We use cookies on this website. By continuing to use this site without changing your cookie settings, you agree that you are happy to accept our privacy policy and for us to access our cookies on your device.
Transcript/Script ((TITLE: TV HIROSHIMA STATUE NYC – Maslov
HEAD: Hiroshima Statue That Survived Nuclear Explosion Stands in Manhattan
TEASER:
PUBLISHED AT: 03/21/2024 at 10:30am
BYLINE: Evgeny Maslov
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: New York
VIDEOGRAPHER: Max Avloshenko
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA Original
SCRIPT EDITORS: KEnochs; Bill Ide
PLATFORMS: TV only
TRT: 2:03
VID APPROVED BY: KE
TYPE: TVPKG
UPDATE: ))
((INTRO:))
[[Following the Hollywood success of Christopher Nolan’s biopic of Robert Oppenheimer, a more obscure but no less interesting memory from the atomic age can be found in Manhattan, not too far from one of Oppenheimer’s boyhood homes. Evgeny Maslov has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.]]
((NARRATION))
((Mandatory courtesy: Library of Congress))
Robert Oppenheimer, the Father of the Atomic Bomb as he is often
((End courtesy))
called, was born and raised in Manhattan, and lived for a time in New York City, at 155 Riverside Drive.
It is also here in Manhattan that a unique witness to the fiery end of WWII – a statue from Hiroshima that saw the nuclear explosion – now stands.
((Rev. Kurt Rye, New York Buddhist Church))
“The statue was facing the blast, and you can see the discoloration on the bottom here that was from the blast itself.”
((NARRATION)) ((Statue from different angles))
The statue of Shinran Shonin, a Japanese Buddhist monk, was just about 2 and a half kilometers away from the epicenter of the nuclear blast in Hiroshima.
((Mandatory courtesy: New York Buddhist Church))
Moved to New York in the 1950s, it now stands as a symbol of
((End courtesy))
world peace.
((Rev. Kurt Rye, New York Buddhist Church))
“In the late 1940s, when they started forming the United Nations, Japan wanted to have a peace offering. And people in Hiroshima thought it would be very spiritual and meaningful to send a statue to the UN; that was its original purpose. // For logistic reasons the UN could not utilize the statue, so the New York Buddhist Church accepted it.”
((NARRATION)) ((Church from the street and inside, NYC streets))
Another coincidence places the New York Buddhist Church on Riverside Drive – on the same street Oppenheimer lived on.
((Rev. Kurt Rye, New York Buddhist Church))
“In New York, we’ve gotten a lot of interest in this statue because of the release of the movie. And I think it’s very poignant, it’s a counterbalance… Areas that have trauma, there’s solidarity with people coming and experiencing the statue.”
((NATS)) ((Church service))
((NARRATION))
Rye adds that there’s a certain symbolism in the closeness of the boyhood home of the father of the bomb, and one reminder of its deadly impact just blocks away.
((For Evgeny Maslov in New York, Anna Rice, VOA News))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
