The institute was born in the midst of the controversy around the in only gay enola gay exhibit which was going to be held at the Smithsonian Institution but got canceled. This was an attempt by the smithsonian to do an honest and balanced exhibit about the decision to drop the bomb and the consequence of the atomic bombing. This was in 1995, the 50th anniversary. The smithsonian a civic got canceled. Exhibit got canceled. The museum in hiroshima and nagasaki asked to bring some of those artifacts to American University and do an exhibit here on the 50th anniversary. That was the first time the hiroshimanagasaki abomb museum did an exhibit outside japan. They have been doing it ever since. This is the 20th anniversary of our exhibit and the 70th anniversary of the actual bombing. We decided to do it again at American University. We combined artifacts from hiroshima and nagasaki with 15 fabulous hiroshima panels. These can be compared to picassos guernica, or the rape of the sabine women, or other classic paintings of that sort. We put that together with drawings from hiroshima that i am pretty sure is the most elaborate exhibit of the atomic bombings ever held in the United States. It is overwhelming. I cannot tell you how many people have written to me who have seen it. This is a young girl parachute looks dazed. There is blood on her face. She has got such a look in your eyes. Gaze. For loan, distant like summoning of the other people, she did not know what happened to her. She did not know what had occurred. So many the people who lived for the bombing said they were sure the bomb had landed on their house. They figure that is what it happened. They went outside and they saw that all of hiroshima or all of nagasaki was ablaze, and the fires are coming toward them to you see one of the panels called fire. What it was like for the survivors engulfed in flames. This, we have got a crucifix. There are a lot of crucifixes that are considered to be symbolic, especially in nagasaki bombause in nagasaki, the missed the original target by two miles and landed above the cathedral. Nagasaki had not been bombed before this, a small bombing in 1994, but it had been preserved in 1944, along with hiroshima , because the americans wanted to have a pristine target to show the effects of the atomic bomb. Thought theyasaki had not been bomb because it was a christian capital of japan and the christian capital of east asia. They were in for a big surprise. The bomb dropped right above the cathedral. The biggest cathedral in east asia. We there is a crucifix see the stopwatch there. The pocket watch showing 8 15. That is a very popular image. The bomb dropped at 8 15 on hiroshima. Clocks stopped. Indr it dropped at 11 02 nagasaki. When a when we did our first exhibit in 1995, many of them were the original artifacts. Some of them were so fragile that the museum had decided not to let them outside of japan. For that reason, some of these we have got the replicas instead of the originals. But almost everything is the original artifacts. Here are thegot famous mushroom clouds. 1945. Ust 6, and nagasaki on august 9, 1945. The description for them, especially from those on the plane was let it was like a pillar of flames shot up into the air. From thept expanding top of the column, the pillar you see these additional burst that keep going up. 40,000 feet into the sky. An enormous. The crew of the enola gay said that they could see the cloud from four hours away. You could still see the cloud looking back, it was so high. There was a lot of radioactive debris swept up in the cloud. Some came down as black rain. Here, we see the view of hiroshima city. They thought the pilots would be able to see the bridge clearly from the sky. The bomb drifted and missed the target and landed over here above the hospital. This is the most famous symbol, the Old Industrial prefecture building now called the atomic bomb dome. There was debate about whether to preserve it. This has all been built up. This part here and here have been preserved. You can see everything is devastated. Almost two miles in each direction was totally destroyed. Two miles away, you would be badly burned. Your house could have been destroyed. This was by modern standards a tiny, primitive little bomb. It could have been 16 kilotons. The bomb that dropped on nagasaki was 20 kilotons. Weve developed bombs that are so much bigger, by 1954, project sundial with plans for bombs 700,000 times as powerful as the nagasaki bomb. This bomb was a little bit bigger, but the casualties were smaller. Nagasaki was surrounded by this mountains on both sides. The effect of bomb was contained by the mounds. By the mountains. Nagasaki was in the valley. The hiroshima bomb, 200,000 dead by 1950. The estimates for nagasaki are 70,000 dead by the end of 1945, 140,000 dead by 1950. They were different kinds of bombs. Here, weve got some of the more human artifacts, in a way. Youve got the shoe of a young student, 13yearold boy who was killed in the bombing. Youve got the hat of a Junior High School student who was killed. You have the water bottle of a young boy, 13yearold who was killed by the bomb. Here, weve got one of the replicas. A replica of the lunchbox from a 12yearold girl who totally disappeared. No trace ever found upper. Of her. Inside, carbonized rice and tea. Back in 1995, if they wanted to cancel the big enola gay visit, we suggested two artifacts. The enola gay and this lunchbox. That was the last thing they wanted to display. They wanted artifacts about the victims, photographs of the victims, statements by American Military leaders. They want that controversy. Here was a more historical panel. I would like a whole examined about the context about the decision to drop the bomb. A whole exhibit about the context. This has the Important Information about the manhattan project. They started to build the bomb in case the germans built the bomb. We built the bomb as a deterrent against germany. They did not anticipate it might be used against japan. This is a survey of the bombing targets. These are potential targets. The United States had been firebombing japanese cities since march 10 when we firebombed tokyo. Three quarters of our bombs were incendiary. We bombed over 100 japanese cities. We ran out of important major cities to bomb the destruction reached 99. 