08/06/14 08/06/14 from pacifica, this is democracy now! of course, from our part, everything that has happened in the last 28 days is clear evidence of war crimes committed by israel. that is tantamount to crimes against humanity. palestinian foreign minister meets with officials at the international criminal court at the hague, human rights watch accuses israel of shooting

civilians fleeing for safety in gaza. we will speak to executive director kenneth roth, and john dugard. then, 69 years ago today, the atomic bomb on hiroshima, japan. we will go to the hiroshima peace memorial park and speak with a survivor. war rather than the people of the united states. i hate war. war makes everyone crazy. in the war, innocent people are killed. the ultimate case, i believe, is the a-bombing.

a two star general is killed in afghanistan, becoming the highest ranked person killed in afghanistan. aikins speak to matt from kabul. up.that and more, coming welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. residents of gaza are returning to devastation on the second day of a 72-hour cease-fire. estimates of the reconstruction cost run as high as $6 billion. 10,000 homes have been destroyed , 5000 have seen major damage. the gaza health ministry says 1900 people have been killed. residents are searching the rubble to pull out possessions and find decomposing bodies. came here in the morning and found instruction everywhere.

chiron books, decomposed children found under the rubble. that used tos serve the people are now destroyed. they want to destroy all the institutions of the gaza strip. >> over 400 children were killed in the assault. according to unicef, some 373,000 children suffer traumatic experiences and need immediate psychosocial support. a unicef spokesperson said the assault has had a catastrophic and tragic impact on gaza's children. that to aextrapolate population the size of the u.s., that it equate to about 200,000 children in the u.s. the damage to schools in gaza has been unprecedented. gaza140 schools so far in have been damaged or completely destroyed in less than a month. >> diplomats from all sides are

in cairo for negotiations on a lasting agreement be on a lasting agreement beyond the 72 hour cease-fire. meanwhile, palestinian officials have met with prosecutors at the international criminal court to push for a probe of initial war crimes. it would grant the court jurisdiction over the occupied territories. the blockadenst and bombing of gaza continue around the world. on tuesday, british activists inupied an arms factory birmingham, unfurling a banner on the roof. the action came hours after foreign office minister called the crisis morally indefensible. >> over the last four weeks, i have done everything that i can in formal and informal meetings to try to convince our colleagues at the current policy on gaza is morally indefensible, that it is not in british

interest, but it will have consequences for us internationally and here at home. in the end, i felt the government's position was not to, as and so i had point of principle, resign. >> we will speak to the director of human rights watch, kenneth roth. a u.s. general has been killed in the latest attack by an insider. major general harold greene died after a soldier opened fire near the capital of kabul. up to 14 coalition troops were wounded. john kirby announced the attack. >> an individual believed to be an afghan soldier fire today into a group of coalition troops at the marshall fahim national defense university in kabul city. there are a number of casualties as a result of the shooting. seriously wounded,

others received only minor injuries. the assailant was killed. i can also confirm that among the casualties was an american general officer. >> general greene was the deputy responsiblefficer for leading coalition troops until the end of the year. he is the highest ranking officer killed in combat since the vietnam war. in west africa, authorities are struggling to contain a record ebola outbreak that has killed about 900 people and sickened more than 1600. sierra leone, which has seen the most cases, has vowed to deploy hundreds of soldiers and police to clinics and homes to enforce the isolation of people that may be infected. in liberia, many health clinics have shut down and family members have been abandoning the corpses of infected loved ones on the streets. in virus is spreading nigeria where authorities report a second fatality and five other cases.

