That history should not repeat: Hiroshima’s storytellers

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Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host Jason Palmer. Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. For 26 years, one man has led the Eastern European country of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. But he's bungled the response to COVID 19. Turns out vodka doesn't cure it. Now he faces an unexpected and wildly popular challenger in Sunday's election. And horror movies have long hung plots on the tools of communication. Think of the television in Poltergeist, or the calls are coming from inside the house. So it's no surprise that there's a new flick in which zoom plays a role. But it is creepy. First up though, 75 years ago this week, the B29 bomber, the Enola Gay dropped little Boy, the world's first use of an atomic weapon. At 8:15 in the morning of August.

6, Japanese time, the first atomic bomb hit an enemy target.

It detonated over Hiroshima, immediately killing around 140,000 people. The bomb was aimed to explode above zero point, a spot in the city at the junction of the Moto, ISO and Oto rivers. Three days later, another struck Nagasaki. As Japan marks the anniversary, it hopes to keep the wartime memories alive, using the stories of people who survived the attacks. But the average age of survivors is now over 83, And this will be the last chance to hear from those witnesses during a major anniversary.

August 6, 1945, was supposed to be a day off for 17 year old Takeoka Chisako.

Noah Snyder is the Economist's Tokyo Bureau Chief.

She had made plans to meet two girlfriends at 8:15 that morning at a train station on the west side of Hiroshima. She was running late and as she stepped outside, she saw a flash and heard a bang. When she regained consciousness, she found herself lying 30 meters away, a mushroom cloud rising over the city. People with charred skin peeling from their arms, rushing over a nearby hillside, Ms. Takaoka left to look for her mother and found rivers filled with bodies. It took her six days to locate her mom, who was still miraculously alive. Her mom lived for another 22 years. Ms. Takeoka became a prominent voice amongst the Hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors, atomic bomb sufferers, telling her story abroad many times in the hopes of preventing atomic bombs from ever being used again. I heard this tale from her daughter, Higashino Mariko, who's part of a fascinating, unique project underway in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki to help preserve the stories of the Hibakusha for generations to come.

So how does this project work?

So there are still some 130,000 living hibakusha, But their average age is now over 83, and the number who can tell their stories publicly is declining drastically. So the city governments in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been recruiting scores of volunteers like Ms. Higashino to become what they call Denshosha, or legacy successors. These are essentially memory keepers, people who learn the stories of the Hibaka down to the most gruesome details in order to be able to retell them with power and veracity for years into the future. To do so, the volunteers in Hiroshima have to go through a rather rigorous course, three years of study, training and discussion with Hibakusha before they're allowed to retell the stories in public. Ms. Higashino is somewhat unusual in that she inherited her mother's own story. Most of the Dansha take on a stranger's burden, and it's simply because that.

That generation of survivors is passing that the city governments have started this program.

Yeah, it is. It's really reflective of the anxiety that many people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and throughout Japan feel about fading wartime memories and what will happen once this generation of first hand witnesses passes away. The city governments and the peace museums, atomic bomb museums in both cities have been collecting and recording testimony for many years. But this Denshosha program is a way they hope to preserve these memories in a living form, to retain the emotional impact that comes from hearing these stories from another human being.

And so where does all this fit in with the wider legacy of the bombing of the war in Japan?

For Japan, the Hiroshima experience became central to wartime memory in part as some scholars have argued, because it allows victim narrative to dominate, shifting the focus away from the atrocities Japanese soldiers committed abroad in Asia and the Pacific. Certainly folks in China and Korea have bristled at the lack of context that some of the retellings of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki experiences portray. And if you look at Japan today, it's of course wrestling anew with the legacy of the Second World War and its aftermath. In particular the constitution that America imposed on Japan after the war, which renounces war and bars Japan from maintaining armed forces. In practice, Japan does maintain a powerful military which it calls the Self Defense Forces. And its Prime Minister Abe Shinzo for years has hoped to change the constitution, to revise the constitution in order to make explicit that Japan's military is constitutional and perhaps to expand the limits of what they are allowed to do. Curiously, the public still supports maintaining the post war constitution. So in short, pacifism is still deep seated in today's Japan.

And what about the effort of the Hibakusha and others to learn the lessons of the Second World War? How does nuclear non proliferation look at this stage from where you are?

Well, this is another source for concern, of course. Non proliferation efforts in recent years have been faltering. Just this January, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved its Doomsday clock, its subjective measure of our proximity to self annihilation, closer to midnight than any time since its establishment in 1947. The Hibakusha are pleased and take solace in the signing of the Treaty on the Prohibition of nuclear weapons in 2017. It invokes their unacceptable suffering in its preamble and a nod to how the memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki continues to shape non proliferation efforts globally. Yet at the same time, no country with nuclear weapons has signed up to that treaty. Neither has Japan in fact, which shelters under America's nuclear umbrella.

