FULL VERSION OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI FILM THEY DIDN’T WANT US TO SEE 34962,
(this is not the same as the film discussed below)
Memos found from man who shot Hiroshima ‘phantom film’, Asahi Shimbun , By GEN OKAMOTO/ Staff Writer, July 23, 2017 SAGAMIHARA, Kanagawa Prefecture--Memos written by a photographer who documented the damage inflicted on Hiroshima after the atomic bombing and his personal feelings have been discovered by his grandson and will be displayed in Tokyo next month.
Kiyoji Suzuki took the notes with sketches when a documentary team, in which he was a member, roamed the flattened city between September and October 1945.
The documentary, “Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” was undertaken by a Japanese film company to scientifically record the extent of the damage done to both cities, including footage of destroyed cityscapes, injured people and the existence of vegetation.
The shooting of Nagasaki ran into difficulties as the U.S. military meddled in the project. But the crew managed to continue with their work after being commissioned by the U.S. military.
Although the documentary was completed in 1946, the U.S. military confiscated the film and didn’t return it to Japan until 1967. The footage became known as the “phantom film” on the atomic bombings.
Hiroshi Nose, also a photographer who lives in Sagamihara, found his grandfather’s memos at his home in 2013.
Suzuki’s entries began on Sept. 18, 1945, when he was living in Tokyo and assigned to the film project in Hiroshima.
His memos show sketches of a “shadow” of a person or object etched on a nearby building by the bomb’s thermal flash and of a deformed leaf of a plant.
Suzuki also mentioned which lenses he used for filming and the weather that day.
Although many of the memos concern objective data, others appeared to reveal his personal feelings in the midst of the devastation…….
Nose completed a 28-minute documentary film last fall, titled “Hiroshima Bomb, Illusive Photography Memos,” after visiting places in Hiroshima that were associated with Suzuki’s memos.
The documentary compared footage of Hiroshima today and that of the city 72 years ago shot by his grandfather.
The Earth Focus Environmental Film Festival kicks off July 27 and will play five other environmental films on July 29. Los Angeles’ first film festival focused on environmental issues is set to launch in July, with Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Sequel serving as its opening-night film.
KCETLink Media Group, the national independent broadcast and digital media network, will launch the Earth Focus Environmental Film Festival through its two services, KCET public television in Los Angeles and independent satellite network Link TV nationwide.
The organizers are partnering closely on the event with the Washington-based Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (DCEFF), which for over 25 years has been the world’s premier showcase of environmentally themed films.
The Paramount and Participant Media film An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, which first debuted at Sundance, will open the fest with a screening at Paramount’s Sherry Lansing Theatre on July 27. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk.
The festival will take place on Sat., July 29, from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre. The free event, which is open to the public, will feature five additional films tackling the most important and relevant global environmental issues today. Celebrity environmental activists including Raphael Sbarge (Once Upon a Time, Murder in the First, Longmire), Ed Begley Jr. (Ghostbusters, St. Elsewhere, Pineapple Express), Patrick Fabian (Better Call Saul) and Sharon Lawrence (Shameless, Solace, NYPD Blue) will introduce each film that will be followed by post-screening dialogues with the filmmakers. Free general admission tickets are available here.
“With our commitment to bringing environmental conservation issues to the forefront for audiences on multiple platforms through our EARTH FOCUS franchise, we are proud to offer a free festival as a resource for enlightenment and education through powerful storytelling,” said Michael Riley, president and CEO of KCETLink Media Group. “In partnership with DCEFF, we’ve been able to curate the finest films that cover a range of issues impacting the environment today. We hope these films can encourage our community here in Southern California to play a part in helping save our planet for tomorrow.”
Al Gore: The Green Revolution Is ‘Unstoppable’,Despite a tough political climate, the environmental activist is still optimistic. National Geographic Magazine By Brian Clark Howard, 25 June 17, With his 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, former U.S. vice president Al Gore drew public attention to the threat of climate change. This July, An Inconvenient Sequel opens in theaters. Gore, 69, says the stakes are higher now but the solutions are clearer.
What do you think the public misunderstands about climate change?
