Picture of the Day: Paper lanterns floating down the Motoyasu River in front of Hiroshima Peace Memorial (more commonly referred to as the Atomic Bomb Dome) in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan. Today marked the 67th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on that city.
Watch: Posted on The Atlantic’s website courtesy of the Prelinger Archive, the US War Department’s archival footage of the bombing of Hiroshima, in the form of a 1946 propaganda documentary entitled A Tale of Two Cities, which documents the testing of atomic weapons and their subsequent use and impact on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Credit: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Via.
(via thepoliticalnotebook)
Guys. I fell in love in Hiroshima. Naturally, it was with a food. Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. And yes, when you eat it, sweet love music plays just like in this video.
At 8:15 on August 6, 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb used in war just missed its intended target, the Aioi Bridge, and detonated about 150m from Hiroshima’s exhibition hall, now known as the Genbaku Dome / The A-bomb Dome. Because the bomb detonated almost directly above the hall, the buildings vertical columns were able to withstand most of the downward force, and some of the building was able to remain intact, unlike most of the buildings in the area. Everyone in the building died immediately. An estimated 70,000 people in the city died instantly, and another 70,000 died by 1950 due to injuries and radiation.
Hiroshima was rebuilt around the dome, and in 1966 (after much debate) it was decided to preserve the building. In 1996 it was declared part of UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
photo: Elliott Erwitt, Versailles, 1975.
I went to the ICP and it was so good! The Elliott Erwitt exhibition was super awesome, and I had no idea that I had seen so many of his photographs before. They also had a small exhibit of survey photographs the US military took right after the atomic bomb drop on Hiroshima that was really heartbreaking. Everyone should go!
Hiroshima, Japan. Lanterns were released this Saturday in honour of the 66th anniversary of the atomic bombings, each bearing a message in protest of continued nuclear power. Atomic bomb survivor, 81-year-old Masahito Hirose, who was a high school student when they were dropped, said
Is it Japan’s fate to repeatedly serve as a warning to the world about the dangers of radiation? I wish we had found the courage to speak out earlier against nuclear power sooner.
Photo Credit: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters via the New York Times
(via lookhigh)
When private bands of fanatics commit atrocities we call them “terrorists,” which they are, and have no trouble dismissing their reasons. But when governments do the same, and on a much larger scale, the word “terrorism” is not used, and we consider it a sign of our democracy that the acts become subject to debate. If the word “terrorism” has a useful meaning (and I believe it does, because it marks off an act as intolerable, since it involves the indiscriminate use of violence against human beings for some political purpose), then it applies exactly to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
— Howard Zinn, The Bomb
