It is one thing to read accounts of the past, but to actually hear someone's voice while he remembers vivid details about Nagasaki is another. This piece is a great example of talking history. It is about a first person experience of the sight, sound and smell of a city as it lay dying.
This short first person narrative is ideal for stations which might not have time for the longer format programs commemorating the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nez Perce tribal elder Horace Axtell's descriptions of arriving at Nagasaki just after the devastation are simple but compelling. A tree stripped of its branches, a smell which takes away his appetite, witness to an act of violence... and then a touching moment of human kindness amid the rubble. The understated connection to the wars of his ancestors, and his soft-spoken condemnation of war in general connect the past to the present perfectly. In the best oral history tradition, this piece is highly recommended!
Comments for Reflections on Nagasaki by a Nez Perce Elder
Produced by Brian Bull
Other pieces by Wisconsin Public Radio
Rating Summary
2 comments
Emon Hassan
Posted on August 05, 2005 at 07:27 AM | Permalink
Review of Reflections on Nagasaki by a Nez Perce Elder
It is one thing to read accounts of the past, but to actually hear someone's voice while he remembers vivid details about Nagasaki is another. This piece is a great example of talking history. It is about a first person experience of the sight, sound and smell of a city as it lay dying.
David Swatling
Posted on August 04, 2005 at 01:50 AM | Permalink
Review of Reflections on Nagasaki by a Nez Perce Elder
This short first person narrative is ideal for stations which might not have time for the longer format programs commemorating the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nez Perce tribal elder Horace Axtell's descriptions of arriving at Nagasaki just after the devastation are simple but compelling. A tree stripped of its branches, a smell which takes away his appetite, witness to an act of violence... and then a touching moment of human kindness amid the rubble. The understated connection to the wars of his ancestors, and his soft-spoken condemnation of war in general connect the past to the present perfectly. In the best oral history tradition, this piece is highly recommended!