event

Atomic Echoes: Untold Stories from World War II

Tue. September 9th, 20254:00 PM - 5:30 PM (EDT)
Washington, DC

A Hiroshima woman whose mother pulled her from their burning house. A U.S. Army veteran who assisted in the autopsies of bomb victims. A Texas Marine who can still recall the searing burns on survivors’ skin. These are the faces of nuclear war, captured in Atomic Echoes: Untold Stories from World War II, a new PBS documentary. Eighty years on from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, eyewitness accounts from the increasingly few survivors and veterans take on a renewed urgency as nuclear weapons return to the center of global politics.   

What role can remembrance play in an increasingly volatile and violent world? What lessons can be learned from the Japanese hibakusha and atomic veterans, each bearing lifelong physical and psychological scars, about forgiveness following conflict? And what does it mean to pursue peace today? 

Join the Carnegie Endowment’s Jane Darby Menton for a special screening and conversation with Atomic Echoes director Beatrice Becette and producers Victoria Kelly and Karin Tanabe, who also feature in the documentary, as they examine the enduring legacy of the nuclear age on opposite sides of World War II and the world.  

In-person event only. A light reception will follow.

Arms ControlNuclear PolicyJapan
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
event speakers

Beatrice Becette

Blue Chalk Media

Beatrice Becette, director and co-producer of Atomic Echoes: Untold Stories from WWII, is a New York City–based filmmaker who tells stories that spark connection and illuminate the threads that link us across time, place, and experience. She has worked across genres with clients including National Geographic, Disney, Discovery, Fortune, and The Washington Post. A graduate of American University, she is now a director and producer at Blue Chalk Media.

Victoria Kelly

Author

Victoria Kelly is a co-producer of Atomic Echoes: Untold Stories from World War II and the author of several books on the military and veteran experience, including When the Men Go Off to War and Homefront. The granddaughter of one of America's first "atomic veterans", she is a graduate of Harvard, Trinity College Dublin and the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Karin Tanabe

Novelist and Journalist

Karin Tanabe, co-producer of Atomic Echoes: Untold Stories from WWII, is also the best-selling author of seven novels published by St. Martin’s Press and Simon & Schuster, including A Woman of Intelligence and The Gilded Years. Two of her books have been optioned for television and film. A Vassar College graduate, she is a former Politico reporter and a frequent contributor to The Washington Post.

Jane Darby Menton

Jane Darby Menton

Fellow, Nuclear Policy Program

Jane Darby Menton is a fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and director of the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference.