James_B_Wads2000
08-06-2007, 09:10 AM
Today is the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. There is a documentary airing tonight on HBO told from the point of view of the survivors. It will also be released to DVD tomorrow and available for rent.
I got a chance to see an advanced screening last week and it was amazing. I recommend it to everybody interested in viewing the true costs of war. I think it is interesting how even to this day some will argue to justify the death of hundred of thousands of innocent people by weapons of mass destruction and not even have the slightest clue what actually happened to the people in the blasts.
James
http://www.hbo.com/docs/img/programs/whitelight/506x316/506x316_whitelight01.jpg
Link (http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/whitelightblackrain/)
Debuting on the 62nd anniversary of the bombings, WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN provides a graphic, unflinching look at the reality of nuclear warfare through first-hand accounts of both survivors and American men who carried out the bombing missions.
"With WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN, I wanted to tell one of the great human stories of one of history's monumental tragedies," notes Okazaki, who met more than 500 survivors and interviewed more than 100 people before choosing the 14 subjects featured in the film. "The personal memories of the survivors are amazing, shocking and inspiring. They put a human face on the incalculable destruction caused by nuclear war."
In addition to interviews with 14 atomic bomb survivors, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN spotlights four Americans intimately involved in the bombings. Okazaki interweaves rarely seen, intense archival footage and photographs, banned for 25 years after the war, with survivors' paintings and drawings, all of which convey the devastating toll of atomic warfare in human terms.
While 140,000 died in Hiroshima, and 70,000 in Nagasaki, the survivors - 85% of whom were civilians - not vaporized during the attacks continued to suffer burns, infection, radiation sickness and cancer, which would ultimately result in another 160,000 deaths. In a succession of riveting personal accounts, the film reveals both unimaginable suffering and extraordinary human resilience. Sakue Shimohira, ten years old at the time, recalls the moment she considered killing herself after losing the last member of her family, saying, "I realized there are two kinds of courage - the courage to die and the courage to live."
I got a chance to see an advanced screening last week and it was amazing. I recommend it to everybody interested in viewing the true costs of war. I think it is interesting how even to this day some will argue to justify the death of hundred of thousands of innocent people by weapons of mass destruction and not even have the slightest clue what actually happened to the people in the blasts.
James
http://www.hbo.com/docs/img/programs/whitelight/506x316/506x316_whitelight01.jpg
Link (http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/whitelightblackrain/)
Debuting on the 62nd anniversary of the bombings, WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN provides a graphic, unflinching look at the reality of nuclear warfare through first-hand accounts of both survivors and American men who carried out the bombing missions.
"With WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN, I wanted to tell one of the great human stories of one of history's monumental tragedies," notes Okazaki, who met more than 500 survivors and interviewed more than 100 people before choosing the 14 subjects featured in the film. "The personal memories of the survivors are amazing, shocking and inspiring. They put a human face on the incalculable destruction caused by nuclear war."
In addition to interviews with 14 atomic bomb survivors, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN spotlights four Americans intimately involved in the bombings. Okazaki interweaves rarely seen, intense archival footage and photographs, banned for 25 years after the war, with survivors' paintings and drawings, all of which convey the devastating toll of atomic warfare in human terms.
While 140,000 died in Hiroshima, and 70,000 in Nagasaki, the survivors - 85% of whom were civilians - not vaporized during the attacks continued to suffer burns, infection, radiation sickness and cancer, which would ultimately result in another 160,000 deaths. In a succession of riveting personal accounts, the film reveals both unimaginable suffering and extraordinary human resilience. Sakue Shimohira, ten years old at the time, recalls the moment she considered killing herself after losing the last member of her family, saying, "I realized there are two kinds of courage - the courage to die and the courage to live."