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| La commemorazione del giorno del bombardamento a Hiroshima |
Parentesi seria in questo blog dove di solito parlo di film e ricettine. Settant'anni fa, il 6 agosto 1945, il presidente USA Henry Truman dava il via libera all'utilizzo della bomba atomica su Hiroshima e Nagasaki, due cittadine giapponesi strategicamente fondamentali nelle dinamiche della guerra sul fronte Pacifico. Gli Americani stavano subendo perdite imponenti e il conflitto si prospettava infinito perché la resistenza giapponese non sembrava intenzionata a desistere. Non ho ancora raccontato la parte del mio viaggio in Florida, ma vi anticipo che nei vari giri che ho fatto sono andata a Key West. Che è bellissima: clima tropicale, tanto verde, casette coloniali di legno, clima peace & love, la bella casa di Hemingway, musica sul pontile da ascoltare mentre si ammira un tramonto stupendo sul mare. E la residenza "presidenziale" dove Truman si è rifugiato più volte per lavorare lontano dallo stress. Io e la mia amica abbiamo fatto la visita guidata della "Little White House". La guida, Jimmy, era un signore anziano sui 75 anni direi, super arzillo, nato e cresciuto a Key West, che provava per il presidente Truman evidente ammirazione. A un certo punto ha tirato in ballo il lancio delle bombe.
English version below
E' stato strano per me, europea, constatare come i fatti vengano presi e reinterpretati a proprio piacimento a seconda dei contesti e delle circostanze e fino a che punto si può spingere ancora oggi il patriottismo americano. Fondamentalmente, la guida Jimmy diceva che Truman aveva avuto il coraggio di porre fine al conflitto con una decisione sofferta e anche a distanza di anni, quando gli chiesero se si era pentito, il presidente ribadì che l'aveva fatto per "salvare le vite di migliaia e migliaia di giovani americani e abbreviare l'agonia della guerra". A Jimmy brillavano gli occhi dall'ammirazione, mentre io e la mia amica ci guardavamo basite e gli altri turisti del giro, tutti americani, rimanevano in silenzio di fronte alle sue parole.
Non mi è sembrato il caso, in quel momento, di ingaggiare un dibattito politico. Di dire, per esempio, che invece di sganciare due bombe atomiche su due centri abitati uccidendo oltre 100 mila persone innocenti e condannando i sopravvissuti a terribili sofferenze e malattie, aprendo tra l'altro l'era del rischio nucleare decisamente non risolta, si poteva cercare un accordo politico con i giapponesi, già duramente piegati dalla guerra e ridotti allo stremo, a causa del blocco marittimo e degli attacchi militari. O di dire che è inutile cercare giustificazioni, perché quella decisione era semplicemente sbagliata dal punto di vista morale e umanitario -oltre che militare dato che ha aperto la corsa agli armamenti nucleari- e ora, a 70 anni esatti da quella sciagurata scelta e alla luce di tutto ciò che sappiamo, per me non era concepibile sentirne parlare non solo senza traccia di pentimento, ma addirittura con orgoglio.
Chissà, magari qualche altro componente del gruppo pensava le stesse cose pur essendo americano e non ha parlato, come d'altronde non ho fatto io, perché non aveva voglia di contraddire un vecchietto convinto. Mi piace pensarlo.
Per un esame di inglese che feci all'università lessi un libricino che raccontava dello scoppio delle bombe atomiche in Giappone: c'erano i racconti dei soccorritori e dei sopravvissuti. Mi colpì molto e mentre leggevo mi dicevo "Ecco dove può portarci l'ignoranza!". Eppure anche in seguito, quando fu chiaro che l'uso dell'atomica fu un errore strategico oltre che una catastrofe umanitaria, nessuno si premurò di chiedere scusa. Anzi ancora oggi tocca sentire americani convinti che non ci fosse altro modo di porre fine al conflitto e che tutto sommato Truman l'ha fatto a fin di bene. Quando fior fiore di storici, militari e politici hanno ammesso che il Giappone era comunque vicino alla resa e che l'atto di forza, forse, è stato più motivato dalla volontà di mostrare alla Russia, pronta all'attacco, la potenza indistruttibile degli USA.
La lezione di Hiroshima è che la pace e il disarmo nucleare sono il presupposto per il futuro dell'umanità. La quale come al solito però tende a dimenticare. Per questo è importante fare in modo che la memoria rimanga viva. Come ha detto alla cerimonia commemorativa il sindaco di Hiroshima Kazumi Matsui: "Finché sono in circolazione armi nucleari, ciascuno di noi può diventare un hibakusha (un sopravvissuto all’esplosione atomica) in qualsiasi momento».
Vi lascio con alcuni titoli di film per chi volesse approfondire anche attraverso le storie narrate dal cinema.
Rhapsody in August - Akira Kurosawa (1951)
Children of Hiroshima - Kaneto Shindo (1952)
Hiroshima mon Amour - Alain Resnais (1959)
Hiroshima - Koreyoshi Kurahara e Roger Spottiswoode (1995, miniserie)
Little Boy - Alejandro Gomez Monteverde (2015)
Cercando online è facile trovare anche molti documentari, da puntate di Ulisse e La storia siamo noi fino a produzioni internazionali. C'è solo l'imbarazzo della scelta, per scegliere di non dimenticare.
English version
Today I’ll take a break from recipes and movies. Seventy years ago, on Aug. 6, 1945, US President Harry Truman gave the green light to the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two strategically crucial Japanese towns for the Pacific front in World War 2. Americans were suffering massive losses and the conflict seemed to have become infinite, as Japanese didn’t seem willing to give up.
