On August 6, 1945, the A-bomb was dropped for the first time in an act of war on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
It was one of the final and most famous acts of World War II following Japan’s refusal to surrender in the face of overwhelming odds and enormous civilian casualties.
Eighty years later only a few Japanese civilian survivors remain. On Foreign Correspondent North Asia correspondent James Oaten meets the people who still have clear memories of those final months of World War II. Some survived the firebombing of Tokyo, others remember the US invasion of Okinawa where another 150,000 civilians perished. And some are the last living survivors of Hiroshima.
These last survivors are angry Japan, even today, still refuses to accept responsibility for the needless harm it caused its own people by not surrendering sooner. They know their time is running out and they want their country to confront its past before it's too late.
0:00 Hiroshima and the last surviving legacy of WW2 in Japan.
3:32 Meet Yoshikazu Hamada, survivor Tokyo’s Firebombing
6:12 Artist Nobuaki Muraoka depicts his memories of the Firebombing
7:18 Mordecai Sheftall, Scholar, on the intent of the bombing and its legacy
8:33 All that remains of the old wooden Tokyo
9:42 Nobuaki Muraoka’s wish for the future
10:30 The efforts to drive Japan to surrender and the invasion of Okinawa
13:35 Kohsei Kyan, Okinawan, on the suffering his family experienced
16:00 Takamatsu Gushiken and the hidden caves of Okinawa where families are still lost
20:02 Japan’s will to never surrender, and what came next
21:21 Keiko Ogura, Hiroshima survivor, on the bombing and its horrors
23:07 Nagasaki, and the division over surrendering to the Allies
25:48 The fading memory of the war in Japan
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About Foreign Correspondent:
Foreign Correspondent is the prime-time international public affairs program on Australia's national broadcaster, ABC-TV. We produce half-hour duration in-depth reports for broadcast across the ABC's television channels and digital platforms. Since 1992, our teams have journeyed to more than 170 countries to report on conflict, natural disasters and social and political upheaval – through the eyes of the people at the heart of it all.
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