Charlottesville, VA, please.

Here it is. It's a Word-for-Windows file, formatted to make a two-sided trifold brochure on US letter-size paper. If you think you could use it in your own locality, let us know!