It’s clear that Okazaki simply wants us all to see and remember the after-effects of nuclear weapons. There is no anti-American slant to the film. No blame. No agenda beyond preserving the experiences of the survivors.
Whenever there is a country that Americans perceive as an enemy, someone eventually says, “We should nuke them back to the Stone Age” or something similar. It’s a comment meant to dehumanize the threat. It originates from ignorance, hate, or a combination of the two. If more people could see Steven Okazaki’s 2007 documentary, White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I would hope this kind of thoughtless comment would become far less common. More importantly, I would hope that the governments in possession of such weapons will never use them.
As the film opens, Okazaki’s crew interviews several present-day Japanese teenagers, asking if they know the significance of August 6, 1945. None of the kids shown had any idea, although one guesses that it was the date of an earthquake. One claims she isn’t very good at history. That date is when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the United States Army Air Force, instantly killing over 100,000 people and leveling the city. Nagasaki was bombed three days later and 70,000 more were killed. The bombings caused Japan to surrender unconditionally ending World War II. They also caused a lifetime of pain and suffering for the survivors.
Okazaki’s film is based around interviews with 14 survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. The men and women recall their horrific experiences living through the blasts and the subsequent burns, injuries, and, later, the onset of radiation-related illnesses. As they speak, archival footage of the damage is intercut with paintings and drawings done by survivors to illustrate the effects on the cities and the humanity. The drawings, many of them in a child-like style, are haunting in their simple yet explicit depictions of horrible devastation.
Hearing one woman’s account of how she searched for her mother in the rubble only to find her moments before her body crumbled into ash was absolutely heartbreaking.
Those that weren’t killed instantly had to deal with never-ending pain and suffering. Medical doctors had no idea how to treat them as they’d never had to deal with radiation-related injuries before. Some begged their nurses to kill them because the pain from their burns was so excruciating. Even those without visible injuries would later encounter problems with tumors, bleeding gums, loss of hair, and various types of cancer.
The survivors not only recount the physical effects of the bombings but the struggle to survive afterwards. Most of them were children who’d lost their families and, at that time, the government gave them no aid. Some were forced to live on the streets or hide in caves, scavenging for food. They also faced discrimination from other Japanese.
It’s clear that Okazaki simply wants us all to see and remember the after-effects of nuclear weapons. There is no anti-American slant to the film. No blame. No agenda beyond preserving the experiences of the survivors. One of them makes this point very succinctly when he says, “I’ve shown you my wounds because I want you to know this can’t happen again.”
An unforgettable film.
5.0 out of 5.0 stars
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