Search - White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on DVD

Wow, just wow

B. E Jackson | Pennsylvania | 05/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I can't even describe what I was seeing in this movie without getting the urge to cry. Absolutely shocking detailed documentary mainly focusing on the Japanese (with English subtitles), and what they had to deal with when they were children and the Hiroshima nuclear attack happened.



Let me tell you- this movie will absolutely shock you on several occasions, because it shows footage of the famous bombing incident in World War II, and you will get to know a few select Japanese people who were a part of the disaster and lived through it, with all the amazingly accurate and heartbreaking details revealing to us exactly what they had to go through.



It's almost hard to believe real people had to go through these horrible events and deal with diseases, their skin falling apart, and other major problems as a result of one devastating bomb.



It's a film worth seeing from a Japanese perspective, because for years we've all been seeing the American point of view of what happened that horrible day. Now it's the Japanese telling their stories. You'll get to know each one of them and listen to their incredible stories. What they had to go through was just... unbelievable.



Worth watching, but don't be surprised if the shocking stories and video footage becomes too much for a weak stomach."

Gary W.

Gary Wertz | Olympia, WA United States | 01/16/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an excellent HBO Documentary; the opening showing modern day Hiroshima with a man on the street asking present day Japanese teen agers this question. "What significant event happened on August 6th, 1945?" None of them knew, one guessed "earthquake." The rest of the documentary focuses on actual victims and their testimony of the bombing, their life after and archival footage of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The documentary was well done, there was never any anti-American sentiment but some negative views of the Japanese government were expressed principally the WW-II era military government. I presently work in Japan and have been to Hiroshima and the Peace Park there. It is a very moving experience I hope to go to Nagasaki this year. The most humbling thing for me of that visit is the story of a very athletic and intellegent young girl, Sadako Sasaki a victim of cancer likely induced by radiation exposure she died in 1955, Sadako was 12, people should read about her will to continue life by folding over 1000 paper cranes even when it took her hours to do one because of her weakened body. Sadako and her cranes are now huge symbol of peace for children. The Japanese people do not like talking about WW-II because it was a horrific experience for them and totally altered the concepts and society of Japanese thinking and logic. As a child myself in the fifties and a teen in the sixties and having served on active duty in both the USAF and US Navy for 20 years I can recall the fear of the possibility of total world destruction by a nuclear war. It was a very stressful period and that awareness was always at the back of many of our thoughts. The war had to end and in actuality the use of the bombs saved many more lives, that should not be forgotten either. We all must remember no other country has ever faced the rath of a nuclear weapon, and these very polite and dignified people have every right to demand the end of the creation of nuclear weapons and war in general. The events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki should not be repeated."