Hiroshima and Nagasaki - Survivor's Stories - Alternative Views

Speaker 1: August 9 th, 1945, Nag asaki, Japan. Sen ji Yam ag uchi was only a mile from the center of the explosion, and we 'll hear his story tonight on Altern ative View s News mag az ine. Here in the United States, we hear people talk very frequently, daily even, about the per ils of nuclear war, the hor rors of war. And we also have some people who talk about, well, it isn 't so bad. One of the people who 's running for president, or the presidential nomination for the Republican Party, says that we can survive a nuclear war. But what does that really mean?

Michiko Sano: We see pictures.

Speaker 1: We hear people talk. But tonight we 're going to find out on Altern ative News what it is like to actually go through it. We have some people here with us from the No More H ib ak ush a delegation from Japan. They 're being sent by people in Japan who are concerned about nuclear war. And the dangers of it. And tonight we will be talking to Shu ji Hos oma e, who is the Japan Christian Peace Movement, Yu ji N ishi oka, who 's a religion ist, and Sen ji Yam ag uchi, who actually went through and survived the bombing of Nag asaki. We will be talking to him extensively tonight. And our interpreter is Mich iko S ano. In March of 1945, Japan was ne aring the br ink of total defeat. Its last island possession, Ok ina wa, was about to be taken when the U. S. Air Force began its saturation inc endi ary bomb ings of Japanese cities by B 29 s. Thus, one of the most hide ous chapters in this hide ous war began. It started with a raid on Tokyo, March 9 th, 1945. After it was over, nearly 17 square miles of the heart of the city were gone, and one quarter of a million people were gone. The hide ous part of these inc endi ary raids was the production of a sweep conf lag ration. In the previous cities which had been destroyed by fire bomb ings, such as Hamburg and D res den, there had been created a fire storm, unbelievable winds, temperatures up to 1, 500 degrees, hur ling fire miles into the heavens. But the sweep conf lag ration was different. As described by Martin Ka idan in his book A Tor ch to the Enemy, the sweep conf lag ration is a swollen, mad den ing thing running am ok. It 's not self cont ained. It runs before the wind. It 's like a steam roller hundreds of feet high and miles wide, roaring and sh rie king as it moves in a high c rest ed wave. B ending along over the edges. Because it 's so low to the ground in comparison to the fire storm, it feeds on richer oxygen along its bla zing edges, and it 's even hotter than the fire storm. In Tokyo, the wall of flame hovering just above the heads of the terror ized fleeing human beings reached an unbelievable temperature of more than 1, 800 degrees Fahrenheit. It was so hot that heat— not fire, but heat— shot out for hundreds of feet and struck people down as though with an invisible sc y the. But the raid on Tokyo was only the beginning. 3 days later, Nag oya was hit. Next, Osaka, the 3 rd largest port in Japan. 2, 2 40 tons of fire b om bs ripped into the city. 3 days later, 2, 300 tons of bombs poured into Kobe, and the 5 th in the series was a return trip to Nag oya. In the 5 missions, more than 29 square miles of Japan 's chief industrial centers were burned out beneath a rain of bombs that total ed 10, 100 tons. By comparison, on the Luft w affe 's greatest fire rate on London, only 200 tons were dropped. Tokyo then received a series of 7 major bomb ings in which 2, 04 1 Super fort resses poured 11, 8 36 tons of inc endi aries into the city. Nearly 57 square miles were totally gut ted, more than half of the capital 's 11 1 square miles in area. And then a tid al wave of fire began to sweep all over Japan. The great port of Yok oh ama was struck from the target list of the U. S. Air Force after only a single attack. 85 wiped out. Kobe was next. One raid, 56 of the city gone. Osaka, as big as Chicago and second in size only to Tokyo, took a series of raids. More than 53 of the entire city was smashed and gut ted. More than 2 million people fled to the countryside. The second phase of the inc endi ary campaign ended in mid J une. The 5 major industrial cities of Japan were no longer worth bombing. 80 smashed. The fire bl itz then turned to more than 60 of the smaller Japanese cities. As many as 4 cities a day completely demol ished. On June 17 th, cities with a population ranging from 100, 000 to 350, 000 went to the top of the target list. Sh iz u oka, a city of 20 6, 000 persons, was 66 destroyed by a single fire attack that wiped out almost all of the city 's industry. On July 12 th, the campaign began against the final group of city targets, those with populations of less than 100, 000. The devast ation was beyond belief. One night, Toy ama was struck as though by a giant meteor. The B 29 s circ led the entire city with fire and then sent hurt ling into the heart of the city several thousands of tons of inc endi aries. That night, Toy ama, Japan was 98 destroyed. K illing almost every human soul. This list shows the Japanese cities which were destroyed, coupled with American counterparts of roughly the same population. The Super fort resses had gut ted a total of 17 8 square miles in 69 cities, affecting a population of 21 million people. Cities were being destroyed at the rate of 4 a time, with strikes every 2 or 3 days. The suffering of the people was unbelievable. Those who tried escaping by jumping into cree ks were boiled alive. In the deeper cree ks or rivers, they were crushed by the continuous waves of people trying to escape the se aring heat. If they found shelters in bomb shelters or school bas ements, they were destroyed by heat and carbon mon oxide gas. There was no escape. Inside the B 29 s, the crew men were not wearing oxygen masks because the cabin was un press ur ized because of the low alt itude bombing. The f umes swept up from the city and a mist began to fill the cab ins, a very strange mist, blood red in color. The men began choking and ret ching. They grabbed their masks to drink the clean oxygen. They could take everything else, but not the over power ing, sweet, sick sten ch of the burning flesh that perme ated the skies 2 miles over the tortured cities. In 6 months of fire b omb ings, starting with the Tokyo raid on the night of March 10 th, Civil ian casualties were more than twice as great as total Japanese military casualties in 45 months of war. Japan lay in ruins. The only 3 targets left were Kyoto, the religious and cultural center which was made off lim its by the U. S. all during the war, And the other two were Hir oshima and Nag asaki. Hir oshima was next, but not with conventional bombs, because Hir oshima was to have a special place in history. A Japanese who experienced the bombing described it this way: Suddenly, a gl aring whit ish p ink light appeared in the sky, accompanied by an unnatural trem or. That was followed almost immediately by a wave of suff oc ating heat and wind that swept everything in its path. Within a few seconds, the thousands of people in the streets and gardens in the center of town were scor ched by a wave of se aring heat. Many were killed instantly. Others lay wr ith ing on the ground, screaming in agony from the intoler able pain of their burns. Everything standing upright in the way of the blast— walls, houses, factories, and other buildings— was annih ilated, and the debris spun around in a whirl wind and was carried up into the sky. Tr ams were picked up and tossed aside as though they had neither weight nor solid ity. Tra ins were fl ung off the rails as though they were toys. Every living thing was pet r ified in an attitude of ind es cri b able suffering. Beyond the zone of utter death in which nothing remained alive, houses collapsed in a whirl of beams, bricks, and gird ers. Up to about 3 miles from the center of the explosion, Light ly built houses were flatten ed as though they 'd been built of cardboard. Those who were inside were either killed or wounded. Those who managed to ext ric ate themselves by some miracle found themselves surrounded by a ring of fire, and the few who succeeded in making their way to safety generally died 20 or 30 days later. From the delayed effects of the deadly gamma rays. By evening, the fire began to die down, and then it went out. There was nothing left to burn. Hir oshima had ceased. To exist. The place of the hyper center of the explosion was absolute ruin. Hir oshima was a brown scar on the face of the earth. It was estimated that 78, 150 people died, 51, 40 8 were injured or missing, that 48, 000 buildings were totally destroyed, and that 22, 17 8 other structures received light to severe damage, and at least 17 6, 98 7 people were made homeless. But the suffering continued. For some, for a few hours. Others for days. Some for years or even decades. Some received hide ous burns which healed into ke lo ids. Mark ing them for the rest of their lives. Others would live with the knowledge that they could have de formed children or that they had been injured in such a way that they could die at any time. Such was the legacy of Hir oshima. 3 days later, it was Nag asaki. This B 29 dropped a bomb similar to this. A plut on ium bomb this time, unlike the uranium bomb which was dropped over Hir oshima. A more powerful bomb. The same terrible scenes of destruction, des ol ation, and again the horrible suffering of the people. At least 75, 000 injured and at least 74, 000 killed in an instant. Sen ji Yam ag uchi was there at Nag asaki that day. About a mile or so from the hypoc enter of the explosion, he will relate his experiences to you tonight on Altern ative View s. Does "hib ak ush a" mean?

