When works of literature, art and music deal with the atomic bombs dropped in Japan it's nearly always about Hiroshima. Nagasaki hardly ever gets referenced in culture. Why is that? The "exception that proves the rule" is Akira Kurosawa's 1991 film Hachi-gatsu no kyôshikyoku (Rhapsody in August). Or are there any others?
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"the U.S. dropped the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945,followed by the detonation of "Fat Man" over Nagasaki on August 9."
"Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki".
If you ask around who was the first man to set foot on the Moon, most people will be able to answer you. If you ask who was the second man, most won't know the name.
J.G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun, and Spielberg's film of it both conclude with Jim (Christian Bale playing young Jim Ballard) in a sports stadium filled with the detritus of the looted homes of the International Zone of Shanghai and sees a glow on the horizon as if another Sun had risen. (This, and not the Sun symbol on the Japanese flag, as is often assumed, is the Sun of the title.) That glow is from Nagasaki.
shareWoah Socrates, thanks for that. Had no idea the title made reference to that. Cheers.
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