the second fatality was a nurse who helped to treat a u.s. citizen. the united nations is warning of a tire humanitarian situation in eastern ukraine amid heavy clashes between ukrainian separatist forces. the refugee agency says flooding near the border has displaced over 117,000 people including over 6000 in the past week. the humanitarian director john ging said the crisis will worsen so long as fighting continues. violent prevails in conflict areas resulting in a steady worsening of the humanitarian situation. this will continue to deteriorate for as long as violence persists. an estimated 3.9 million people live in areas directly affected by violence. those remaining in the conflict zone face imminent security threats which is increasing in more densely populated areas. fighting has caused significant

damage to the infrastructure, affecting the power and water supplies and access to basic services. >> nearly half of the names on the terrorist watch list has no known connection to terrorist groups. citing figures, a website reports of the 680 thousand people included, more than 40% are recognized as having no recognized terrorist affiliation. the administration expanded the watchlist system by approving broad guidelines over who can be targeted. asserting that irrefutable evidence are not necessary. the report is based on a u.s. intelligence source prompting the government to acknowledge there is at least a second active weaker after edward snowden. hosting a summit for african leaders and corporate executives in washington. on tuesday, president obama pledged billions of dollars in aid and investment, including $14 billion of corporate spending. >> american companies are

announcing major new deals in africa. blackstone will invest in african energy projects. coca-cola will partner to bring clean water to its communities. ge will help build african infrastructure. marriott will build more hotels. all told, american companies, many with our trade assistance, are announcing new deals in clean energy, aviation, banking, and construction worth more than $14 billion, spurring development across africa and selling goods stamped with that proud label made in america. includes $7ng billion that would go to promoting and subsidizing u.s. exports and investments. the head of the leading argentine human rights groups for families is set to be reunited with her grandson 36 years after he was seized. the grandmothers of the plaza de

mayo started in 1977 when mothers who lost children under argentina's military dictatorship gather to trade stories and provide support. that meeting later started the first of scores of demonstrations and actions against the military leaders. the grandmothers president estela carlotto says she has reconnected with her daughter's son, who was born while she was being held. after the daughter was killed, the son was taken and was given another identity. carlotto said that she tracked dna evidence. for him,a reparation our family, and society as a whole. there are many missing that you need to keep on searching for. thanks to everyone, thanks to god. what i wanted was to not until hugging him and soon i will be able to hug him. thank you. , president ofotto

the grandmothers of the plaza de mayo. those are some of the headlines, democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. >> i'm nermeen shaikh. as the 72 hour cease-fire in gaza enters its second day, palestinian officials have been meeting with prosecutors at the international criminal court to push for a probe of alleged war crimes committed by israel during the 29-day offensive that left 1900 palestinians dead. on tuesday, foreign minister riad al-malki said his administration was making efforts to have palestinian become a member of the icc. part,course, from our everything that has happened in the last 28 days is clear evidence of war crimes committed by israel that is tantamount to crimes against humanity. it is not that i am saying as a

beinginian, but it is said by many observers, international experts of international law, who have described this as a war crime. as a result, there is no difficulty for us to build a case. the evidence is there. it is clear for people to see and collect. >> israel said it attempted to civilian casualties and accused hamas of putting its people in harm's way by launching rockets within densely populated districts. last month, israel's ambassador to washington ron dermer dismissed the charges of war crimes. he said --

those were the words of israeli ambassador ron dermer speaking last month at the christians united for israel summit in washington, d.c. >> earlier this week, human rights watch released a report accusing israeli soldiers of shooting and killing fleeing palestinians near the village of khuza'a. the report was based on testimony from ashraf ibrahim al-najjar who was trapped in his home for seven days and then was shot at when he tried to leave. >> they were shelling us. artillery shells and missiles while we were inside the house. contact to get out and the red cross. no one responded. they said there was no coordination with israel the authorities so the shells came down on our head and the building where we were staying. we stayed there for three days under missiles and shelling.

