White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (2007)

As global tensions rise, the unthinkable now seems possible. The threat of nuclear weapons of mass destruction has become frighteningly real... See full synopsis »

Director:

Steven Okazaki

Writer:

Steven Okazaki

Stars:

Harold Agnew, Shuntaro Hida, Kiyoko Imori

Won 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Harold Agnew	...	Himself
Shuntaro Hida	...	Himself (as Dr. Shuntaro Hida)
Kiyoko Imori	...	Herself
Morris Jeppson	...	Himself
Lawrence Johnston	...	Himself
Pan Yeon Kim	...	Herself
Etsuko Nagano	...	Herself
Keiji Nakazawa	...	Himself
Chiemi Oka	...	Herself
Franklin D. Roosevelt	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
Keiko Sasamori	...	Herself
Sakue Shimodaira	...	Herself
Yasuyo Tanaka	...	Herself
Harry S. Truman	...	Himself (archive footage)
Theodore Van Kirk	...	Himself

Storyline

As global tensions rise, the unthinkable now seems possible. The threat of nuclear weapons of mass destruction has become frighteningly real... See full synopsis »

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Plot Keywords:

archive footage | japan | nagasaki japan | world war two | atomic bomb | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Official Sites:

HBO [us] Official site [jp]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Japanese Korean

Release Date:

6 August 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

I mavri vrohi

Filming Locations:

Hiroshima, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Farallon Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Features This Is Your Life (1952)

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Soundtracks

"Quiet Stereo Dee"
Written & Performed by Mogwai
Courtesy of Chrysalis Music Group & Mogwai

User Reviews

impressing and necessary

When I visited Hiroshima less than two months ago I thought that I knew quite a lot about the the events at the end of the second world war in the Pacific including the atomic bombs that were dropped upon Japan in order to reach a faster end of the war. Nothing was however comparable with seeing the destruction of Hiroshima at first hand in the Peace Museum, as well as the impressing memorial monuments in the Hiroshima Peace Park. Now comes this documentary by American-born Steven Okazaki which complements the images and the information that I acquired during my visit in Japan.

Let me say that it's one of the best historical and investigative documentaries that I have seen in years, if not the best. There are many direct witnesses that present the two sides of the event - the Japanese survivors of the atomic bombardments in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who were most of them kids in 1945 and who carried for the rest of their lives the physical pain in their flesh and the psychological traumas in their souls, and the American crewmen who seem to have gained awareness about the dimensions of the event they participated in, but show almost no trace of guilt or remorse for their actions. Some of the pictures taken immediately after the bombing which some of them - it is said in the film - are being seen for the first time in public are shocking and succeed to convey the intensity and dimensions of the destruction and sufferings that were inflicted on the civilian population of the two bombed cities.

Yet, it is the opening sequence that impressed me the most. It is filmed today, in some big city of Japan. Young Japanese folks in the teens or twenties are asked 'what historical event happened on August 6, 1945'. None of them knows the answer! Such films as 'White light, Black Rain' can help however bring down completely the walls of silence that still exist.