****Official Argue about the Atomic Bomb Thread******

Book Review: Genbaku de shinda Beihei Hishi
(Secret History of the American Soldiers Killed by the Atomic Bomb) by Shigeaki Mori　　

This book is a culmination of many years of research done by Mr. Mori, who studied materials offered by other researchers, including Messrs Keiichi Muranaka and Toru Fukubayashi. He listened to many eyewitnesses and sought information on the POWs who were in Hiroshima. The interrogation records on them carried out in Hiroshima were all destroyed in the Atomic Bombing. However, a few interrogators survived. Mr. Mori himself had also succeeded in a difficult search of some bereaved families of the victims, using the US telephone directories. He knew that the families were given no information at all about their loved ones. He finally contacted nine out of twelve families, and could register the victims with their photos at the Prayer of Peace Museum in Hiroshima.

Captain Cartwright, the pilot of the Lonesome Lady lost six of his crew in the Atomic Bombing, but survived because he was interrogated in Tokyo. After the war, he obtained a Ph. D. of Agriculture and, when he came to Japan for an academic conference, he once visited Hiroshima. But, without knowing anyone then, his trip ended up in a sad experience of leaving Hiroshima as if fleeing from the spot. Later he exchanged letters with Mr. Muranaka and Mr. Mori for years. The villagers where his plane crashed sent him back some remains of the aircraft. Eventually he felt like meeting these people, and in 1999, he revisited Hiroshima with his wife and his son, and Mr. Matt Crawford , the commander of the bomber veterans association. Guided by Mr. Mori and Muranaka, he stood at the related sites such as the Memorial set by Mr. Mori at the former HQs where they were A-Bombed, and met the local people, who had surrounded the parachuted crew, and the person who interrogated one of them. Mr. Cartwright wrote about these experiences in his book, “A Date with the Lonesome Lady: A Hiroshima POW Returns.” (Earkins Press, Austin, Texas 2002). It was translated by Mr. Mori as “The Bomber Lonesome Lady: American Soldiers killed by the Atomic Bomb.” (NHk Pub. 2004)

In the summer of 2005, Mr. Mori hosted us in Hiroshima. The Imperial War Museum of London and the UK Lottery sponsored a project for high school students, “Their Past, Your Future,” in commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of WWII. Students of seven schools, who won the essay contest, embarked on a trip to the former sites of the war in Europe or Asia. Twenty-four students and four teachers of Cheney School, Oxford, accompanied by four members of the Museum and one from the Big Lottery, came over to Thailand and Japan. Attendance on the group in Japan was coordinated by a former British POW Mr. William Rose, his son Graham with his wife Takako, Mr. Trever Underson with his wife Chizu, who was working then at the Education Board of Tenryu village, where Mr. Rose had been forced to labor at the Tenryu Dam construction site. After the program in Tokyo arranged by POW Research Network Japan, I accompanied the group to Hiroshima. Through the arrangement and guide by Mr. Mori, the group had a meaningful time of learning, and went down to Tenryu village for staying with the villagers. In Hiroshima, they attended the Memorial Peace Ceremony, visited the museums, met and talked with local high school students, and listened to Mr. Mori as he talked to them about his experience as a hibakusha. Mr. Mori’s sincere efforts for positive action touched our heart, knowing he was continuously fighting with the ill health-conditions caused by the Atomic Bomb radiation and fear of cancer. He also introduced an e-mail sent by Mr. Cartwrite that memorable morning, in which he expressed his wish for the abolition of nuclear arms.

http://www.us-japandialogueonpows.org/HoroshimaPOW.htm


POWs who died in the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima