True/False: Break Into Blossom
A replica atomic bomb is sitting on the ground covered with moss, rust and beautiful cherry blossoms; you look closer and the flowers have words on each piece. Sarah Nguyen created this installation as an inspiration from her husband’s short story called “Einstein Saves Hiroshima” where he suggests what would have happened if Einstein never signed never signed off on the Manhattan Project. Her husband Phong Nguyen is an MU English professor.
With help from Justin Shaw, Nguyen created a life sized replica of Little Boy. The atomic bomb Little Boy was one of two uranium bombs that was dropped on Hiroshima in August 6th, 1945 by the United States. This was the first nuclear bomb used in war and had killed 80,000 people instantly. In the story that Sarah was inspired by, he has suggested “What if?”, What if Albert Einstein never signed the letter to President Franklin Roosevelt regarding the Manhattan Project?
She had the viewers of her installation to write wishes for the future on cherry blossoms which then then would put on the bomb. She plans to use these petals for a future art installation. It doesn’t if there wishes are silly or serious, I think she wants people to realize that they are able to think about the future while so many had their lives ended in a instant.
If Little Boy did not detonate and the nuclear era never started than our wold could be very different right now. 8 years ago I went to Hiroshima and saw the memorial for the atomic bomb; this always stuck with me because even when I was 13 I realized how devastating this war was on the Japanese people. This installation interested me because I saw the first hand impact that this atomic bomb did to Japan.
I went to see Break Into Blossom with my best friend. She was in town visiting from Michigan and like me, this was her first time experiencing a film festival. That Sunday was very cold, we had just driven into Columbia from spending the weekend in St. Louis. We first went out looking for the Fabric Prism but because of the weather, it wasn’t up. We walked through downtown and on campus while I gave her a tour. As we walked around, we viewed the art installations on the streets but we decided to check out Break Into Blossom in the lobby of Picturehouse. It was pretty breathtaking when I saw it at first. It looked very realistic and was so beautiful with the light pink cherry blossom petals sprinkled across the moss covered bomb. With further investigation, the petals had wishes on them and they would be used for a future art project.
I would highly recommend this art to anyone that wants to think about alternative histories and “what would happen…?”. As someone that loves history and has a spot in my heart for Japan, I found this to be impactful and made me reflect on how different the world could be without the start of the nuclear era.
