Asia

This is the most underdeveloped section of our website. The experiences of Deaf Asisans during World War II are not well-known to us. This may be due in part to the remenants of a Closed Door policy of the East and Western civilization’s perchance for being ethnocentric.

Under the Deaf Americans section we have a bit of information on bombing of Pearl Harbor and Deaf Japanese-Americans who were interned. Under the Deaf Europeans we have information from David Bloch on his exodus to Shanghai, China – the port of last resort. This was one of the few places in the WORLD accepting Jewish immigrants only later to be occupied by Japan. In David Bloch’s testimony we also have words from his wife, Lilly, a Deaf Chinese woman David met in Shanghai and married.

Lost to us presently is the fate that Deaf Chinese must have experienced during the “Chinese Holocaust” where thousands of Chinese were raped, mutalated, and slaughtered under the Imperial Army. The same is true for what Deaf Russians must have encountered under Nazi Germany’s offense against the USSR and the iron rule of Stalin.

What we thankfully have is permission from a Japanese book, “Deaf People and the Atomic Bomb” to reproduce the work here for your viewing benefit. The book features Deaf survivors of the Atomic bombing of Japan. By April 1945 Italy and Germany had been defeated by the Allied Powers. Yet the war in the Pacific theatre was still raging. President Truman, who had replaced FDRoosevelt after FDR’s unexpected death, decided to order the use of our only two remaining atomic bombs to bring the war to an end to save American soldiers’ lives and to allow The US to end the war without needing to depend on help from the USSR.  Hiroshima, Japan was the first city to be bombed with the A-bomb on August 6, 1945. After three days and no words of surrender reached Washington, DC., a second atomic bomb was deployed over the city of Nagasaki, which had a Deaf school. The information recorded in this posted book is invaluable to giving us a fuller and more indepth understanding of World War II and its impact on Deaf people.

Clearly, more information and materials are needed in this section. If you have any information, please see the main page for contact information.

Nagasaki Victims

Nagasaki hosted a school for the Deaf, which was destroyed when the 2nd atomic bomb was dropped on Japan in 1945. While thousands of people immediately perished, those outside the center survived to later experience many health complications. Several Deaf survivors would later loose their vision from the blast.