Transcripts For CSPAN3 President Trumans Grandson Visits Hiroshima 20240622

Clifton Truman Daniel the eldest grandson of president harry truman. Our viewers are about to go on a video tour with you on a trip he took this summer, to hiroshima and 90 sake. How did this come about . German truman my son brought home a book about a real little girl living in hiroshima who was two years old when the bomb exploded. She survived the bombing but contracted radiation induced at nine years later. She followed the japanese tradition that said if you for 1000 paper cranes you are granted a wish. Hers was to live. Unfortunately she did not work. She folded many more than 1000 cranes and died in 1955. I read the book and i mentioned that in an article to a japanese journalist couple of years later. That article was red in japan and i got a phone call from the older brother who said he had seen the article, and we talked through an interpreter over the phone. He said he would like to meet someday. It took us another six years, we finally met in new york. At that point he invited me to come to hiroshima and nagasaki at some point. At this point do you have any expectations about the trip. Truman at the time, i was really his wish to make contact is what brought me into it. It did not taken much persuading. At that point my expectations were wide open. Was this an official trip . Are just two people interested. Truman it was just between two people. There was no official capacity. Host it was not official press conference. Did that surprise you . Truman yes, i was expecting the Japanese Press coverage because i had been led to expect that. He told me to look out. But then it got the play that it did in the United States. That was a surprise. Host with the lookout there will be lots of press coverage. Did you have any sense that you are be using being used towards a goal. Truman not at all. He was the driving force behind this. His wish was solely to bring us together. And symbolically to bring our two countries together. Not even for one moment and i think he had another mode motive. My wife and sons went with me. Host how long are you there . Truman we were there for 10 days. In august. It covers both anniversaries of the bonds. We traveled between the two cities by bullet train. We were there for 10 days. Host was that your first trip . Truman yes. It is a beautiful country. I am astounded that they only have to live on 30 of the island. The rest is mountainous. It is beautiful houses, rice fields. Very colorful. In bringing home that book, he brought japan into my house. That included sushi komodos, travel vidwe really began to enjoy the country from a distance. As i think a lot of americans do anyway with anna make him an fashion. Japanese food. Host and cell phones. Truman thank you, japanese cell phones. He brought it into our home. There were times during the trip , although it was a serious visit, every once in a while we would look around and go where is japan . It was very nice to be in the country. Host you went through these two important cities which reserves the countrys history and nuclear weapons. Host how did that impact or discussions . Truman we met with 24 survivors. We were very confident in their experience, i think it rocked them to the core. They now have new victims from nuclear power. Host we will get started with what will be a twohour conversation. We have a lot of video. Some of it will be historic. But most of it was shot from your son. Truman i was originally going to go on this trip by myself. But then people in the family began to be interested in this. I gradually begin to invite them one at a time. First was my wife and then i invited the younger son. Once i did that i realized that i had to invite wesley. My wife was correct. Wesley jumped at the chance. Is a Theater School graduate. He took a video camera. He shot from the proof roll a we are doing this. Kind of hightech home movie. Host as folks watch this he will narrate along the way. We should explain how you ended up here. Truman apparently, ive been working with cspan for 15 years. You all have done projects in the Truman Library. So, it has just been a nice working relationship. Host we are interested to see the video and share it with our audience. We will get started with your first visit to hiroshima. We say the were different. I am still saying it the differently. Hiroshima and hiroshima. Truman the only person i ever asked about this was the former mayor of hiroshima. He said it does not matter. Americans will pronounce it the way they pronounce it. The japanese pronunciation they do it differently. They do not put an accent or strengthening i cannot fathom the explanation very well. He said it does not matter. Host both are acceptable. Truman yes. Host i will do my best to mimic you. Set the stage for us. The city is large. 1. 4 million people. How much is the memorial a part of the city . Truman it is the center. It is the heart of the city. It is a beautiful park full of memorials. Theres the peace museum itself. Theres this sadako memorial. There is a memorial to all of the victims of the bombing. It is beautiful. Hiroshima calls itself a city of peace. Nagasaki so does. They are cities of peace. They take that very seriously. It is a beautiful place. Host we will see the memorial park. As you saw it on the august 4 date. Www. Cspan. Org [indiscernible] host tell us what we are seeing. Truman we are standing at the memorial. You can see a statue of his Sister Holding a paper crane and origami paper crane. As the camera comes out and down, you cannot see it in this shot. The whole memorial is draped with colorful paper cranes. Children and adults had made it. There are put on chains and hung all over. Museum throughout both cities. Chains and chains of brightly colored paper cranes. Host there you are on camera. We will see the gentleman next to you. Host what is his story . Truman he is 70 years old. The man has not told me his full story or experience with the bomb. I dont know if that was intentional or if we were preoccupied. I do not know exactly what happened to them on that day. Host it is also very impressive the amount of press you have. Truman i did know how most americans do it. Host were they questioning you the entire time you go . Truman no, at this point they were just filming. There is a metal representation of the paper crane hanging beneath the bell. I think we can see a little bit those paper cranes are being elusive. This was what he wanted to do. The press was allowing him to do that. I think just moving his head in the foreground was monte hero how old is ug ecco host so this was a family project ecco . You also get a sense of how urban this memorial is. I can see buildings. Truman yes, the peace park is on a it goes up between two rivers. At the tip of the park is the bridge which was the central aiming point for the bombers of 1945. Host what is the significance of the bell . Truman it is to honor the children who died. Host is it sure that they hold the ceremony each year . Truman yes. 67 years later it is very well attended. It is almost impossible to get a hotel room. Host is it mostly just japanese . Truman it is mostly japanese, but we saw plenty of nonjapanese at the ceremony. Later on, i do not know if it is this day. We run into a crew from iran. Host one thing i read was that the americans sent a u. S. Ambassador to that ceremony for the first time just two years ago. Truman yes, he was there this year. Host one of the japanese and american view of the ceremony, why did it take 65 years for an american investor to attend . Truman that is a good question. I was glad to see him when he was there. I understood that when he went two years ago he just wanted to go quietly. That is what i wanted to do. Host i didnt you did not have much of a choice he ecco truman no. It was slightly more public. Host we are going to see a more formal meeting between you and those interested press people around you. Before we listen in, were you anticipating to have the press conference . Truman they let me know that this was going to happen. It followed a pattern. We would go someplace and they would follow us. After we had done what we needed to do, we would step up to the side and they would ask questions. Then we would go on to the next thing. Host how much thought did you give before you go on camera . Truman not enough. My aim was just to go and be present. Just to be there. To listen. To be a part of it. I was underprepared. I found that i had to struggle with what i wanted to say and what i was failing. Which turned out to be appropriate. I dont think i ever could have gone there and just thought of something. Host before we hear your answers to the reporters, can you tells which you are feeling ecco . Truman i was hopeful. I had experienced Japanese Press here at the state before. They seemed open to the idea. We were well received in japan. I was very wary, because not everybody likes the idea. It is not universally accepted to be a good thing. That Harry Trumans grandson showed up at the ceremonies. So, i think that i was hopeful but wary. More than that, i was worried that i would not be able to answer them well. Host lets listen in to the questions. This is one of the first press conferences on site. Where with clifton Truman Daniel. Truman it is hard to put into words. On a thing my friends, i am honored to have been invited. I want to thank my friends. This was such a brave girl. I would also like to thank them for telling me about the stories , and it using it as a gesture of peace and reconciliation. I would like to thank you mr. Daniel. For making i thank you for your decision. I feel deep appreciation. I know we have different opinions, mr. Daniel has embraced them all, and i thank him for this as well. In the future, you will be traveling to hiroshima and nagasaki as well. I hope you will see things as they are and i hope in the future for the next generation of children that we will Work Together and come up with some plans, and ideas to establish peace to the world. [indiscernible] shall we go forward . Over there is where the atomic bomb was dropped. Thank you. Host we are watching your first visit to the epicenter where the bomb was dropped in hiroshima and august of 1945. We can assume it was a very warm day. And in the background we are hearing lots of crickets. Truman cicadas. Host they demonstrate the heat. So now you are moving on to what aspect of this, and what is the significance . Truman what we are looking at his comment leave or firms to as the abomb dome, the atomic bomb dome. It was a an industrial hall. It had a couple of different names. As the war went on they changed it to reflect what was going on. It is one of the few, was one of the few western stone buildings in hiroshima at the time. It survived the blast. Although the explosion occurred nearly directly above it. Everybody in the building was killed, but the structure survived very much intact. The steel of the dome is still standing. It has become a worldwide symbol for the destruction and hiroshima, and the rebirth afterwards. Host as a symbol, how did it resonate with you . Truman i got chills. I have been looking at pictures of that dome for years. It is very common in history and literature. I had been seeing it for years. It is really something to stand and look at. Host here is an image of the two of you. The japanese survivors and your grandson. Walking arm in arm. Do you remember that happening . Were you struck by the symbolism for the press. Truman yes, my first arrived in tokyo there were some tough questions about apology. And having fielded some of those and not being quite ready for it, i was a little worried i was worried for the rest of the trip. For the whole rest of the day i was worried on the train going to the city. Had i done the right thing . Will this be a positive experience for everyone you ecco he ecco . When i first met the survivor, he gave me a hug. At that point i knew it would be ok. That was very much what we both wanted to convey, that we were here to come together. Host before you embark on the trip as you saw it out any guidance for historians or people who worked at the libraries, or how the symbolism might be read by both countries . Truman i talked to the folks of the Truman Library regularly. They knew i was going. I do not directly seek any advice. Not on how to behave or interpret it. Although again, i did not wanted to be rehearsed. I just wanted to go there. Host did you ever feel as though you said things you wish you could take back . Truman no. I found from time to time that i had said things better. But i never came away with having had said anything i should not have. Host we should understand, that we have been talking, what are your views about your grandfathers decision to drop the bomb . Truman oh, forgive me, im staying away from that. I am not looking at that whether that was the right or wrong thing. There are opinions on both sides. I simply was struck by the wish to bring us together. And by very many of the japanese and the survivors who had the same wish, to bring us together as reconciliation. Not to debate the morality of the decision. That will be debated for some time to come. But i think that as an american, and as the grandson, no matter how i feel about the decision to use the atomic weapon or whether it ended the war early. I can still feel for people who were affected by it. I can still take steps to do what i can to make sure that we do not do to each other again. Host japan made the decision to end the war shortly after the bombings were done. We are going to look back in time to the origins of the war in japan. And on december 7 1941 japan as many of you know, launched a surprise attack on American Naval operations in pearl harbor hawaii. The National Park service which keeps the memorial at pearl harbor has done a series of oral interviews. We will show you one of those next. And an automobile, an officer was allowed a court but week. If summary had a blackfoot of the girls names. And we would head over and party. That never happened. We were sound asleep, and my bunkmate came down washington way. We heard a rattling. We did not think too much about it. But when we heard a big boom we thought we better get up and see. We looked out, we went downstairs and looked out. We saw that it was more than what we thought. We could see a jet plane go up. We