The image of that uneasy handshake was forever seared in my Mother’s memory who along with millions of other viewers watched that famous Wednesday night episode in May of 1955 featuring the Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto a survivor of the Atomic Bomb in Hiroshima. President Harry Truman, the very president who ordered the Atomic bombings of Japan during WWIIĪnother much more awkward attempt at reconciliation occurred some 60 years earlier on an episode of the popular TV program “This is Your Life” that brought together surprised survivors of the Hiroshima blast with the co-pilot of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the bomb. This week Japan marked the somber anniversary of the worlds first Atomic bomb attack with a ceremony at Hiroshima Peace Park.Ī few years back, among the 50,000 attending the memorial service near the epicenter of the blast was a grandson of former U.S.
In that great American tradition of forgive and forget, in May of 1955, only 10 years after we dropped the Atom Bomb on Japan, television audiences watching the popular TV program “This is Your Life” witnessed as a surprised survivor of Hiroshima nervously shook hands with the co pilot of the very plane that dropped the bomb.
