From here to eternity

The black semi loaded with film equipment stood in sharp contrast this morning to the 121-year-old White-Pool House and the 1940s-era Ford pickup parked outside.

The large truck didn't hang around long, though. Soon enough, cameras were rolling, and for all intents and purposes it was pre-World War II Texas.

Takuya Kakizaki, director for TV programs at TV Asahi Production in Tokyo, is recreating the life of Texas resident Claude Robert Eatherly, a pilot who flew a weather reconnaissance aircraft in the American World War II atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima, Japan.

"This year is the 50th anniversary of TV Asahi," Kakizaki said this morning through interpreter Susanna Mitton. "This is a film about the atomic bomb."

More importantly, it's a film about regrets.

"We want to make a film about the dangers of the atomic bomb, and that it's better to not use those kinds of weapons," Kakizaki said.

In specific, the part Kakizaki is filming is about Eatherly's remorse in taking part in the attack on Hiroshima.

"Claude Eatherly was sent some questions by a Japanese newspaper, and he responded to them," Kakizaki said. "He said it was a mistake to participate in the atomic bomb drop, and he apologized for his role in it."

Shari Hamrick, owner of Alianza Films, is working the American side of the production.

"I talked them into coming to this area and staying here," the Permian graduate said. Hamrick has been running production companies in New York and Los Angeles since 1984 and recently moved Alianza Films to Odessa, though there are still offices on both coasts.

"I live here in Odessa," she said. "And Odessa will be getting attention all the way in Japan." The crew has already done some filming at the Commemorative Air Force, as well as Sam Austin's home, where the Midland resident keeps a '50s-style diner in his home. Later, they plan to do some filming at Paul Evans' Furniture in Odessa, as well.

Today's filming at the White-Pool House was a boost for the Odessa museum as well.

"We're very grateful for the publicity - we always want to do anything we can to promote the White-Pool House, and this is a wonderful way to do it," said Faye Roper, chairwoman of the White-Pool House Friends.

Hamrick pitched Odessa and Midland in talks with the Japanese television company and got a warm reception from Kakizaki, who is a fan of Texas, though he'd never been.

"He's having a wonderful time - everyone's been so nice," she said.

Kakizaki agreed, but said there were some surprises when he got to Texas.

"It's very hot, and the wind is very strong," he said. "But, the food is very good. I like it a lot." 

WHAT IS IT?

>> TV Ashahi Productions in Tokyo is making a three-part documentary about the atomic bomb and its impact on Japan and America.

>> Premiere: Aug. 2 on Japanese television.

>> It is not scheduled for release in the United States.

WHAT'S IT ABOUT?

The documentary, part of which is currently being filmed in Odessa, is divided into three parts.

>> Japan planned to build an atomic bomb. However, it was not successful. This part of the documentary will chronicle that attempt.

>> An American soldier, three months after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, shot a film in which a little girl with a child on her back walks by and smiles at the camera. Filmmakers tracked down that girl and the daughter of the American soldier. This part of the documentary is an account of her life.

>> Claude Robert Eatherly, born in 1918 in Texas and died in 1978, was a U.S. Army Air Corps pilot for the Straight Flush, a weather reconnaissance aircraft that flew ahead of the Enola Gay before it dropped the atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945, on Hiroshima, Japan. This part records Eatherly's life and his regrets about participating in the atomic bomb projects both in Japan and the Bikini Atoll.