went back and got dressed and came back to the waters edge. It was roughly 100 yards watching the arizona sink. We cannot think of what to do. After the ship blew up, the sailor started coming to shore. Their skin was peeling off their backs and arms. They are full of oil. We helped them out of the water. Our member taking one man named flanagan, he was an infantry man. I took him to the hospital. And when you get to the hospital, there was a doctor. And the first doctor looked the man over and if he thought he could save him he would say go here. If he thought that he could not save him right off or it was not worth the time, you went down to the second line. That was the fellas they did not think would make it. The role right now is that if you were physically aboard the ship your remains could be entombed on the ship. We are working on a program so that anybody who is part of the ships crew would have that privilege. The second thing is that way back in about 1981, my son was on a ship here. I thought it is too bad that nothing has ever been done for the fellas who were on the ship. We cannot go back and have a memorial service. I worked on that. And i succeeded. In 1981, we had about 75100 people were part of the ships crew way back in 1916. All of their relatives. We got that thing started and we repeated it in 1986 and 1991. With 300 people. Yesterday, that is the way it is. Yesterday we went back to the ship, which i always do on the first day. Then we had a beautiful memorial service. In 20 years i learned how to get the government or the army or the navy to do things for you. We had an International Color guard in a firing squad. And because we were part of the u. S. To close the memorial. All the flags were flying just like on an important day. It was beautiful. Host that was joe lindel who was a survivor of the pearl harbor attack. He had an oral history recorded by the u. S. Park service. We are talking with clifton Truman Daniel who in august made a personal trip with members of his family to the two cities that harry truman his grandfather dropped the atomic bomb on in 1945. And his very emotionals experience on that journey. You have worked with the library. You have had to admit lots of veterans. What are those interactions like truman it all often happens that after those events, the gentleman in their 70s and 80s will come up after words and shake my hand and tell me if they had not been for your grandfather, i would not be here today. They were setting the stage to invade the japanese main island. Many of them had already fought their way through the pacific islands. They had already been through that. They were facing what many work in setting would be an even worse fight for the japanese homeland. Host this event happen 13 years before you were even born. You are one of four grandsons of harry truman. Do you feel any special responsibility with your family legacy to look at the complete history of his presidency . Truman not looking at the complete history. I have always approach this as a grandchild, as a grandson. I saw him as might grandfather. I always wanted to know what hes thinking and feeling. That is part of his legacy, to add to it if i can. And i lot, a lot of children and grandchildren feel the same way. That is part of who we are. So, yes i feel a responsibility for various aspects of it. Host is this something your brother share, or is a particular to you . Truman my youngest brother has been to some events with me, but he does not do it quite as much as i do. He does feel the sense of pride and responsibility. Host how interested are your children . Truman wesley took a great deal of interest in this project. He enjoyed the film. He enjoyed being in japan. My youngest son enjoyed the history. He was only 15, he has had some history in school. That now he had a serious History Lesson up close. We talked about, some day if we can arrange it, bringing survivors to come to his school. Host it was obviously tremendously emotional for that man and his family. You saw the same emotion at the other end in japan. That must be a lot to reconcile for you and your family. Truman there are a lot of similarities. There are human beings on both side, they had both been through something horrendous. They fought, they bled, they a lot of them have lived through things we cannot imagine. As harry truman grandson, in the middle of this, i choose to honor both. Both the sacrifice the sacrifice of the american servicemen fighting their way through the pacific, and i have a little girl and of a little girl who died in the atomic bombing. When i first met the brother and sister in new york, at one point they opened a little box and open up a small paper crane and drop it into my hand and told me that was the last one she folded before she died. You have sadakos crane in one hand and an 80yearold serviceman who would not be alive if the bomb had not been dropped. You have to honor both. Host up next we will listen to harry truman in his own words and this is the program that aired on u. S. Television in the mid1960s, it was called decision, the conflicts of harry s truman. We will listen to him. This is a clip from a short program. This is a brief clip where he talks about his thought process and ultimately making the decision. Truman our enemy had started the war. They have killed millions of chinese and others. In months previous the explosion of the bomb, we had taken okinawa, the japanese island off the Southern Coast of japan. In taking that island, we had to hit kill 100 10,000 japanese and lost 12,000 of our own. We had to kill 110,000 japanese. Japanese officers, before they were defeated they would usually commit ritual suicide. The men would use hand grenades to kill themselves. That was a horrible way to die. It gave us some idea of what we had to do in order to defeat the japanese in the war. The next step already planned was to launch a big invasion of japan through the island. The president of the United States is the commanderinchief of the armed forces. I had to help plan the invasion. To put it in quotation marks. The chiefs of staff had to make a plan for the invasion of japan without considering the atomic bomb. It was estimated that to invade the land and conquer it would cost 700,000 men, 200,000 of our men, and 500,000 of them would be maimed for life. Christ there is a perverse cleanliness in the planning of a normal war. The atom bomb is abnormal. Truman i do not mind telling you that you do not feel normal when you have to plan to evacuate 30,000 wounded, and get hospitals in the philippines and other islands to prepare 54,000 beds. At each beachhead you call for an lst boat loaded with blood. You plan six ships will have 12 hours Life Expectancy due to care packages. And you have to plan hundreds of thousands of complete deaths for american boys who are alive and joking, and having fun while you are doing your planning. I will tell you, you break your heart and your head trying to figure out a way to save one life. My chief purpose was to end the war in victory. With the least possible loss of american lives. I never had any qualms about using an instrument that finally ended the war where we wouldve had to and 