Nagasaki Journey: The Aftermath Of The Bomb; Rain Of Ruin: The Bombing Of Nagasaki 3

At 11:02 am on August 9, 1945, a lone B-29 bomber, under direct orders of the President of the United States, dropped its hellish atomic cargo on the city of Nagasaki. The bombing came three days after the nuclear annihilation of Hiroshima, and marked the immediate end of World War II; it was also, undeniably, the opening shot in the Cold War. 70,000 residents of the city were killed instantly in the bomb's brief holocaust, another 100,000 were fatally injured. These two excellent and grimly complimentary films provide both political and personal perspectives on the events leading up to and following the morning of August 9th. Of the two films, Nagasaki Journey is perhaps the more immediately affecting and successful. It offers slowly measured and heart-wrenching personal accounts of hibakusha--survivors--and other witnesses to the destruction: a mother's account of her search through the rubble for a lost son; a retired postal worker's recollection of the pain, horror, and despair experienced as a 16-year-old boy caught in the blast; the tearful description of carnage and shattered lives, given by an elderly former member of the post-bomb U.S. occupation forces. These narratives, woven skillfully together with riveting (and often painful to watch) archival footage, make this an unforgettable film. At least on the surface, Rain of Ruin is a considerably more dispassionate work. It provides a brisk and clearly-presented historical overview of the baroque international politics and complex tactical maneuverings which lead to the dropping of the bomb on Nagasaki. As in Nagasaki Journey, the film makes extensive and skillful use of archival footage and photographs to tell the story. Throughout the video, academic and military talking heads provide a sort of dead-eyed Greek chorus to the tragedy--arguing motives, causes and outcomes from the comfortable distance of a half century. Somehow, the testimony of bomb survivors inserted periodically seem rather lost and vitiated in the midst of this deadly political science debate--or perhaps the intention was to give history a human face. Although there are currently a number of excellent videos on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both these films provide unique and memorable treatments of the subject, and would be fine additions to either public or academic library collections. Both are highly recommended and Nagasaki Journey is an Editor's Choice. (G. Handman)