From the first moment my wife discovered
she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even
ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have
received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than
mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started
this blog…
It’s funny, but it’s
not that the whole breast cancer ordeal feels over.
It’s not over. My
wife continues to live in the shadow of the aftermath. Sort of like the old
move, “The Day After”.
On November 20,
1983, American television aired a movie that realistically explored what would
happen if there was a real exchange of nuclear weapons between the US and the
Soviet Union. It had a profound effect in that rather than focusing on the war itself
– though it did show the explosion of warheads on US soil and over cities – its
purpose was to explore what happened to normal people left with virtually
nothing.
I watched it from
Toronto, Canada and was completely creeped out. I said several times to myself
and those I was watching it with. The fact that Korean Air Lines flight 007 had
been shot down by the Soviet Union, killing all 269 passengers and crew aboard
on September 1, 1983 (including 62 Americans and others from 16 countries) – a mere
eleven weeks earlier; only made it more real.
There was drama
there, as there was drama in the initial years of the breast cancer diagnosis.
But we’re now in
the long-term effects of the diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.
What has Hollywood
done representing the long-term effects of nuclear war? It didn’t have to do
anything. Documentary film makers visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan almost immediately
after the bombing while others went sixty years later and interviewed
survivors.
I haven’t seen
these movies, but I DID see “The Day After”. I think that my life right now, as
well as that of my wife, is in the exploration of the aftermath of the
destruction of our lives. She is a survivor, assuredly. I am a survivor of a
sort. Maybe I need to see if there are movies about people who lived on the
island of Etajima, which was an island in Hiroshima Bay, south of the main
city. What were their lives that day? What are their lives like now? Are there
any survivors who lived there who have been interviewed?
Has their story
ever been written?
Hmmm…I also just
had an idea last night about a person who collects the six flags that astronauts
left on the Moon. Could I meld this into something that would reflect my
thoughts about living on that island and loving a survivor of the first atomic attack
in Human history – and using it to explore my thoughts about being the husband
of a breast cancer survivor? We’ll see.
Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyy9n8r16hs,
https://www.reviewstl.com/the-list-movies-about-the-bombing-hiroshima-nagasaki-0726/5/,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Documentary_films_about_the_atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki
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