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It is time to make a new selection of two reference photographs for the whole world. One of the images, on the story of the apparition we are about to talk about today, has become a symbol of the civilian casualties suffered during nuclear weapons tests. And for the second photo, its author received the Pulitzer Prize. And for the first time, it was a Japanese.
Children in a nuclear explosion
The Totsky test site is located in the Russian region of Orenburg and has been actively used since the beginning of the 20th century. On September 14, 1954, the only military exercises using nuclear weapons in the history of the USSR (at least the only documented military exercises) were carried out.
The exact objectives of the exercises are still unknown. It seems to be supposed to investigate the effects of an atomic bomb explosion on weapons, equipment and animals. After the collapse of the USSR, the main goal was to study the effects of radiation on humans. Anyway, the "zest" of the experience is that about 55,000 people participated! Of these, about 10,000 are ordinary inhabitants of neighboring villages.
It was necessary to play the battle of the so-called third world war. The task is to break through the defenses of "the enemy" by using nuclear weapons. Hundreds of tanks, cannons, infantry fighting vehicles, planes and several thousand tractors were driven to the test site. Thousands of cows and horses had to die there. Then, at a height of eight kilometers, a 40-kiloton bomb was dropped in the TNT. For a minute, it is the power of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The explosion occurred at a distance of about 350 meters from the ground. Hours after the explosion, thousands of soldiers, just six kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion, launched an "offensive" on the landfill site. Several villages located in the immediate vicinity of the training ground before relocation exercises. However, about 8 to 10 kilometers from the Totsky test site, about 10,000 people lived in settlements. Among all the means of protection, there was one – ten minutes before the detonation – people had to leave their homes, move to 10 meters and lie down face down.
For a long time, all the information on the Tock exercises has been clbadified. Participants in the experiment gave a 25-year subscription without disclosure. In fact, nuclear drills were only remembered after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. With the collapse of the USSR, some documents have been declbadified. There has been talk of a large number of oncological diseases among civilians and the military, who have somehow participated in the experiment. In the end, a stele was installed on the site in memory of the radiation victims.
Of course, it is impossible to determine the number of victims of Totsky experience after years. Directly during the exercises, it seems that nobody died. Why did cancer die en mbade after? And who knows, come and prove it.
The situation was complicated by the fact that, despite the scale of the exercises, there was virtually no documentary evidence of their deaths. Professional news is ranked: there can not be amateur filming at this time. If it's not for an exception.
Speech on Ivan Sharonin. The man lived in the town of Sorochinsk, about 25 kilometers from the Totsky test site. He worked at the House of Local Culture as Music Director. He did not consider himself a professional photographer, but he had long enjoyed amateur photography.
On the morning of September 14, 1954, on Tuesday, he left the house and saw a cloud of giant mushrooms. The phenomenon is surprising, especially since none of the civilians suspected the cloud's nuclear origin. By the time Ivan was with him, there was a camera, which the man did not fail to use. Click! Made! It's just that Sharonin forgot to move the frame, so the photo will appear above a portrait of children who were photographed yesterday. Is the frame broken? Technically, yes, but it turned out to be very atmospheric and even symbolic.
Live Murder
In the early 1960s, Japan was in a difficult political situation. On the one hand, the universal worship of the United States. On the other hand, the sympathetic strength in the communist USSR and China was growing. Inejiro Asanuma led the Socialist Party and strongly advocated cooperation with the "Reds".
This 61-year-old politician strongly opposed the US-Japan security treaty, according to which the United States was able to establish military bases in Japan. "The United States is the common enemy of the Japanese and Chinese peoples!" – This sentence was the slogan of Injiro Asanuma. Under his influence, mbad demonstrations took place in the country, after which US President Dwight Eisenhower canceled his visit to Japan.
At the same time, Inedziro was not reluctant to use the then popular American propaganda methods. On October 12, 1960, elections were held in the lower house of the Japanese parliament. The leader of the Socialists decided to use them for a televised debate with opponents.
Cases of opponents of close relations with the United States were not numerous. InEdziro Asanuma realized how bad Japan was without China and the USSR, but right-wing opponents constantly shouted: "Shut up, Communist!", "Banzai, America!" . At one point, the policemen who followed the order decided to remove the noisiest troublemakers from the room.
At that time, 36 photographers from the Japanese newspaper Mainich Shimbun attended the proceedings. Nearly all have sought the police in the hope of catching the juicy cadres of the confrontation between the rights agents and the police. But Yasushi Nagao decided to stay. He loaded a special Graflex Speed Graphic press camera with a tape and was ready to film what was happening on the stage. But he has hardly imagined that he should be photographing something as awful as it happens in the next few moments.
While at the exit, the police were pushing with howlers, a guy in school uniforms separated from the crowd. He jumped on the stage with blazing speed. Inejiro Asanuma turned and leaned instinctively aside. The next moment, the teenager pushed a politician into the side of a 30-centimeter blade of a short wakizashi samurai sword. The killer and the victim rolled on the stage. There, dozens of people rushed to separate the two. Until now, no one understood what was going on.
The photographer Yasushi Nagao then recalled that he had noticed from a boy a man rushing towards an old politician with what he thought was a small stick in his hands. Will Inejiro be beaten? The beginning of the incident Yasushi has not had time to remove, but he is prepared for the pursuit. The hands already reach the killer, the wounded leader of the Socialist Party tries helpless to repel the second attack. A moment before the fatal blow, Graflex Speed Graphic took a picture for newspapers and magazines around the world.
Meanwhile, the killer is still crooked. He turned out to be 17-year-old Otoya Yamaguchi, son of Colonel Simpei Yamaguchi, a staunch defender of the far right. The sword was found in the father's larder a week before the attempt. Condemning the guy really did not have the time. Three weeks after the incident, he hanged himself in a cell for juvenile offenders. Inetsiro Asanuma died of injuries one hour after the attack.
From all this history won except that Yasushi Nagao. His photo has received dozens of prestigious awards, including the World Press Photo and the Pulitzer Prize. Nagao became the first Japanese to receive this honor. The glory that fell on him allowed the man to travel a lot, which for the Japanese of that time seemed like something incredible. In 1962, Yasushi Nagao quit her job in a newspaper and became an independent photographer. He died at the age of 79 in 2009.
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