Korean
War brings Stricter Media Control
The fifties and sixties were the height
of the Cold War with it common nuclear threat. The permanent members
of the U.N. Security Council - the United States and the Soviet Union,
the United Kingdom and France, and the People's Republic of China
all came to possess nuclear arms one after another. People everywhere
became acutely aware of living under the nuclear threat, in constant
fear that another A-bomb could be dropped at any moment.
The outbreak of the Korean War on June 25,
1950, brought tighter restrictions on media coverage of the atomic
bombing. It was not until 1952, when Japan regained its independence
with the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, that the press
code was finally dropped and media coverage of the atomic bombing
came gradually to be accepted.
The 1950 Peace Festival was suspended at the
instruction of the Occupation Forces due to the outbreak of the Korean
War on June 25. No program treating the atomic bombing was produced
in that year, except for an important interview with Dr. Takashi Nagai,
the author of such works as "The Bells of Nagasaki." This
program was broadcast two months after the war broke out.
*Morning Interview: Takashi Nagai (1950)
Nationwide broadcasting of the Peace Festival resumed in 1953.
The next year, 1954, NHK-Radio broadcast a
45-minute program called The Atomic Bomb! Nine
Years On. "This can be called the very first authentic
A-bombing-related program that NHK ever produced." (From The
60-Year History of NHK-Hiroshima)
Petitioning Against Atomic and
Hydrogen Bombs (Suginami, Tokyo)
Anti-nuclear sentiment in Japan escalated
further when in March, 1954, the crew of Dai-go Fukuryu-maru, a
tuna fishing boat from Shizuoka Prefecture was exposed to the fall-out
of a Hydrogen bomb 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb
dropped on Hiroshima due to a test performed by the United States
at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, in the North Western Pacific.
The death of the radio operator, Aikichi Kuboyama, in September
triggered angry calls in Japan against nuclear testing.
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The Dai-go Fukuryu-maru A scene
from "Abandoned Ship"(1969)
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A signature collection drive against such
tests was started by a housewife in Suginami, Tokyo, and the petition
was quickly signed by 20,080,000 sympathizers across the country.
It weighed 125 kilograms. This pacifist movement on an unprecedented
scale had "No More Hiroshimas, No More Nagasakis, No More Hibakusha"
as its campaign slogan. In the process, links were forged between
the people of the two A-bombed cities and the pacifist movement.
Globally, 700 million signatures were collected. The first World
Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs was held in Hiroshima
in1955.
The movement against atomic and hydrogen
bombs won over the mainstream of public opinion, helped to reveal
the facts of the damage caused by the atomic bombings, produced
calls for relief for A-bomb sufferers, and developed into a broader
movement for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Live TV Broadcasts of the Peace
Ceremony Commence
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum was
opened in 1955 and the Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers
Organizations was established in 1956.
NHK-Hiroshima commenced television broadcasts
in 1956, and the Peace Memorial Ceremony has been televised live
each year since 1958.
In 1960, an NHK-Hiroshima film documentary,
Japan Unveiled: A Yellow Notebook,"
was broadcast. The program described the despair of the survivors
still suffering from the aftereffects of the atomic bombing and
the hardships they faced. This was the first of many programs that
told the facts of the A-bomb sufferers to all.
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