A little last minute, but the documentary on Nagasaki atomic bomb aftermath photographer Joe O'Donnell (see my May 16 entry) airs tonight on NHK at 8pm. The 63rd anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing was yesterday (the 6th) and Nagasaki's is on Saturday the 9th. Program info here (Japanese only). There's a short trailer if you click the green and white arrow on the right.
Update: Well, that was excellent. Although Mr. O'Donnell passed away last year, luckily there were some audio recordings of his reflections on documenting Nagasaki, which were used extensively throughout the program (thankfully subtitled rather than turned into Japanese voiceover).
Mr. O'Donnell was deeply affected by the horrors he saw first hand. Ironically, when he went back to the States he got a job as a White House photographer and had a chance to ask Harry S. Truman, the man who gave the A-Bomb go-ahead, how he felt looking back at the decision. Truman went red in the face and replied (paraphrasing) "When I became President I inherited many things, including the decision to use the bomb. I was just carrying out what the previous President wanted."
O'Donnell had a lot of health problems in the ensuing years, but the US government offered no compensation for the radiation he was exposed to by being dispatched to Nagasaki so soon after the detonation. Over forty years later, when O'Donnell Sr. brought out the hidden photographs for the first time since the war, it led to the breakdown of his marriage and plenty of scorn from fellow Americans.
In one stunning scene at an exhibition of the photos in Japan, O'Donnell's son meets the boy his father photographed whose back was melted by the blast (see here). Sixty years later, the man still requires operations and his back is a red, twisted mess.
NHK shoots using some of the best HD equipment in the world, which really did justice to the images.
My friend Junko Sasaki helped coordinate shooting in the US and was credited as such. Good job!
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