>> ashraf ibrahim al-najjar speaking to human rights watch. for more we are joined by kenneth roth, executive director of human rights watch. can you talk about this finding of human rights watch in khuza'a ? >> this was a truly tragic case.

as your segment showed, khuza'a is a small town in the southern part of gaza. beginning july 21, it was the subject of fairly relentless bombardment. after a couple of days, families slowly tried to leave khuza'a for the larger city nearby open to find refuge. as you would do in a situation like this, they raise white flags, did everything they could to make clear they were not militants, but on several different occasions, israeli forces shot at them and killed some among the people fleeing. as if they were dammed if they stayed, dance if they fled. there lies were in jeopardy either way. >> can you explain why human rights watch has advised the palestinians to go to the international criminal court about these war crimes?

what would be the advantage of doing so? >> despite the israeli ambassador's claim that israel deserves a nobel peace prize for its extraordinary restraint and care to spare civilian lives, human rights watch is seeing from the ground, based on investigations in gaza, that that is anything but the case. no matter how may times the israeli military spokesperson screams human shields, most of the people being killed in gaza are being killed because israel is paying insufficient care to saving civilian lives. there has been case after case in which israel has used the wrong weaponry or has shot at people with civilians around. in our view, these are war crimes. neither israel nor hamas has any record of bringing its war criminals to justice. and to be fair, hamas is also committing more crimes by indiscriminately sending rockets into populated areas of israel. impunitythat complete

within israel and gaza, the only recourse we see is to the international criminal court. palestine, having now been recognized by the general assembly as a state, actually is entitled to ratify the international criminal court thety, or simply to invite icc to come in and conduct an investigation. i do not quite understand what the palestinian representative was doing in the hague. this is not just a matter of going and discussing whether the court might get involved. they should stop the charade and invite the icc in. the reason they are not doing it , of course, is probably twofold. the u.s. government and other western governments are putting pressure on the palestinian authority not to do that, threatening to withhold aid and all kinds of severe consequences. this is their effort to protect israel. the other factor which may be playing a part is hamas'

vulnerability to prosecute as well. the bottom line is, this charade theot real and we hope palestinian authority will get off the fence and go forward and actually invite in the international criminal court as the only realistic prospect for bringing justice to the many victims of these war crimes. >> i want to go back to another one of the palestinians that human rights watch interviewed about the attacks on civilians in gaza. this is kamel ibrahim al-najjar. >> i was safe at home when the bombs were coming down. for no reason, i don't have any fighters or anything in the house. it was just me and my family in the house.

we decided that the situation was not going to work. we need to get shelter under anything, anywhere. >> that is kamel ibrahim al-najjar. kenneth roth, talk about the significance of what he was

saying. onone thing israel keeps stressing is they are issuing warnings to people to leave their homes as a way of protecting them from this kind of bombardment. to israel's credit, that is a good to to do. the problem is, merely issuing a warning does not make it fair game to then attack or ignore anyone who remains. civilians remain at home for lots of reasons. many just cannot bear to leave their home, some are infirm, some do not know where to go, some are paralyzed by fear. what we stressed over and over to the israelis, even going back to the wars with hezbollah, a warning is not a enough -- enough. they have to do everything they can to avoid civilian casualties. what we are finding is once these warnings are issued, it is fair game. for example, "the new york times" did a study about heavy artillery, which is utterly

inappropriate in a densely populated area. this kind of artillery is considered accurate if it lands anyplace within a 50-meter radius. there are a lot of civilians in that area. it has a fragmentation and blast effect of 300 meters. lets offss, israel barrages of these heavy artillery's. or they will bring in their air force and simply bomb, even though there are many civilians in the area. it is almost as if once they they can doning, what they want to the neighborhood. >> can you talk about categories of war crimes you are looking at? when you talk about civilians being shot while they are earlier,like we heard in which your report is about in khuza'a. >> to shoot at a fleeing civilians is an obvious war crime.

