White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
by Steven Okazaki
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DVD details
Actor: Etsuko Nagano, Harold Agnew, Lawrence Johnson (VII), Pan Yeon Kim, Sakue ShimodairaDirector: Steven Okazaki
Brand: HBO HOME VIDEO
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Japanese (Original Language); Korean (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 85 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-08-07
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Product features:
- Through the powerful recollections of atomic bomb survivors, White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an extraordinary new film by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki, presents a deeply moving look at the painful legacy of the first -- and hopefully last -- uses of thermonuclear weapons in war. Featuring interviews with fourteen atomic bomb survivors - many who
DVD Reviews of White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
DVD Review: Heart wrenching
Summary: 5 Stars
This video is amazing. It seems strange to rate it 5 stars, meaning I love it, when it is on such a sad subject. But it is very well done and really makes a person stop and think. I recommend documentaries like this to everyone. Painful though it is to watch, it is part of history and should not be forgotten. It was interesting to me that a statistic was flashed across the screen stating that something like 75% of the population of Japan was born after 1945. They did a "man-on-the-street" sort of interview and none of the young people knew what had happened right there in their own country in August of 1945. That is a crime!!! All citizens of this planet should know about this and realize just how devastating such an event can be! DVD Review: More context, please
Summary: 3 Stars
This documentary is very good in showing the devastating effects of the atom bombs dropped by the U.S. armed forces on Japan. But why the bombs were dropped (which many experts then and now think was unnecessary) receives little consideration.DVD Review: Must See !
Summary: 5 Stars
I think this is one of the best documental about the meaning of human misery on WWII.. I really think they should show this documetal to kids in schools all around the world, maybe the world could change in 50 years for better !!DVD Review: Gary W.
Summary: 5 Stars
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. DVD Review: From an old man
Summary: 5 Stars
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?
Description of White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Through the powerful recollections of atomic bomb survivors White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki an extraordinary new film by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki presents a deeply moving look at the painful legacy of the first -- and hopefully last -- uses of thermonuclear weapons in war. Featuring interviews with fourteen atomic bomb survivors - many who have never spoken publicly before - and four Americans intimately involved in the bombings White Light/Black Rain provides a detailed exploration of the bombings and their aftermath.? In a succession of riveting personal accounts the film reveals both unimaginable suffering and extraordinary human resilience.Running Time: 86 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:?DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. UPC:?026359438929 Manufacturer No:?94389General DVDs
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