Michiko Sano: "H ib ak ush a" という 言 葉 の 意 味 を 教 えて いただ け ます か?

Senji Yamaguchi: あ の、 被 爆 者 という のは まず 広 島 長 崎 で We usually use the word.To mean those people who have survived the atomic bomb ings of Hir oshima and Nag asaki.But it literally means those who were exposed to radiation.

Michiko Sano: So, of course, it naturally includes those soldiers who were in the experimental sites in Nevada, Utah, and those soldiers who entered those 2 cities, Hir oshima and Nag asaki. After the war, with all them, we have all kinds of h ib ak ush a therefore.

Senji Yamaguchi: Those people who lived very near the Three Miles Island when that accident happened, I think are h ib ak ush a too.

Speaker 1: So you are concerned then not only about nuclear war, but also nuclear energy, nuclear power.

Michiko Sano: ということ は 核 戦 争 ば っ か り では なく て。 原 発 の 危 険 に つ いて も 皆 様 関 心 を お 持 ち、 憂 慮 を お 持 ち な わ け ですね。

Senji Yamaguchi: 一 応 被 爆 者 の 中 に 大 き く 分 け ら れる の が 二 つ あります。 一 つ は 戦 争 に よ って 核 弾 頭 発 射 を 行 って 放 射 能 を 浴 び た 場 合 の 被 爆 者 と、 核 弾 頭 発 射 を 行 って 放 射 能 を 浴 び た 場 合 の 被 爆 者 と。 Yes, very much so. It is not just a nuclear explosion for the military use during wart ime that creates hazards.

Speaker 1: You ask Yam ag uchi san about his experiences.

Michiko Sano: Yam ag uchi san, そう い った 長 崎 の 日 の こと を お願いします。 ご 体 験 を。

Senji Yamaguchi: 私 は 十 四 歳 の 時 に。

Michiko Sano: I was a fourteen year old student on the day August ninth, nineteen forty five.

Senji Yamaguchi: I was not going to a school then, though I was a student, because almost all the students were mobil ized.

Michiko Sano: To work in ammunition factories, and I was working as such in a torpedo factory when that explosion occurred.

Senji Yamaguchi: The plant I was working was about 1.

Michiko Sano: 4 kilometers from the hypoc enter, the center of the explosion.

Speaker 1: Was there any air raid warning, or was there any indication that there was?

Michiko Sano: No, 原 爆 の 投 下 の 直 前 には 空 襲 警 報 は 出 な かった んです けど。 On that day, somehow there was a Air raid warning earlier in the morning, but it was lifted, and we all returned to schools and plants— I mean factories— when the flash occurred.

Speaker 1: When the bomb exploded, were you unconscious or were you able to see what was happening to people?

Michiko Sano: 原 爆 が 投 下 さ れた 直 後 の こと も 少 し 伺 って よろ しい ですか？ 意 識 を 失 わ れ ました か？ そして 周 り の 方 々 は ど んな 反 応 を 示 さ れ ました か？

Senji Yamaguchi: The moment when the explosion happened, I was outside in the yard of the factory digging an air raid shelter together with great many others. There was a team of 7 people digging one shelter. It was a very clear morning, blue sky, warm, or rather hot, and I had my shirt off.

Michiko Sano: I had only my trousers on.

Senji Yamaguchi: And when the flash came, that, of course, burned especially my upper body, because it was exposed.

Michiko Sano: I lost consciousness when the flash came. When I came to, I found myself lying in that half d ug air raid shelter with a shovel in my hand still. I did not know what happened, but I think it was about 1 hour after the explosion that I came to myself, judging from the way that people were running around like mad men. Most of the people who were with me digging their red shelter were lying there dead. And I discovered that the factory was collapsed, and the fire was already starting.

Senji Yamaguchi: There is a river called U rak ami River near the plant, and it had 2 banks on either side, pretty high banks.

Michiko Sano: But I jumped into the river and then cre pt onto the other side of the river, onto the other bank, and went to the safety of the hills which surround the city of Nag asaki. On the way to the hill, I had to tread over the dead B odies of human beings as well as animals.

Senji Yamaguchi: When I reached the hill, I saw lots and lots of people crying for help, crying for water, suffering and suffering. Lots of them were lying there alive but not able to mour n or utter any I think there were about 60 people with me on that hill. Even ing fell, and there was a soldier coming to fetch us.

Michiko Sano: But by that time, most of us were dead.

Senji Yamaguchi: On the way to hospital, to which the soldier took us, there was a big conf lag ration.

Michiko Sano: All over the city, but it was very difficult to find the way, because all the people were walking like this, with their hands raised. There was a long process ion of people walking like goats, like that.

Senji Yamaguchi: I crossed over the river, which I sw am over on the way to the help, and I noticed that the river water was full of scor ched bodies. Dr owned, af lo at.

Michiko Sano: When I went on to the other side of the river, I saw a great many dead bodies of horses.

Senji Yamaguchi: Also lots and lots of dead bodies. There were lots of soldiers trying to identify.

Michiko Sano: Those people who are still alive but who are still lying there.

Senji Yamaguchi: I 've noticed mothers carrying head less bodies of their babies. The soldier took us on a train to a place called O om ura, where there was a naval hospital.

Michiko Sano: The station was, of course, bom bed and was in ruins, so the train had to stop close to the station, but not in the station yard.

Senji Yamaguchi: When I arrived at the train—

Michiko Sano: in fact, it took a long time for the train to come, and I waited a very long time for the train. But I was very glad to know when the train came, and I tried to be one of the first to jump onto the train. But one of the soldiers scolded me very hard. You are one of the lightly injured, whereas, of course, I was covered with the burns from my face down to my waist line.

Senji Yamaguchi: And the soldier said I should help the more seriously injured onto the train.

Michiko Sano: I did, and it was a hard time, because it was very painful all over the body. On the train, there were lots of survivors, or h ib ak ush a, lying there still.

Senji Yamaguchi: And I had to keep standing, because I was, in fact, one of the, like, the less seriously injured.

Michiko Sano: But the pain became so un bear able, I just laid myself down on the corridor. When I did that, I noticed that the floor was slippery with lu ke warm blood. I collapsed onto the floor, and I invol unt arily drank, swallowed some of the blood flowing on the floor.

Senji Yamaguchi: I vom ited a couple of times.

Michiko Sano: I told myself not to fall asleep because.

Senji Yamaguchi: After about a couple of hours on the train, we reached a town called Is ah aya. It 's a neighboring town to Nag asaki.

Michiko Sano: My sister was a nurse at the naval hospital in S ase bo, and I wanted to reach her hospital. But I was hospitalized instead at a naval hospital in Ō m ura, another town. When I reached the Ob ura station, I simply collapsed onto the station yard, and there was an ambulance coming to fetch me after about a couple of hours. When I spotted the ambulance, I tried to rise, when I discovered with horror that the skin stuck to the cement floor. They helped me out and in the ambulance carried on an ambulance, and I reached the hospital.Everyone was very helpful and kind. 私 は あ んな 一 生 懸 命 看 護 師 さん た ち が して く れて、

Senji Yamaguchi: もう こんな 話 を する と もう いつ も こんな にな ります。

Michiko Sano: Still remember how kind and attentive they were.All nurses were crying.And that makes me ever more determined that I owe my life to the efforts of those people.It 's all right.

Senji Yamaguchi: We can continue, but.

Michiko Sano: Can he go and wash his face?

Speaker 1: Certainly. Yeah. Yes. Can we stop here?

Michiko Sano: Can you continue now? Well, 話 を 続 けて いただ け ます か。 大 村 の 海 軍 病 院 に 使 わ れて 看 護 師 様 検 診 的 に やって ください。

Senji Yamaguchi: どう も お や す み な さい。

Michiko Sano: どう も 構 い ません。

Senji Yamaguchi: 看 護 師 さん た ちは み んな 泣 いて ですね ア メ リ カ の や つ って 言 って。

Michiko Sano: Yes, the nurses were crying and in fact curs ing the Americans. What they had done. I was still a boy. I 'm small now, but I was smaller still. I was fourteen after all. The nurses stripped me and washed me. My burns were so serious. The flesh was scor ched, and the burns were. Deep as 1 centimeter from the skin surface. They couldn 't put anything on my body because my skin was so terrible, but they just covered my face with a thin g au ze, making holes for my eyes and for my mouth and nose. But when they tried to change the g au ze every day, fragments of the flesh came off with it. And it was so painful. I over and over asked my doctor to kill me, because to me at the time, it looked much better to die rather than going through all that pain.

Senji Yamaguchi: I wasn 't the only one going through that kind of suffering.All others with burns had similar experience. マ グ。 痛 み も と て も 耐 え ら れない。

Michiko Sano: were in the inf ested area, and that it ch iness was also very painful.

Senji Yamaguchi: That is something no other people, nobody, apart from those who have already suffered from this, should go through.

Michiko Sano: And that is why I and other h ib ak ush a of Japan are determined to work to the end of their lives for peace.

Senji Yamaguchi: My memory fails after that. I was unconscious for 40 days to come. On the 15 th of August, when Japan surrendered, there was quite a comm otion in the naval hospital. Nurs es and, in fact, all the people at the hospital were crying and shouting. And there 's a very vague memory in my mind that I thought that at long last all hope was forgotten.

Michiko Sano: I was told afterwards that I disappeared from my bed because I wanted, sort of desperately, to have a drink of water. After that, they got anxious, and there was always a nurse at my side.

Senji Yamaguchi: Day and night watching over me.

Michiko Sano: But then, of course, I heard this only after a long time. When I was slightly better and could stand on my feet and walk to the treatment room, I found myself that my right ear lo be was swollen. I had a small Operation on it. The surgeon put a knife into it, and there was water coming out of the lo be.

Senji Yamaguchi: But it was all right after the operation.

Michiko Sano: I spent a total of nine months in that hospital.

Speaker 1: After you got out of the hospital, what did you do then?

Michiko Sano: 病 院 九 ヶ 月 後 に 出 ら れて それ から 何 を な さい ました。 I rested at home for about 2months and started the normal life of a student.I was going to a technical school located about 800meters from the hypoc enter.I heard later that 1, 7 20 students together with the Students were all killed on that day.

Senji Yamaguchi: The school between Ich in ok in Om ura, and I started going to the school. But my studies were interrupted over and over.

Michiko Sano: First of all, because I had ja und ice, and then I was quite often sick.In 1947.

Senji Yamaguchi: 病 気 が 出 て、 今 度 は 熱 の ある 病 気 にな ります。

Michiko Sano: First time I had a fever, but on those two occasions doctors could not find out the cause of the ja und ice.

Senji Yamaguchi: But I was all right after about a couple months, and I started going to school again.

Michiko Sano: One takes usually three years to finish that school. But it took me six years because of so many interrupt ions. My parents encouraged me to go on with my studies, and after six years of the studies, I finished the school.

Senji Yamaguchi: In fact, during the war, I was looking forward to working in one of.

Michiko Sano: There were great big companies in Nag asaki called Mits ub ishi, and I tried my best to be employed by Mits ub ishi after finishing the school. I passed the written exam inations, but because of the ugly ke lo ids and because of the fact that I was de formed, for instance, I could not bend my arm because of the burns at that time. They would not have me, and I started a small sweet shop with my father instead.

Speaker 1: Have you been bothered throughout your life then by these by physical problems connected with the bombing, or were you able to stay in reasonably good health and live a reasonably normal life?

Michiko Sano: An o, その 後 の ご 病 気 はい か が ですか? まあ ま ああ の。 健 康 状 態、 症 候 状 態 という か、 一 応 健 康 人 の 生活 を その 後 は 続 けて い ら っ しゃ る わ け でしょう か。

Senji Yamaguchi: 私 は その 後 また な 日本 で 第一 回 目 の 原 子 力 禁 止 世界 大 会 が 開 か れ ま して、 世界 各 国 から 代 表 の 方 々 が お 見 え にな り、 広 島 で 盛 大 に 開 か れた こと が ある わ け です。

Michiko Sano: で この In 1955, I recall that we had the first world conference against atomic and hydrogen bombs held in Japan with the participation of lots of delegates from abroad too. I formed a kind of association of young h ib ak ush a and I was sent by them to be their representative at that conference. I was looking forward to that day, but just before then, I was taken ill with very high fever and I could not attend the conference. And Professor Y ase, the organizer of the conference, visited me in my sick bed.

Senji Yamaguchi: In fact, I managed to go and attend The conference, though I was seriously ill with the leuke mia and liver malfunction ing.

Michiko Sano: It was eleven years after the bombing, but still the radiation a ft ere ffect s of radiation exposure was torment ing me. I 'm very careful with my.

Senji Yamaguchi: I never tax ed myself, and I have so far maintained reasonably good health since then, the past 14 years or so.

Michiko Sano: During the past 35 years since the bomb ings, we had 2 peak periods when the death toll of h ib ak ush a were very high, higher than usual.

Senji Yamaguchi: There 's a peak in every 6 to 8 years.

Michiko Sano: The first came 8 years after the bombing, the second one 11 years after that.

Senji Yamaguchi: In those 2 years, we had lots and lots of h ib ak ush a dying one after another.

