Hiroshima: Dropping The Bomb (BBC TV)
It was the defining moment of the 20th Century – the scientific, technological, military, and political gamble of the world’s first atomic attack. This drama-documentary shows what it is like to live through a nuclear explosion, millisecond by millisecond. Special effects recreate the reality of the mission, and archive film replays the horrific aftermath. Hear first-hand accounts from the air and ground, re-telling every memory from the day the world first witnessed the horrors of atomic warfare.
On Monday, August 6, 1945 at 8:15 AM, the nuclear weapon Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima by the crew of the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay, directly killing an estimated 80,000 people. By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought total casualties to 90,000-140,000. Approximately 69% of the city’s buildings were completely destroyed, and 6.6% severely damaged.
Nagarekawa Church in the foreground. Hiroshima Station upper far-right.
World March For Peace And Non-Violence kicks off NYC activities with “DIE-IN FOR PEACE” on Hiroshima Day
NEW YORK, August 6—Sixty four years after the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima, The World March for Peace and Nonviolence (www.worldmarchusa.net) will stage a “die-in” for peace in New York City paying silent tribute to the millions of deaths caused by various wars and conflicts over the last century. The unusual event is one of thousands planned globally by the World March to generate awareness of the global threat of nuclear proliferation and its commitment to zero-tolerance for nuclear arms, a position echoed by many of the march’s prominent endorsers, including Miguel d’Escoto, The President of the United Nations General Assembly, and other world leaders.
“It’s important to mark this day not only to remember what happened but to prevent a future nuclear disaster,” says World March spokesperson Chris Wells. “The situation is far more dangerous and unstable than many people realize. There is a growing call for abolition, in the UN, with Obama and Medvedev, and civil initiatives like the World March for Peace and Nonviolence and Global Zero. But we need to build momentum from the grass roots to make sure it happens.”
Scheduled for Hiroshima Day, Thursday, August 6, the Die-in for Peace will feature small groups of “nuclear phantoms” fanning peacefully through midtown wearing white makeup and coveralls on which the deathtolls of various 20th century conflicts will be written. The event will end with a silent gathering of phantoms converging in Times Square.
ABOUT THE WORLD MARCH
Initiated by the group World Without Wars, the World March for Peace and Nonviolence begins its historic journey October 2 in Wellington New Zealand before traveling through seven continents, 100 plus countries and 300 plus cities. It will arrive in New York City on November 30, 2009 and reach its final destination in Punta de Vacas, Argentina on January 2. 2010.
The primary goals of the World March include:
• nuclear disarmament at a global level
• immediate withdrawal of invading troops from occupied territories
• progressive and proportional reduction of conventional weapons
• signing of non-aggression treaties between countries
• renunciation by governments of the use of war as a means to resolve conflicts
The World March has been endorsed globally by thousands of individuals, pacifist and nonviolence groups, institutions and leading figures in science, culture and politics including Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, South Africa’s Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Zubin Mehta, Yoko Ono, Viggo Mortensen, Abolition 2000 and Mayors for Peace, among others.
For an extensive list of supporters, go to www.theworldmarch.org
I have read this article at the Spanish journal EL PAIS today and I couldn’t resist to translate it to share it with all of you.
The original in Spanish:
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/opinion/caras/bomba/atomica/elpepiopi/20090806elpepiopi_5/Tes/
THE TWO SIDES OF THE ATOMIC BOMB
Humanity has the ability to generate hell, but also to overcome it
by JUAN CARLOS BOTERO 06/08/2009
The man told an incredible story. He was just 13 years old, and he was in a school classroom when a fellow boy came to the window and shouted: “Look, a B-29 plane!”
The other children gathered in front of the glass window and saw it smoothly flying as a bright lone bird over the city’s blue sky. It was 8:15 in the morning.
Then the plane dropped something that fell to the ground, and a sudden and devastating flash knocked down all the children that were looking through the window. It was August 6, 1945, and what that man saw falling from the sky, it was the atomic bomb.
His name was Yoshitaka Kawamoto, and I heard him talk ten years ago when he was the director of Hiroshima Peace Museum. Every August the 6th I remember him and I see him in my memory as if he was in front of me, recalling what happened that day.
There were no noises, he said. However, when opening his eyes, he saw something impossible: the sky was on fire. He immediately felt an intense pain in the arm and saw that a piece of wood had stacked through his flesh, like an arrow. Then, he heard something unusual: some singings.
It took him some seconds to understand what was happening: due to the Spartan mentality of war, children were taught that shouting for help was an outrageous act, so the ones that could do, were singing the anthem of the school to show that they were alive and where they were.
However, the voices around her were shutting down. One by one, his classmates were dying singing. Suddenly, he was alone. Then he came out stumbling to the street and found the hell.
Yoshitaka Kawamoto was lost during several days wandering among the ruins and darkness until he found his mother miraculously.
He almost died burned because he fainted in the street, and people thought he was dead and threw him on a pile of corpses that were about to be burned, but he slipped from the pile and the man who collected him felt his pulse.
Shortly after the blast, the boy lost his hair and began to bleed from all his body orifices. Her mother took on the challenge and for over a year fought relentlessly until her son recovered completely. “The love of my mother triumphed over the atomic bomb,” concluded serene Mr Kawamoto.
He talks about the United States without any resentment, and said that forgiving is his way of thinking.
To describe the damage caused by the bomb is an impossible task. The town was wiped off the map, and the only structure that remained standing, a building resembling an abandoned observatory intact and half demolished, suggests a chilling reality.
The temperature at the epicentre it was twice that the one required to melt iron, and the winds that threw down the houses like if they were stacks of cards, tripled the power of the most devastating typhoon in the history of Japan. The houses that withstood the winds succumbed to the flames, because most of them were made of wood.
Many bodies were never found because they evaporated, and due to the infernal heat shadows of several objects remained stamped in the place in which they were originally placed.
I did not understand this kind of phenomenon until I saw it with my own eyes: the silhouette of a missing stairway, its shadow engraved on the remains of a wall, as if painted on it.
As I have said, I heard Yoshitaka Kawamoto talking more than a decade ago, and I remember that when leaving the conference room overwhelmed by his story I met another survivor: an old woman with a face still beautiful, until he turned around and saw the other half of her face: It was disfigured as done with melted wax. That side of her body suffered the effects of the bomb.
I was impressed, but at the same time I thought that this double face, in fact is a symbol of the human condition: Our species can create an atomic bomb and throw it on unarmed and vulnerable civilians, but can also produce an example of spiritual greatness like Mr. Kawamoto, someone who after surviving a tragedy of that magnitude is capable of smiling, talking about love and forgiveness, and above all continue living.
Juan Carlos Botero is a writer from Colombia
The World March for Peace and Non Violence is the greatest wish and prayer that I humanly posses.
This is my greatest dream and all I want
I am dying to take part of this
Does anyone know if and when its coming to Canada?
If not- I’m going to New York
Peace and Love to ALL <3
xoxo