Customer Reviews

Hiroshima Out of the Ashes [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a film about the bombing of Hiroshima as seen by American, German and Japanese eyes. It is a single film with several stories. One story is of an American aircrew shot down and interned in Hiroshima and how they were influenced by the dropping of the bomb. Another is of a German catholic priest and how the exploxion has changed him. Then there are several Japanese views; one a school boy who is trying to carry out his classmates final request, a Japanese physician dealing with the medical aftermath of the explosion such as radiation poisoning a malady only then seen once in a while from overexposure to x-rays, and the trials of an expatriate Japanese-AMerican woman who is living with her in-laws and expecting a child. A Japanese-American woman is played by Tamlyn Tomita it is ironic that she meets hostility and suspicion because of being Japanese American. In the US she would have been interned. In Japan she is allowed some freedom although she is under surveillance by the secret police. There are Japanese charecters who wish to continue the fight against the allied powers regardless of cost to themselves. There are characters who are tired of the war and then finally there are charecters that are just tired and need to rest from the privations that the war has brought to them. This is a story of the aftermath of the use of the atomic bomb and the effect it had on people of that moment. Ultimately, at the conclusion, there are no enemies, just survivors. It is a movie that should be seen to gain some understanding of what took place that day and how, over 55 years later, the world is still trying to cope with what happened there. It is also a reminder that not just Japanese were in Hiroshima the day the bomb was dropped.

I'd read the book including the tales of the German priest and Doctor Hara and others, but never had I imagined how overwhelming this story could be when put as a movie! The emotions are so raw, and it places the bombing of Hiroshima on a whole new level: the real level.
My reccomendation is to buy this movie, not only for placing such a tragedy on a real level, but also so show the horrors of war!