Hiroshima

Rating:
Summary: I saw this on Direct TV last night....
Review: ... so it's still very fresh in my mind. One reviewer is wrong - there is footage of burn victims receiving care. There are interviews with survivors giving their eye witness accounts. And yet, there are actors portraying all the major characters. There is drama and documentary here and I was spellbound with it.

The elderly neighbor woman who lost her only son in a test plane in Texas in 1941 and blamed the Japanese for her loss did not affect me the way this movie did. My father's experiences in the Philipines was a story I'd heard all my life. I don't think my father knew the course of events depicted in this movie.

It's black and white, so the documentary footage isn't as disruptive as it might have been, but it's high effective, I think. I'm buying the DVD now so I can watch it again... then maybe when my sons are old enough, I can show them why the usually peace-loving US was the only country to ever use nuclear bombs against another nation... and why we don't use them anymore.

I never really admired Truman until now, but I'm still compelled to ask how he ever slept at night.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT DOCUDRAMA
Review: A fine film in documentary style about the Manhattan Project and the building of the fist three atomic bombs
.
The one flaw I noticed was the casting of the actor to play the role of General George C. Marshall who was Chief of Staff at the time and later became the Secretary of State Marshall was tall and lean with an imposing stature. The actor here was short and stout and about as imposing as Bud Abbot. The casting director should have done his homework better.

Rating:
Summary: SIMPLY THE BEST WORK ON THIS SUBJECT I HAVE EVER SEEN
Review: A previous reviewer said that this was long and dull. Well I'm sorry if actual history does not live up to today's "MTV/Nickelodean" standards of entertainment. This is how it was - and delivers all the effect of a massive right hook to the jawbone. It made clear exactly why Harry Truman was one of the greatest men in the history of the U. S. He had the hardest decisions to make - and he was correct on almost all of them. The actor who portrayed him did a fine job. The production was great, and paid the highest respect to all who were involved - unlike the movie "Pearl Harbor," which was an insult to those brave people. I only wish that movies like "Hiroshima" were the norm in historical portrayals, rather than the exception.

Rating:
Summary: SIMPLY THE BEST WORK ON THIS SUBJECT I HAVE EVER SEEN
Review: A previous reviewer said that this was long and dull. Well I'm sorry if actual history does not live up to today's "MTV/Nickelodean" standards of entertainment. This is how it was - and delivers all the effect of a massive right hook to the jawbone. It made clear exactly why Harry Truman was one of the greatest men in the history of the U. S. He had the hardest decisions to make - and he was correct on almost all of them. The actor who portrayed him did a fine job. The production was great, and paid the highest respect to all who were involved - unlike the movie "Pearl Harbor," which was an insult to those brave people. I only wish that movies like "Hiroshima" were the norm in historical portrayals, rather than the exception.

Rating:
Summary: SIMPLY THE BEST WORK ON THIS SUBJECT I HAVE EVER SEEN
Review: A previous reviewer said that this was long and dull. Well I'm sorry if actual history does not live up to today's "MTV/Nickelodean" standards of entertainment. This is how it was - and delivers all the effect of a massive right hook to the jawbone. It made clear exactly why Harry Truman was one of the greatest men in the history of the U. S. He had the hardest decisions to make - and he was correct on almost all of them. The actor who portrayed him did a fine job. The production was great, and paid the highest respect to all who were involved - unlike the movie "Pearl Harbor," which was an insult to those brave people. I only wish that movies like "Hiroshima" were the norm in historical portrayals, rather than the exception.

Rating:
Summary: For the Sake of Japan Spirit
Review: Atomic bombing on Hiroshima involves a catalogue of good and evil in the human nature. From political/militaristic ambition for the hegemony over the new world, strategy and scientific achievement to conscience and religious beliefs of all kind of peoples, etccc.

Due to the demonic power of the supreme weapon, every human who involved in the project, from scientists to Generals and the president of the United States, were tested of their human conscience. And who sold the soul to the demon?