I think the overwhelming majority of the public understands very well that climate change is an extremely important challenge, that human beings are responsible for it, and that we need to act quickly and decisively to solve it. The most persuasive arguments have come from Mother Nature. Climate-related extreme weather events are now so numerous and severe that it’s hard to dismiss what’s happening. But even those who don’t want to use the words “global warming” or “climate crisis” are finding other ways to say, “Yes, we’ve got to move on solar, wind, batteries, electric cars, and so on.” We have so much at risk…….
What is your goal with the new film, An Inconvenient Sequel?
My main goal is to add to the momentum. One hundred percent of the profits I would otherwise get from the movie, and book we’re doing, will go into training more climate activists. That was true with the first movie as well…….
What scares you most about the future?
While we are winning, we are not yet winning fast enough. The continued accumulation of manmade global warming pollution in the atmosphere adds to the damage that we will pass on to the future. Some of the changes are not recoverable. We can’t just turn a switch and reverse the melting of big ice sheets.
What gives you hope for the future?
There are so many people working around the world on this that I am extremely optimistic. It would certainly be helpful to have policies and laws that speed up our response. But market forces are working in our favor. Solar, wind, and other technologies are getting cheaper and better. More cities and companies are pledging to go 100 percent renewable. I believe the sustainability revolution is unstoppable. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/07/3-questions-al-gore-climate-change/
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and my third movie. I am a lawyer based in Tokyo. I have spoken out regarding the dangers of nuclear power and taken legal action together with other lawyers and citizens’ groups to halt the use of nuclear power throughout Japan for some twenty years now.
I have stepped up my efforts since the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and in an effort to inform the public (in Japan and elsewhere) with regard to issues around the use of nuclear power, I have made three movies. The first, “Nuclear Japan: Has Nuclear Power Brought Us Happiness?” provided a detailed description of Japan’s nuclear village and of the accident at Fukushima. The second “Nuclear Japan: The Nightmare Continues” focused on the accident at Fukushima and the lives of those affected by it some four years later. These movies were widely viewed by the Japanese public and used as a reference in a number of district court cases.
Many of the individuals who watched these first two movies came to understand the danger and expense of nuclear power but they often asked me “In the absence of nuclear power, will we be able to satisfy our need for electricity?” I set out to understand and address this concern by traveling extensively to study how pioneering individuals, communities and companies are meeting their energy needs in Japan and around the world. I traveled with Mr. Tetsunari Iida, a renewable energy expert, and our travels provide the footage for my third movie entitled “Renewable Japan, The Search for a New Energy Paradigm.”
I was truly surprised and impressed by what I found, by the quality and scale of the energy revolution that is underway. And much of this is little known in Japan where nuclear reactors are being re-booted and nuclear technology is being promoted and outsourced. But there is a movement here in Japan too, and a tangible sense of hope in many outlying areas. So, while the Japanese government is becoming increasingly isolated in their approach to energy, I believe that the revolution within and beyond our borders will win out in the end.
For those who are interested,
If you are interested in showing “Renewable Japan – The Search for a New Energy Paradigm” to a group of people, please make use of the following instructions in order to make use of a free online live video stream:
After reviewing the above information, we will then send you a Vimeo URL and password which will enable you to view the film for seven days ending on the day after you are scheduled to show the film.
Please note that it will not be possible to copy the film onto your computer and because it is an online live video stream we recommend that you check, in advance, to be sure that you will be able to successfully show the film to your group.
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The Nuclear RequiemBob Frye’s The Nuclear Requiem is now airing on PBS nationwide. WYCC has a broadcast scheduled for 8 p.m.on April 30th, with WTTW airing it on the same day at 6 p.m. Or watch online anytime at PBS. Check out the film’s website or Facebook page for more details.
Why would the one country to experience the destructive potential of nuclear power in wartime, the culture that gave the world ‘Godzilla,’ and has endured the meltdowns of three reactors in 2011 continue to embrace nuclear power?
As part of the Global Research News Hour’s commemoration of the sixth anniversary of the Fukushima Daichii nuclear catastrophe, we focus on the historical and political context of the disaster.
