SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – A group from Los Alamos, once the building site for an atomic bomb, is making an unprecedented trip this month to a country that was devastated by the weapon.
Los Alamos Historical Museum representatives are traveling throughout Japan to gain that country’s perspective on the impact of nuclear warfare. Museum director Judith Stauber, along with a museum registrar and a student intern, flew to Japan March 24. The team will visit Tokyo, Kyoto, and the two cities that were targeted with the bomb – Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
They will meet with a bomb survivor, researchers, and leaders from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Stauber said.
The trip has been in the works for two years. It is partially funded by a $10,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
The planned exhibit will open in December. Aside from visiting Japan, Stauber plans to collaborate with Japanese Americans on a display on World War II internment camps in New Mexico.
Los Alamos, known as Atomic City, is home to Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The community is considered one of the wealthiest in the United States because of an economy tethered to one of the nation’s largest science laboratories. It’s a city where colorful symbols of atomic energy are displayed almost everywhere.
Bo Jacobs, a researcher at the Hiroshima Peace Institute who will meet with Stauber, said the history surrounding atomic energy is not a story of scientific discovery in Japan. Instead, it’s a story of “people who were killed, who lost family members, who were injured.” In an email, Jacobs said the bomb’s invention took a human toll of anywhere from 129,000 to more than 200,000.
“The differences between the U.S. and the Japanese narratives of the attack – they couldn’t be more different,” Jacobs said.
Stauber said she hopes this visit will help build an exhibit that can bridge that gap between narratives.
“What do we know, and how do we know it?” she said. “And how are we remembering?”
G faust says
My mother is a survivor of the atom bombing of Nagasaki and has just turned 91. She has many clear and interesting memories from this experience and my siblings and I have often wondered whether her recollections would be useful from a historical perspective.
Although she grew up in Japan and our family spent most of my childhood in Japan, we moved to the United States where my mother now makes her home
Will you let me know if there is someone we might contact about possible interest in the information she would have to share from her own experience as a survivor? We are very proud of how our mother persevered through this tragedy and became such a strong, smart, healthy and hard working person who inspires and amazes us daily. However now that she is in her 90s, we are more interested in documenting her experience while her memory is still very good.
Thank you.