50,000, or 300,000 of our men killed or maimed. Truman the constitution is dedicated to the common defense. Host that was present harry truman. He is reflecting on the decision to drop the bomb. We are listening to that with his grandson clifton junior daniel, he is sharing the video of the trip he took this year. Truman it is always interesting. Again, historically, we have always heard that. As children, that is what he always said. That is what he wrote in his memoir. Those reasons that he gave, to end the war quickly and save american lives, he said over again. Host for the young people watching we should also remind them how soon into his presidency the decision happened. Truman correct. President roosevelt died in april. The first atomic bomb tests were on july 16. The first bomb was dropped on august 6. That is very quickly. Host the history books tell us that he was not aware of the program even as he campaigned. Truman looking back, he realized he did know something about it as head of the truman committee. He was investigating waste and fraud in the militaryindustrial complex. He had sent inspectors to tennessee were huge amounts of money were going to create components for the bombs. The secretary of war took him aside, and my grandfather come out of her sect for the secretary said we will leave it alone. Then, i think the day after he became president they were told about the bombs. And then he remembered about those two. But no he did not know what they were building. He did not know we had anything like that until the day after. It wasnt until after he became president that they were told. That he was told. Host did you do special research on that. Of history on that time of history . Truman yes, i went back to read history books. I read my grandfathers memoirs. I read a biography. I read books on japan. My wife bought us a of japanese travel videos. We try to get a sense of the country, both modern and historical. Host again, your thoughts on all of these mountains of research you have been doing. And the research you shop. The research you shot, where does it lead . Truman i am trying to put it into a book. And with the grandson of jacob beecher, who was the only serviceman to fly on both bomb planes. Re and i we are working to build it into the Truman Library. Host the survivors are all getting up in years. Truman yes there are only about two and left, it sounds like a lot, considering that there were hundreds of thousands originally. There were a lot of people wounded in the attacks. Given the massive explosions. And people who were impacted downwind by black rain carrying radiation. There were a lot of people who were impacted. Host in your work with the Truman Library, earlier were talking about some japanese looking for an apology. There is a story you have about a man asking for one. Truman yes, there was one man who had been independent in the 1950s. I believe it was the delegation from hiroshima that went to the Truman Library. I do not know that they went specifically asking for an apology. But it came up, and he recalls exactly those words. One of the delegates, possibly the head of the delegation asking would you apologize for this . And my grandfather politely, but firmly said no. Host regarding your trip, we should tell people that the video was shot by whom . Truman by my son wesley. Host the next will be a seven minute tour of the museum. It is run by an american. Truman yes. Host how did that come about . Truman i wish i had better answers for this. He is the First American director of the Memorial Museum and hiroshima. Host what did the museum do for the visitor . Truman it prevents a very honest and thorough, very unbiased history of the atomic bombing. They did their research very well. There are no accusations. It is very straightforward. I think therein lies its power. Host you have any idea of the timeline . Truman i do not. Host lets begin this video with a brief video of the onsite memorial. The american director is given us the tour. [indiscernible] this is one thing i like to show everybody. It is one of those things you dont think about. What that means is that all of the glass was shattered. This is what happens to the wall. Anything, any little piece that can move is flying through the air. It moves like a bullet. All of the glass is coming through it suddenly hits their arm. This is the kind of thing that just shows you really cannot imagine something going on like this. It is beyond what we can explain. We put all this information together in 1955. The u. S. Lifted the ban on information. The dress code ended officially with the accusation in 1952. After that, they still had and kept most of the film. In their library. In washington dc. And then we had this film. Many millions of japanese donated money to buy back the film and bring it here to a japanese company. It was taken to america with the buyback. So they bought it back. It was after that, that we had the film. Until them we had never seen any of those films. Until then. One thing we always said was that this cloud reached 10,000 feet into the sky. Right now it looks like it is probably more than 20,000. According to somebody who did an analysis of the picture, and who did the measuring, they believe it is more like 20,000 than 10,000. If we had lots of pictures of the cloud because it was such a spectacular scene. No one had ever seen a cloud like this. Especially, this is the biggest cloud picture. This picture was taken from the island. You are on this island, and if you were looking you would have felt the blast. The it would not have knocked you over. It was over six kilometers away. This was happening 16 minutes after the bomb exploded. You are looking at hiroshima and your seen this coming up over the city, and you know it is something. You have no idea what it could be. You have never seen a cloud like that. Host we are on tour with Truman Daniel. And this is the museum on the site that captures the experience for the survivors in the country. It is being led by the american director. Were talking about how interesting it is that an american director no runs this. Truman as you can see, these are two mannequins. That is the representation of skin hanging off of their arms and faces, and legs. This is a common sight in the immediate aftermath of the bombing. The fireball receipt temperature of 8000 degrees. It burned on the ground for 10 seconds. People were literally cooked. The skin was burned, it was seared. As the blast wave came through behind the fireball the skin was just peeled from their arms and legs, and faces. It is dark, you cannot see it very well. Many of the survivors report running into crowds of people walking with their arms up with skin hanging down from their arms. Holding their arms up because to drop them to their sides and with the blood rushed into the area was too painful. Most people did not survive. If they had reached that stage they were dying. Many of the survivors i spoke to reported that these people, of course having been burned so badly, they were calling for water and heading to the rivers. If you gave them water, they died shortly after. I do not know if that is because being so parched that they cannot absorb