dump. but now a much anticipated independent report from international experts has dropped a bombshell. that official version is scientifically impossible. >> the group considers there is no evidence to support the hypothesis that the 43 bodies were burned there. we're not saying that other things could have happened, but that event as describe didn't occur. >> the investigators don't know where the students are or if they're alive. what is clear is that federal forces and the army were aware and in some cases even witnesses to the atrocities that did nothing to intervene. despite this mexican authorities did not allow the investigators to talk to army witnesses. key video evidence was also destroyed. >> what's been revealed here is further evidence that the government investigate in this was creepily grade and really made little effort in getting to the bottom of this.

>> the students families have been outspoken about the lack of help to find their loved ones. >> we're going to discover the truth. we'll find the students. that's the biggest fear this government has because they know there have been a lot of mistakes. they hope it would be forgotten. >> i have gone to different areas of this office for now on. the search to find out what happens to the disappeared students is still far from over. john holjohn holman, mexico city.

troops remains contentious. >> no osprey! >> and, in a culture resistant to change, how one woman is blazing new trails. >> in the future, i hope to see mixed race people commonly accepted. >> journey to japan. >> i'm roxana saberi in hiroshima. a city known to many through history books and images seared into our collective memory. when the u.s. dropped atomic bombs here and on nagasaki 70 years ago, it led to the quick end of a long war. for people here and across the world, things would never be the same. we traveled here to japan to learn about the legacy of those fateful days and to look at america's continuing influence on these islands. we begin here in hiroshima and our conversations with two survivors of the atomic bomb. >> it was a bright day with a blue sky, hot and humid like today. what a nice day!

>> setsuko nakamura thurlow was 13 when the enola gay dropped an atomic bomb on her hometown of hiroshima, japan. thurlow saw a bluish-white flash, and the walls around her came crashing down. >> and then i had the sensation of floating in the air. obviously the blast just was collapsing the building. >> a mile and a half away, kenji kitagawa was at school. he was playing the organ before class when he saw the same flash. >> it was followed by a 'bang, bang'. then came a huge blast. i hid behind the organ, but all the students by the windows were instantly burned to a crisp. >> i realized i was pinned under the collapsed building. >> after a while, i regained consciousness. it was pitch dark, and i could hear other students screaming.

>> mother, help me! god, help me! >> i managed to dig my way out. >> by the time i came out, it was burning. that meant most of the girls who were in the same room were burnt to death alive. of course, i didn't know it was a nuclear weapon at that time. >> three days later, on august 9, 1945, the u.s. dropped another nuclear bomb, on nagasaki. within a week, japan surrendered and world war two was over. seven decades on, hiroshima has been rebuilt. so has kitagawa's school... but in the back yard, sits a reminder of its dark past. i asked kitagawa to explain what it means to him. >> it honors the hundreds of students and teachers killed here. after the bombing, there were corpses and bones everywhere. so it's hard for me to come here

again. but the fact is that i survived and many others didn't, so it's important for me to come and pray for them. >> does the u.s. owe you and people like you an apology? >> that's a normal expectation when somebody does wrong against you... we've waited 70 years, it hasn't happened. >> what about the argument that using nuclear weapons on japan helped end the war sooner and maybe saved hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides? >> well, that's american myth. it was obvious to many people it was going to end soon because japan was already incapable of fighting. >> historians debate those points to this day. but thurlow has spent her life determined that nuclear weapons should never be used again. we first met in april when she was marching to the u.n., demanding that countries do more to eliminate nuclear weapons. >> we have been telling the world what we experienced, how

horrible it is and so forth, and nothing is happening. >> now as japan marks 70 years since the bombs fell... the number of people who can describe their memories of that devastation is dwindling. >> i do sometimes feel powerless that the world doesn't really care what happened here, but as long as i have time on this earth, i will keep spreading the word about the dangers of nuclear weapons. >> the bombs could be used again, if they forget our experiences and the meaning of hiroshima and nagasaki. >> people here tell us that when the atomic bomb dropped on this city 70 years ago, even the cicadas chirping in the trees around me fell silent. japan remains the only country to have been attacked by nuclear bombs but in the years that followed, it embraced nuclear energy more than others. harry fawcett reports on how a population recovering from a

