The Documentary movie “Hiroshima”by BBC reflects one of the most tragic event that has ever occurred during World War II, when atomic bomb was dropped on the civil town Hiroshima.By July 1945 the war in Europehas almost came to the end because Nazis were defeated by the Soviets with the allied forces, the last step to the total victory was to destroy German ally Japanese armed forces.
The movie starts from the test of the secret weapon in New Mexico, created by American scientists. It was completely new, unknown, ultimate weapon that could destroy completely everything by Infrared and Gamma rays radiation as well as heat radiation evolved from the chain reaction of the Uranium components inside of the bomb within the radius of 10 miles the atomic bomb. Results from this test were more than satisfactory,they have exceeded all the expectations. Due to the outcomeof thisexperiment the American nomenclature has set the ultimatum to the Japanese Emperor: total surrender, to which he promptly replied: “To kill in silent contempt”. After this statement the Emperor made it clear that no peace agreements were possible. Hiroshima was the last hope to fight back the Americans,thousands of fighters were dislocated here. The “X” day was set to August 6, 1946. A Group of three aircraft headed to the drop zone (2 for surveillance and for recording bombing results, and the last one Enola Gay - Boeing B29 also known as the flying fortress with the atomic bomb onboard). Within the matter of seconds tens of thousands of human lives were wiped out from the Earth, leaving their remains everywhere.
For the survivors – the nightmare was just the beginning, many of them were trapped in the debris from explosion. The storytelling is held by 5 interviewed Japanese survivors: Dr. Shuntaro Hida( Military doctor), Morio Ozaki (military cadet), Kinuko Laskey (nurse), Toruko Fujii (teenager tram - driver) and Thomas Takashi Anemory ( City bank clerk). Every single one of them was badly injured but lucky to stay far enough from the explosion to survive.
The most shocking story is taken from the written notes of Shigai Hiratsuka. It was only 8 am in the morning, the family gathered for breakfast, kids were playing around and the husband was reading new periodical. The atmosphere was peaceful and noone could even imagine that insplit of secondeverything will turn into chaos and destruction : the whole building crushed down,house was covered in flames. She was badly injured but the first thing that came out on her mind was to find children. The mother’s instinct was much stronger than all the pain and suffer she was disposed to. In a moment Shigai heard her daughter’s scream, she was buried under the debris and the flames were getting closer and closer. Despite all the hard efforts to rescue the trapped girlthe woman couldn’t do anything. The child couldn’t stand heat and pain any longer. This scene in the movie is the most touchingand meaningful. The desperate words of the mother in the end of the movie, when she asks for forgiveness from a girl, claims to be a bad mother, because she is not brave enough to die here along with her. This scene let us truly understand the whole tragedy of Hiroshima bombings. Mother’s life was not the same as it was before the attack, it is hard to imagine what she has been through. The hardest thing in every parent’s life is to outlive your own children.
The outcomeof the massacre is that tens of thousands of civil lives were lost; hundreds of thousands of descendants were never born because of this tremendous military conflict.
Work cited:
Hiroshima: BBC History of World War II. Prod. Paul Wilmshurst.WatchDocumentary.com. N.p., May-June 2011. Web. 18 May 2013.