the water, they were dying anyway. In nagasaki and hiroshima there is a little pool where you can skip up water and drench the memorial stone as a gesture of finally being able to give these people water. Host all of these the patients here are trying to capture the magnitude. Can you convey what you learned about the magnitude . Truman both museums both in hiroshima and nagasaki do a good job. But it is still unimaginable what that must have been like, to be close to that. To be near the center where the fireball originated. As you can see in the picture behind us, and americans have seen these photos in history books. What it did to the city. It flattened and burned. Everything had been flattened and then fire started. Fires gas lines and in buildings. Fires raged throughout the city and burned anything left behind. It was an inferno. The firestorm was so intense that it actually produced its own weather, it produced lightning. Host 70,000 people died instantly. And double that by the time the exposure victims died from their wounds. An equal number of people in nagasaki . Truman slightly less. The bomb was stronger, but the pilot missed the mark and it dropped and a more hill area and kind of protected part of the city. Host so the total numbers i have seen there are 70,000 total. Truman yes between that and 90,000. Host so between the two is truman over 200,000. Plus the People Living with injury. Host we are getting a sense of the experience you had. We were asked at the museum to sign the museums guestbook. This trip was full of symbolism as you can to realize. Did you have any idea of what she would say before you sign the guest list . Truman yes. Especially since they were asking us to be simple, and concise. There were asking for something that would be remembered. I remember, i varied a little bit, i had to write a few different ways. I chose to honor the dead listen or hear the living. Make sure this never happens again. Which is what each survivor when they finished talking to us, each survivor finished giving testimony. All he or she asked was, please tell the story and let people know this is like so we do not ever do this again. Host our next clip is from the press conference that was held right after the museum tour by the daniel family. This is about five minutes long. [indiscernible] he is signing in front of the board. Which is a rest adduction of the former hiroshima section. While there are various different discussions and opinions, what are your thoughts about your grandfathers decision . I mean, his decision to drop the ball. Bomb. As you say, when we were growing up with the history books they taught us that the bomb was to end of the war. Truman as you say there are other opinions and points of view. As the survivors have told to me is that we talk about all of it. And for me to be in hiroshima for them, they donated one of the cranes. We should keep talking and keep those discussions. [indiscernible] [indiscernible] there we saw your signature on the museums visitor both. You referenced the gift of that crane and talked about it in the press conference. This crane symbolizes what . Truman the crane symbolizes peace in this instance. As we were talking about earlier, people full thousands and thousands of miniature paper cranes and wrote them together and drape them over the memorials. They pulled thousands of paper cranes to cure radiationinduced leukemia in the 1950s. That last crane i held was the last one she pulled it before she died. Her brother has held onto that. They have systematically donated most of her other paper cranes to memorial sites around the world, including the uss arizona memorial. Her brother is a survivor of the bombing, they are young at the time. Very young at the time. Next, we are going to meet some of the survivors you met with. Between the two cities, he spoke with 24. How were they assembled . Truman he had done the advanced work on this. In preparing for this trip, they had asked survivors through survivor organizations in both cities which have been would like to come, would feel comfortable to tell stories to me. He arranged the meetings and they came ones and twos and there were a couple married couples and we would sit down with groups and they had arranged to come and sit and talk for an hour or two. You told us earlier you v hope to do an oral history project. Truman i considered it i had a digital voice recorder. My first thought as a writer was to take a pad and pencil and recorder and sit down and write down every word. I did not because that really was not the reason i was there. I was there this time to listen and let them talk and be present with them. It did not feel appropriate to me. Going forward when i go back to japan to do further research on the book, i will contact those folks again and we will have already had this established. We will see a clip of one conversation you had come a female by the name of the akami. Truman this was the first time i had met survivors in the states back in december of last year and may of this year before going some of those i saw again in hiroshima. She had never given her testimony before. This was the first time she felt comfortable talking about it. A lot of survivors do not talk about it. Not only was it for bleacher m horribly traumatic, but they were seen as unclean, there was something wrong with them. They were discriminated against. A lot of them were ordered to keep quiet. This is the first time she has shared her story. I believe it was because we were there. She is today 82 years old. Lets listen. Truman [speaking japanese] on my way home, i saw so many dead bodies. And destroyed houses. I was looking at those things and i tried to go into my house. [speaking japanese] translator on the way to my house i was asked by so many people to give them water but i did not have any. I cannot do anything for them. [speaking japanese] translator i do not know how long i had to walk, but i felt meet, human flesh. Meat, human flesh near the bridge. [speaking japanese] translator the reason why i felt like this person was giving me this message that i am still alive. [speaking japanese] translator it is really weird but i did not really feel any kind of fear. I was not scared at all. It is undescribable, i cannot express what i felt. I just started walking. I still remember what i felt and i still feel eyeballs looking at me. [speaking japanese] translator i felt i could not walk in the city anymore, so i tried to use a different bridge. [speaking japanese] translator the bridge i was trying to go across come i tried to look down to the river and ice also many dead bodies floating on the surface of the river. [speaking japanese] translator i think so many people suffered from their burnt skin, they went to water, jumping to the river. 