Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan.
This week we are remembering the first and only time that nuclear weapons were used during warfare. It's been 70 years since an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
But how do you explain the impact to people who are generations removed from the carnage? Here's an animation about achance encounter in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial where a 87-year-old survivor hopes that his memory will live on after he dies. It's also about friendship, respect and passing the baton of memory.
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About 70,000 people were killed instantly in Hiroshima. Another 35,000 people were injured in the initial blast and 60,000 would die in the following year from radiation sickness and other causes associated with the bomb. The bombing of Hiroshima, followed three days later by a second bombing on the city of Nagasaki, were major contributing factors to the end of World War II. With an aging population of people that survived or experienced the bombing first-hand, we are focusing our attention on how the story is told 70 years later. And, who is listening.
Reporter Patrick Cox traveled to Japan to look at the country on the 70th anniversary. He did the same thing on the 60th anniversary. You can find more of our special coverage here: Hiroshima Generations: The memory passed on.
In part II of our series on Hiroshima, we meet bombing survivor Sueko Hada. The US attack on Hiroshima wiped out Hada's family, leaving her orphaned at age 7. Now her granddaughter is married to an American and raising their two children in Colorado. This animation explores that internal struggle within Hada.
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For part III of our Hiroshima series, Patrick Cox took a trip to an island where Hiroshima victims were evacuated and buried. He traveled there was a young reporter who 10 years ago was assigned to cover the exhuming of remains from a mass grave there. The island leaves a deep impression on her. In this animation see how she comes to terms with what she saw.
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