Hiroshima [DVD]

The film follows the development of the A-bomb, an exercise in theoretical physics and maths until the first one is detonated in the desert. The scientists and military watch the countdown, not quite certain that the explosion will be as predicted ... or might trigger a chain reaction and consume the entire world. The director of the project, Robert Oppenheimer, would walk away conscious of the full horror of what they had just unleashed.

But Germany has surrendered. There has been no call to drop a nuclear weapon on Cologne, Hamburg, or Berlin. Japan remains, and the US policy of island hopping has proved expensive in lives. To invade Japan, to face the prospect of an entire population willing to die rather than surrender? That is a prospect American politicians and military cannot countenance. Fire bombing Japanese cities has not brought about surrender. Might use of a nuclear weapon?

We follow the politics, the military logic, the tragedies of decision-making. Hiroshima has remained unbombed. The military want it preserved intact so they can evaluate, with precision, the effects of the nuclear bomb. The city is a pawn in the game ... a long game, for a working A-bomb will give the USA world domination. It's not a question of ending this war, it's already a question of winning the next one.

"Hiroshima" combines original footage with dramatisation of events, switching back and forth with editorial precision. You find yourself caught up in the momentum, the logic and determination of the young men who will drop the bomb, the oblivious innocence of those men, women, and children who will chance to survive it.

It's the oral history of the civilian survivors which tears your heart out. I defy anyone to watch this without wailing, without feeling the pain. The bomb falls out of a clear sky. We watch animated images of it dropping through the air, the city beneath unable to escape.

The images of the explosion are terrifying. There is no use of glamorous special effects of the kind we get in disaster movies - buildings, vehicles, people simply cease to exist. No heroism. No fear. Just obliteration. And then the aftermath. Fire. Streets piled with charred dead. The landscape no longer that of a thriving city, but of Hell. Destruction is vast, is entirely disorienting.

"Hiroshima" explains the viewpoints, why some feel it was a necessary evil, why August 6th has become a day to remember, a day never to forget. There are no judgements made in this film. You are left to judge for yourself. My own judgement? Never again!

An outstanding piece of television, an outstanding DVD, and clear evidence that the voices of people can stir far deeper emotions than any glitzy special effects or sentimental extravaganza. "Hiroshima" is, perhaps, the ultimate horror. It will cause you tears. Hopefully, it will fire your own determination to insist, never again. An utterly brilliant production.

You are left with the shocking fact that because of the resulting radiation, the aftermath is still very real today some 60 years on, and did it really cut the loss of life after all?

One point to me, which said it all... This was just an experiment the US continued.

Only initially tested days earlier, and very much still an experiment, to the extent that the crew of the Enola Gay had to improvise the bomb trigger to avoid taking off with the bomb fully armed. The use of two other B29's to record as much information as possible was another shocking revelation to me.

This DVD is a good starting point for anyone wanting to begin research into the Japanese involvement during WW2, Ironically because it shows their total collapse and surrender, after the dropping of the second bomb on Nagasaki.

A very thought provoking watch....