And how does that sit with the Hibakusha at this stage, at this anniversary that's being marked?

I spoke with Yuzaki Hidehiko, the governor of Hiroshima Prefecture, and he expressed a view that I heard from many others, both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was a wish that Japan would use its moral authority as the only victim of atomic weapons to push harder for their abolition. The Hibakusha have long dreamt and spoken about abolishing the bomb before the last of them passes away. That's unlikely. But the Hibakusha hope that their stories at the very least will deter the world from ever using these weapons again.

Noah, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you very much for having me.

This Sunday, voters go to the polls in Belarus. The incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko has been in power for 26 years. In that time he's won four elections, each by a huge margin and each amid allegations of vote rigging. The former director of a Soviet collective farm is often branded as Europe's last dictator. But this time, Mr. Lukashenko has an unlikely challenger. Not long ago, presidential candidate Svetlana Tikanovskaya was working as a teacher. Now she represents the greatest risk yet to Mr. Lukashenko's rule.

It's going to be basically the biggest test of Alexander Lukashenko's 26 years in power.

Wendelin von Bredo is the Economist's roving Europe correspondent and it's based in Berlin.

It could be the beginning of the end of his rule, but at the moment it's anybody's guess. But it's certainly the most difficult time of his quarter century of power.

And what has that quarter century been like? What is he like as a president?

Well, he's often referred to as Europe's last dictator. So he is an authoritarian ruler. He used to be very close to Moscow, but they had a falling out recently. He is basically a figure of another era. He used to run a state farm in Soviet times. I mean, he's basically an old communist who is now in power, but hasn't quite adapted to the new times.

You said that this election could spell the end of his power. Why do you think he might be in trouble here?

So the current wave of discontent is fueled by several things. First of all is of course, his long standing authoritarian rule that has made people unhappy for a long time. But in addition to that, Lukashenko has mishandled the COVID 19 pandemic by simply trying to ignore it. He advised people to sit on a tractor, drink vodka or go to the sauna to fend off the virus. And that hasn't gone down well in particular at the moment because the rate of infection is rising. And ironically, Lukashenko himself is ill and contracted the virus. So people are worried, obviously, and they are very unhappy about the way he handled the crisis. The economy is also doing badly and has done badly for a long time. The average salary in Belarus is much lower than say, in the Baltic states or in other countries in the region. And people are very unhappy about that.

And so who is it that he's running against?

Lukashenko is running against Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Who is the wife of a popular YouTuber, Sergei Tikanovsky, who has been in jail since May, charged with plotting mass disturbance. But of course, the reason he was put in jail is that he was a serious challenger of Lukashenko's rule. So she is just basically running in his stead. There were two other challenges, but Lukashenko has driven them out of the country. So she is the remaining challenger. And she is backed by two other women. One used to be the campaign manager of one of Lukashenko's rivals and the other one is actually also a wife. So at these rallies there are three women on stage, three young women, and they've proven to be very popular, even though they have basically no experience in campaigning, but they've done really well.

And why is that, then? Why are they popular?

Well, in part because they are very good at expressing the popular discontent. And because they come across as very genuine. Ms. Tikhanovskaya's platform is actually a single issue platform. She wants a free and fair election and she's not interested in staying in power in the long term. Actually. She basically puts a date limit on on how long she wants to stay, which is six months. And after that she wants to go back to her two children and frying cutlets at home.

I mean, it sounds as if it's already been kind of a strange election season.

Yes, it's been a very unusual election campaign, and not only because of these three women who now play such a prominent role, but also because of Moscow's role. Moscow is the Big Brother, always lurking in the background.

But.

But this time the relationship with the Big Brother is full of tension. And not long ago, 33 Russians were arrested under murky circumstances. They claimed to be on holiday, but apparently they did nothing that Russians usually do when they're on holiday, which is drinking and visiting amusement establishments. And so Minsk assumed that they had some darker motives. The Russian foreign Minister said there's no proof that these men were in the service of Moscow and said they were just simply in transit. But I don't think that's generally believed in Belarus.

Why would there be malign influence from Russia there?

Well, Russia and Belarus used to be very close, but a change in Russian taxation policy this year, oil taxation policy, led to a disagreement between Moscow and Minsk. And also Russia tried to integrate Belarus economy more closely with its economy, and Lukashenko resisted that. The tension started with disagreements over the economy and then they escalated.

So, all told, do you think that Mr. Lukashenko is genuinely in trouble here? Do you think he faces a genuine chance of defeat on Sunday?

