The BBC has apologised after complaints from Japan that comedy quiz show QI belittled a survivor of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Host Stephen Fry introduced Tsutomu Yamaguchi as the "unluckiest man in the world" in a segment about the bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Yamaguchi, who died of stomach cancer last year aged 93, was on business in the city when the bomb dropped, killing 80,000 people instantly and another 60,000 in the months that followed.
After spending a night in Hiroshima, a badly burned Yamaguchi took a train back to his hometown, Nagasaki. That city was bombed on 9 August, killing an estimated 70,000 people. Fry thought it "bizarre" that Yamaguchi, pictured on a large screen between two mushroom clouds, was able to travel by train so soon after the disaster, prompting panellists to poke fun at Britain's public transport. Fry said: "Well, this man is either the unluckiest or the luckiest, depending on which way you look at it."
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Panellist Alan Davies speculated that the bomb landed on Yamaguchi and "bounced off", adding: "He never got the train again, I tell you." Fellow panellist Rob Brydon quipped: "Is the glass half empty, is it half full? Either way it's radioactive. So don't drink it!" The Japanese embassy in London was not amused and sent a letter to the BBC this month accusing the programme of making light of the bombings, which are still a highly sensitive subject in Japan. The BBC also received complaints from Japanese viewers who saw the clip on YouTube .
The BBC and production company Talkback Thames said: "We are sorry for any offence caused. QI never sets out to cause offence with any of the people or subjects it covers. However, on this occasion, given the sensitivity of the subject matter for Japanese viewers, we understand why they did not feel it appropriate for inclusion in the programme." Yamaguchi's eldest daughter, Toshiko Yamasaki, who lives in Nagasaki, said the panellists had "looked down on my father just as the world is moving towards nuclear disarmament". She said her family had joked about Yamaguchi's unlucky experience. "But it is a different story when [he] is treated in that way in Britain, a country that possesses nuclear weapons."
2 comments:
For once I don't mind this kind of official non-apology instead of a real one, as this is total nonsense. The fact the Japanese embassy - not just some nutters on the internet - was involved makes my general opinion of Japan go down just a tiny bit.
The daughter at the end is also quite foolish. That the British wouldn't have the "right" to joke about nuclear weapons in general and her father's luck/unluck in particular is just absurd. I don't even see where he was "looked down on".
This sounds like bureaucrats trying to find something to do to justify their existence. The Japanese can apparently take exception to quite a few things, I recently came across a DVD of the Japanese version of "Red Dwarf", I was confused why a bunch of jokes I dimly remembered were missing and then realised that they'd edited out about 10 minutes of a 30 minute show. Apparently smeg jokes are inappropriate.
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