82yearold takami, a survivor of the bombings in hiroshima telling her story for the first time. You met with 24 survivors listening to this woman tell her story for the first time. What do you see your role as . Truman to be there, to listen to her, to let her speak to me, to let her do this for the first time. For her understanding she was talking to the grandson of the man who made the decision to drop the bomb. Did she talk to you about that . Truman she did not. A lot of them understood for her, it was the first time. She spoke for the first time because it was me, because it was my family. She thought it was time. A lot of them, survivors speak out a lot of them dont, but those who do tell their stories as a means of education, as a means of reminding the coming generations of the horrors of nuclear war so we dont repeat it. In this instance, again, it was because this was a different opportunity, this was that was the catalyst for her. You learned during your visit that there were also american victims of the bombing. Truman a dozen american survivors shut down and captured were being kept in a local Police Barracks in hiroshima. It was close to the hypo center. All 12 of them perished in the bombing. We met one japanese gentleman who found out about im not sure if he knew about the soldiers before hand. I think they knew they were there, but after the war and after things began to get back to some degree of normalcy, he realized the families of these american servicemen had no idea what had happened. Why would they . They were shot down, they were prisoners of war. He spent years of his own time and a lot of his own money systematically tracking down the American Families of these servicemen to tell them what had happened to their loved ones. We will meet him, next. This is about five minutes long. The names of the pows were published on december 2 1984 on the New York Times magazine. Their graves are any National Park in st. Louis missouri and their eight names are inscribed. Are in a National Park in st. Louis, missouri and their eight names are inscribed. There are two things i would like to convey to you. Number one, the names which have not been disclosed by the u. S. Government are going to be disclosed. The second one is regarding the news story known to some parts of the United States about avian of you being massacred about a pow being massacred. That was a death by radiation. Learning about the american flyers who were killed as well along with the japanese victims in the bombing of hiroshima in 1945. You were told about this story about a man who was a survivor of the bombings. Did you have an opportunity to ask him his motivation to spend much of his life telling the story to americans in connecting American Families with their loved ones . What motivated him . Truman thats just the way he is. He felt the for the victims. Felt empathy for the victims. He understood the tragedy in a larger sense that this was a human tragedy that transcendent nationalities. He felt compelled to let their families know what had happened. He felt badly that they did not know. So many of the japanese in those cities have no idea what had happened to loved ones. Never found their bodies. Many of the victims knew the hypo synergist. Hypo center disappeared. Their bodies were turned to ash. They had nothing to bury or grieve over. A lot of children had been sent out to live communally expecting they would come back up after the war was over. They wound up orphans. Their families disappeared in a flash. That spoke to him. He understood that had happened on both sides. It is reminiscent of the stories we heard in the 9 11 World Trade Center. We will hear from one family, their link between the two events. We are learning about the americans who dying at that site. You will visit the military police buildings, next. We are at the site of the former military police headquarters. This is where they kept pows. This site was near the epicenter. 12 american flyers were killed in the bombing. This memorial has been erected to them. [speaking japanese] there is a new building on this site. How is it history recognized . Truman the only mention of those airmen was that plaque in those two small american flags. It is the loading dock of an office building. That is what was built on the site. The building had already gone up by the time they discovered where they had been. He lobbied and spent some of his own money to have that plaque directed so they would not be forgotten. Small as it is, it is in keeping with some of the memorials because the hypo center itself, the point under the bomb is also a plaque. It is right next way hospital. To a hospital. Nagasaki has a part. They have a hollowed out amphitheater. An obelisk in the middle of it commemorating the hypo center. Having absorbed so much, how do you process it at night . Truman we talk about it. Use it with your family you sit with your family and have a little sake and let it come. It was 10 days total. Truman 10 days total. You knew there was more and more truman war was coming. More was coming. Its nothing compared to what they went through. Were you beginning to think how he would process this for people at home . Truman at that point, no. I still am. It has been since august and im still it still stays with you. It is not a quick thing. We have another survivors story, next. Who is he . Truman im not sure. The leader of a survivors group. Truman right. From my notes, 16 years old at the time. Truman ok. This is about six minutes long. [speaking japanese] i removed the rubble by digging around the area. I managed to remove and fallen tree. I could not go forward. My mother was lying face up about a meter away and her eyes were bleeding. Since i could not make it to her side, i asked her, can you move and she said no, unless you can move this stuff from my shoulder. I could not. I was a militaristic boy. I knew japan was cornered and going to lose soon. I was always dreaming, every day , that i would get on a plane and throw myself directly onto the u. S. Battleship. I never imagined such a horrible thing would happen to me. The fire spreading so fast my mother said, get away, quick. I said, go visit my father who passed away in may. I will follow you shortly. I went away from the scene leaving my mother, knowing she was going to die in the fire. I spent the night outside. The next day, i went to my house, the house was too hot to enter. If you days later a few days later, i would to the area where mother had been a nice alnd i saw a small childlike manic and alanequin dall oll baked into the tar. It was my mothers body. About a month later, the sixth of september, i was walking and i felt suddenly very heavy and i felt like i was being absorbed into the earth. I managed to arrive at my aunts house. That is when symptoms started to show. I have red spots on my skin, sore throat, gums bleeding and was bleeding and i had some hair loss. Nose bleeding and i had some hair loss. My and also lost aunt also lost my uncle. My aunt said to me, your mother i lost her, i lost your uncle, i cannot afford to have you killed. So, i went all around in the neighborhood and managed to find a dentist. I paid a lot of money and had him give me lots of shots to cure my symptoms. Why am i saying this . I was just and very lucky one and a very lucky one to as saved by this dentist who gave me this shot. I dont know what kind of medicine he gave me, but my life was saved by him. After the war, the u. S. Occupational army said in september that all the war victims died, so there will be no more damage. The doctor sent from switzerland from the red cross who saw the victims in hiroshima, he tried his best to cure them with a medicine and whatever he had also, they asked him to do something about it, but he was denied. The government did not object to that. Nothing was done. Because of that, by the end of that year 210,000 people died. I was saved, but there were 210,000 people killed. If there had been some treatment for those people, a small percentage of people might have been saved. President truman did not know about this. The u. S. Occupational army was not really did not have any measures put in place to deal with this issue. There have been policies underestimating the damage done to the victims, unfortunately. That derailment we just heard from telling his survivor story is the leader of a survivors group. That gentleman we just heard from. The word he used is the japanese word for survivor . Truman it means bomb affected people. It covers a wide range of people who were directly injured in the bomb. People living further away. He was critical of u. S. Policy and u. S. Occupiers or having no preparations to deal with the victims. Truman that is a complicated issue. They were indeed the atomic bomb hospitals the u. S. Set up were set up primarily to study what had happened. To study the victims. I dont know anybody had any medication or much they can do for the victims. They had these atomic bomb hospitals, Treatment Centers that could not treat anybody. As we are listening to these survivor stories, it is worth noting he describes himself as a militaristic little boy who dreamed of getting on an airplane and find those airplanes into american ships. These two countries were at war, had been for 4. 5 years at that point. Hundreds of thousands of people in the Pacific Theater dynasty result of that war. That is context. Died as a result of that war. Both he and others brought that up. One gentleman said at the end of his testimony that he had felt so stupid for believing his government. Despite what had happened to him, there was both. This horrible thing had happened to him and he still felt he had been wrong for believing his government. He should not feel that way. It was his country, his government, there wasnt much he could do. We have 25 minutes left. We will hear two more survivor stories. This one, presenting you with some drawings. Truman he is he and his wife are the two oldest survivors we spoke to. They were already a married couple in the early 20s 1920s when the bombs hit. This is the first time they had spoken about it. In preparation for this, he made a series of eight drawings of things he had seen on the day of the bombing when he made his way to safety. The drawings include depictions of people having windows exploded into their faces and peppering them with glass shards. He drew an image of the burials retrieving the corpses littered all over hiroshima which were taken up to huge pits. He also has his own depiction of a wellknown picture of a wounded japanese soldier with a bandage around his head sitting at a desk, writing scripts for emergency supplies. He drew these pictures. The last one he showed me was the saddest, a picture of a little boy sitting on the ruined steps of the building and he recalled when he went the boy could not have been more than four years old. He was sitting and he went over and touched him on the shoulder and the boy fell over. He had died sitting up there by himself all alone. This story is about 3. 5 minutes long. [speaking japanese] as i was walking, going into the town, there is a bridge called miuki. There was a policeman sitting. I looked closely and he had his head bandaged, bleeding. He was wounded as well. He said you were injured too . I was he gave me a piece of paper. It was a proof of being a victim. That proves that i was a victim of an atomic bomb. I received a piece of paper. Later, when i did the research at the atomic bomb archive, he turned out to be a policeman named mr. Uchida. I was hoping to see him again later, but i had no word from him. I was not able to see him. Instead, i met this person i drew him from a memory. The fourth one, this is the bridge looking towards downtown. It was burned flat by the flame s, still burning. That must be the department store, probably or that must be the newspaper company, probably thats where it was. I simply thought about those things, but i cannot afford staying there, so i crossed towards takanobashi. There were so many people. Only a few people drawn here, but i met more than people. They were begging for water. There was no such thing as a portable water container like this in those days. There was no habit of carrying a water bottle with you those days. I was not able to give them water. It was such a pity, there was no water around available. There were so many people begging for water, so i remember the scene and i drew this painting. Truman thank you for sharing your story and for the pictures. I would like very much i will take this home and frame them and put them on my wall. Translator [speaking japanese] they were in their 20s when the bombs were dropped. Those paintings, you did bring them home . Truman yes. I will frame them and put them on the wall. They are out of their frames now so we can take some pictures of them. We will put them back up. They dont bear any outward physical evidence of the trauma they went through. Did you actually see people who still have burns and scars . . Yes. One gentleman lost his ear. You could see his face was burned. A friend of mine who lives in this country, she was one of the i dont know if youve heard of them hiroshima main dens, little girls burned badly in the bombing. We pay for them to come to this country to get plastic surgery. She was among those. There are victims out there with physical evidence of the burns. In addition to the emotional scars, what did you learn about those who survived the initial blast and the subsequent radiation . What happened most often to people . Truman the stories ive heard commonly, having survived the bombings, sometimes being burned, sometimes not, some of them were not touched. No glass, no birds, they were far enough away inside a structure that protected them. No burns. What follows in the days and weeks later was assigned to radiation sickness. They would lose their hair, fatigue. One of them in not the sakeagasaki went through years of fatigue. He was six years old when the bomb hit. This began to plague him in his late teens and early 20s to the point where he could not work. He would get a job and be completely worn out and have to be bedridden until his red blood cell count came up again. He would get another job and where himself out. He finally got past that. He is in his 70s now. He is 73 years old now. He and others you look at them and they look fine, but theyve all had Health Problems all their lives to varying degrees. Our final survivor story when we were listening to these tales, you heard echoes of stories people told on 9 11. They had no bodies to bury. The massive burns people sustained innocent people going about their daily lives and this enormous powers unleashed on them. You met one survivor whose family had victims in both events. Truman mr. Ito lost his older brother