Michiko Sano: And we are very afraid that perhaps the third peak would come soon.

Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question which you may or may not want to ask him, okay? Uh, it may seem embarrassing or cruel, and he may not want to answer, and that is this. He said a while ago that when he applied for a job at the Mits ub ishi plant, they would not hire him because of physical abnorm alities as a result of the bombing. I wonder if this also, if he was socially ostr ac ized because of this, or it made it, for instance, where he was unable to marry because of this. Do you think that? I mean, would you think that he would prefer not to answer?

Michiko Sano: No, I think it 'll be all right. He was asked a similar question before. Okay. An o, さ っ き 三 菱 の 初 心 者 試 験 を 受 け ら れて、 確 保 は ちゃん と かった の に、 まあ 正 直 って 体 の しか も 側 面 的 な こと の ため に 跳 ね ら れた と おっ しゃ いました ね。 その 他 に も こう い ろ い ろ 社 会 的 に 山 口 さん も それ から その 他 の 被 爆 者 の 方 も 差 別 的 な こと が ある んで しょう か。 それ から 例えば 山 口 さん と それ から その 他 の 被 爆 者 の 方 と 被 爆 者 で ある と 結 婚 でき ない っていう よう な こと が ある んで しょう か。 山 口 さん ご 自 身 は 結 婚 して ら れ ます か。 You might know that in Japan we enjoy taking bath s, and we usually have a large public bath house in each community where there 's a large swimming pool like Bath tub for everyone to join in. Of course, men and women separately. But of course, I can 't go any one of them because it is rather embarrassing for me to bare myself in front of others, and they don 't want to see me.

Senji Yamaguchi: I have always loved children, and when I see one, especially a young baby, I used to fond le. But nowadays, they cry me. They cry when they see me.

Michiko Sano: It was worse years ago when my ke lo ids were red in color and a lot ug lier than it is now. When I walk on the street in any town, people look back at me with curiosity. You see, people with very serious ke lo ids, like I have, all died, most of them. So I 'm one of the lucky few.

Senji Yamaguchi: But then, of course, people are curious why I have this kind of scar on my face.

Michiko Sano: When I was in hospital, my father was warned by my doctor that, your son 's life cannot be very long.

Senji Yamaguchi: I consider myself lucky. I am very lucky that I have survived this long. You have asked about the social discrimination.

Michiko Sano: It has not happened to me personally, but I do know personally a great number of people who could not marry because of the fear of the atomic bomb disease. We are registered h ib ak ush a, survivors of bomb ings, as certified by the government and passed Iss ued by the government, a special identification card. But the government never discl oses who is issued this special card in order to protect survivors from harmful discrimination.

Senji Yamaguchi: I know a friend whose cousin.

Michiko Sano: It was a lady with serious ke lo ids, Ik uko Nag at omi, who committed suicide because of deterior ation of her ke lo ids. Though she was rather happily married with 3 children, she could not bear her own face anymore.

Senji Yamaguchi: Lots of h ib ak ush a look all right superfic ially, I mean externally, but those who look un har med, who look all right, are tor mented by the appreh ensions because something might happen to them tomorrow or day after tomorrow, and if that happens, there 's no effic acious No medical treatment to cure them of the atomic bomb disease.

Michiko Sano: You realize, of course, that there were two kinds of bombs dropped in Hir oshima and Nag asaki.

Senji Yamaguchi: The one in Hir oshima was uranium bomb, and the one in Nag asaki was plut on ium bomb.

Michiko Sano: And because of the fact that those two cities were dens ely populated areas, many people to this day believe that they were very large scale. Exper iments using real live human bodies.

Senji Yamaguchi: This can be partially confirmed by the fact that the American government established At omic Bomb Cas ual ty Commission in each of the two cities. They did not treat the h ib ak ush a; they were operated on to see if radiation had affected. Different parts of the body.

Michiko Sano: A woman I know had such an operation and had her womb removed from her body without any prior consent or anything. We survivors of the bomb ings were so furious about ABC C, we demanded that this be withdrawn. I 'm glad that we have been successful in our attempt.

Senji Yamaguchi: The American government did discontin ue ABC C, but we have an organization instead doing very similar thing.

Michiko Sano: But in that organization, there are Japanese scientists cooper ating. But because of the fact that Japan is involved, the results of the studies are discl osed to the Japanese public.

Speaker 1: What is ABC C.

Michiko Sano: ABC CT Nova.

Senji Yamaguchi: At omic bomb, atomic bomb. It 's short for At omic Bomb Cas ual ty Commission, and they started working in Japan.

Michiko Sano: That 's right. But well, American organizations working in Hir oshima, Nag asaki.

Speaker 1: Because the two bombs were different, were the casualties and the radiation results and harm to the people different in Hir oshima?

Michiko Sano: Hir oshima と 長 崎 ウ ラ ニ ウ ム と プ ロ ト ニ ウ ム ということで 爆 弾 の 種 類 が 違 った わ け ですね。 爆 弾 の 種 類 が 違う ということで 例えば 建 物 に 対 する 被 害 とか 人 間 に 対 する 障 害 とか 被 害 の 状 況 が 広 島 と 長 崎 で 違 った でしょう か。

Senji Yamaguchi: これ は 日本 弁 護 士 連 合 会 の 報 告 書 が 詳 しく 書 いて いる んです けれ ども、 違 って います。 で 病 気 の 種 類 も また 下 の 違 った もの が あります。 これは これ ら の 人 に 対 して 日本 で 被 爆 者 の 治 療 研 究 は。

Michiko Sano: There is a hem at ologist, an expert on atomic bomb disease called Professor Ich im aru with us during the stay, though I 'm afraid he has gone to another area and is not with me today.

Senji Yamaguchi: I had a talk with him on the plane coming over, and he told me that the difference in the composition of the bombs Was apparently a kind of their attempt to see the difference in the damages and a ft ere ffect s done to the human bodies, and it was apparently an attempt not merely to end the war or to pre empt the third war, but.

Michiko Sano: To be prepared for the Third World War, in which nuclear weapons might have been employed. You see, the At omic Bomb Cas ual ty Commission was funded by the Department of Defense, and it was apparently for defense purposes, military purposes, that they set up this commission in 2 cities and carried out such extensive intensive studies as to the effect of radiation on human bodies, and all the results were carried back to the States.

Speaker 1: There has been— long been a debate in the United States. The government, particularly President Truman, has said that the reason they dropped the atomic bombs was to shorten World War II and to save American casualties that they knew would be very heavy if they invaded Japan. Other people say that that is not true, that Japan was actually wanting peace at that time and were taking active measures to do this, so the dropping the bomb was unnecessary. Considering the fact that So many of the Japanese cities had been destroyed by the American fire b omb ings. Do do is it the feeling of of you here and also in Japan that the atomic bombs were not necessary to be dropped?

Senji Yamaguchi: 確 か に 日本 では 広 島 と 長 崎 だけ では なく て。 It is true.Towards the middle of 1945, most the end of the war, most of the cities in Japan had been demol ished. Most of the cities in Japan had been demol ished. We 're discussing what the conditions to accept the P ots dam Declaration. So Japan was ne aring the conclusion of the war. We in Japan were not deceived by those false reports submitted by the military. We know we suffered from lack of all sorts of materials.