First up, we hear from Professor Peter Kuznickabout the early years after the War. He explains the role of Japan in America’s postwar geostrategy, and comments on the public relations campaign that convinced the population of the Asian country to stop worrying and love nuclear power.
Later, Canadian nuclear expert Gordon Edwards returns to the program to comment on Canada’s connections with the Japanese nuclear industry and on how the Fukushima disaster should have informed Canadian nuclear policy and regulations.
Finally, we hear from celebrated Kyoto-based anti-nuclear activist Aileen Mioko Smith about the evolution of the anti-nuclear movement within Japan.
We also hear from a short video produced by Fairewinds Energy Education (fairewinds.org) outlining the fallacy of nuclear power as a strategy for fighting climate change.
Peter Kuznick is Professor of History at American University in Washington D.C. And Director of that university’s Nuclear Studies Institute. . He is co-author with Akira Kimura of ‘Rethinking the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Japanese and American Perspectives’ (Horitsu Bunkasha, 2010), and co-author with Yuki Tanaka of ‘Genpatsu to hiroshima – genshiryoku heiwa riyo no shinso’ (Nuclear Power and Hiroshima: The Truth Behind the Peaceful Use of Nuclear Power (Iwanami, 2011).He also worked on ‘The Untold History of the United States’, a ten part Showtime documentary film series and book co-authored with Oliver Stone.
Gordon Edwards is co-founder and President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility. Recognized by Canadian Courts as a nuclear expert, he is recipient of the 2006 Nuclear Free Future Award and has also been awarded the Rosalie Bertell Lifetime Achievement Award as well as the YMCA Peacemaker medallion. He is based in Montreal.
Aileen Mioko Smith is Executive Director of Green Action, a Kyoto based non-governmental environmental organization dedicated to creating a nuclear-power free Japan. Since the 1980s she has been a leading figure in the resistance against nuclear power in Japan. She is recipient of the 2014 Nuclear Free Future Award.
Full Documentary Films – Children of Chernobyl – Discovery Channel Documentaries
It’s Been 30 Years And Chernobyl Is Still Having An Impact – Especially On The Children http://goodstuffbuzz.com/30-years-chernobyl/ [excellent photos] On that fateful day in April of 1986, many already knew what the future would hold. While nuclear power we being sold as the “safe” alternative to our addiction to fossil fuels, we had already dodged a bullet with Three Mile Island. In fact, a meltdown was a more frightening (and possible) prospect than an all out global exchange of bombs with our enemies.
These Are The Faces Of Chernobyl, Both Good
And Not So
Still, when it happened, when Russia finally had to come clean and explain what had happened at Chernobyl, the writing was all over the wall. Nuclear power would become a pariah. An entire industry and science would have to answer for what happened halfway across the planet, and watchful eyes would be set on the city surrounding the power plant. How would this accident affect the population, and what lessons could we learn about the release of so much radiation into the atmosphere?
Many Feel The Russian Government Has Abandoned Them
Part of the answer comes in a terrifying documentary – included here – called The Children of Chernobyl. Both literal and figurative, the film follows the decades since a main reactor went down and sent fatal fallout throughout the countryside. It addresses both the international concerns and the local lies. Even now, in a more open society, Russia is still secret about the consequences of the leak. This movie makes it clear about what really happened.
Especially, The Children
Particularly, The Children
The high levels of radiation had random effects on the people of Chernobyl as well as those in the outlying areas. Animals died. Land became barren. And in one of the most heartbreaking consequences, children were born with various genetic and biological aberrations. These “mutants” became an embarrassment for the government and their treatment will anger you. Thirty years ago, the world got as close to a full blown nuclear meltdown as we are likely to ever see. The aftermath continues to linger, and anger.
What would happen if a nuclear weapon was detonated in your nearest city? Find out with this online tool Telegraph Adam Boult17 DECEMBER 2016
If you feel your life is lacking a little in pointless anxiety this festive season, here’s a fun online tool that lets you find out how much damage would occur if a nuclear bomb exploded in your neighbourhood.
NUKEMAP was created by Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science at the Stevens Institute of Technology.It’s been around for a few years, but has gone viral in recent days after appearing in the Data Is Beautiful section of Reddit.