that is deliberately killing a civilian, a noncombatant. we are also looking at situations in which the israelis are using indiscriminate means, such as heavy artillery, in heavily populated areas. laws require you to focus narrowly on a military target. we are looking at other instances where israel has isgeted a structure which not a legitimate military target, a civilian home. often they will say this was the home of a hamas commander and then they will blow it up even though it was a family home and there is no evidence the commander was there. that often result in civilian casualties and that, too, is a war crime. and there are cases where there may be militant there but israel fires even though there are many civilians around. for example, when they hit the beach café killing nine people watching the world cup, that was

a wholly inappropriate time to shoot. be goinghey claim to after a militant, hit his family's home, and killed 25 civilians breaking the ramadan fast. this is the portion of harm to civilians, a war crime, regardless of whether there was a militant in the vicinity or not. the first time that human rights watch has accused israel of war crimes since 2002? >> i wish that were the case but no, they seem not to learn. theave gone through this in prior gaza efforts, in the hezbollah war. i went in andh, briefed the senior israeli lawyer for the military describing many of the same problems. you cannot just issue a warning and assume that everyone left. they are completely on notice. we have accused them of this in the past. they just keep on repeating it. it almost seems to be by design,

to make the people of gaza pay a price because hamas is rolling over them. logic that same hamas uses. israel elected netanyahu, so all civilians are fair game. or all males might go into the military, so we can fire rockets. crime logic. >> we are going to break and then come back to this discussion with kenneth roth. moment.be back in a [♪]

this is democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman, with nermeen sheikh. continue our discussion about possible war crimes in gaza. riad al-malki said that they were making efforts to become a member of the international criminal court. prosecutors. for us it was important to get acquainted with the work of the icc and what is being required .or palestine to get access what has happened recently against the palestinian people in gaza, atrocities committed by israel, requires immediate action from us. , ready to ask questions, to be referred to the

next. >> joining us from the hague is john dugard, the show u.s. rep , also at the university of leiden in the netherlands. he recently wrote an article called "debunking israel's self defense argument." is also with us from washington. john dugard, as the talks continue and the tally is done of the wounded, of the dead, it looks like close to 1900 palestinians have been killed, thousands have been wounded, 50000 homes destroyed, homes severely damaged. can you talk about the whole

issue of the international criminal court? has explainedh the basis for jurisdiction. palestine is not a party to the rome statute. in order to become a full member of the court, it would have to be a party to the rome statute. i think it is important to realize, in 2009, following operation cast lead, palestine referred a declaration calling all crimes in palestine to the icc. 2012was rejected in early because at that stage, palestine

was not recognized as the state. but later in 2012, the general assembly did recognize palestine as a state. it isposition is that possible for the prosecutor of the international criminal court to exercise jurisdiction, to initiate the investigation without any more due. this is confirmed by the fact that in the last few weeks, the minister of justice and the deputy minister of justice in palestine have submitted documents to the international criminal court indicating, that as far as they are concerned, the 2009 declaration is still valid. confess, i hold the prosecutor of the icc partly responsible, that no proceedings have been initiated against israel and hamas for the international criminal court.

>> john, you have also made apartheids between south africa and the situation in the occupied palestinian territories. could you elaborate on what you think the similarities are? if i look at the situation in palestine, which i know very well, as former special rapporteur, as i look at it as a former south african, i see prevailingcumstances in palestine as part in south africa during apartheid. i think it's important to look at the situation in terms of the 1973 united nations convention on the suppression of apartheid, which defines apartheid and applies it to situations beyond

southern africa. essentially, it requires three conditions. first of all, that there should be two groups here. here there are the palestinians and the israelis. secondly, that the government group commits inhumane acts against the subject group, and that is clearly happening in the occupied palestinian territory. israel has subjected the palestinians to all sorts of inhumane acts. thirdly, it should be done with the intention of maintaining the nomination. one can go that inference from the presence of settlers in the one hask because today some 600,000 settlers in the who constitute a

