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Documentary director visits Tinian
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Posted on Jul 18 2004
A documentary director whose work on the development of the atomic bomb is currently nominated for an Emmy recently visited the island of Tinian to get a feel of the island.
Stephen Walker, whose dramatic documentary, “A Day that Shook the World” chronicles the period of the A-bombs Fatman and Littleboy from the period of production to the time they were dropped, said his trip to the island got started with the serendipitous finding of a book about the island. “Sitting there on the shelf in shiny, full color, mint condition was this book…well…booklet—big, lovely picture on the front, “Tinian,” with the name Don Farrell on the bottom,” he said.
Walker, who was looking for information on the tiny, little island, had found Don Farrell’s book appropriately titled “Tinian” at a bookshop at the Bradbury Museum in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He had already been making plans to visit the island but had decided to do more research. Upon reading the book, he decided that he must see Tinian for himself and meet this book’s author, Farrell.
“I have no idea how it got there,” said Farrell, when asked how his book got to Los Alamos, New Mexico—the birthplace of the bombs.
Walker visited the island of Tinian not just to meet the author of the book, which he described as “fantastic,” but to breath its atmosphere, meet the locals, and get a feel of the island. He actually got on a plane to compare color photos of the island from 60 years ago to today’s island, just to see the changes that he thought to himself were “dramatic.”
Walker’s documentary, “A Day that Shook the World,” has been nominated for an Emmy award, and Walker himself is in the process of writing a book based on his research. (Tinian PIO)
