Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? ...If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn't have to draft me, I'd join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I'll go to jail, so what? We've been in jail for 400 years.
Muhammed Ali (1942-2016)
The 75th Anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki
Recorded: August 9th, 2020
Transcript
It is 75 years since the US dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan leading to the end of the second world war.
A bell rang out to commemorate the moment the bomb struck Nagasaki 75 years ago. The Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and the major of Nagasaki spoke at the anniversary event. It's estimated more than 70, 74,000 more people died in Nagasaki on this day, 9th of August and 170,000 more when the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier. The bombs led to Japan's surrender in World War II but the radiation from the bombs caused the deaths of thousands in the months and years that followed.
Well, those who survived are called hibakusha in Japanese. Terumi Tanaka is one of them. He was a 13 year old school pupil when the bomb was dropped on his home town and recalls the moment of the explosion:
All of a sudden I heard a big sound. I didn't know what the sound was. As soon as I thought I heard the big sound my surroundings turned a bright white. People say it was a flash, but to me everything turned bright white. I didn't hear a sound so I was surprised. I felt this was something terrible so I ran downstairs and ducked. I covered my ears and closed my eyes and the moment I ducked down I lost consciousness.
In the burnt ruins there were shapes that resembled human beings or bodies that had crumbled into bones everywhere. Rescuers hadn't arrived after three days,so those who couldn't move due to serious injuries or severe burns and hadn't received help were hunched or lying on the ground...
That is Terumi Tanaka who was 13 at the time the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki 75 years ago. Now to football...
Thoughts:
This video is more raw and intense than the equivalent report on Hiroshima which was more propaganda for the legitimacy of mutually assure destruction than a commemoration. At least here we hear something of a survivor's experience.
But notice the framing, the meme that the bombings led to the end of the war is repeated twice. A useful example of how to lie with the truth. The possibility that the war could have ended without the bombings is simply disappeared...
For a more complete truth read John Pilger's Another Hiroshima is Coming — Unless We Stop It Now.
getfiles: The 75th Anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki
MP4 (Full HD Video), 156.76 mb- Top Page
- Splog!
- Articles
- Games
- Across The Table
- Add One More
- Anaconda
- Be A Monster!
- Black Hole (board game)
- Bombs Away!
- Catch!
- Catch-Caught-Caught!
- Centipede
- Charades
- Co-operative Quiz
- Crocodile
- Dice Stack
- Fast Food Tag
- Find My Number
- Find The Penny
- Football
- The Happy Game
- Line Up!
- Maze Challenge
- Natty Narration
- Nose Nose Nose
- One Step Forward!
- Pair Fluency Match 7 - Death Wish
- Pair Fluency Match 7 - Go Green!
- Parrot Parade
- Passport Control
- Reach The Top!
- Snake
- SockIt!
- Tickle Time
- What Cards
- Which One?
- Whose Shoe?
- World Cup Football 2018
- You, You, Me!
- Wake Up
- Packs
- Sheets
- Songs and Music
- Strips (songs and otherwise)
- Stories
- Techniques
- Video
- Environment
- Japan
- The 75th Anniversay of the bombing of Hiroshima
- The 75th Anniversay of the bombing of Nagasaki
- Cars in Japan
- Coronavirus Olympics
- Forest Bathing
- Japan and the Summit
- Japan and World War Two
- Multiculural Japan?
- Olympics Two Tokyos
- Plastic in Japan
- Return to Fukushima
- The Anniversary too Important to Cancel
- Typhoon Jebi
- Yayoi Kusama's Infinity
- Other
- This Week In History
- January, February, March
- April, May, June
- Sub Menu Item
- This Week in History: April 8-10
- This Week in History: April 12-15
- This Week in History: April 19-24
- This Week in History: April 24-26
- This Week in History: May 6-11
- This Week in History: May 11-14
- This Week in History: May 18-23
- This Week in History: May 25-31
- This Week in History: June 1-5
- This Week in History: June 11-14
- This Week in History: June 22-27
- This Week in History: June 15-21
- This Week in History: June 29 - July 5
- July, August, September
- This Week in History: July 6-12
- Sub Menu Item
- This Week in History: July 14-19
- This Week in History: July 27-31
- This Week in History: August 2- 6
- This Week in History: August 17-21
- This Week in History: August 27-30
- This Week in History: August 31 - September 6th
- This Week in History: September 7-13
- This Week in History: September 22-27
- This Week in History: September 14-20
- This Week in History: September 28 - October 4
- October, November, December
- Quizes
- Vocab