Hiroshima (1995 film)

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Hiroshima
Directed byKoreyoshi Kurahara
Roger Spottiswoode
Written byJohn Hopkins
Toshiro Ishido
Produced byRobin Spry
Kazutoshi Wadakura
Andrew Adelson
Tracey Alexander
Michael Campus
Tetsuya Ikeda
Paul E. Painter
Starringsee below
CinematographyShohei Ando, Pierre Mignot
Edited byJohn Soh
Mark Conte
Dominique Fortin
Denis Papillon
Production
companies
Distributed byShowtime Network
Release date
1995
Running time
186 min. (DVD version)
LanguagesEnglish, Japanese

Hiroshima is a 1995 Japanese-Canadian

Nagasaki toward the end of World War II. The three-hour film was made for television (Showtime Network) and had no theatrical release.[2]

A combination of dramatization, historical footage, and eyewitness interviews, the film alternates between documentary footage and dramatic recreations. The dramatizations and most of the original footage are presented as sepia-toned images, serving to blur the distinction between them. The languages are English and Japanese, with subtitles, and the actors are largely Canadian and Japanese.

Synopsis

The film opens on 12 April 1945 with the death of

Okinawa is still under way. American casualties have almost reached 900,000, with Japanese casualties at 1.1 million; 8 million Asian civilians have died in the war that began with Japan's 1931 invasion of Manchuria
.

The new president knows nothing about the nuclear weapons being developed at

Honshū
in March 1946.

In Japan, Minister of War General

Yonai Mitsumasa
assures the cabinet of victory.

On July 16, the Trinity test shows that a plutonium bomb (Fat Man) is feasible and that a nuclear blast is even more powerful than scientists predicted. The uranium bomb (Little Boy, which is untested but is expected to work) leaves Los Alamos for Tinian island in the Pacific. At the Potsdam conference, Joseph Stalin promises to join the war against Japan. Winston Churchill urges Truman to use the bomb to constrain Russian expansion. The Allied leaders deliver an ultimatum to Japan "to give them one last chance."

Truman strikes

Nagasaki. Hirohito
finally intervenes, telling the cabinet that Japan "must endure the unendurable" and surrender. Young army officers urge General Anami to join them in a military coup, but he tells them: "The emperor has spoken; we must obey him." On August 15, the emperor's surrender message is broadcast to Japan, and Anami commits ritual suicide.

Reception

Though not widely reviewed, Hiroshima was praised online: "Fascinating, and surprisingly ambivalent, docudrama rehashes familiar terrain with remarkable freshness precisely because of the emphasis on the politicians (rather than on the scientists), the bi-national approach, and an odd mixing of dramatization, newsreel footage, and even a few talking-head interviews with people who were there."[3]

Awards

Cast

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0771576003. Retrieved October 20, 2022 – via Google Books
    .
  2. ISBN 9780810851740. Retrieved October 20, 2022 – via Google Books
    .
  3. ^ "The Great Canadian Guide to the Movies & TV:Hi".

External links

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