5 of the city some of the american leaders were appalled. Another top general described this as one of the most ruthless and barbaric killing of noncombatants in history. This is about the decision to drop the bomb. The reasons for using the bomb. The official narratives has states drop the bomb to expedite the end of the war without having to an American Invasion would cost a half million lives. The number keeps going up. There is no record of that anywhere. That is the official narrative. We dropped the bomb to avoid an invasion. There is no truth to that. Little truth to that in terms of trumans mind. The japanese from the battle of saipan onward new they cannot win. They hoped to get one more victory for better surrender terms. The big obstacle was the emperor. They wanted to make sure they can keep that for a. Keep the emperoro. Across the southwest, Pacific Command issued a report in 1945 that says the hanging of the emperor to them would be like the crucifixion of christ to us. All would fight to die. Almost every advisor of truman urged him to change the surrender terms. That was in americas interest. America planned all along to keep the emperor, but we refused to single we were calling for unconditional surrender. What else would end the war . At yalta, roosevelt finally got a promise from stalin that three months after the end of the war in europe, a big massive red army was going to come to the work against japan. Truman met with churchill and stalin to make sure the soviets were coming in. He got agreement from the soviets the first day of the conference. Stalin will be in the japanese war by august 15. He writes home to his wife the next and says the russians are coming in, the war will end a year sooner. Think of all the boys who wont be killed. He says the japanese are trying to surrender. He describes the intercepted telegram as the telegram from the japanese emperor asking for peace. They all knew the japanese were finished. American intelligence reported repeatedly that the entry of the soviet union into the war will convince all japanese that complete defeat is inevitable. The question is, why truman who is not bloodthirsty that she did not take pleasure in killing people. Why would he use the atomic bomb knowing they were not militarily necessary . What we assume mass historians is that a big part of his motivation was that he was sending a message to the soviets. If the soviets interfered with american plans in europe or in asia, this is the fate they would get. The soviets interpreted it that way. Suddenly, the day of judgment was tomorrow. It has been ever since. That is the reality we were confronted with. Thats what makes the atomic bombing so important. Not just hundreds of thousands of innocent women and children were killed. The fact that the human species has this hanging over our has ever since. We still have 16,000 Nuclear Weapons in the world. Weve had this conflict with the russians over ukraine. U. S. And russia still have thousands of Nuclear Weapons pointed at each other. We are not playing games here. That is still real, which is why we wanted to do this exhibit. There were apparently several people carrying cameras in hiroshima on august 6. Only one is known to have taken photos. He was a photographer with hiroshimas newspaper. He had enough film to take my four photos. To take 24 photos. It was too horrible. 24 photos. He ended up taking seven photos and developed five of them. He was very respectful. He did not want to show horrible burns or horrible suffering. He shows people at the relief stations. You can see the fire in the background, destruction of work. This was 1. 5 miles from the hypo center. He says it was like walking through hell. He could not take photos. It was too horrific and too intrusive on peoples privacy and suffering. There were no medical supplies. The hospitals were destroyed, the nurses were killed. What you see here are people in these relief stations there was no medicine, nothing to treat them. They put oil on the burns. People were putting maggots on the wounds. A photo from nagasaki, people lying on mattresses. A woman breastfeeding her baby. Women carrying around that babies on their backs. You have images of charred corpses. People who were near the hypo center, their internal organs boiled away and they quickly turned into charcoal and became carbonized. You see the bodies, about the clothes burned off the bodies. People with kimonos had patterns burned into their skin. He was sitting there one friend speaks to our group. He survived, obviously. He writes down the names of all of his family members and how far they were. Not a single one was injured or burned by the bomb one by one, he crosses them out. Over the next couple weeks, one by one would die from radiation poisoning. You would get these purple spots all over your body, terrible diarrhea, your