A Hiroshima story

Atomic cloud over Hiroshima, taken from Enola Gay flying over Matsuyama, Shikoku (©Wikimedia Commons)

On a sunny August morning in 1945, Keijiro Matsushima sat in his math class in Hiroshima. He looked out the window, saw two American bombers in the clear blue sky and suddenly his world was torn apart. Now a retired English teacher, he fears young people today are no longer interested in his story. On a sunny June morning in 2005, Amsterdam English teacher Kevin Hogan’s 11th graders are reading a novel about Hiroshima. They are the same age Mr. Matsushima was 60 years ago. How will they react when they hear his story?

Producer: David Swatling

Broadcast: August 1, 2005