Summer to hiroshima and nagasaki. How did this come about . Ifton it was a long time coming. My son wesley brought home a book about a real little girl living in hiroshima who was two years old when it exploded. She survived the bombing but contracted radiationinduced leukemia nine years later. She followed that if you could fold origami cranes you are granted a wish and hers was to live. It did not work she fulton more than 1000 and died of leukemia and again 55. Died of leukemia in 1955. We finally met at the World Trade Center in may of 2010, and at that point hiro invited me to come to nagasaki and hiroshima. Expectationsve about what this trip would be about . Clifton no. Really e i was just wisht know the word, his broughtcontact was what me. His desire that i come that it would be a good idea is what won me over. It didnt take me much persuading. At that point my expectations were wideopen. Caller was this host was this an official trip . Clifton no official capacity at all. Host it got Extensive Press Coverage on both sides of the pacific. Did that surprise you . Clifton it did. I have been told look at we have tried to arrange a lot of press coverage but that it got the play that it did was a surprise. Sense thathave any you were being used toward an aim or a goal . Clifton none at all. His wish was solely to bring us together and symbolically to bring our two countries together in this. Not even for a moment that i think he had any motive than that. Host who went with you . Clifton my wife and my two sons. Host how long were you there . Clifton we were there 10 days. August 1 to august 11 which covers both anniversaries. Citieseled between the by bullet train. We were there for almost a full 10 days. Host was it your first trip to japan . Clifton first ever. Host what were your overall impressions . Clifton it is a beautiful country. They have to live on only 2530 of the islands. The rest is mountainous. Beautiful houses, rice fields, very colorful. Wesley, and bringing home that book years ago, brought home japan into our house. That included sushi, kimonos, travel videos. We began to enjoy the country from a distance as a lot of americans to anyway with anime and japanese fashion and japanese foods. Host and cell phones. Clifton thank you to the japanese for the cell phones. He brought it into our home. There were times during the trip that every once in a while we would look around and go we are in japan it was nice to be in the country. Host you went to these important cities which preserve the history on the use of nuclear weapons, but it is worth knowing the japan itself is struggling with its peaceful use of nuclear because it is still in the aftermath of the meltdown of the reactor. How did that factor in . Clifton in meeting with survivors we met a total of 24 survivors. Five from nagasaki and the rest from hiroshima. Very often in the conversation about their experience 67 years ago came the Current Issues with the fukushima plant and the radiation. I think that really rocked them to the core. Having it happen again. New victims of Nuclear Power. Very many are against Nuclear Power in that country. Clifton host well get started with what is going to be a twohour conversation with video. Most of it was shot by your son. How did that come about . Goingn i was originally on the trip by myself, but as things go people in the family began to be interested, ive began to think about them one at a time. First my wife polly, then i invited my younger boy in the minute i did that polly said, nice move now you have to invite wesley because he started all of this and you cannot leave him out of this. And she was right. Wesley jumped at the chance and is a recent Theater School graduate and weilds amine videocamera wields a mean videocamera. So you will help narrate along the way and set the stage for what we are seeing. We should explain how you ended up he or on cspan how you ended up here on cspan. I have beenarently, working with cspan on adult for 15years on and off for years. Different projects. We have done historic symposia and programs at the Truman Library. It just seemed natural. Host we are interested to see the video and share them with our audience. We will get started with your first visit to the hiroshima you and i say this were differently and i talked about it before i started. Irosheema. H the only person i asked about this was the former mayor of hiroshima, and he said it doesnt matter. Americans pronounce it the way they will pronounce it. The japanese pronunciation is different. They dont put an accent on the syllable, it is more a strengthening i couldnt fathom the escalation very well, but essentially he said it doesnt matter to them. Host both are acceptable to japanese gears. I will do my best to mimic yours. Set the stage for us on the peace park in that city. Large, 1. 4day is million people. Memorial a part of the city . Clifton it is the center. The heart of the city. It is a beautiful park full of memorials of one kind or another. The peace museum itself, the it really is a, beautiful park. Hiroshima calls itself the city of peace. So does nagasaki. There are very much aware of their role in the world as cities of peace. They take it very seriously. It is a beautiful place and central not only to the city itself but to the citys character. Host well see the Peace Memorial park as you saw it on that date. [video clip] [chatter in japanese] host tell us what we are seeing here. Clifton we are standing at the sadako. To you see the statue holding an origami paper crane. The neath that is a bell beneath that isabel. Bell. Eath that is a drapedle memorial is with colored paper cranes. Are put into chains. You do not only see it at sadakos memorial but all over nagasaki. Chains and ropes with bright paper cranes. There you are on camera, the gentleman next year we will see him him a toga we will see him, too. It is funny. Me hiso has not told full story of the experience with the bomb. I dont know if that is on purpose or that we have been occupied with other things, but i do not know exactly what happened to masahiro on that day. It is also impressive the