colonial enterprise. as with all colonies, the , they subjecte the colonized people to domination. so if one looks at these three conditions, i think it's clear, in terms of the 1973 convention on apartheid, israel's policies and practices in the occupied palestinian territory are tantamount to apartheid. >> how do you respond to israel's argument that it was attacking gaza in self-defense? your article is entitled "debunking israel's self defense argument." could you lay out what you say there? >> it is important that israel portrays itself as the victim in the present context. bothhe president obama and houses of congress have endorsed

the view that israel acted in self-defense. i see the situation, it is different. gaza is an occupied territory, as part of the occupied palestinian territory. the fact that israel has withdrawn its ground troops, or have before the present incursion, does not mean that it is no longer the occupying part. it has always retained control over the territory of gaza. that is the test in law, effective control. gaza by means of the land crossings, by controlling the air and sea space, and by carrying out repeated incursions into the territory. so given the fact that gaza is an occupied territory, it means that israel's present assault on gaza is simply a way of

enforcing the continuation of , and the response of the palestinian militants should be seen as the response that occupied people wishes to resist the occupation. it has taken this resistance into israel itself but it still remains resistant. i think it would be helpful to gaza inoccupation of the same context as one might see the occupation of the netherlands during the second world war by germany. it is an occupied territory and if israel uses force against the territory, it is not acting in self-defense but as an occupying power. united nations senior rights official said last week she believed israel was deliberately

defying international law in its defensive in gaza. this is navi pillay. >> previous fact-finding missions have been out there, the same kinds of attacks are schools, on homes, hospitals, u.n. premises. none of this appears to be to me accidental. there have been clear warnings by these veryel eminent commissions of inquiry, and follow-up commissions of inquiry, and therefore i would say that they appear to be defying, deliberate defiance of obligations that international law imposes on israel. >> i want to return to remarks made by secretary of state john kerry who was speaking on the bbc with zainab badawi on tuesday. >> we defend israel's right to

defend itself and the fact that it was under attack iraq its and had to take action against thomas. behaved in the most unbelievably shocking manner of engaging in this activity and yes, there has been horrible collateral damage as a result of that which is why the united states worked very hard with our partners in the region with israel, the chechens, palestinian authorities, president of loss, to move to a cease-fire. >> kenneth roth, if you could respond to what john kerry said, to what president obama says is the u.s. position in gaza as well as the united nations position? >> john kerry deliberately stresses the self-defense argument, which john dugard was talking about as well. you can argue whether this will self-defense against the rocket attacks or whether it was upholding the siege of gaza. rather than getting into that,

it does not really matter. whether israel was the aggressor or the defender, it has a duty to comply with the geneva warentions, the laws of designed to spare civilians as much as possible. that is what navi pillay was talking about. you can be fighting in self defense and still commit or crimes, which is one way to characterize what israel is doing. prevent rocketo attacks does not justify deliberately targeting civilian structures, using methods of warfare that are indiscriminate, targeting militants when there are many civilians around so it will be a disproportionate cost to civilians. these are war crimes. it does not matter if you were putting in self-defense. that is what the geneva conventions are about. they are neutral in terms of who was the aggressor and the defender, they just look at how you fight the war.

both hamas and israel are fighting in violation of the geneva convention. the obama administration's support for israel and the difference it would have made weeks ago if they had criticized israel? the story of this last weekend was after the last attack on a u.n. shelter, the u.s. said enough, and as soon as that happened, they stopped. >> that is a good illustration. about humanit is shields and we are trying to avoid human casualty. in that case, there were three guys on a motorcycle that they wanted to target. they could have waited a minute before they had driven on a bit and then attacked when no one else was around, but no. they attacked them when they are outside of a u.n. school sheltering 3000 displaced people. and surprise, surprise, many of those people are injured and killed.

