Bill Travers: Born Free star's diary reveals horror of Hiroshima A-bomb attack
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Version 0 of 1. To millions he will always be the handsome star of the 1966 film Born Free and the founder of an international wildlife charity of the same name. But the late Bill Travers also led a secret life during the Second World War, far removed from his role as an actor and dedicated conservationist. Travers, who died in 1994 at the age of 72, was an officer in the 4th Battalion 9th Gurkhas and served in Force 136 of the Special Operations Executive, a British army unit which operated behind enemy lines in the Far East. But Mr Travers was also one of the first Britons to visit Hiroshima after the Japanese city was obliterated by an atomic bomb 70 years ago. As a member of a small British Army team sent on a fact-finding mission, he saw the devastation wrought by the “Little Boy” dropped by the US bomber Enola Gay on 6 August 1945. Extracts from his diaries, discovered by Virginia McKenna – his widow and Born Free co-star – have been made available exclusively to the Independent on Sunday. They reveal his shock, horror and, ultimately, his regret that the bomb was deployed. Before his visit to Hiroshima, Travers went to the nearby naval base of Kure, which had been devastated by conventional aerial bombing by US and British aircraft. In his diary, the 23-year-old officer describes the destruction as “worse than ever I have seen bombing before. I have fought Japs for over three years. My best friends have been killed. I have seen atrocities and have positive proof of wholesale murder. I have sat many times myself shaking in fear of death. I know how to hate – but the bombing I have seen here is the worst atrocity I have even seen. I love life and art and beauty – we all do if we are not sadists.” Travers writes that Japanese women and children were “murdered in thousands. I was sick before I even went to Hiroshima, this was, after all, Kure.” A photograph taken of Travers' diary He regretted his visit to Hiroshima, a city obliterated by an atomic blast with the force of 20,000 tonnes of explosives. The Japanese he spoke to warned him not to go there, telling him “Oh, there’s nothing there now”. “I thought I knew what it would be like,” he writes, but admits the reality was far, far worse. The warning given by the Japanese was “the one and only time” he had heard the word “nothing” “correctly used.” At least 140,000 people died in the attack on Hiroshima – some 70,000 on the first day. Others ollowed. The young officer was haunted by the loss of life: “Imagine 100,000 or more, all living one day … It was a day you and I might have lived in our own towns except for the scenery and customs.” He went on to describe Hiroshima as “the biggest cemetery in the world”, and “a place where everything died at once; men, women, children, flowers, trees – every piece of wood and bricks.” The effect of the blast was profound: “The place disintegrated; there were no holes. Bricks became dust. Trees became blackened stubs. Bottles melted and assumed grotesque shapes. Pieces of metal curled and folded like silk. “There were no rags or pieces of paper; those and wooden beams and planks had disappeared as completely as the flowers and human beings who lived there.” The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima at 8:15am on 6th August 1945 Travers walked the city and found, “In all the miles and miles of it, as far as one could see in any direction, there were only a dozen or so buildings standing.” The experience convinced him the bomb should never have been dropped. “I should have enough hatred of the Japanese after the last few years to be able to justify the bombing, enough at least to satisfy my conscience,” he writes. “There is no justification for this bombing.” He describes how he would have rather died in an invasion of Japan, than end the war with atomic weapons. “Had we lost 100,000 more men, and I would gladly have been among them, Japan would have been beaten to her knees, as was Germany.” He goes on: “We have never believed in mass murder. In years to come, the world will learn that the Jap was forced to surrender, but not defeated.” Travers never spoke to his wife about his wartime experiences. “I understand not many people in the forces did talk about the war,” said Ms McKenna. He was awarded the MBE for his war service and left the Army two years after his visit to Hiroshima. Commenting on her late husband’s account of the atomic attack, Ms McKenna said: “These are clearly the abiding, first-hand memories of someone aged 23 who has seen and experienced some of the worst that humankind can inflict on itself.” |