hiroshima. He survived the initial blast and came home and died some days later. Years went by and then he lost his oldest son at the World Trade Center. He was working in new york. In the towers when they were attacked. I dont know what you would call him, except he had to import tragedy twice endure tragedy twice. Innocent victims prior nobodies to bury fire, no bodies to bury. Mr. Ito telling his story. [speaking japanese] translator i have experienced two tragedies. My older brother dying and then later, my older son was killed at the World Trade Center on september 11, 2001. [speaking japanese] translator it is extremely sad. I do accept what actually happened. My only i was in grade school the. Nhe was recovering and gradually came back to normal and was able to play outside. [speaking japanese] translator we were playing together and he became really well, appeared to be well and we were playing around. Putting straw hats on. When he removed the straw hat all we saw was all of his hair coming off, sticking to the inside of the straw hat. [speaking japanese] translator what my mother did instead, wiping so that he could get the moisture set of giving the water that was believed to be deadly. So that he could get the moisture, instead of giving the water that was believed to be deadly. One day, my older brother talk to me and asked as he told me he told me to take care of her mother and father our mother and father. Looking back now, it is hard to get at what he really meant that was his miwill. [speaking japanese] translator when he passed away september 10 that of that year [speaking japanese] translator the time the World Trade Center was attacked, the north tower was attacked, all of my the south tower. Followed by the south tower. When the airplane hit [speaking japanese] translator they cannot find his romance. His romemain. They put rubble in an urn. Those experiences, the things i got out of these experiences, we should get rid of hatred, animosity. [speaking japanese] translator when you think about how precious life is, there are lessons that will come. [speaking japanese] translator nuclear weapons, any weapons, any type of weapons, we have to make all efforts to avoid those weapons. [speaking japanese] translator whatever reason you may have or argument you may have, human beings should not hate each other. That was mr. Ito telling his family story of his brother his brother ultimately died. Truman his brother survived the initial bombing and began to recover and then died from radiation sickness. His son dying in the World Trade Center bombings. One family with two incredible tragedies in their generations. We have spent almost two hours with you on this trip that you took to hiroshima and nagasaki. You are still processing it. For people who went in with us today, what would you like them to take away from your motivations and what you learned . Truman it is important for people to reach out and if not put the past behind them, at least make peace with it. Its important to understand other people. You really dont know somebody until you have walked a mile in their shoes. You cannot know what other people are like until you talk to them. You find you have a lot in common. Mr. Ito helped me he really on that day was the essence of what this meant to me. At the end of that day, we were speaking on the day, august 6 the day of the 67th anniversary of the bombing. After his testimony and after we had all gone back, he invited me and my family to go with him to the river and light a lantern to his brother and his son. There were hundreds of thousands of other lanterns on the river. You like a lantern to the lost soul and send it down the river, symbolizing the letting go symbolizing all the people who took refuge in that river. He invited me to light that lantern with him to his brother and his son and send it off together. That summarizes what i had hoped to get out of this journey. Any controversy within your family about you taking this trip . Truman no. No. In fact, i think my eldest brother would probably like to go to japan someday. I would like to go back to do the archives with the research for the book and talk with those people without so much of the hullabaloo surrounding it. To get to know hiroshima and nag asaki. Do you think you could go back without much attention in the future . Truman if i sneak in, yes. The initial thing was newsworthy. It will be much quieter next time. What about press coverage at home . Truman i dont know the u. S. Media picked up the stories and ran them in the states. The coverage was nice and good and fair. I have not had requests for interviews since ive been back. There has been a little ive read some of the stories in the Comment Section underneath there has been sniping, but not a lot. It has been nice. You have children you were taught this in school. They are our History Lessons in this country truman we can always do better. I dont know that the japanese history books treat it appropriately, either. There is still polarization on this. Whether it was the right thing to do or the moral thing to do. As i said in the clips, people will talk about that and should talk about it. At the same time, having done what we felt we had to do to end a bloody war that had claimed millions of lives, we can still reach out to those affected by that war, still feel for them and still do our best to help them and help this never happen again. Based on your experience there, would you go about writing the survivors stories will you ask different questions . Truman yes. Does this was the first visit we did not talk much about feelings. Whether they thought it was right or wrong. Because this was the first visit. I was asked the same about americans who served in the war. I have held their hand you really have to do both. War is war. There was suffering on both sides. If you now have the opportunity to have a conversation with your grandfather, are there any questions would you like to be able to ask him . Truman going over the whole thing with him, to sit down tell me, from the beginning, what were you thinking . You pick this up as a grandchild i have a little added dimension that i pick up from family lore. Otherwise, i pick it up like any other student. I have to read transcripts. We look at the videos he did. I read his memoirs. You really get it piecemeal. I would love to sit down in his den and say go, tell me what you were thinking. Why did you do it . What did you think . What archival records do exist . Truman we have his memoirs, the Truman Library has the closest thing to an order to drop the bombs. A signed note saying release when ready. Does not even call the bombs by name what they were. There are those. I found the letters recently in the late 1950s, grandpa told Television Interviewer that he had no problem using the weapons and he would do it again given the same circumstances. That prompted a formal protest from the hero shema city council who sent him a letter saying please take that back. He wrote them back saying thank you very and understand completely how you feel, however , let me remind you of something and he proceeded to set out how the war had been started, why he felt he did what he had to do