at that point, the u.s. said we have had enough. this is outrageous. they should have said that weeks ago. that may have pushed israel to stop these methods of warfare, but the reflex in washington is to support israel no matter what and to not talk about the way it's fighting, just to talk about self-defense and the hamas rocket attacks. yes, everyone wants to see the indiscriminate rocket attacks end, but that is not justification for israel itself using these indiscriminate means to kill hundreds and hundreds of civilians. >> can the u.s. be charged with war crimes as well? common law, felony murder, it is the one that commits the crime and the one that provides the gun. 1400 palestinians killed. the u.s. said that they were resupplying israel with ammunitions. >> i would not hold your breath on prosecution, but you bring up

a valid point. under u.s. law, the u.s. should not be sending weapons when they will be used to commit war crimes. send thes. wants to iron dome antimissile defense to israel, no one will quarrel with that. but to continue sending is really kind of weapons it using to commit war crimes in gaza should not. even ronald reagan stopped sending cluster munitions to israel when it was using them indiscriminately in lebanon, but president obama is not going to touch that. >> according to human rights watch, are hamas and israel guilty of equivalent war crimes? >> i do not get into equivalence. they are both committing more crimes. crimes are firing aimeds which are being towards civilian areas like tel aviv.

that is the war crime of firing indiscriminately. deliberately is targeting civilian structures, in some cases, deliberately targeting civilians, aiming at militants when they are surrounded by civilians and you know the civilian harm will be disproportionate, and using certain weapons like heavy artillery in densely populated areas, which is like the hamas rockets. response?gard, your i agree but i think it's important to realize, under the rome statute, a state which assists, aides, or vests a state in an international crime is also guilty. i suspect one of the reasons why the united states is opposed to them joining the icc is inevitably come its own complicity in these crimes will

become an issue. >> we have to leave it there. thanks for being with us, kenneth roth, executive director of human rights watch. john dugard, thank you for being with us from the hague. now with the university of leiden in the netherlands. we are back in two minute. minute. [♪]

is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman, with nermeen sheikh. afghanistan where a two star u.s. general was killed in what the pentagon calls the latest insider attack by an insider. occurred at a british run military academy near the capital of kabul. wasr general harold greene shot at the marshall fahim upional defense university. to 14 coalition troops were wounded in the attack. general greene is the highest-ranking u.s. official killed in combat and the vietnam war. >> to talk about the

implications of this, we are joined by matt aikins, who was based in kabul, afghanistan looking at insider attacks. welcome back. talk about the significance of the killing of general greene. attacks, asider people call them, green on blue 2012.s, spike in the only way they were able to stop them was by drastically curtailing contact and training with security forces, which is a key part of the plan to transition to getting out of afghanistan. this kind of attack shows how deep the problem runs. comeat the highest levels up with a group of highly secured a senior officers, can do damage and restrict the they have with afghanistan's. >> why was general greene targeted?

he is responsible for overseeing the transition and withdrawal of troops. >> it was probably just an attack of opportunity. think i saw a group of officers from a window and started shooting. i do not think he knew who they are but that they were important targets. >> what might change regarding u.s. policy regarding the 10,000 troops that are likely to stay in afghanistan? >> it will accelerate the case for getting out. the plan right now is to have all of the military force out by 2017. it will probably only give impetus to that. there is a lot of concern with what is happening in iraq, where you have a disintegration of a lot of the forces. called "ate a piece u.s.-backed militia runs amok in afghanistan." what did you find in afghanistan? >> three men that have been rounded up were then handed over

to an illegal militia that they were cooperating with in the local area, and that militia then executed those three men. they.s. military said that thought the men were released unharmed and even denied working with the militia. when we spoke to the militia leader, he admitted to killing them and said u.s. special forces supplied him with money, weapons, and training. >> you have lived in kabul or many years. how common is an incident like that? >> a lot more than we realize. in this case, it takes a couple of weeks of on the ground research to unearth something that was denied by the military. thousands hundreds of of weapons that were sent to afghanistan which the pentagon says it cannot find. >> yes, half a million weapons that have gone into a country suffering from war. >> matthew aikins is an