As this semi-documentary film has beautifully and correctly depicted, when the final decision of the atomic bombings was made, Japan had already known that she was going to be defeated at a severe cost of Japanese lives, and that was a matter of time.
One question that must be asked was: How can Japan end the war with the national polity and the sovereignty of Japan, e.g. the Emperor, intact?
In other words; gIf only the status of the Emperor is intact and unsullied, Japan can be reconstructed from any kind of adversity.h That was the whole nationfs hope.

So, it could have been possible for Japan to capitulate to the Allied much earlier under a single condition of assurance of the Emperorfs status, and, therefore, the atomic bombings could have been avoided; if only President Truman had not stuck that much to the word, gunconditional surrenderh; if only the Soviet Union and Stalin had not had been so ambitious to take control over the Far East and had accepted Japanfs request for the mediation; if only the State Secretary James Byrnes had not been so jingoistic and of anti-Japanese sentiment; if only Truman had listened to the poor professor Hoffmanfs explanation about the probable attitude of the Japanese when they used the word gmoku-satsuh(basically means gto ignoreh, but in this particular case, meant gI want to agree with you, but I cannot do so explicitly because of current situation.h) to respond to the Potsdam Declaration, etc. cc.

But, the bombs were dropped, and Japanfs defeat was confirmed.
The Japanese were, however, still in high morale. As an American journalist reported, the Japanese were still believing; gJapan lost the war in material way but Japan Spirit never be conquered!h

I do not know if it is authentically the words of the Emperor himself, but it seems genuine for the Emperor to say that; gOne can build a palace in a few months. A great tree requires hundreds of years. But even a great tree doesnft last forever.h
And so do those words: gIt is appropriate that we [the Emperor and the subject] share the [sufferings], [so that the Japanese nationals] will realize we are one family after all.h gHis subjects believed that within Him (sic) lived the soul of all that was Japanese cc the soul of Japan itself.h
I was born 20 years after the war ended and educated by the history textbooks which the left-wing scholars wrote in the way the American occupation forces satisfied so that the Japanese think the Japanese Imperial Army was evil, therefore, they have to accept the atomic bombings and other indiscriminate incendiary bombings as the punishment for the militaristsf war crimes.
Still, I strongly believe that our Emperor is the symbol for the ideal of Japanfs decency, the soul of Japan itself.

I do admire this film, gHiroshimah, that showed us broad view on political activities over the decision-making of the atomic bombings and Japanfs surrender. But it is not entirely satisfactory because it mentioned very little about the voices of the victims.

One survivor told his American friend about people who gdied in silence, with no grudge, setting their teeth to bear [the tremendous sufferings and agony]. All for the country!h
gYes, people of Hiroshima died manly in the atomic bombing, believing that it was for the Emperorfs sake.h(from John Hersey's book, "Hiroshima")

There is one hiccup: the superimposed narration said g[The Japanese Imperial Army in China] left behind 8 million dead civilians.h I do not think they have good hard documented evidences which support this awful allegation other than Chinese Communist propaganda sources. Even the notoriously unfair Tokyo Trial did not go that wild and far-fetched.
Apart from that, this is a good film in a decent documentary style with superb performances of the actors that I highly recommend to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent portrayal of the decisive final days of WWII
Review: Few decisions have been debated as long, fiercely or futilely as the decision to drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan at the end of the Second World War. Few situations involved as many diverse factors and none had the far-reaching ramifications of this one.

Hiroshima is a straight-forward, documentary-styled portrayal of the many problems facing the political and military leaders of the major powers in 1945. The choice made by President Truman was based on the advice of an extremely diverse group of advisors, both military and civilian, most of whom knew the war was nearing its end and many of whom had personal agendas which influenced their input. Additionally, the involvement of allied heads of state, particularly Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, played a significant role and are carefully addressed in the film.

What I found most impressive was the objective and somewhat sympathetic treatment of the Japanese political leadership, who faced nearly insurmountable odds in dealing with an intractible military hierarchy which was unwilling to acknowledge defeat, complicated by the delicate need to negotiate a rapid settlement so as to avoid further civilian casualties, avoid further loss of national honor, and maintain the deified status of the emperor.