I haven’t told you yet about my trip to Florida, but I wanna tell you this episode. Among the places we visited, there was Key West.
It is beautiful: tropical climate, a lot of green, wooden colonial houses, peace and love atmosphere, Hemingway’s beautiful home, free music on the pier where you can enjoy a beautiful sunset over the sea. There’s also a "presidential" residence where Truman escaped several times to work avoiding stress. My friend and I took a guided tour of this "Little White House".
The guide, Jimmy, was an elderly gentleman, around 75, very energetic. He was born and raised in Key West and felt for President Truman obvious admiration. At one point he brought up the launch of the bombs. It stroke me, a European, to see how American patriotism was still so strong in our guide and how he presented facts in order to justify his beliefs. Basically, Jimmy said that President Truman had the courage to end the conflict with a difficult decision. Years later, when asked if he had repented, he insisted that he had done it to "save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans and shorten the agony of war". Jimmy's eyes were filled with admiration, while I was astonished. The other tourists, all American, remained in silence.
In that moment, I didn’t feel like engaging a political debate. I didn’t open my mouth to say, for instance, that instead of dropping two atomic bombs on two villages killing more than 100,000 innocent people and condemning survivors to terrible suffering and diseases (and opening the era of nuclear risk) president Truman could have chosen to seek a political agreement with the Japanese, already severely bent by war, because of the naval embargo and constant military attacks.
I didn’t even say that after 70 years and all we know about the consequences of that bombing, it is just impossible to justify a decision that was morally wrong and started the race to nuclear arming. It stroke me to hear somebody talking about it not only without any trace of remorse, but also with some pride. Maybe others in the group, although American, thought the same things and did not speak up as they didn’t want to contradict an old man, just as I did. I hope so.
When I was at the University I had to read a little book about Hiroshima for an English exam. It told stories of survivors and rescuers from the bombing. It struck me very much and I thought "That's where ignorance can lead us."
Yet even afterwards, when it became clear that using of atomic power had been a strategic error as well as a humanitarian catastrophe, no one apologized. Historians, militaries and politicians have all stated that Japan was already close to surrender and that the bombing was more a show off of of the US strength to Russia, ready to attack. Indeed, we still hear Americans believing that there was no other way to end the conflict and that basically Truman did what he did for a good purpose.
The lesson of Hiroshima is that peace and nuclear disarmament are the basis for humanity future. However, we tend to forget it. That’s why it is important to ensure that memory stays alive. As Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said at the memorial today: "As long as nuclear weapons are in circulation, at any time each of us can become a hibakusha (surviving an atomic explosion)."
I leave you with some movie titles for those who want to learn something more about it from cinema. Online you can also easily find many documentaries. There is a world of choices, to choose not to forget.
It is beautiful: tropical climate, a lot of green, wooden colonial houses, peace and love atmosphere, Hemingway’s beautiful home, free music on the pier where you can enjoy a beautiful sunset over the sea. There’s also a "presidential" residence where Truman escaped several times to work avoiding stress. My friend and I took a guided tour of this "Little White House".
The guide, Jimmy, was an elderly gentleman, around 75, very energetic. He was born and raised in Key West and felt for President Truman obvious admiration. At one point he brought up the launch of the bombs. It stroke me, a European, to see how American patriotism was still so strong in our guide and how he presented facts in order to justify his beliefs. Basically, Jimmy said that President Truman had the courage to end the conflict with a difficult decision. Years later, when asked if he had repented, he insisted that he had done it to "save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans and shorten the agony of war". Jimmy's eyes were filled with admiration, while I was astonished. The other tourists, all American, remained in silence.
In that moment, I didn’t feel like engaging a political debate. I didn’t open my mouth to say, for instance, that instead of dropping two atomic bombs on two villages killing more than 100,000 innocent people and condemning survivors to terrible suffering and diseases (and opening the era of nuclear risk) president Truman could have chosen to seek a political agreement with the Japanese, already severely bent by war, because of the naval embargo and constant military attacks.
I didn’t even say that after 70 years and all we know about the consequences of that bombing, it is just impossible to justify a decision that was morally wrong and started the race to nuclear arming. It stroke me to hear somebody talking about it not only without any trace of remorse, but also with some pride. Maybe others in the group, although American, thought the same things and did not speak up as they didn’t want to contradict an old man, just as I did. I hope so.
When I was at the University I had to read a little book about Hiroshima for an English exam. It told stories of survivors and rescuers from the bombing. It struck me very much and I thought "That's where ignorance can lead us."
Yet even afterwards, when it became clear that using of atomic power had been a strategic error as well as a humanitarian catastrophe, no one apologized. Historians, militaries and politicians have all stated that Japan was already close to surrender and that the bombing was more a show off of of the US strength to Russia, ready to attack. Indeed, we still hear Americans believing that there was no other way to end the conflict and that basically Truman did what he did for a good purpose.
The lesson of Hiroshima is that peace and nuclear disarmament are the basis for humanity future. However, we tend to forget it. That’s why it is important to ensure that memory stays alive. As Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said at the memorial today: "As long as nuclear weapons are in circulation, at any time each of us can become a hibakusha (surviving an atomic explosion)."
I leave you with some movie titles for those who want to learn something more about it from cinema. Online you can also easily find many documentaries. There is a world of choices, to choose not to forget.
Bel post, veramente sentito, brava!
RispondiEliminaGrazie cara! :-) a presto
Elimina