award-winning journalist, going back to kabul. recently investigated possible war crimes in afghanistan in an article for al jazeera called "a u.s.-backed militia runs amok in afghanistan." at 8:15ars ago today a.m., the u.s. dropped the world's first atomic bomb on hiroshima. shockwaves, radiation, and he waits to the lives of 140,000 people. three days later, the u.s. dropped a second atomic bomb on nagasaki, killing another 74,000. >> earlier this year, democracy now traveled to hiroshima and visited the hero shema peace memorial park. among others, i interviewed a survivor of blast named koji hosokawa. domeoke next to the a-bomb , one of the few structures in

humor she that survived the blast. i began by asking him where he was at the time the atomic bomb fell. at 1.i was three kilometers away to the northeast of the area. i was exposed to the bomb there. there was a building which was a very stout welding -- building. recklessly, i survived. >> how old were you? >> 17 years old. >> what were you doing in the building? around the end of world war japan wereoughout drafted and sent to the battlefields, adult men. there was a labor shortage.

in order to have some people places, olderious than the children, we were mobilized and worked in various places. so they could not study. i was one of those mobilized students. building,ing at that a communications bureau, and today it is a telephone company. people thought the imminent landing of u.s. allied forces. i was there in order to have some communication lines established.

miraculously,, -- i survived, but my younger sister, she was also mobilized to work. about 700, 8 hundred meters away from the hyper center and she was exposed to the bomb there. students.th the other in all, 228 people were there with her. all of them were exposed to the bomb. my biggest sorrow in my life is about my younger sister dying in the atomic bomb. >> on that day? yes, she died on that day.

but in many cases, family members could not find their children's bodies. in my sister's case, fortunately, she was carried to a relief station outside of heuer shema city and could shema city andr could receive some care, but unfortunately, she died there. many people were missing. i thought it was very fortunate that we could have her body. at that time, that was a fortunate case. >> how old was she? >> 13 years old. she became 13 recently at that time. >> she died of radiation

sickness or the actual effects of the blast? >> in those days, we did not know it was an atomic bomb. no one knew it was an atomic bomb. i was around this area because i did not know about the bomb. i was very close to the hyper center, but i stayed around that area. the japanese people in those days new nothing about atomic ions. if i had known that, i would to asled from the city far as possible. >> where were your parents? >> they were outside hiroshima

in the suburbs. so the house was ok. >> how did they find it? day, i walked all the way home. there was nothing here. through the burned-out city, walked through the city. >> what did your parents say when they sell you? -- saw you? >> my mother was away at the

.elief station soon after that, my sister came home in a coffin. she was burned all over her body. but fortunately, her face was ok. she was almost naked. all of her body was burned. this is only one of the cases, just one case of many people that experienced similar situations. later.st 69 years it was the united states that dropped the atomic bomb.

how do you feel when americans hiroshima?to her hate war, rather than the people of the united states. i hate war. crazy.es everyone in the war, innocent people are killed. and the ultimate case, i believe, is a bombing. a a-bomb survivor, do you believe the u.s. should apologize for dropping a bomb on your city?

the a-bomb was dropped in hiroshima and one in nagasaki. i think atomic bombs were dropped not just on our cities .ut on all human beings and so, i have many things to talk about of my experience with , but if the next a-bomb is to be dropped, then the earth will be annihilated. understand, the

earth is going to be annihilated. so whenever i talk, i want them to understand this. , untilce memorial park the a-bomb, people lived here. .verything was destroyed everyone died around this area. the peace memorial park is a beautiful park today with so , but later they planted small trees and after decades, these trees became bigger and now we have a beautiful park today. i tell the visitors about this, too. i want to understand, people lived here.

please tell the people that people used to live here. war makes everyone crazy. >> hiroshima survivor koji hosokawa speaking at the hiroshima peace memorial park. his 13-year-old sister's diary has been published as a book. special thanks to our translator and democracy now of japan, as well as john hamilton and dennis moynahan. if you want to see our coverage from japan, go to democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013.