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As Japan Marks Atomic Bomb Anniversaries, Postwar Military Taboos Break Amid Threats from China, North Korea
Content TypePackage
LanguageEnglish
Transcript/Script((PLAYBOOK SLUG: Japan Hiroshima China Defense (TV)
HEADLINE: As Japan Marks Atomic Bomb Anniversaries, Postwar Military Taboos Break Amid Threats from China, North Korea
TEASER: Tokyo plans to double defense spending by 2027, acquire strike capabilities on enemy bases
PUBLISHED AT: Monday, 08/07/2023 at 06:56 EDT
BYLINE: Henry Ridgwell
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Hiroshima, Japan
VIDEOGRAPHER: Henry Ridgwell
VIDEO EDITOR: Marcus Harton
SCRIPT EDITORS: pcd
VIDEO SOURCES: VOA, Reuters, APTN, AFP
PLATFORMS: WEB _X_ TV _X_ RADIO _x_
TRT: 3:38
VID APPROVED BY: pcd
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES:))
((INTRO))
[[Japan is this week marking the anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, which killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and brought an end to World War II. Japan’s postwar constitution curtailed its armed forces and renounced war as a right of the nation. But as Henry Ridgwell reports from Hiroshima, growing threats from neighboring China and North Korea have a prompted a radical change of course.]]
((NARRATOR))
In Japan they are known as ‘hibakusha’ – survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Among them is 83-year-old Sueichi Kido.
[[FOR RADIO: He says he looked up when he heard the sound of an airplane. At that moment he saw a flash of light, heard a loud boom and was thrown about 20 meters. He says his mother had burns to her face and chest and half of his face was burnt.]]
((Sueichi Kido, Survivor of Nagasaki Atomic Bombing (in Japanese) ))
“I heard the sound of an airplane. At the moment when I looked up in that direction, I was bathed in a flash of light, and with a boom, I was thrown about 20 meters away and passed out. My mother had burns to her face and chest. Half of my face was burnt.”
((NARRATOR))
An estimated 215-thousand people died in the immediate aftermath of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. Tens of thousands more died in the following months and years from radiation sickness.
Along with several other hibakusha from his home district – and thousands of delegates from across the world - Kido travelled to Hiroshima August 6 to mark the anniversary – to spread the message of peace.
[[FOR RADIO: Kido says everyone is now in danger of becoming a hibakusha. With Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, he says, that danger is more present than ever.
((Sueichi Kido, Survivor of Nagasaki Atomic Bombing (in Japanese) ))
“Every citizen in the world is now in danger of becoming a hibakusha. With Putin's invasion of Ukraine, that danger is more present than ever.”
((NARRATOR))
Japan’s defeat in 1945 saw its armed forces curtailed. Its post-war constitution still renounces war as a right of the nation. But Japan is changing.
((Henry Ridgwell, VOA News))
((NARRATOR))
The voices calling for disarmament are competing with the reality of an increasingly tense and militarized Indo-Pacific region.
North Korea has launched dozens of missiles into the Japan Sea in recent months.
And China’s military actions around Taiwan and the South China Sea are seen as a direct threat to Japan.
[[FOR RADIO: Tetsuo Kotani is with the Japan Institute of International Affairs.]]
((Tetsuo Kotani, Japan Institute of International Affairs (in English) ))
“There's a huge gap between Japan and China in terms of defense capabilities. So now the Japanese political leadership recognize that we have to fill this gap and the Japanese general public, you know, they are also supporting the Japanese political leadership because the Japanese people witnessed what happened to Ukraine.”
((NARRATOR))
Japan aims to double defense spending by 2027 and acquire strike capabilities against foreign bases – for decades a red line.
((OPT OUT))
Public attitudes to nuclear weapons are also evolving.
[[FOR RADIO: Kotani again.]]
((Tetsuo Kotani, Japan Institute of International Affairs (in English) ))
“The Japanese general public recognizes that we have to rely on the U.S. nuclear umbrella.”
((NARRATOR))
For many hibakusha these are disturbing times.
[[FOR RADIO: For many hibakusha like Kido, these are disturbing times. He says he is worried, that the most important thing to understand is that disagreements between countries are not something that can be resolved by force.]]
((Sueichi Kido, Survivor of Nagasaki Atomic Bombing (in Japanese) ))
“I'm worried. The most important thing to understand is this: disagreement between the countries of the world is not something that can be resolved by force.”
((NARRATOR))
Japan is entering a new era – discarding its postwar aversion to a powerful military.
The number of atomic bomb survivors is dwindling. Their lasting hope is that the lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will not be forgotten.
((OPT IN))
((Henry Ridgwell for VOA News, Hiroshima, Japan.))
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