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| White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki | 
 enlarge | Director: Steven Okazaki
Actors: Harold Agnew, Dr. Shuntaro Hida, Kiyoko Imori, Morris Jeppson, Lawrence Johnston
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $13.05
You Save: $6.93 (35%)
New (36) Used (12) Collectible (1) from $11.84
Avg. Customer Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 9950
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Japanese (Original Language), Korean (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 86
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: HBOD94389D
UPC: 026359438929
EAN: 0026359438929
ASIN: B000RL6G8M
Theatrical Release Date: August 6, 2007
Release Date: August 7, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new Item. CD, DVD, Book, VHS more than 400 000 titles to choose from. ALL days Low Price !
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Product Description
Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 09/23/2008 Rating: Nr
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
From an old man September 11, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I had personal reasons for wanting to get out of the Army, even though it had given me a safe and easy job. The war seemed to be going on forever. If I had known beforehand of the existence of an atomic bomb that could end the war, my first impulse would be to use it.
President Truman was more reflective. He was a plain man, and had not witnessed an atomic explosion. His judgment used the number of lives, both American and Japanese, that would be lost or saved. He believed that the Japanese people would not surrender unless American soldiers fought to occupy all of Japan, with a huge loss of life. He concluded that lives could be saved by dropping a bomb on a Japanese city.
The scientists who had witnessed the first atomic explosion in New Mexico felt differently. Their leader, J. Robert Oppenheimer, gained an appointment with the President, and pleaded that a bomb not be dropped on people. (See "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer"). But Oppenheimer was excited, and made a poor choice of words. He said that he had blood on his hands. The President said that the blood was on HIS hands, and he must make the judgment.
As the DVD describes, there was a small medical study of the effects of the bombs on the survivors. Humans at ground zero were simply vaporized. I have read that some of them a little further out survived, but temporarily lost all sense of human kinship. They were just machines, running around desperately. These people should have been interviewed extenively. It's too late for that now. Most of them have passed on.
But White Light/Black Rain finally gives us the impressions of those who were only children in 1945. Morally and compassionately, its message is that atomic bombs must never again be dropped on humans.
But there is also a more ultimate message: Isn't it almost inevitable that a nuclear world war would be the end of our species and our world? Now it's hydrogen bombs rather than atomic, fusion instead of only fission. The arsenals of hydrogen bombs held by the United States and Russia would cover the world. A resurgent Russia is as ready as we are.
In the face of this threat, we recall the decades of peace during the "cold war". It was generally understood during that period that local wars would not involve nuclear weapons. A dangerous weakening of this is the study of "tactical nuclear weapons". That study should be terminated. There is no way to draw a hard line between tactical and strategic.
In international diplomacy, we should respect the Russian sphere of influence. Our attitude should be conciliatory rather than confrontational.
It is to be wished that politicians see and think about "White Light/Black Rain". Can they find time for it while concentrating on getting elected?
White Light Black Rain September 7, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This DVD was a gift to my Dad, and he loves it! I received it very quickly and am very satisfied. Thank you, Mia Rose Mahoney
Great documentary! August 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a really great documentary. It does not really go in to a great deal of political detail. Instead it focuses on the thoughts, feelings and suffering of the victims. It also tries to get an idea of the feelings of those who dropped the bomb. It is sad and atmoshperic and left me very moved. The original music is superb and adds to the melancholy air. The film introduces several victims from both Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their stories are breathtaking, but told without malice or anger, just a profound sadness. There is one victim from Nagasaki who describes his horrific burns as being so agonising that he simply wanted to die (many others begged to be killed also). He was a small boy when he suffered those terrible burns and he describes how the love of his mother gave him the courage to go on despite his physical disfigurement.
A very sad film, but one that should be watched.
 More of a critique of the synopsis above July 10, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Fat Man and Little Boy were not the first "thermonuclear" weapons used in war because they weren't thermonuclear bombs at all, which are hundreds of times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan. Thermonuclear weapons refer to fusion bombs, i.e. the H-bomb.
Words do mean things. This is not to down play what happened at all, but it is there is very large difference between the two types of bombs. There is little sense in marring a good documentary by posting an exaggeration in the description.
Good documentary on the nuclear legacy in Japan July 5, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
The movie was a little boring in parts, if I would have had the remote nearby I would have fast forwarded through some of it. . . but with patience I listened to the stories of peoples lives ripped apart. All from a single bomb that split atoms with a nuclear fury that very few live to tell about. . .the people who did live describe the life changing event that altered their lives forever. The disfigured child, now a women tells a haunting tale of the fantasy that will never be, a dream that she would have a husband, a man that she loves and to be cared for. The film is enlightening in that you realize that the true horror stories are the people who lived for a few months after the blast. . days of hellish pain as their bodies gave in to the radiation and burns.
The footage of nuclear blasts changed the way I think about nukes. I always thought of a nuclear weapon as a "bamb booom" it's done, but I think it's more like an hellish burning earthquake that doesn't stop shaking for several minutes as the world around the bomb disintegrates. And then for hours more every thing burns away. . .only the lucky children who could jump into the river survived to tell us the horror.
A good film if you are concerned about the 100,000 nuclear weapons in the world today.
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