Radiation: A Slow Death, A New Generation of Hibakusha

The Japanese word “hibakusha” refers to survivors of the atomic bomb, but it's been extended to include all victims of radiation in filmmaker Hitomi Kamanaka's Radiation: A Slow Death, which examines the health dangers posed by various kinds of nuclear contamination. Ranging geographically from Hiroshima to Iraq and the northwestern United States, the film takes a circuitous path, beginning in Iraq where the incidence of cancer, especially among children, escalated substantially in the years after the Gulf War--a fact attributed to the depleted uranium used in some American missiles. (Since the footage dates from before the 2003 invasion, sanctions on the importation of medicine are blamed for the exceptionally high mortality rate.) The focus then turns to Japan, where Dr. Shuntaro Hida has investigated the effects of exposure to radioactivity ever since he treated people after the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Later, the filmmaker travels to Washington state to learn from author-activist Tom Bailie about the impact of a plutonium factory on the local population (the film notes that a class-action suit on behalf of those apparently affected had recently been dismissed). Radiation: A Slow Death obviously has a strong point of view (a scientist who disputes Bailie's assertion that the Washington case constitutes a governmental cover-up is afforded only a few minutes), and it's obviously intended to generate sympathy for the afflicted, but its matter-of-fact style is effective, and the evidence it presents certainly deserves consideration. DVD extras include the option to view the movie in segments by country, and a weblink to the online guidebook and lesson plan. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)