The documentaries Hearing the Voices of Nagasaki Survivors andThe Test premiere back-to-back on CPTV Spirit Wednesday, August 7, 2019 at 8 and 9 p.m., and encore back-to-back on CPTV Spirit on Thursday, August 8, 2019, at 4 and 5 p.m.
Hearing the Voices of Nagasaki Survivors follows American students from Wilmington College in Ohio as they read and process Susan Southard’s Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War. Southard’s non-fiction book project developed from her encounter with Sumiteru Taniguchi, a hibakusha (atomic-bomb survivor) who is famous from photographs of the severe burns he sustained from thermal radiation.
Photo: Circa 1951; courtesy of American Public Television
Then, The Test examines the history of atomic testing in Nevada, atomic tourism, and the consequences of being in Nevada’s “atomic backyard.” Following World War II, as the United States plunged into the Cold War, scientists raced to keep the nation secure in the nuclear age. They lacked a full understanding of atomic weaponry’s destructive scope and knew the bomb had to be tested further. Ultimately, atomic testing sites, including one in Nevada, were established. This documentary delves into the testing in Nevada and the rise of “atomic culture.”
See both films on August 7 prior to the premiere of POV’s The Distant Barking of Dogs at 10 p.m.