Simply type in the name of the city you want to virtually nuke, and select the size of explosion, from a 20 kiloton ‘Davy Crockett’ (the smallest nuclear weapon produced by the US) to the terrifying 100 megaton “Tsar Bomba”.
The map then displays colour-coded circles indicating fireball radius, radiation radius, air blast radius and thermal radiation radius.
He wrote, “My first international film to be made at a cost of 340 crore is NUCLEAR.” He further added that the film will be shot in America, China, Russia, Yemen and India with American, Chinese, Russian and Indian actors.”
Varma has mostly delved into real-life incidents in his films. Shifting his focus to the global concern of terrorism, the director has raised many questions about possible nuclear attacks. In a note, RGV said, “I have been an avid and voracious reader of both fiction and non-fiction but never in my life until now, have I come across a subject matter like NUCLEAR. Yes it’s going to be much more costlier than the most expensive film ever made in India and the reason for that is because the subject matter truly demands that it is filmed on a scale never before seen.”
Raising his concern about terrorism, RGV wrote, “The only thing which can be more terrifying than that is, if that explosion happens now in our times. It is because of this fear that America acted against Iraq. If an act based on mere suspicion that someone could be in possession of a nuclear bomb bring in so much of hate and divide between the countries of the world resulting in regime collapses, friendly countries becoming sworn enemies, rise of ISIS etc., then it’s obvious that an actual nuclear explosion in a big city like Mumbai can easily trigger WORLD WAR III and thus end the WORLD.”
Ram Gopal Varma will be starting Nuclear after he wraps up Sarkar 3 starring Amitabh Bachchan.
On Sunday October 30, 9 PM EST, Leonardo DiCaprio’s film Before The Flood will screen free online as well as on National Geographic. The film explores the causes and impacts of climate change, arguing for urgent action and a rapid transition off fossil fuels.
I was invited to contribute to Beforetheflood.com, debunking some of the most common myths about climate change. Here are my pages on Leonardo DiCaprio’s site:
The e-briefing is a great resource filled with interactive graphics, audio interviews, photographs and panoramics of the immediate aftermath of the atomic bombings and read the testimony of victims who survived. In addition, the e-briefing shows what international humanitarian law (IHL) has to say about nuclear weapons, and how the discussion on nuclear weapons has been reframed from one of deterrence theory and military strategy to one focused on the profound and long-lasting humanitarian consequences that the use of these weapons would have.
To read the e-briefing, head over to the ICRC website here.
From Issue #899 of International Review of the Red Cross: The human cost of nuclear weapons
Since their first use in 1945, the world has known about the catastrophic effects of nuclear weapons. Today, the urgency of the threat of these weapons has faded for many, and while the threat no longer seems as present, paradoxically we know more than ever before about the effects that even a limited nuclear war would have on the environment and the health of human beings. As long as nuclear weapons exist there remains a danger of intentional or accidental nuclear detonation, and we also know that there is a lack of capacity at the national and international levels to effectively respond to such a humanitarian catastrophe. This edition of the Review looks at nuclear weapons from the perspective of survivors, journalists, writers, lawyers, humanitarian practitioners and other experts, to examine the human cost.
You can download the complete issue here or read the articles online here.
After Revenant … Leonardo DiCaprio stars as eco-warrior in climate battle
Obama and the pope feature in documentary, Before the Flood, that hopes to influence presidential election, Guardian, Edward Helmore, 2 Oct 16, New York
He struggled through the frozen wastes of North America in his Oscar-winning performance in The Revenant. Now Leonardo DiCaprio is starring in a different role – taking his powerful new eco-documentary to the White House, in the hope it can help restart President Obama’s battle against global warming.
It’s an issue of importance to both men. Obama, who appears in the documentary,Before the Flood, is using the last days of his presidency to make environmental protection a central pillar of his legacy. Last month he created the world’s largest ecologically protected area when he expanded Papahānaumokuākea, a marine reserve in his native Hawaii, to encompass more than half a million square miles. He also gave “marine national monument” status to 4,913 sq miles off the New England coast.
