Okinawa, Mon Amour

“Hiroshima Mon Amour” (1959) is a terrific film by Alain Resnais, the French filmmaker who was well known for his documentary filmmaking skills. The film came out in 1959 at a time when military planes were carrying nuclear payload 24 hours a day, seven days a week. After I watched this movie I began to think just how much horror there must have been when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on innocent civilians living in the peaceful city of Hiroshima, Japan. Imagine what actually happened. The United States wanted to stop the Japanese military and end the war in the Pacific. So why did they decide to drop an atomic bomb on innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the war? Why did innocent civilians need to die from an atomic bomb blast? How much of a threat were the people of Hiroshima to the people of the United States of America? Why wasn’t an obvious military target chosen for the atomic bomb? How could innocent Japanese civilians have become the target of an atomic bomb dropped by the United States Air Force? Obviously the decision to drop the bomb was made in the absence of any sense of brotherhood. It was a decision that was tainted by racism and a mindset that the people of Hiroshima are not one of ours and who the hell cares what happens to them.

 Some statistics about the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima:

1. By the end of 1945, 140,000 people died as a direct result of the bomb blast. From 1946 to 1951, another 60,000 people succumbed to the effects of radiation.

2. The wind velocity generated by the explosion was up to 980 miles per hour. The pressure was 3.5 kg per square centimeter, which is equivalent to 8,600 pounds per square foot.

3. The temperature on the ground at the center of the blast was 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit. With the combination of the heat and pressure generated from the blast, the silhouette of a man sitting on the steps of one of the buildings at the center of the blast was scorched onto the surrounding cement. This person was just sitting there enjoying his day when suddenly a decision made by the President of the United States, a civilian, lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of Japanese civilians.

What’s even more disturbing is to think that if the United States had been able to develop the bomb earlier, it may well have dropped it on Okinawa. If you consider the fact that Okinawa is relatively far away from mainland Japan and that the Japanese Imperial Army were dug into positions all over the island, you realize that these facts would have made Okinawa the perfect place to drop an atomic bomb. The island of Okinawa is isolated and relatively small. If the bomb had been ready to go in April, May or June of 1945, Okinawa could easily have been the target of America’s A-Bomb program. Still, even without the atomic bomb, many tens of thousands of civilians on Okinawa perished during the three months of fighting that took place between April and June 1945 on Okinawa. Okinawa, mon amour, you should consider yourself very lucky that you avoided an American atomic attack.

This August when the Olympic Games begin in Beijing, China, just remember that not far away, an atomic bomb had once been dropped on innocent civilians who were just going about their daily lives on a hot August day when the unthinkable happened. It is a truly sad thought to know that a horrible reality befell mankind, one which must never be forgotten, lest it happen again.