Customer Reviews

White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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If anyone ever says to you, "ah, just drop a nuke on them." Or, if any policy maker ever says, "What we need are tactical nuclear weapons", then they haven't seen nor understand the real horrors not of being killed, but surviving an atomic blast. Instantaneous disintegration is the easy part of this discussion. This is a movie from the survivors point of view that should be shown to all Americans, especially anyone who thinks nuclear war is a game to be won. The effects of these bombs in August, 1945 are still with the survivors today. I never stopped to think what life must be like with your skin burned off, or the side of your face sheered away, or skin dangling like string from your body. You may not be able to watch this documentary all the way through as you see U. S. Army footage of the actual horrors of these blasts, but when you return to the TV after having cried, you will leave with a deep understanding that nuclear weapons are one of the scientific advances the human race should never use again.

This is an extra ordinary documentary. I have been to ground zero in Hiroshima and it was one of the most moving experiences in my life. An excellent piece with unbelievable fairness. Show this to your children.

I've cried every time I have seen this. The atomic bombing of Japan becomes personalized when the very few survivors tell their stories. This documentary truly shows you the destructive capability many countries have now amassed, and why we should never use it.

This is an excellent HBO Documentary; the opening showing modern day Hiroshima with a man on the street asking present day Japanese teen agers this question. "What significant event happened on August 6th, 1945?" None of them knew, one guessed "earthquake." The rest of the documentary focuses on actual victims and their testimony of the bombing, their life after and archival footage of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The documentary was well done, there was never any anti-American sentiment but some negative views of the Japanese government were expressed principally the WW-II era military government. I presently work in Japan and have been to Hiroshima and the Peace Park there. It is a very moving experience I hope to go to Nagasaki this year. The most humbling thing for me of that visit is the story of a very athletic and intellegent young girl, Sadako Sasaki a victim of cancer likely induced by radiation exposure she died in 1955, Sadako was 12, people should read about her will to continue life by folding over 1000 paper cranes even when it took her hours to do one because of her weakened body. Sadako and her cranes are now huge symbol of peace for children. The Japanese people do not like talking about WW-II because it was a horrific experience for them and totally altered the concepts and society of Japanese thinking and logic. As a child myself in the fifties and a teen in the sixties and having served on active duty in both the USAF and US Navy for 20 years I can recall the fear of the possibility of total world destruction by a nuclear war. It was a very stressful period and that awareness was always at the back of many of our thoughts. The war had to end and in actuality the use of the bombs saved many more lives, that should not be forgotten either. We all must remember no other country has ever faced the rath of a nuclear weapon, and these very polite and dignified people have every right to demand the end of the creation of nuclear weapons and war in general. The events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki should not be repeated.

I can't even describe what I was seeing in this movie without getting the urge to cry. Absolutely shocking detailed documentary mainly focusing on the Japanese (with English subtitles), and what they had to deal with when they were children and the Hiroshima nuclear attack happened.

Let me tell you- this movie will absolutely shock you on several occasions, because it shows footage of the famous bombing incident in World War II, and you will get to know a few select Japanese people who were a part of the disaster and lived through it, with all the amazingly accurate and heartbreaking details revealing to us exactly what they had to go through.

It's almost hard to believe real people had to go through these horrible events and deal with diseases, their skin falling apart, and other major problems as a result of one devastating bomb.

It's a film worth seeing from a Japanese perspective, because for years we've all been seeing the American point of view of what happened that horrible day. Now it's the Japanese telling their stories. You'll get to know each one of them and listen to their incredible stories. What they had to go through was just... unbelievable.

Worth watching, but don't be surprised if the shocking stories and video footage becomes too much for a weak stomach.

This is a really great documentary. It does not really go in to a great deal of political detail. Instead it focuses on the thoughts, feelings and suffering of the victims. It also tries to get an idea of the feelings of those who dropped the bomb. It is sad and atmoshperic and left me very moved. The original music is superb and adds to the melancholy air. The film introduces several victims from both Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their stories are breathtaking, but told without malice or anger, just a profound sadness. There is one victim from Nagasaki who describes his horrific burns as being so agonising that he simply wanted to die (many others begged to be killed also). He was a small boy when he suffered those terrible burns and he describes how the love of his mother gave him the courage to go on despite his physical disfigurement.

A very sad film, but one that should be watched.

I could go on and on about this film. I'll only say that it is DEEPLY important that this period in World History be VIVIDLY remembered so that we do not lose touch with our humanity in the face of such catastrophic power. This film captures that humanity effortlessly. The most moving documentary I have seen in a long long time. I would go so far as to beg people to see it. Educate yourself.

I had personal reasons for wanting to get out of the Army, even though it had given me a safe and easy job. The war seemed to be going on forever. If I had known beforehand of the existence of an atomic bomb that could end the war, my first impulse would be to use it.

President Truman was more reflective. He was a plain man, and had not witnessed an atomic explosion. His judgment used the number of lives, both American and Japanese, that would be lost or saved. He believed that the Japanese people would not surrender unless American soldiers fought to occupy all of Japan, with a huge loss of life. He concluded that lives could be saved by dropping a bomb on a Japanese city.

The scientists who had witnessed the first atomic explosion in New Mexico felt differently. Their leader, J. Robert Oppenheimer, gained an appointment with the President, and pleaded that a bomb not be dropped on people. (See "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer"). But Oppenheimer was excited, and made a poor choice of words. He said that he had blood on his hands. The President said that the blood was on HIS hands, and he must make the judgment.

As the DVD describes, there was a small medical study of the effects of the bombs on the survivors. Humans at ground zero were simply vaporized. I have read that some of them a little further out survived, but temporarily lost all sense of human kinship. They were just machines, running around desperately. These people should have been interviewed extenively. It's too late for that now. Most of them have passed on.

But White Light/Black Rain finally gives us the impressions of those who were only children in 1945. Morally and compassionately, its message is that atomic bombs must never again be dropped on humans.

But there is also a more ultimate message: Isn't it almost inevitable that a nuclear world war would be the end of our species and our world? Now it's hydrogen bombs rather than atomic, fusion instead of only fission. The arsenals of hydrogen bombs held by the United States and Russia would cover the world. A resurgent Russia is as ready as we are.

In the face of this threat, we recall the decades of peace during the "cold war". It was generally understood during that period that local wars would not involve nuclear weapons. A dangerous weakening of this is the study of "tactical nuclear weapons". That study should be terminated. There is no way to draw a hard line between tactical and strategic.

In international diplomacy, we should respect the Russian sphere of influence. Our attitude should be conciliatory rather than confrontational.

It is to be wished that politicians see and think about "White Light/Black Rain". Can they find time for it while concentrating on getting elected?

If you are not transfixed and terrified by this documentary, you don't have a pulse. There are no heros, nor villians. There are simply victims. From those that died, to those that survived, their lives were taken from them on those two days. The survivors are mere shadows, estranged from the world, traumatized and alone.

The importance of this movie can never be overestimated.

This documentary is done on a human level. It manages to present the facts around the use of the bombs in a non-preachy way based on interviews of people allowed to speak about their recollections. Several interviews with survivors show the results of the war on their lives after nearly a life time. The interviews are not rushed, it is people in their own words, given the time to discuss what a war time experience was like for them. I would highly recommend this for anyone with interest in the after effects of the bomb, or the ending of the war.