Michiko Sano: We had no food. There was really nothing. It was a part of the army generals' insist ence that Japan should fight until the last soldier died.

Senji Yamaguchi: But the army generals, An ami, N eda, Is mail, submitted to the emperor 's suggestion. That Japan should surrender.

Michiko Sano: And, in fact, after doing that, he committed suicide in a traditional manner.

Senji Yamaguchi: I think he did it because, unless he committed suicide to show that he felt responsible, some soldiers in the Army were to go against the order of the emperor and continue fighting on. But I do think that the feeling of most of the soldiers, most of the military, and in fact each and every one of the civilians, were against the war, against continuing the war any further.

Michiko Sano: So we were ne aring the end anyway.

Speaker 1: I ask you a question again. You mentioned children a while ago. What has happened to the children? Of the people who were in Hir oshima and Nag asaki.

Michiko Sano: さ っ き 子 供 好 き だ って こと ちょっと おっ しゃ いました けど も、 それで 思 い 出 した ので、 子 供 の こと を 伺 いた い んです けれ ども、 二 世 とか 被 爆 者 の 子 供 た ち に ど んな 影 響 が 与 わ れて いる か。

Speaker 1: Have they also have they also been victims of her editary や っぱ り 遺 伝 子 知 れる でしょう か ね。 Radi ation.

Senji Yamaguchi: あ の 被 爆 者 は 染 色 体 っていう まあ お 医 者 さん から 聞 いた 話 です けど も、 blo odcells 被 爆 者 have chromos omalabnorm ality.This is the term I got from my doctor.And because of this, we had still birth. And de formed babies born out of women pregnant at the time of bombing. And then we had an abnorm ally high rate of micro ce ph al ic children right after bombing.

Michiko Sano: There are babies who cannot grow. Their physique remains small.

Speaker 1: Well, can you tell us then about your delegation? You 're making a Tour of the United States, are you not?

Speaker 4: We are in fact one fifth of the entire group sent from Japan to the United States.

Michiko Sano: There are four other groups and are touring different parts of the United States of America. We have received a very kind invitation of the Rel igious Task Force.

Speaker 4: Force in the mobil ization for survival. And those 4 groups, those 4 other groups have gone to the West, the 2 groups to the Northeast, and one to Midwest.

Michiko Sano: We are all meeting and talking with American people and discussing the ways we can prevent another nuclear tragedy.

Speaker 1: What are your feelings and those of Other h ib ak ush a toward the U. S. government and the U. S. people, considering all that you have gone through.

Michiko Sano: こ う い った ご 経 験 を な さ った 山 口 さん、 それ から その 他 の 被 爆 者、 今 ア メ リ カ の 政府 と 一 般 の 人 々 に 対 して ど んな 気 持 ち を お 持 ち ですか。

Senji Yamaguchi: や は り ア メ リ カ の 政府 に 対 して は もう 今 は まあ 日本 人 は 本当 に でも ア メ リ カ 政府 に 対 して 厳 しい 思 い を して います。

Michiko Sano: I blame the government for what they have done.But I do not at all hate the Americans.They are just people.They can be my friends.And in fact, lots of them are my friends. But the government and the people are two different entities, so to speak. USA was followed by Other countries in the nuclear group— S ov iet Union, France, Britain, China—

Senji Yamaguchi: but this nuclear arms race was initiated by the States. So the States should be held responsible for not merely the fact that they dropped the two bombs, but they started this vicious circle after nuclear weapons. They have conducted such a great number of tests, underground, in the air.

Michiko Sano: And we hear that they are still trying to develop new kinds of weapons, such as neutron bombs.

Senji Yamaguchi: It 's simply horrifying.

Michiko Sano: They claim that development and deployment of new kinds of weapons Would contribute to maintaining peace, but is that real peace?

Senji Yamaguchi: I don 't at all believe that nuclear weapons have a deter rent capability. We apons are for war. We apons are for killing people. We apons are for destroying everything we have created with our own hands. With weapons. When that crisis happened in Cuba, and when the USSR was gone, and Vietnam had ended, I hear that United States government seriously, seriously considered using yet another nuclear bomb, a small one perhaps, a tactical bomb, they call it, I believe.But they were so afraid of the Soviet Union. 大 変 な こと にな る だ ろう し、 世界 中 が 核 兵 器 を 持 った 国 が もう それ こ そ 今 地 球 を 何 回 も 壊 滅 さ せ る だけ の 核 兵 器 が ある わ け です から、 僕 は 言 葉 と して も ア メ リ カ 政府 は 先 に 核 兵 器 を 使 用 し ない と い け ない。 そんな に 思 います し、 世 の 中 で。

Michiko Sano: And when the United States uses one, there will be other countries to use second and third ones. I hope that will never happen.

Speaker 5: The center of Hir oshima was a red dish br own scar 4 miles square. Between fallen buildings lay cr um pled bicycles and shells of street c ars halt ed in mid motion. On piles of rub ble and ash Children placed hand written signs. Sister, where are you?

Speaker 1: 3 works which show what the people went through in Nag asaki and Hir oshima. Fil ms, paintings made by children, an animated cartoon shown at Hir oshima every year. All this tonight on Altern ative View s. Tonight on Altern ative View s, we have some, well, pretty heavy stuff. Let me warn you that we have 3 documentaries about the bombing of Nag asaki and Hir oshima. The first one is one which was actually suppressed by the Pentagon for many years. It contains film footage, black and white film footage, taken in Hir oshima and Nag asaki by Japanese, and it shows what went on there, how the people suffered. There also is some footage which was taken from inside the planes which dropped the bomb. The second documentary is one which came as a result of an interview we had with a fellow who was a half mile from the hypoc enter of the Nag asaki explosion, and he lived to tell about it. The people who brought him here to the United States gave me, oh, about 200 slides about the Nag asaki and Hir oshima explosions, and I put together some of those along with some Japanese music. The ones that I selected were ones which were pictures of drawings made by children and a couple of adults who went through the the Hir oshima bomb ings, particularly the ones by children, and it 's, it 's a chilling experience, as you 'll find out later in the program. The 3 rd documentary is one, or at least a film, it 's an animated one, which Dave and Kazu o But z let us use earlier on a program, and it 's one which is shown to children every year in school in Hir oshima, and it shows what it was like to go through and then gives a warning for all of us to be sure and not repeat such a horrible thing. But before we see these documentaries, we 'll have some news stories.

