Seventy years on since the US dropped atomic bombs on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and my friend Kyoko, who is from Hiroshima but now lives in Cwmtwrch, has begun  to share her experience of what it was like for her family and community to live in the aftermath. She wants to share her story because she cannot bear the thought of it happening again.

Recently, I found out there is a former weapons factory in Flintshire, which was involved in the development of the Bomb prior to the Manhattan project; and I wanted to explore the threads of connection between Rhydwymwn and Hiroshima.

Wales Lab provided the opportunity to go and visit the site along with Poet, Philip Gross, Filmmaker Wyn Mason and Scenographer, David Shearing. We found an extraordinary place with the structures of its former use still evident, and a sense of secrecy still present. We wondered at all the efforts made towards War and to the construction of the Atomic Bomb in particular: from the abstract equations, to numerous tests, to the building of structures to enable nuclear fission, all the many human actions that led to what happened August 6 & 9^th 1945.  And we wondered what a peace explosion might look like? And what might happen if we took over this former factory and gathered experts from around the world and spent billions on creating a huge billowing cloud of peace that would blanket every war.  We’re still working on it – obviously.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnaZ6b1riLo&feature=youtu.be