Two years ago, DiCaprio – who has raised money for protecting tigers, orangutans and elephants – was designated a UN messenger of peace, with a special focus on climate change.
The White House screening of Before the Flood, which follows DiCaprio as he travels to parts of the world including Greenland, the Pacific islands, Sumatra and industrial regions of China, precedes a global release via National Geographic later this month. DiCaprio and the film’s director, Fisher Stevens, hope to use it in the run-up to next month’s US presidential and Senate elections. They plan to show the film on college campuses and across swing states, including Florida, where Senator Marco Rubio is up for re-election.
“Rubio is a climate change denier, and we want to get these deniers out of Congress, to make them understand the Paris [climate] accords are important and that we need to do more,” Stevens said. The film-makers claim 38 US senators accept money from the energy industry, in effect blocking the passage of environmental legislation.
“These people are not necessarily climate deniers. They’re just in the pockets of the energy industry, even though that’s at the expense of all of us,” said Fisher. “And [Republican presidential candidate] Donald Trump has said he’s going to try to kill the Paris accords if elected.”
Last month DiCaprio told the audience after the film’s world premiere at the Toronto international film festival: “We cannot afford, at this critical moment in time, to have leaders in office that do not believe in the modern science of climate change.”
Before the Flood’s release comes as statistics relating to the health of the planet worsen. Last week the Scripps Institution of Oceanography announced it was safe to conclude that global CO2 levels will not drop below 400 parts per million this year – “or ever again for the indefinite future”. The figure is seen as the point at which global warming becomes irreversible…….
Atomic weapons are just machines, as this harrowing new film demonstrates, and machines inevitably fail. Mother Jones, MICHAEL MECHANIC SEP. 11, 2016 It would be impossible to fully replicate the depth of dread and disbelief tha tCommand and Control—Eric Schlosser’s 2013 book chronicling the Air Force’s history of nuclear weapons mishaps—bestows on its readers. This is not to say thatthe haunting new documentary of the same name, co-written by Schlosser and director Robert Kenner (Food, Inc.), doesn’t pack a punch. While the film’s producers were forced to simplify and trim from the book’s deeper content, any viewer who has not read the original or who, like most Americans, pays little heed to our modern nuclear arsenal, is due for a fine scare.
An Accidental Nuclear Detonation “Will Happen”
Atomic weapons are just machines, as this harrowing new film demonstrates, and machines inevitably fail. Mother Jones,
MICHAEL MECHANICSEP. 11, 2016 It would be impossible to fully replicate the depth of dread and disbelief thatCommand and Control—Eric Schlosser’s 2013 book chronicling the Air Force’s history of nuclear weapons mishaps—bestows on its readers. This is not to say thatthe haunting new documentary of the same name, co-written by Schlosser and director Robert Kenner (Food, Inc.), doesn’t pack a punch. While the film’s producers were forced to simplify and trim from the book’s deeper content, any viewer who has not read the original or who, like most Americans, pays little heed to our modern nuclear arsenal, is due for a fine scare.
The contextual backdrop of Schosser’s book incudes plenty of the kind of Cold War insanity that many Americans have relegated to the attics of our memories:………
chlosser’s coup de grâce was a list he obtained (via freedom of information requests) detailing a litany of nuclear fuckupsby the Air Force. Although the brass typically blamed human error, the record in its totality suggested that America’s systems for safeguarding its nuclear weapons were profoundly broken, were they ever working in the first place. Some incidents were fairly minor and others reflected organizational ineptitude………
A film, of course, delivers something a book cannot. We get to see real footage from nuclear detonations, from the actual Damascus Incident, and from some of the past nuclear mishaps, the worst one involved the accidental release of two H-bombs over Goldsboro, North Carolina, in 1961—such an insanely close call that I still shudder to contemplate it. ………
The military screws things up routinely, of course, even if the public seldom hears about it. “Nuclear accidents continue to the present day,” Harold Brown, who was defense secretary under Jimmy Carter at the time of the Damascus Incident, says in the film. “The degree of oversight and attention has if anything gotten worse, because people don’t worry about nuclear war as much.”…….