Doug: There 's the first article that I 've seen that fully spells out the theory of nuclear winter that 's been circulating recently, in an article by Thomas Powers in The Atlantic of November of 1984, that gives a complete history of the theory of nuclear winter and spells out some of the scientific premises and data that support this theory. In a sense, he says, the bad news about nuclear war is so bad that it might be taken as grounds for per verse optimism. He concludes that if people take seriously the theory of nuclear winter, this will indicate how totally insane even thinking about fighting a nuclear war or even a one st rike strike nuclear battle might be. Powers points out that in the 4 decades since Hir oshima, the speculative debates on nuclear war and the destructive effects of it have circul ated more around issues of the fire balls around the war after the bomb is dropped or radiation from the bombs, whereas previously to 1982, he pointed out, no one paid much attention to the smoke that would arise from the burning rub ble that would necessarily follow, dropping any nuclear bombs on a massive scale. Then, in 1982, the first reports trick led in about the theory of nuclear winter, that the airborne debris from the smoke and the rub ble would block out the sun and would possibly kill all life on Earth, because the temperature would plum met so rapidly, and agriculture and plant life and animals, etc ., would die. And by 1983, the theory of nuclear winter was formally endorsed by scientists all over the world and has been further studied and documented. This theory points out— Powers indicates that it would be impossible to win a nuclear war, because even if only one side fired their missiles, still the nuclear winter effect that would be triggered off would be so devastating that the whole Earth would be destroyed. So he points points out that the nuclear winter thesis, if valid, threatens to make nonsense of every notion the planners have managed to come up with in 40 years of trying to dev ise a sensible way to fight a nuclear war. This is the conclusion of his article. On a related theme, the Department of Energy, according to a report in Not Man Apart, has awarded an 85, 000 grant to Robert Du P ont, who 's a psychiatrist and president of the Ph obia Society of America that research es and reduces ph ob ias. In this case, Mr. Du P ont got a grant to study and to try to reduce ph ob ias against nuclear power in the United States. Oh my God. He 's published a booklet, Focus on Fear, that takes off from the premise that nuclear power plants are completely safe, and anyone saying otherwise is ph obic, and then tries to argue how neur otic it is to try to be afraid of and to worry about nuclear power plants. Unfortunately, there 's not a word in Dr. Du P ont 's booklet about how nuclear power contributes to the arms race. He doesn 't mention such near catastroph es as Three Mile Island or what would happen if one of these nuclear plants had a melt down. Down in— that 's in the vicinity of a major city. He never talks about the economics of nuclear energy, whether it 's even rational to consider nuclear energy, nor does he talk about the problem of disp osing of nuclear waste.

Speaker 1: But it 's incredible that the Defense Department spent 85, 000 to fund this, which simply serves the interests of the nuclear Well, people have been saying that the Democrats are pretty much bankrupt since getting dr ub bed by Reagan a couple of times, and even most Democrats agree with that. Well, after you see the article by Mother Jones, they talked to a whole bunch of prominent Democrats, and you can see why the Democrats are bankrupt after hearing what they say what is wrong with the Democrats. For instance, Gloria Stein em, who founded Ms. Magazine, she said the problem is that the— we 've got to get women off of welfare and into working, and unions have to become more progressive. Deep thinking. Roger Wil kins, who is with Institute for Policy Studies and is one of the leading black leaders for many, many years, said, well, we have to have full employment. We 've got to bring out the Hum ph rey Haw kins Bill again. A person who wrote for Let 's see, Frances L app é, who wrote Diet for a Small Planet, said that progress ives need to talk the language of human values in order to communicate with Americans. The right has claimed this high ground. I mean, Reagan 's been talking about efficiency, democracy, freedom, and family, and shutting the liberals out. Well, she says we 've got to start talking that good talk again. Jim H ight ower, a Texas Commission of Agriculture and a big person in the Democratic Party, says, well, there 's no right or left anymore, only what works. And he says the main thing to do is, since all these New Deal approaches aren 't any good, you 've got to move people into the marketplace. Robert K utt ner, who 's with The New Republic, says the— you have to have full employment. John Jud is, senior editor editor of In These Times, says basically give up all of any type of New Deal romantic ism, like full employment. He 's going the opposite direction. And so on and on it goes. One person from The Atlantic Month ly says the biggest problem is the debt and the deficit. Another person from Harvard says that the biggest problem is protection ism. Too many tariffs. And then a Democratic representative from Massachusetts, Bar ney Frank, says the big problem is that all the various people gri pe too much publicly. And he said Jesse Jackson, you know, should have kept his mouth shut. So the only person who seems to have any type of approach which may have some substance to it is Ralph N ader, who said that what we 've been talking about is government And nobody 's been talking about corporations. And that 's where the control of the economy is. And so, if you— you can 't blame the government. They said by— also, by focusing on the economic performance of President Reagan, well, he wins, because he doesn 't control the economy. Corpor ations do. Whereas the Democrats didn 't focus on things like civil liberties, consumer protection, and the environment. Which Reagan was responsible for and which he didn 't do a job at all. So you can see, if these are the guiding lights of the Democratic intellig ents ia, the Democrats are going to be in trouble for a long time.

Speaker 7: I have an article here from the Wall Street Journal. It concerns Ralph N ader and his latest experts in workplace safety. Now, government documents that he has forced the release of show that about 250, 000 workers run higher than normal risks of developing cancer or other diseases from exposure to toxic substances on the job. These documents that he 's obtained by way of his health research group identified 24 9 industrial plants and mines where workers have been exposed to potentially dangerous substances. For instance, he talks about 59, 000 found ry workers who run the risk of various diseases, 50, 000 miners, tens of thousands of chemical workers, and he goes on and on about that. Now, Ralph N ader charged that the government hasn 't warned the workers of potential health risks so they could obtain medical care. In fact, in a letter to President Reagan, he accused the administration of withhold ing funds for worker notification programs because of concerns that workers would sue their employers. A spokes man for the Department of Health and Human Services says that companies have been notified and unions have been notified about the expos ures, but plans to notify individual workers have been delayed while the government, quote, tries to figure out how to tell someone without sc aring him to death. Now, isn 't that real nice of them, that they don 't want to scare you to death by telling you that you might be dying? That seems, seems very strange to Now, the Occ up ational Safety and Health Institute assembled its list in 1980 and '81 from government studies that linked a variety of workplace chemicals and other substances to cancer, heart and lung disease and other ail ments. The Reagan administration, despite all their den ials of this, they 've rejected budget requests for full scale funding of a pilot notification program. Ralph N ader says he received a letter from a Health and Human Services official in November. It said, we believe individual worker notification is an important issue. But then no explanation was given for the lack of funding for this program. Now, it 's not as though that it hasn 't been tried before, and the machinery is there to actually accomplish this. A pilot program run by the Institute in 1980, for instance, screen ed workers in an August a, a chemical plant in Georgia who had increased risks of bladder cancer from exposure to various chemicals. Mr. N ader cited an institute study indicating that nearly half of the workers had never heard of this chemical, and 74 didn 't know it was harmful. Of 58 6 workers examined under this program, 13 were found to have bladder cancer. Now, here 's the kick er: government officials raised concerns about quote, more than 300 million in litigation claims that have reportedly been filed because of the Georgia program, according to mem os obtained by Mr. N ader. And now it all becomes very clear why they haven 't gone ahead with this notification program, because they 're afraid of the litigation. It might cost their business cr on ies some big bucks to save people 's lives, and we just can 't have that. In an instance like the I think it becomes all too apparent whose interests the government 's actually concerned with. What it boils down to in terms of lives versus profit, it 's just not cost effective to protect people 's lives. And that 's all there is to it.