nuclear strike has been able to separate nuclear energy from nuclear weapons. >> 70 years ago nagasaki became the site of the world's second nuclear attack. with two cities in radioactive ruins, japan's government made plans for surrender. 70 years on, nagasaki's recovery mirrors japan's remarkable transformation. one that saw its leaders embrace the technology that had defeated the country - to help power its resurgence. >> because japan had suffered from nuclear bombing, so we have a right - they say - to promote and change the possibility of atomic energy. >> it was a policy that coincided with us president dwight eisenhower's "atoms for peace" initiative - with promotional exhibitions across japan. but the sales pitch was made harder by continued u.s. nuclear weapons testing. in particular when a japanese fishing boat,the daigo fukuryu

maru, was doused in the fallout from a u.s. test at bikini atoll. at first matashichi oishi thought it was a strange snowfall... the symptoms came later. >> my face turned black, and my skin started to fall off. but i concealed it from everyone because i didn't want my family and i to face discrimination. >> renewed nuclear fears manifested in cinemas that year: godzilla, raised from the deep by atomic testing, wrought indiscriminate destruction on japanese cities. but as japan began to build nuclear power plants in the 1960s, a very different figure emerged. astro boy was the epitome of moral science - the savior robot powered by a nuclear reactor. his creator always denied he was a pro-nuclear symbol. but the industry still used his image in pamphlets like this, in which he carries nuclear plant to a far-off jungle; where it saves freezing animals and survives an earthquake and tsunami unscathed. >> for decades as japan's economy soared, national

confidence surged, and japanese factories fueled by nuclear energy exported products and know-how to the world - those sorts of promotional messages chimed with what many people in this country were experiencing. but in 2011, faith in nuclear power and the institutions designed to ensure its safety was shaken to its core. >> in the aftermath of the fukushima disaster, every one of japan's nuclear reactors gradually shut down; a majority of public opinion is against restarting them. japan's prime minister shinzo abe has made it clear that just as in the 1950s, such concerns are trumped by the energy nuclear reactors offer a resource poor nation. >> people's opinions are still split. but those who hadn't thought about nuclear power before, started to after the incident - and they began to realize the dangers. >> last month, the reactor at the sendai power plant became the first since fukushima to restart; and with it, japan's fraught, 70-year relationship with the power of the atom.

>> so harry we just saw in your package how there have been a lot of government efforts here in japan to separate the nuclear attacks on this country from the idea of peaceful nuclear energy. it seems pretty amazing, doesn't it, how successful these efforts have been? >> that's right, certainly in the early days when japan had very recently been through the sorts of horrors that are being commemorated here in hiroshima and in nagasaki - a population that had been through that seemed ready within a few years to start embracing nuclear power... the same sort of technology that had been unleashed in such a destructive way. i think you have to remember that there was a very powerful u.s. occupation administration for the first 7 years after the war. followed by a very powerful japanese government which didn't really have much of an opposition to the ruling party here in japan so they did have the levers of power that enabled them to make the decision that as a resource poor country, one that needed to grow economically very quickly, that nuclear power was the way to go. but they also did expend a lot of energy in trying to convince the public that this was the

right option. and for many decades, that was how it went. >> so how has public opinion changed since the fukushima disaster? >> well i think fukushima was perhaps the bookend of this story. you have the nuclear attacks at one end and the fukushima disaster and the tsunami and the earthquake in 2011 at the other end. and a lot of japanese people, i think, felt that their faith in nuclear power was, was shaken and there was kind of almost a unification of the fears of nuclear energy and the kind of fears, the horrors that were visited on hiroshima and nagasaki. >> and one more question... what do you think about the government's argument that there is an economic justification for using nuclear energy here in japan? >> japan is resource poor. it has had since fukushima to import vast amounts of oil and coal and other fossil fuels. so that argument does hold some weight but at the same time, perceptions have shifted so hugely since fukushima that the government at the time promised

to end nuclear power generation by the end of the 2030s. that has been entirely reversed by this current administration. they don't really seem to care that public opinion would suggest otherwise. >> thank you for joining us harry. 70 years ago the end of world war ii brought the u.s. military to many parts of this island nation, changing the character and landscape of this country. coming up, we'll take you to okinawa where a new fight is on to get many of those americans out.