press coverage. Clifton i dont know how american celebrities do it. Host with a asking you questions . They asking you questions . Clifton at this point they are just filming. There is a paper crane hanging beneath the bell. This was masahiro wanted to do this this way and the press was allowing him to do that. I think we will also see his son yugi. Host how old is he . Clifton 42 or 41. They Work Together. Host you get a sense of how urban this memorial is. Clifton this goes up between two rivers. At the tip of the peace park is the bridge which was the central aiming point for the bombers. Host now you are ringing the bell. What is the significance . Clifton ringing the bell to honor the children killed in the bomb. Host is it true they hold the ceremony each year on the bombing date . Clifton each year. 67 years later it is still very well attended. You get close to the date and it is impossible to get a hotel room. Host internationally or mostly japanese . Clifton mostly japanese but we saw plenty of nonjapanese at the ceremony. I dont know if it was this day, but a couple days later we ran into a documentary film crew from iran. Host one thing that i read sent this, the americans the u. S. Ambassador to the peace ceremony for the first time two years ago. Clifton he was there again. Host what is the japanese american view . Why did it take 67 years for an american investor to attend for an American Ambassador to attend . Clifton im not sure. I know that he just wanted to go quietly and take part. Which is essentially what i wanted to do. Host didnt have much luck. [laughter] clifton didnt have much luck at it. He went this year and a slightly more public vein and he was also at that nagasaki ceremony as well. Host we will see a more formal meeting between you and those interested prep people around if around you. Anticipate a press conference . Clifton masahiro and company let me know this was going to happen. It would follow a pattern. We would go somewhere and they would follow us and after we had we would we would do, step off to the side and they would ask questions. Then we would go to the next thing. Host how much thought i did to what you wanted to say before you were in front of cameras . Clifton not enough. M was to go and be present. To listen and be a part of it. I was probably not as prepared as i should have been. At least not as with something that would roll tripping lee off inglyongue roll tripp off the tongue. In the end it turned out to the appropriate. I dont think i ever could have gone there and just nailed something. Host before we hear your answers can you put into words what you were feeling . Clifton i was hopeful. In a couple interviews with Japanese Press here in the states. They were very well received and seemed open to the idea. They liked the idea that stories were well received in japan. I was hoping this would continue but at the same time wary. Not everybody likes the idea. It was not universally accepted to be a good thing that Harry Trumans grandson had shown up at the ceremonies. I was hopeful but wary for what the questions would bring. I was worried, that i would be able to answer them well. Listen in to the questions and how well you did at answering them. This is one of the First Press Conference is onsite in hiroshima with Clifton Truman daniel. [inaudible] [bell ringing] clifton it is hard to put into words. [inaudible] clifton i want to thank masahiro. I am honored to have been invited to hiroshima. Translation] clifton i also want to thank masahiro and eugene for telling and using it as a gesture of peace and reconciliation. Translation] [camera shutters click] first of all, i would like to makingou mr. Daniel, for a decision to come to hiroshima. I thank you very much for your courageous decision. I would like to express my deep felt appreciation for your decision. Perhaps there are various differing views and opinions, but mr. Daniel has embraced them all in his big heart and i thank him for this as well. [speaking japanese] future, you will be traveling to hiroshima and nagasaki as well. I hope we will see things as they really are and in the future, for the next generations children, we will Work Together and come up with to establisheas peace in this world. [speaking japanese] shall we go forward . Over there, is about where the atomic bomb was dropped and this is the epicenter. Japanese]ng host Clifton Truman daniel, we are watching your first visit to the epicenter where the bomb was dropped in hiroshima in august, 1945. We should say that it was a very warm day there. In the background, we are hearing lots of noise of crickets. Clifton cicadas. Host which adds to the heat you are experiencing. You are now moving onto what aspect and what is the significance . Clifton what we were just looking at there is what is commonly referred to as the atomic bomb dome. It was an industrial prefectural hall built in 1918 and had a couple different names. As the war went on they changed it to reflect the wartime footing. It was one of the few western styled stone buildings in hiroshima at the time and survived the blast. Although, the explosion occurred nearly directly above it. Everybody in the building was killed, but the structure survived very much intact, with the steel of the dome still standing. It has become a worldwide symbol for the destruction in hiroshima and the rebirth afterwards. Host as a symbol, how did it resonate . Clifton i got a chill. I had been looking at pictures of that dome for years. It is very common in history and literature about the atomic bombing of hiroshima. I had been seeing it for years. It is really something to stand and look at it and to be near it. Host here is an image of the two of you. The japanese survivor and yourself the grandson of harry truman walking arm in arm. Do you or member that happening and where you struck by the symbolism for the press . When iasahiro first arrived in tokyo there were tough questions about apology. Having fielded some of those and having not been ready for that, i was a little worried i was worried for the rest of the trip. So the rest of that day i fretted on the train going