Doug: We 've been showing on Altern ative View s from time to time the attempts of the Canadian and other governments to curb acid rain and have pointed out that the Reagan administration has done absolutely nothing. To try to stop this vir ulent source of pollution. There 's an article in the New York Times on February 13 th that points out that Canadian authorities recently have been imposing even more string ent regulations in an effort to cut back pollution, which in turn goes into the atmosphere and comes back as acid rain. So far this month, the Canadian government has tough ened its emissions standards for autom ob iles Pro vin cial environmental ministers in Canada have set specific overall goals for the reduction of pollution and have very detailed programs how they can cut back pollution in the various regions of Canada, so that, for instance, Quebec 's cabinet ordered Nor anda M ines, which is Canada 's second lar gest source of atmospheric sulfur dioxide, to cut back their pollution significantly. All of these efforts are a bargaining chip, The New York Times points out, for the Canadian prime minister, Brian Mul r oney, who is going to be meeting with Ronald Reagan in Quebec City on March 17 th. In the past, the Canadian government has said the number one problem between the United States and Canada is cutting back acid rain, arguing that 50 of the acid rain in Canada comes from pollution in the United States. States, and that 10 of the pollution in the United States is acid rain from Canada. The Canadians are going to say, look, we 've taken all these concrete measures to try to prevent acid rain and to cut back poll uting the United States from Canada. Now it 's your turn to do the same. Again, we 'll see if Ronnie Reagan will come through. So far, the Reagan administration has done absolutely nothing to curb acid rain. Ne eds more scientific study, they say.

Speaker 1: It 's curious, you wouldn 't expect an article by Henry Gonz á lez, the Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Texas, specifically San Antonio, a liberal senator, to be in the right wing newspaper The Spot light. But every so often The Spot light does present something from a liberal source if it 's something with which they agree. They 've had George Mc Go vern on their pages before, for instance, and Eugene McCarthy. Well, here Henry Gonz á lez is talking about corporate tax, or lack of it. Remember, Craig 's reported many times that back in the '50 s, the corporations were paying as much as 30 of all the taxes, and now it 's down to even less than 6 %. And a survey of 250 major companies indicated that 51 of them paid no taxes at all, even though they 're profitable. And Congressman Gonz á lez pointed out that a group of 6 other companies with profits total ing 9. 8 billion got Treasury checks worth 100 million and paying no taxes at all. Now, he goes in and talks about the difference in Japan. Japan has a booming economy. Does that mean they 're giving no taxes at all, making no taxes at at all to be lev ied on the corporations? Not at all. In Japan, the, the corporations are tax ed at something like 51 of the profits when all the taxes are taken into consideration. And of the Japanese government budget, about 28 comes from corporate sources. Now, our corporations pay almost nothing in taxes according to Gonz á lez, where the Japanese companies pay 40 billion compared to 37 billion American companies paid, and yet the Japanese economy is only about a third the size of ours. So obviously tax ing corporations doesn 't hurt the economy. Corpor ate tax breaks, by the way, cost the U. S. Treasury about 10 2 billion a year ago, and that 's more than half of the present budget. Hmm, that 's interesting. And now we 're going to see the first of the 3 films about the bomb ings of Hir oshima and Nag asaki. The first one is called, simply enough, Hir oshima N ag asaki, and it was one which was suppressed for many years by the Defense Department. Department, so I 'm told, and it contains actual footage of the events.

Speaker 5: 15 seconds after 8: 00. At 8: 15, on the clear, bright morning of August 6 th, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hir oshima, Japan. The pilots of the United States Air Force 's 50 9 th Comp os ite Group could see flowers in the gardens below. The bomb weighed 9, 000 pounds and was as powerful as 12, 500 tons of T NT. The bomb exploded within 100 feet of the target. The fire ball was 18, 000 feet across. The temperature at the center of the fire ball was as hot as the surface of the sun. Near the center, people became nothing. Near the center, there was no sound. The light from the bomb flash ed wh iter than any white, like a sheet of traveling sun. Eyes turned up to the bomb melted. Within 9 seconds, 100, 000 people were killed or doomed, and 100, 000 more injured. Within 9 seconds, the city caught fire. As phalt and steel burned like paper. Then the day grew black with smoke and dust. Over the city rose a cloud of smoke 40, 000 feet high. 2 hours later, drops of black rain the size of mar bles began to fall.

Speaker 8: Remember, I remember. A big light comes, very strong light. I never see so strong. I do not know what is happening. My friend, she and I are always together, but I could not find her. So dark it gets, so red like a fire, always smoking dark red. I cannot see anyone. Many people run. I just follow. Pretty soon, like fog, red fog, then gray, and people down all around me. Many people look so awful, skin come off, just awful. Makes me so scared, so afraid. I never knew such hurt on people, on humans. I think I think if I 'm in hell, it is like this. No faces, no eyes. Red and burned offering, like women 's hair, dusty and smoking is burning. Many people go into the river. I watch them. Many people are drinking water, but they fall in and die. And they float away. Vo ices cry, calling names, but they 're not here because so many voices cry or calling names. So many voices.

Speaker 5: The light from the bomb created permanent shadows. Burn ed into wood and et ched onto stone. Le aves, flowers, and men disappeared, but their shadows remained. In Hir oshima on that day, there was no panic, only gh ast ly still ness, the quiet of death. People moved slowly along the roads like ghosts covered with dust and ash and fell dead as they walked. By the river, people lay bleeding from their faces or hands and died without we eping. People trapped under fallen houses called patiently, me ek ly, Help, if I may ask. In Hir oshima on that day, half the doctors were killed. At the hospitals, between 3, 000 and 10, 000 people came each day for help, and each day 2, 000 of them died. They were buried together because there were too many to bury separately. People lived in the hospital. They had no other place to go. The center of Hir oshima was a red dish br own scar 4 miles square. Between fallen buildings lay cr um pled bicycles and shells of street c ars halt ed in mid motion. On piles of rub ble and ash, children placed hand written signs. Sister, where are you? In Hir oshima, no one knew what had happened. Almost no one heard the Japanese radio announce that the city had suffered some damage from what was believed to be a new type of bomb, and details were being investigated. Still, the war continued. 3 days later, on August 9 th, 1945, on a hot summer morning, calm, bright, and wind less, at 2 minutes after 11 o' clock, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nag asaki, Japan. The descent lasted 40 seconds. The bomb exploded several miles from the target. In a single instant, 50, 000 people died. Near the center, there was no sound. The Our ak ami Cathedral stood 600 yards from the bomb center. Here, statues turned black. The Mits ub ishi factory stood 900 yards from the center. Here, 6, 200 men were killed or injured. The medical college stood 600 yards from the center. 198 faculty and students died. 230 38 were injured. The Nag asaki Pen it enti ary stood 300 yards from the center. 140 prisoners died in their cells. The Ch enz ai Middle School stood 550 yards from the center. Most of the children died as they sat at their des ks. 650 yards from the center, troll ey cars blew off their tracks. Pass engers began to scream, and then the cars ign ited and burned. At that same instant, onto the skin of some women were burned patterns from their kim onos. On the 8 th day after the bombing of Hir oshima, on the 5 th day after the bombing of Nag asaki, the war between Japan and the United States ended. It was August 14 th. On the 12 th day, wounds that had not healed began to open wider. And on the 14 th day, as they stood before their mirrors, women saw their hair come out in handful s in their com bs. Hosp itals filled with patients who had not seemed sick before. They were vomiting, bleeding from the g ums, and purple spots appeared on their skin. Some could not be touched because their skin slipped off in huge glove like pieces. At first they were quarant ined, considered victims of a mysterious infectious disease. Grad ually it was understood that the disease was radiation sickness, and these people the special victims of the atomic bomb. And by the 20 th century, day after the bomb, vegetation began to grow wildly in the wreck age of the cities. From char red remnants of plants, lush green weeds and wild flow ers spr ung again, mad ly, in extraordinary regeneration stim ulated by atomic radiation. And as people died of radiation sickness, the cities were blank eted with flowers. After watching the first atomic test, Robert Opp en heimer, one of the invent ors of the bomb, said, we knew the world would not be the same. I remembered the line from Hindu scripture, the Bhag av ad G ita. Vish nu was trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, takes on his multi armed form and says, now I am become death. I Destroy er of worlds. That was in 1945. Imagine 2, 500 of those atomic bombs exploding in one place at one time with a force of 31 million tons of T NT. Today, single nuclear weapons are being tested as powerful as this.