I think Mr. Lukashenko is in trouble for two reasons. First of all, he seems to be sicker than he says he is. He basically said he was asymptomatic, but I think he's displaying fairly severe symptoms of the COVID 19. The other thing is he will probably rig elections again and he will win them on Sunday. I think it might even be a landslide victory. As it has been in the past. But as in the past, there have been accusations of fraud and crackdowns, and that's likely to happen again only if he wins, as we think he will on the day after, or maybe even on the day itself. But possibly on the day after, I think there'll be mass demonstrations, possibly a general strike and mass unrest, and the outcome of that is uncertain. So I think for the first time in his quarter century in power, Lukashenko is in real trouble.

Bendelin, thanks very much for your time.

Pleasure, Jason.

During lockdowns and even after they've been lifted, socializing is very different this year. From baby showers to church services, from quarantinis to pub quizzes. Far from a pub, everyone has become accustomed to Zoom over the last few months.

We've all got used to Zoom, a technology in which we can video conference our friends or attend work meetings.

John Bleasdale writes about culture for the Economist.

However, what people aren't expecting is to encounter a demonic child in one of these Zoom chat rooms.

My hands actually really shaking.

Oh, great.

The young horror director Rob Savage decided to use the opportunity to do something unique. Pranking a group of his friends during a conference call.

Oh, my God. Oh my God. I don't like it.

So the natural progression was to use this as inspiration for a feature film.

And how did this prank work?

He'd only just moved into a new house and he had heard noises coming from the attic. It became a kind of running joke with his friends. So while he was on a Zoom call to his friends, he decided that he would go and explore in the attic.

Oh, what was that? Kate, Kate, can you call Rob?

It's definitely the attic. He was filming himself going up towards the stairs. But at a certain point, he cuts from the footage from his phone to a pre filmed clip from a Spanish horror movie called Wreck. And he horrified all his friends.

Oh, my God. Oh my God.

Rob told me when I spoke to him, funnily enough over Zoom, all about the experience.

I spent a couple of days figuring out how I'd do it, and I ended up building like a little contraption so that I could like, very sneakily go from like live zoom. And then I put my hand in front, in front of the, in front of the camera and placed it in this little doohickey that I'd built to be perfectly framed on my laptop screen. So it was seamless. I mean, I put way too much thought into it, but it ended up being what it was, which was a bit of a viral Thing.

So there's a film based on this prank. What's it about?

The film is about six friends who get together for a seance during lockdown. So it's very much set in the here and now. As you can imagine, the things don't go exactly as planned. The whole film takes place on zoom, and all we see is essentially a desktop. So there's no footage outside of that frame. Let's do a shock after us. Rob decided that he would go and he would make the film independently and he would use the people who were on the original prank. A lot of his friends work in the film industry.

We're not physically together, but there's no.

Reason why Spirit can't communicate over the Internet.

He also managed to involve people who do video effects, who do stunt work and special effects, so that they could come together and collaborate on the project. Obviously, because of the lockdown, nobody was allowed to actually meet, to go to other people's houses or to set things up. So the actors themselves had to do their own makeup. The houses became the sets. The special effects had to be done by the actors, and Rob himself had to direct them remotely.

We kind of worked out a backbone for the story, and then, you know, I knew we were going to riff a lot on top of it, so I would basically sit on these zoom calls, hidden. And every so often, if something was trailing off, I just unmute myself and I'd say, go back, do that again, or try this, and I'd throw out prompts to them. So a lot of it I was kind of directing on the cuff.

So does it work as a conceit or does it feel gimmicky to you?

No, it absolutely works. I think horror has always had a history of pushing the technology we use to communicate. You could see this as far back as Dracula, which is a novel that couldn't have been written without an idea of an internationally working postal system and telegraph system. And then you move that forward to more recently in the Blair Witch Project and camcorders and cheap video filming. So I don't think it's at all gimmicky. And in fact, I think Rob uses the technology really wittily. It's very, very funny how he uses things. Things like the 40 minute free time limit, for instance, or virtual backgrounds that people use. But even more than the technology, I think what is spot on about this film and what means that it really has had a huge positive reaction has been the fact that it really captures that sort of strange intimacy that we get from Zoom calls. You know, seeing people in their pajamas, seeing that where they live when they haven't tidied up, and having them talk to each other in a group context rather than one on one.

I mean, it has to be said, we are ourselves speaking on Zoom right now. Does the movie kind of give you the heebie jeebies about using Zoom?

Look, I'm not a particularly superstitious person, but I have actually just noticed there is a noise coming from the upstairs. I think from the attic. Could you wait a sec? I'll just go and check.

John? John, are you there? That's all for this episode of the episode Intelligence. If you like us, give us a rating on Apple podcasts and you can subscribe to the economist@examiner.com intelligenceoffer. See you back here on Monday.