The failure to understand culturally dictated diplomatic subtleties is quietly yet forcefully examined, alongwith sometimes intentional disregard of more obvious overtures.

Hiroshima interweaves historical fact with a number of political assumptions that have come to be accepted as fact. While many of the film's apparent conclusions are conceivable and even probable, the viewer is cautioned to remember that this is a drama, not a documentary. Many of the character depictions are superbly accurate, while others are composites of several historical figures and yet others only loosely based on reality.

Another impressive feature of this film is its sensitive portrayal of the actual employment of the "Special Bombs." There are the expected views of boiling mushroom clouds. As the story continues to unfold, still photos of the devastation are displayed. However, the producers successfully resisted the temptation to use footage of the human damage, and the often utilized scenes of grotesquely burned victims receiving medical treatment are tactfully absent.

While Hiroshima may not be entirely reliable in a historical context, the personal and emotional processes that went into the decision making process are intelligently and accurately dealt with. If the viewer takes only one lesson from watching the film, it should be that all of those involved, from the scientists to the citizens of the ill-fated target cities, were not simply historical figures or statistics, but living human beings. Perhaps the most laudible accomplishment of this superb film is bringing a human perspective to the most inhumane (however necessary) event in the history of mankind.

For anyone who would like to better understand the who's, what's, where's and especially the why's of the destruction of Hiroshima, this movie is a must see.

Rating:
Summary: A perversion of History
Review: Here are the facts, none of which appear in this movie:

1. The US dropped the atomic bombs on Japan so that Japan would surrender to the US before the USSR declared war on Japan (The USSR was then an ally of the Allied Powers) This gave the US a superior diplomatic position over the USSR.

2. The US dropped the bomb in order to test the effectivness of a nuclear weapon on a populated area.

Both of these points are verifiable with White House / Pentagon memos, and can also be found at the Atomic Bomb Museum in Hiroshima, or the Atomic Bomb Museum's website....it is also worth noting why the US chose Hiroshima as a primary target:

1. Hiroshima was chosen because the city had not been bombed by conventional allied bombers. For this reason, it would be easier to tell how effective the atomic bomb was against a populated area.

2. Hiroshima was a manufacturing city, with a military base. Therfore, destroying Hiroshima would slow Japanese production and industry.

It should also be noted that the US dropped thousands of (conventional) bombs on Japan AFTER Japan surrendered (a war crime, under Nuremberg laws).

Here is testimony taken from a suvivor of the Hiroshima bombing:

"She came toward me, carrying a baby on her back and pulling a three-year-old and five-year-old by the hand. Her face was black and swollen large. It was afternoon, and she and the children were hungry. I gave them my lunch. She said they were thirsty. I went to get some water and when I got back, the three and five-year-olds had died while eating my lunch. The mother had died while breast-feeding the baby, who was still alive and suckling. The sight of them reduced me to tears. I made a little shelter out of .......Then I thought about my mother. I was confident she was safe at home, and thought about asking her to make......
Then when I got home, she was not there. A woman with a black face was lying in the air-raid shelter. Who are you? I asked. "

If you want a more accurate picture of the atomic bombings in Japan, I suggest you look elsewhere....please excuse my lack of proofreading, I don't have much time to write this. The above testimony is a direct quote from the Atomic Bomb Regristry in Hiroshima

Rating:
Summary: Good history but dull
Review: I was intrigued enough about the historical facts surrounding Hiroshima that this title appealed to me. It is actually two POVs sewn into one movie - an American version and a Japanese version shot by a Japanese director. That makes it interesting enough in parts...but this movie is far too dull for long stretches. In the end, watch it on cable - that's what it was made for anyways!

Rating:
Summary: Riveting - held my attention throughout.
Review: I'm not a big fan of "war" films, but this one kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I wasn't alive during WWII and up until now wasn't very interested in learning about how it played out. If only our school history classes were this inspiring, I think the world today would be a much more peaceful place.