Speaker 1: Well, Doug, we 've seen this documentary. It 's certainly a very touching and chilling documentary. And as I mentioned earlier, it was suppressed for many years by the Defense Department. But now you 've read a book indicating that a lot of information was suppressed over the years about the these bomb ings, right?

Doug: There 's a very intriguing book called Sh adows of Hir oshima by Wil fred Burch ett, who is a war correspondent who is the first Western reporter to go into Hir oshima after the bombing. Burch ett noted all sorts of horrible suffering, as well as the rub ble from the bombing and the fires that exploded after the bombing. He saw people breaking out in strange sickness es which later we now know are radiation sickness es. He also observed that fish that were coming into the town in the river were dying suddenly as they came to the center of the city and were flop ping around and suddenly died. And he began looking into this and discovered that there was a high degree of radiation in the bomb in the aftermath of Hir oshima. So he sent some reports out to the London Express, that was the newspaper that he was writing for, and suddenly began getting a lot of static from the American political and military authorities. They didn 't want the public to know that there was such a high degree of radiation and that there was such a thing as radiation sickness. Moreover, they tried to manage the news by making sure that the only reporters that were allowed to go into Hir oshima after Bre cht who got in early through his own initiative, were friendly to the State Department and military line, so that, for instance, the early articles in the New York Times denied that there was any danger from radiation sickness or poisoning afterwards. And I think it 's worthwhile reading a couple of these stories because it 's fascinating as an example of how the government was able to manage the news initially about Hir oshima and the complic ity of the New York Times, that 's the most respected newspaper in the United States, and the reporter W. H. Lawrence was one of their top reporters with an expertise in science that just reported the lies that he was being fed by the War Department. On the 12 th of September, Lawrence 's report starts, no radio act ivity in Hir oshima ruin. And Lawrence writes, Brig ad ier General T. F. Far rell, chief of the War Department 's atomic bomb mission, reported tonight after a survey of blast ed Hir oshima that the explosive power of the secret weapon was even greater than its invent ors env is aged. But he denied categor ically that it produced a dangerous lingering radio act ivity in the ruins of the town or caused a form of poison gas at the moment of explosion. He said his group of scientists found no evidence of continuing radio act ivity in the blast ed area on September the 9 th when they began their investigation, and said it was his opinion there was no danger to be encountered by living in the area at present. Whereas Burch ett, who was there, saw day after day new examples of radiation sickness were breaking out. The fish continued to die, etc. A few days later, the New York Times had another report that was dat el ined At om Bomb Range, New Mexico, and the same reporter, William Lawrence, filed the story and said, this historic ground in New Mexico, scene of the first atomic explosion on Earth and cradle of a new era in civilization, gave the most effective answer to Japanese propaganda that radiation was responsible for deaths even after the day of the explosion, and the persons entering Hir oshima had contracted mysterious malad ies due to persistent radio act ivity. To give the lie to these claims, the Army opened the closely guarded gates of this area in New Mexico where they tested the bombs for the first time to a group of newsp ap erm en and photographers to witness for themselves the readings on the radiation meters carried by a group of radi ologists and to listen to the expert testimony of several of the leading scientists who had been int imately connected with the atom— atomic bomb project. So this began a pattern of cover up and also a pattern that tried to deny that there was any danger from radiation, poison, or a ft ere ffect s of radiation, which now we know is total nonsense.

Speaker 1: Well, obviously a lot of the scientists at that time knew about it. The ones— because it was certainly no secret from them. But you had a friend, Franklin Garcia, who was from Austin and a longtime labor leader here, who was actually in Hir oshima in prison camp at that time. Was it Hir oshima or was it Nag asaki?

Doug: I think he was a few miles outside of Nag asaki. He was a prisoner of war there, and they all heard the bomb drop and saw the explosion and then discovered that they were free because the Japanese prisoner— the people running the prison had all left, the guards. And so many of the soldiers went down into the town of Nag asaki after the bomb and were immediately rounded up by American medical and military personnel who took them to Hawaii where they put them in a restricted hospital area and gave them tests. For about a month. So the, the scientists believed that there might be danger and a ft ere ffect s from radiation. And we know from some documentaries we 've shown on Altern ative View s that throughout the 1950 s, the government used American troops as gu inea pigs to test the effects of radiation on American soldiers by dropping bombs and having U. S. soldiers enter the area. And we know now that many of them, a tremendous percentage of them died of cancer, leuke mia, and other diseases 15, 20 years after these tests.

Speaker 1: I think it 's also interesting, the parallel, what happened in the Soviet Union. In L ening rad during World War II, it was surrounded by the Germans and laid with siege for 900 days, and horrible, horrible suffering. Mill ions of people died of mal nut rition, star vation, of bombing, of artillery shells hitting the city. And there are various estimates of how many people died in L ening rad, but there were more people who died in L ening rad alone than all of the casualties of the British and the US armies during World War II. But after the war, the Soviets tried to h ush h ush this and keep this information away from the Soviet people themselves so that they wouldn 't know. It seems to me what is happening is that the governments are wanting to soft ped al all of this so that people will be more ready to go to war. They won 't know the hor rors of it. And so if the people don 't know— and remember the interview we did with Dave and Kazu o But z? She is, of course— they lived in Japan for a long time. She is Japanese. And they said that even in Japan, the whole thing is kind of down play ed. And they— in Hir oshima, they remember once a year, but the rest of the time they kind of down play what has happened.

Doug: To round out and conclude Wil fred Burch ett 's story, after he filed these reports indicating that there was radiation sickness and deaths happening after Hir oshima in the town, he was ridic uled. By American authorities, and then he had his visa taken away and he was sent out of Japan. He found that his camera had been confisc ated and all the pictures he took in Hir oshima were destroyed. The film was destroyed by the American authorities there. Yes, and that he was thus a persona non gr ata in Japan. And finally, through much pressure from the British government, years later, he was able to return to Hir oshima. And this book, Sh adows of Hir oshima, in fact records the many trips that he took over the years to Hir oshima to follow up the effects of war and radiation on the Japanese people. And it 's a very moving account of Burch ett, of the tragedy of Hir oshima. So it 's worth reading. It 's by Wil fred Burch ett, The Sh adows of Hir oshima.

Speaker 1: Well, now let 's see the second documentary or film, which is one which we made as a result of an interview which we had with a man who was half a mile from the hypoc enter of the Nag asaki explosion and actually lived to tell about it. The people with him left us with a lot of slides and pictures showing what it was like to go through such a bombing, and particularly touching were the slides of the paintings which children made, children who had gone through— and a couple, some adults, but mostly children who had gone through the Hir oshima bombing. And I 've made those into a presentation which we 'll see now.