Video: Berger Talks Atomic Bombs on Yahoo Japan
Thomas Berger, Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, spoke with Pardee School alumnus Matthew Kolasa on the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Their conversation, titled “Unforgivable Atrocity or Unfortunate Necessity?” was broadcast on the front page of Yahoo Japan on August 9. The interview, which was conducted at the Pardee School, was in English with Japanese subtitles. An article in Japanese accompanied the interview.
From the text of the interview:
“In the U. S. government, there is not much discussion of these events,” Berger said. “In the U. S., the dominant view remains that this was an unfortunate necessity.”
You can read the article and watch the video here.
A second part of the interview was published on August 14 and featured new video. It was promoted on Yahoo Japan and thepage.jp. You can view it here.
On August 6 and August 9, 1945, the U. S. dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Japan announced its intention to surrender on August 15 and officially signed surrender documents on September 2.
Wenlin Fei (COM ’16) filmed, produced, and directed. The interview was posted on three major Japanese news sites, Yahoo News Japan, ThePage.jp, and The East Times, and televised on NewTV in Newton, Massachusetts. The video and accompanying article generated heated devate across Japan and had hundreds of thousands of views in one day.
Berger s the author of War, Guilt and World Politics After World War II, Cultures of Antimilitarism: National Security in Germany and Japan and is co-editor of Japan in International Politics: Beyond the Reactive State. Learn more about him here.