It’s not every day that Fresno State students get the opportunity to see their professors showcase their talents in a top 10 trending show in a Netflix documentary.
Students of Media, Communication and Journalism (MCJ) got to see professor Hanayo Oya’s hard work pay off through a documentary screening for the first episode of the Oya-produced documentary “Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War.”
The core message of the documentary is to provide the viewers with an accurate and new perspective on the way they view history and how it relates to current events happening around the world.
“The more you understand… the wars happening in Ukraine and Palestine, it’s important for us to understand the historical context, and I hope people can understand through my series,” Oya told The Collegian.
The screening was held in the Industrial Tech Building on March 12, and candy, water and popcorn were provided for the faculty and students in attendance.
Prior to coming to Fresno State in the fall of 2023, Oyo spent several years in Japan, her native country, where she won several awards for documentary filmmaking.
The first episode is titled “The Sun Came Up Tremendous.” The episode dives deep into World War II and provides viewers with a closer look at how much damage the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused to the people living there.
“The title [of the episode] refers to a description of the first ever atomic bomb test (the Trinity Test in New Mexico) by a young girl who witnessed the explosion and the bright flash of light it created,” Oya said. “In telling this story in our series, one of the interviewees tells the story of the little girl who was at a dance camp not too far from the test site and who saw the moment of the explosion and said “‘It was as if the sun came up tremendous.’”
One of the reasons why the narrative of the episode was focused on the people of Japan was because of the way the United States is usually portrayed as the hero of the story.
Oya was responsible for finding the people to interview for the portion of the story that focused on Japan.
Given that the filming for the documentary took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, Oya and the rest of the production team had only 10 days in Japan.
One of the most challenging parts of putting the story together was determining what interviews among the several hundreds of hours to put into the nine-hour documentary, Oya said.
Both students and professors learned something new from the first episode of the series.
Ricardo Lozada is a student in Oya’s MCJ 125 class and learned a lot about the atomic bombs through the hour-long episode.
“I learned how much history there is behind the atomic bomb and how much power it had for the nations that had access to them,” Lozada said.
Thanos Panagopaulos, computer science professor, was also in attendance. Something that stood out to him was learning about how it was on the ground when the atomic bombs hit Japan.
“We have a narrative and a view of the events that happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the sky above,” Panagopaulos said. “To see what it was like under the cloud was what was the most shocking thing to me.”
When asked her thoughts on how the United States is portrayed as the heroes of World War II and why she focused on telling the story of the victims from Japan, Oya gave an insightful answer.
“It’s important to see that from the perspective of some of the people who really suffered,” Oya said. “Sometimes, the American people need to understand that their justice and democracy is hurting someone else’s justice and democracy.”
Even though Oya is less than a year into her tenure at Fresno State, she is already making an impact in the Fresno State community by showcasing her work.
“I really didn’t know all of the stuff she had to go through,” Lozada said. “I didn’t know she was in charge of scheduling the interviews and finding the old footage to use.”
Maxwell Gallegos, another MCJ 125 student and Fresno State Focus anchor, spoke about what it means to see his professor’s hard work pay off.
“You’re telling me that my professor at my university has their own documentary on Netflix. I have to go [to the next screening],” Gallegos said during the broadcast.
Oya didn’t learn about documentaries until she was 19 years old, which led to her giving this short yet powerful statement on inspiring students.
“If I can do it, [my students] can too,” Oya said.
The screening for episode two was today at 4.p.m. in Engineering East.
Episode three will be screened on March 19, and episode four on March 21. Both showings will start at 4 p.m. and be held in Engineering East Room 191.
The entire series is available on Netflix.