The contextual backdrop of Schosser’s book incudes plenty of the kind of Cold War insanity that many Americans have relegated to the attics of our memories:………
chlosser’s coup de grâce was a list he obtained (via freedom of information requests) detailing a litany of nuclear fuckupsby the Air Force. Although the brass typically blamed human error, the record in its totality suggested that America’s systems for safeguarding its nuclear weapons were profoundly broken, were they ever working in the first place. Some incidents were fairly minor and others reflected organizational ineptitude………
A film, of course, delivers something a book cannot. We get to see real footage from nuclear detonations, from the actual Damascus Incident, and from some of the past nuclear mishaps, the worst one involved the accidental release of two H-bombs over Goldsboro, North Carolina, in 1961—such an insanely close call that I still shudder to contemplate it. ………
The military screws things up routinely, of course, even if the public seldom hears about it. “Nuclear accidents continue to the present day,” Harold Brown, who was defense secretary under Jimmy Carter at the time of the Damascus Incident, says in the film. “The degree of oversight and attention has if anything gotten worse, because people don’t worry about nuclear war as much.”…….
http://www.kazakh-tv.kz/en/view/news_kazakhstan/page_170776_ 26.08.2016 12:28 Exhibition dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site closure opened in Almaty. It features previously unpublished documents of independent Kazakhstan in the struggle for a nuclear-free world. Among the exhibits there are letters from citizens asking for the termination of tests in the country, as well as rare photos of the first tests, which took place on August 29 in 1949. In just over 40 years, there were about 450 nuclear tests on the site. After its closure on August 29, 1991 Kazakhstan voluntarily renounced nuclear weapons.
DONALD TRUMP’S GLIB TALK ABOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS OBSCURES A GREATER DANGER, Newsweek BY JEFF STEIN ON 8/23/16 A nuclear holocaust, like death itself, is something we’d rather not think about. So we don’t, much, except when some figure of note starts talking about using hydrogen bombs to settle a problem. Someone like Donald Trump.
But the shock and outrage over Trump’s recent loose talk about making Japan and South Korea develop their own nukes or dropping a bomb on the Islamic State militant group, also known as ISIS, obscures a more prosaic but arguably more imminent danger, according to a new documentary—a warhead going off by accident.
Command and Control, directed by veteran filmmaker Robert Kenner (Food, Inc.) and based on a best-selling book of the same name by Eric Schlosser, aims to widen the discussion about the threat posed by the thousands of nuclear weapons in U.S. hands (and, by extension, other countries’ as well). Developed in concert with PBS’s long-running American Experienceseries but slated for a limited September theatrical debut in New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., the uncommonly gripping documentary focuses more on the frightening number of weapons mishaps than the missteps that could trigger a nuclear war. It skips over near-disasters involving panicky U.S. and Russian radar crews picking up incoming missile “ghosts” and nearly launching massive counterstrike orders. Instead, citing recently declassified Energy Department figures, it burrows into one of the “more than a thousand accidents and incidents involving our nuclear weapons,” including the loss of eight warheads, one still buried somewhere in the soil of North Carolina.
Why any one of these incidents hasn’t ended in a mass disaster is “pure luck,” Schlosser says in the film. “And the problem with luck is it eventually runs out.” Think about your laptop or car, he suggests. “Nuclear weapons are machines,” he says. “And every machine ever invented eventually goes wrong.”……..
Two hydrogen bombs, for example, fell from a B-52 that broke up in flight and was spiraling down over North Carolina in 1961. One of the bombs “went through all of its arming steps to detonate, and when that weapon hit the ground, a firing signal was sent,” Schlosser says in the film. “And the only thing that prevented a full-scale detonation of a powerful hydrogen bomb in North Carolina was a single safety switch.”
Peurifoy describes the switch as not much more than something you might find on a desk lamp. “If the right two wires had touched,” he says, “the bomb would have detonated. Period.” The exploding 4-megaton warhead, about 267 times as powerful as the bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima 71 years ago, would have instantly obliterated much of North Carolina and produced a mushroom cloud and deadly radiation plumes poisoning people and crops as far north as New York……….. http://www.newsweek.com/2016/09/02/command-control-donald-trump-nuclear-weapons-492743.html
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