hair would start to fall out. I know of cases in which family members or friends came into hiroshima looking for relatives or friends and within several days after, they would die of radiation sickness. Some experts say the effects of radiation were going quickly. Theres a lot of evidence to suggest that was not the case. This is the hospital. The hospital where the bomb detonated. This is the Elementary School in nagasaki. Almost all the teachers and students were killed. I take my students now every year on the morning of august 9, go to a private ceremony at the Elementary School. All the children who now attend the Elementary School come there and have this special peace commemoration ceremony with this school filled with Elementary School students. You realize thats who the victims of the atomic bomb more. After the war, congregants of all souls church, unitarian church, sent art supplies to students at an Elementary School in nagasaki. Students used the art supplies at a time when they were very there were very little supplies of any sort. You see so many reports of students living as orphans without shelter. They had makeshift shelters. Just getting our supplies was a huge thing for these kids. In gratitude, they sent back drawings and paintings to the congregation. These were lost for a long time and then rediscovered. Now, the members of the church who went back to hiroshima recently and met with some of the kids there is a nice documentary about this. [speaking japanese] i thought it would add a nice touch to the exhibit. A human side and a different light of americans who reached out to the people of hiroshima and the gratitude on the part of the children who received those gifts. The famous japanese artists who came into the city of hiroshima three days after the atomic bombing, saw the horrors and decided to do a series of panels. The first one was called ghosts. What it shows is the image of hiroshima afterwards. People who experienced it said they felt as though they were walking through hell. Fires everywhere, people naked, walking with their arms held in front of them to lessen the pain. Skin hanging down, peoples clothes burned off. This procession of naked people. You could not tell men from women as they were walking. You see the shock, the horror, the suffering in hiroshima after the bombings. The second panel we have here is called fire. It shows the reality was the fire was everywhere, spreading rapidly. People tried to escape the fire. Escaping the fire, they would have to leave others behind. They would have to ignore cries for help from people trapped under beams and in houses. People who were injured, in order to escape that so many tragic stories of children leaving their parents behind or parents leaving their children behind when flames were encroaching. The folks at the gallery tell me i can choose any six of the 15 panels i want. I decided i wanted to complicate the narrative. Not just portray the japanese as victims of the atomic bomb, but put in a different context that theres a possibility for them to be victims and victimizers at the same time. I wanted to panels to show that. The first one here is called crows. There were 300,000 citizens, 43,000 japanese soldiers, 45,000 korean slave laborers. They were badly treated by the japanese. They were discriminated against in japan and also discriminated against during the time of the atomic bombing. They got no medical treatment, no aid at all. Many of them died in the streets. This one is called crows. It shows crows plucking out the eyeballs of the dead korean victims here. It is very controversial inside japan, still. Shinzo abe and his administration is doing everything they can to cover up the history of japanese atrocities toward the koreans. Rape of nanging. I want to show that part of it, too. I wanted to complicate it further. This was about the american pows. There were 23 of them in the bombing. Many of them survived, only to be beaten to death by enraged japanese citizens. They depicted several women among the american pows. There were no women there. It is baffling why they chose to do so. We see the progression in the thinking of them. In the beginning, they focused on japanese victims. Then, their consciousness began expanding. They start to show the japanese as also victimizers. They have one panel on the rape of nanjing, one on auschwitz. They are trying to make this a broader human story. This one is titled floating lantern. We participate in the evening of august 6 in the floating lantern ceremony. So many of the people jumped in the river to try to escape the flames or cool their bodies that have been badly burned. Many of them died. These descriptions of the river that night, a sea of floating corpses. What people did to commemorate, they hold the lantern ceremony every year. It is no longer restricted to the families of the victims. You make a paper lantern, put a candle inside and on the lantern, you write a message and you go down and take your turn and put your floating lantern into the water. It is very beautiful at night. When i went, yoyo ma was playing. This is a depiction of the lanterns floating in the river. . Next American History tv, historian james aokes. Lincoln prize winning author of numerous books about slavery, discusses the evolution of president lincolns antislavery politics. Professor oakes describes the abolitionist movements and how they help transform the politically cautious lincoln into an emancipator and how lincoln influenced the abolitionists. This program was hosted by the Lincoln Group of the district of columbia. [applause]