>> from hiroshima and stories about a painful past, we've traveled here to okinawa, where concerns about the u.s.

military are very much a present-day issue. with 32 sites scattered across this island, more than 25,000 american troops are stationed here. the u.s. and japan say these troops are needed to maintain regional security; but through nearly daily protests in the streets, it's clear some of the residents here want the u.s. to go. >> in a northern okinawan village, the toguchis pack up every saturday night, and drive five minutes to protest. [yelling in japanese]. they've come here every week for 11 years, lighting candles and calling on people in passing cars to support their cause. >> we already have a lot of bases in okinawa. we don't want any more. >> naze kichi wo hantei desuka? i asked him why not. >> they could take us into another war.

with more bases, other countries will be more likely to target us. and american troops in okinawa have committed crimes and sexual assaults. if we build another base here, we could have the same problems. >> they're protesting against the construction of a new u.s. military base, called henoko, next to camp schwab. it's set to replace an aging airfield, farther south. >> so the toguchi family lives in the village right over here and you can see across the bay, the place where the new base is supposed to be built. there are plans for multiple runways, helipads, an ammunition and fuel depot and also a pier for docking large ships. >> opposition to the new base is growing louder and sometimes, breaks into confrontations. >> they're saying they're protecting us, but actually i don't think so... like, yeah. i'm afraid of them doing a war here. >> today okinawa hosts half of the 50,000 american troops based in japan. japan and the u.s. say america's presence here is

needed to keep stability in a region where tensions with china and north korea are rising, but the city's mayor told us he wants the u.s. military to leave. >> it's true that both the japanese and american governments view us as the strategic point of military presence, but i think that also means we can be a hub for international trade and cultural interactions. >> the new base, he says, could ruin that potential. >> the planned airfield will destroy the beautiful nature in the area, and it will obstruct our future development. >> it's about a 60-minute drive south from henoko where the new base is supposed to be, to futenma, which is the base it's supposed to replace. we're gonna to head down there to see what residents here are worried about coming to their area. >> kazunobu akamine can see futenma base from his roof. he gave us this video, showing an osprey flying over his

neighborhood, setting off alarms. the u.s. military says it's cut back flights because of complaints like his. >> no osprey! >> i asked akamine whether he wanted the bases to be moved to mainland japan. >> the bases belong to the americans, so they should take them back to america. >> we just finished speaking with a public affairs officer with the marines here at camp foster. she told us she couldn't go on camera, but she explained the reason there are so many american troops here instead of the rest of japan is that this is the place japan's government has offered to the u.s. she also called critics of the american's presence here, a vocal minority. >> and we did find a handful of supporters just outside... scraping tape off the fences, stuck there by protesters. >> having the americans bases here helps keep the peace in asia. i believe most people here

support the bases. >> some okinawans support the bases because they bring jobs to one of japan's poorest regions. at restaurants and bars like this one, most customers come from u.s. bases. >> without the americans, our business would suffer a lot. >> we'd heard some okinawans complain that drinking sometimes leads to rowdiness and fights. we asked this marine from nebraska about it. >> there's fights, but they get in trouble for it... their unit suffers... they go out and ruin it for everybody. >> on the record, the u.s. military told us it's always difficult when two cultures live side by side, but the u.s. will keep trying to be a good neighbor. and japan's government has suspended construction on the new base for a month to hold talks with local leaders. but the toguchis say they'll keep fighting their battle - to keep american forces out of their back yard. >> 11 years sounds long, but i will keep doing this until they

stop the construction of the new base. and even if they don't, i won't give up. >> while the debate over the u.s. presence in okinawa continues, its strategic location means the american military is likely here to stay. up next, we travel to tokyo, where we'll meet the beauty queen who's forcing japan to rethink what it means to be japanese. >> i've been asked to keep my voice down

>> i've been asked to keep my voice down

>> around 127 million people live in this island nation, it's one of the most homogenous countries in the world.

people here who are only half japanese are called "hafu", and when a hafu became miss japan earlier this year, it reignited a discussion about what it means to be bi-racial. >> ariana miyamoto says in her native land of japan, most people see her as a foreigner. >> my appearance isn't asian, but i think i'm very much japanese on the inside. >> miyamoto was born to a japanese mother and an african-american sailor, who left japan when she was a child. in japan, she's called a "hafu", or half-japanese. >> i don't think the equivalent word for hafu exists overseas, but in japan you need that word to explain who you are. >> in pictures from her childhood, with a friend, on the volleyball team and in middle school, miyamoto looks happy. but she says she was constantly bullied, and called kurumbo, the japanese equivalent of the "n" word.

