Voice of Hiroshima
(“Hiroshima no koe”)
1959 / English / B&W / 16mm / 40 min
Planning: Japan Council against A & H Bombs
Production Company, Source: Japan Document Film
A record of the Fifth World Conference against A & H Bombs. From June 10, 1959, 10 million people would participate in a 5,000 km march to Hiroshima from Tokyo, Niigata, and Yoron Island (Kagoshima). At 8:15 in the morning on August 6, a deep silence gripped Hiroshima. Church bells and sirens echoed throughout the city and a mourning flag was hoisted. The conference was held from August 1st to 7th amidst an overwhelming display of public support or the peace march and in worldwide opposition to nuclear weapons. This represented the most heated public debate thus far on Japan’s nuclear weapons, the possibility of overseas deployment of Japanese armed forces and the renegotiation of the US Japan Security Treaty (ampo). Hiroshima still bears the scars of the atomic bomb. A 17-year-old girl in the Atomic Bomb Hospital quietly listened to the sound of the church bells that August 6th. On August 23rd, 17 days after the start of the conference, she died from leukemia. Just before she died, she wrote to a British woman, “Please do not let this ever happen again.” In this way, Hiroshima is continuing testimony to the horror of the atomic bomb.