to hiroshima have i done the right thing . Is this going to be a positive experience for people here and in the United States . Is this something i should be doing . In the peacesahiro park when he first saw me, he gave me a hug and threw his arm around me and at that moment i knew that it would be all right. Sahiro, that was very much what we wanted to convey. Coming together. Embarked didyou you seek any guidance from historians or people who worked at your grandfathers library about what to expect and how the symbolism might be read . Clifton i did not. I talked to the folks at the Truman Library regularly. Chatw i was going and we about it from time to time but it did not directly seek advice on how to behave or interpret or take it. Host in retrospect does that seem naive . Clifton [laughter] it might have been. Again, i did not want it to be rehearsed. I did not want to go having the answers, i just wanted to go. Host did you ever feel that you said things you wish you hadnt said . Clifton no. Found from time to time that i wished i had said things better. But i never came away with having said anything that i should not have. Host we should understand, because we have been talking about it, what are your views about your grandfathers decision to drop the bomb . Me. Ton [sighs] forgive i am staying away from that. Im not looking at whether it was the right thing or the wrong thing to do. There are opinions on both sides as masahiro alluded to in those clips. I was simply struck bym masahiros wish to bring people together, the survivors that we had who had the same wish to bring together this reconciliation. Not to debate whether it was a good decision or moral decision. Whether it ended the war early, or whether japan would have capitulated anyway will be debated for a time to come. Grandson,ry trumans no matter how i feel about the decision, or whether it ended the war early or didnt, i can still feel for the people who were affected by that decision. I can still take steps to make sure to do what i can so that we do not do that to each other again. Make thean did decision to end the war shortly after the two bombs were dropped in hiroshima and nagasaki. Andwe will take a look back time at the origins of the war in japan. 1941, as many of you know japan launched a surprise attack in pearl harbor, hawaii. The National Parks service which keeps the more real at pearl harbor which keeps the memorial at pearl harbor has done a series of interviews with survivors. Allowed acer was quart of booze per week. Summary had a black book of the girls names and we were headed over the valley to a party on the beach. Never happened. And i had ad asleep bunkmate named bernie malcolm. The building started rattling. We didnt think too much about it. When we heard a big boom without we better get up and see. We got up and i guess we looked out and saw that it was more than what we thought. You could see a jet plane go up. We went back and got dressed and into the waters edge which was roughly 100 yards and watched the arizona sink and nine minutes. Was just spellbound and could not think what to do. Sailorse ship blew up, started coming ashore with their skin peeling off their backs and their arms. All full of oil. We helped them out of the water and i remember distinctly taking one man named flanagan and took him to the hospital. When you get to the hospital, there was a doctor. The first doctor would look the men over and if he thought he could save him, he would say go here. If he thought he could not save him right off, he went down to the second line and that was the fellows they did not think would make it. The rule was if you are physically aboard the ship, your remains can be enterred in the ship. We are working on a program so that anyone was part of the crew on december 7 can have that privilege. That is number one. In second thing is, back 1981 or before that, my son was an ensign on a ship. Bad that it was too nothing had ever been done so that the fellows on the ship december 7 could not come back and have eight Memorial Service or something. So i worked on that. I succeeded. We had 75 or 100 people who were survivors of the crewna, or a former ships going back to 1960 1916 or their relatives. We got that started and in 1981 we had 300 people out there. , us the way it is. Oh. Yesterday, we went back to the ship which we always do the first a we get in. Then we had a beautiful Memorial Service. I learned how to get the army or the government to do things for you that i did not know before. We had the marine band and the cover guard and the firing squad. Because we were the uss arizona, they closed the memorial up there. All the flags were flying just like on an important day. Beautiful. Who that was joe landel was a survivor of the japanese attack on pearl harbor. In an oral history reported by the u. S. Parks service. We are talking with Clifton Truman daniel who and august made a personal trip with his family to the two cities that harry truman, his grandfather, dropped the atomic bombs on in 1945 and about his Emotional Experience from that journey, sharing video that his son shot. Had to have met lots of american veterans. What is that like . Clifton it often happens after one of these events that the gentleman in their 70s or 80s will come up and shake my hand and look me in the eye and say if it had not been for your granddaddy, i would not be here today. They were staging to invade the japanese main islands. Many had already thought their way fought their way through the Pacific Islands in the campaign. They had been through that and were facing what many considered to be an even worse fight for the japanese home islands. Host this happened some 13 years before you were even born. You are one of four grandsons of harry truman. Do you feel some special responsibility for your family legacy to be looking at the complete history of his presidency . Clifton not looking at the complete history. I have always approach this as a grandson. I looked at him as my grandfather and a human being. So, i have always the books i have written in the programs i have done have been about the private har