The Problematic Wilfred Burchett & Forbidden Reporting from Hiroshima

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Would it have made a difference to Watergate if, years later,  Woodward & Bernstein had reported on the prosperity of Cambodia and the largess of Pol Pot? Perhaps it would cause you to  wonder about their interpretation and judgment, overall, but becoming a lickspittle to the atrocious Pol Pot wouldn't have changed the facts surrounding Nixon's abysmal behavior. Such is partially the case with the Australian reporter Wilfred Burchett (1911-1983), who enjoyed an interesting, combative, contrarian and occasionally awful carreer around moments of great insight, courage and brilliance.  

 It is Burchett’s reporting from Hiroshima that attracted my attention--his was the first report made by an Allied reporter.  Against explicit and direct orders, Burchett traveled south from Tokyo to Hiroshima to bear witness to the bombing.  Noting could prepare him for what he saw in the devastated ruins—or in the people who survived the blast.  What he found to his great shock was that one month after the explosion was that people were still dying—slow, tortured, horrific deaths, a toxic visual tableaux  He saw that they were dying of the effects of the explosion, though not from the blast itself.  The interviews he did with medical personnel on the scene confirmed his own confusion—no one knew what was killing these thousands of people.  Burchett called it “the atomic plague”.  What he was witnessing was lethal radiation sickness. He published his observations in a story called  “Atomic Plague”  in the Daily Express, on 5 September 1945. 

The official government position was that there was no lethal radiation generated by the atomic bomb.  The government and the sixth column (in general) came down very hard on Burchett, saying that he was an agent of the Japanese working to win sympathy for that country.  That, or he was a Communist spy. Or that he was just wrong.  Or crazy.

The New York Times published a story on 12 September, 1945, rebuking Burchett’s account of “plague” as “Japanese propaganda”:  "US Atom Bomb Site Belies Tokyo Tales: Tests on New Mexico Range Confirm that Blast and Not Radiation Took Toll” ran the story. The article was written by William Laurence, a future Pulitzer Prize winner. 

At about the same time another journalist—the American George Weller—made his own harrowing way to Nagasaki (again against orders from General MacArthur) to report on the damage done by the bomb.  Although Weller’s interpretations of the bomb and its use were diametrically opposed to Burchett’s ("The atomic bomb may be classified as a weapon capable of being used indiscriminately, but its use in Nagasaki was selective and proper and as merciful as such a gigantic force could be expected to be.”), his story was censored and seized when submitted for publication. 

It would take several years for the story of radiation poisoning to reach the general public, and for the government to reverse its earlier position.

In the meantime Burchett moved on to other provocative and unfortunate things.  After covering the war for four years through the Pacific and Europe, he moved on to middle Europe, reporting on the ghastly show trials of the Soviet regime, and for the most part taking the sides of the prosecuting agents.  He also covered the Korean War for a far-left leftie publication, taking the side of the Chinese. (In one infamous bit, Burchett reported from North Korean and Chinese POW camps, saying that they were like comfortable Swiss retreats.)  And then on the some eye-squinting, not-so-great observations from the North Vietnamese viewpoint in the 1960's.  And then of course there was the whole Khmer Rouge pro-Pol Pot romance--which I just can't see any way around. I don't know what happened to him on this one. (I should say that Pol Pot was brought into power by a CIA-backed coup and received support and largesse from the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Thailand and Australia, among others. The detestable, scumbag genocidist died in his sleep only a few years ago, another totalitarianist gone terribly wrong after receiving arms and money from my country.)

But there was a time when Burchett did deliver a story and delivered it well.  His reporting from Hiroshima is a classic of pursuing the logic of observations--and it stands still in light of all of his future missteps.