>> i didn't cope at all. i didn't tell my parents or my friends. i was the type to just keep it inside me. >> after two years getting to know her dad in arkansas, miyamoto returned to japan and dropped out of high school. then one day, a close friend, who was also mixed-race, killed himself... inspiring her to find a way to speak out for other hafus in japan. at 20, miyamoto became the first half-black japanese woman to be named miss japan. many cheered, but some japanese complained that she didn't deserve the title. "i don't mean to discriminate," one post read, "but i wonder how a hafu can represent japan". another person tweeted: "i didn't know miss japan doesn't have to be pure japanese. what a shock"! >> what does it feel like when you hear from people that you're not japanese enough? >> i ran for miss japan expecting some criticism, so it wasn't such a big surprise for

me. but of course, those kinds of comments don't make me feel good, so i try my best to turn them into positive motivations. >> how much does japan embrace diversity? >> how should i put this? i think we have a long way to go." >> in japan, immigration is restricted to a trickle... and fitting in is often preferred to sticking out. >> the general feeling here is that we as a nation have a lot of virtues and social cohesion because of homogeneity. >> the reality is that over the last 20 years there has been a doubling of the percentage of the population that's foreigners. >> japan's government says just over 3 percent of children born here every year have a foreign parent or parents - and in this crowded country, this minority is starting to stand out. >> hafus are showing up on tv... and in ads. >> we're in shinjuku, the busiest train station in tokyo,

and when we look up, this is what we see... a japanese-italian model, advertising for a japanese department store. she's the face of a campaign placing importance on japanese traditions, and she's only half japanese. >> ian herman is a hafu, whose father is american. teased as a kid, he turned to rap music. now 16... he's just signed with sony music in japan. >> it's fine to be different as long as you have your own pride, then like no one can stop you. girls love the hafus, so (laughs), you know... there's nothing wrong with that! >> he says it's "cool" that miss japan is a hafu too, because she shows japan can appreciate diversity. >> we're all the same people and we just grew up in japan so, why not be called japanese. >> miyamoto may be making the biggest strides for black hafus by challenging the widespread view here that lighter skin is more beautiful.

>> i don't think much has changed, but in the future i hope to see japan more like america, where mixed-race people are commonly accepted. >> do you have any advice for other young people who are feeling like they're not accepted because of their mixed race background? >> i want them to think 'it's ok to be who you are'. there isn't another you out there and it's no fun when everybody's the same. so i would like for them to believe in themselves and don't care too much about what other people say. >> in researching this story i thought a lot about what it means for me to be hafu. my mom is japanese, my dad is iranian and i grew up in the united states. this is the first time in 20 years i have been back to my mother's homeland. >> these are the crowds... the customs... and the high speed trains i remember from my previous trips to japan. my mom sent me here three times

-- to get in touch with my japanese heritage. i often neglected it, growing up in north dakota, because i wanted to fit in. the last time i was here i was a teenager, teaching english to junior high school students. on this fourth trip, for work, i saw things i didn't see before... more young people asserting their individuality - in a culture that emphasizes the team. on this trip, i learned more about the nuances of being a hafu in japan. i'd never realized that being half black in japan, like ariana miyamoto could be harder than being half-japanese and half-iranian. i wondered if one reason i always felt welcome here was because i'm considered light-skinned. i also felt torn between my mother's native land and mine, after speaking with supporters of america's military presence in japan... and those against it. we're supposed to write messages of peace and hope on parchments

like this. what i feel most strongly on this trip is that despite our differences, we are all, as other hafu here told me, part of one humanity. this is supposed to offer comfort to the souls of the people killed by the atomic bomb... hopefully these messages will resonate somewhere in the world. 70 years after the u.s. ushered the world into the nuclear age, the relationship between japan and the u.s. continues to evolve. in tokyo, i'm roxana saberi. >> could normalization change cuba forever? >> i'm afraid for cuba. >> we ask cubans about their hopes and fears. >> i would love to see my business grow into a transnational company.