Click on the picture to watch the video on YouTube
VAN:TOM:S (aka HELL-O-MATIC) will release their new single ‘Hiroshima’ on April 29, 2022.
This song is a reinterpretation of the band’s 1971 classic ‘Wishful Thinking’.
Due to the world political situation, VAN:TOM:S makes a statement about current affairs with this release, which affects everyone in principle and without exception.
‘Hiroshima’ will be released on Spotify, YouTube, Facebook and all other relevant platforms.
On August 6, 1945 at 8:15 a.m., the American B-29 bomber ‘Enola Gay’ drops the atomic bomb ‘Little Boy’ over Hiroshima. With an explosive force of 13,000 tons of TNT, it detonates at an altitude of 580 meters, killing approximately 50,000 people on the day of impact alone.
The people within a radius of 500 meters are literally vaporized at a temperature of about 4,000°C in a fraction of a second and the subsequent shock wave, with a wind speed of 250 km/h, as well as the subsequent firestorm with a ground temperature of 1,000°C, destroy 80% of the city.
Over the next four months, the death toll rises to 136,000, and to this day, people are sickened and die of cancer as a result of the radiation.
This was the first atomic bomb ever used in a military conflict.
Three days later, another bomb with an explosive force of 22,000 tons of TNT falls on Nagasaki, causing another 64,000 casualties. Thus Japan is forced to surrender, which also extinguishes the last flashpoint of the Second World War.
Due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, President Putin informed the world on Feb. 27, 2022, that he had put his nuclear forces on alert. Perhaps this was only saber rattling, but it does not hide the fact that the world is thus exposed to the danger of a nuclear conflict as it has not been since the Second World War or the conflict in the Bay of Pigs (1961).
What remains is a helplessness of the individual against the plans of the world governments and the functional propaganda, as it always takes place in times of war.
Some despair because of the terrible images that reach us daily through the media.
And others put on blinkers, just in order not to have to look more closely.
The band VAN:TOM:S, which has taken it upon itself not to become politically active in terms of content, also still does not want to take a position on the current conflict. But it certainly sees the real threat of an escalating assault by nuclear weapons.
Through conversations, especially with younger people, VAN:TOM:S has become aware that the atomic bomb and the suffering it is capable of causing is something abstract for very many people, that in times of more than 70 years of peace in Europe can hardly be grasped properly. In order to
prevent this, VAN:TOM:S considers it important to sensitize people to this issue and to indirectly encourage them to deal with this imminent danger. But also to become active within their possibilities and perhaps contribute a little bit to prevent the worst.
Yes, we know, polemic is rarely useful, but in this case it is perhaps appropriate. For this reason VAN:TOM:S has taken the song ‘Hiroshima’ and interpreted it completely different and contemporary. What was initially only intended as a presentation for live shows, however, got such a strong impact of its own that we decided to release this reinterpretation now also as a single with a correspondingly haunting video. We believe that this topic is important and see it as our artistic task to make a statement to the current events.
On April 29 at 0:00 VAN:TOM:S will release the single ‘Hiroshima’ with the accompanying video on Spotify, YouTube, Facebook and all popular social media platforms.
In order for this concern to be perceived in many different ways and to reach as many people as possible, we are looking for supporters from the fields of business, culture, medicine and science, as well as institutions and individuals who are aware of this danger and are willing to support this project. Which is why we now come to our request to you.
We would like to ask you to share this project on your social media channels on the release day, April 29, 2022, and thus contribute to ensuring that ‘Hiroshima’ and the horrors of the atomic bomb are not forgotten. If desired, you will be named as a supporter under the video.
Proceeds from this project, such as income from live concerts, honoraria, etc., will be donated to the ‘Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum’ in Japan to support its work against oblivion.