Reviewer:
palos verdes
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June 28, 2013
Subject:
Atomic War in the Pacific 1946
This short documentary contains the contemporaneous Japanese* footage of Hiroshima victims released by the US in the first year following the occupation of Japan. The film shows not only the effects of radiation on buildings where shadows of the blast remained, but medical staff attending to the treatment of burn victims in the aftermath of the Bomb's devastation.
It concludes with segments shot a year after the bomb by US occupation forces showing a classroom without walls in which a student sits at his desk writing. The flesh on his arm carries a scar from a burn. In the final shots, the streets are shown, complete with a trolley on which hang more passengers outside than inside, while the narrator (Ed Herlihy) intones about the 'little men' who dreamt of empire becoming subjects of US occupation.
The Hiroshima segment only runs for over a minute.
The rest of the film deals with atomic tests on Bikini Atoll conducted by the US in 1946. It includes the chief of Bikini Atoll being given an invitation to watch his island being bombed by the US admiral. (Do you suppose he could refuse?)
The rest of the film are shots of atomic testing, with a buildup to an aerial shot of the bombing at sea.
Nowhere in these films is there a consideration for the unleashing of nuclear war on the planet.
The next time a politician says country x has nukes and we don't want to see an arms race, ask yourself: who started it?
Then watch these movies to see if your opinion is supported by the facts.
*The Japanese are called 'Japs' in many of the Universal newsreels. The role of racial stereotyping was instrumental in enemy-formation and characterized how the Japanese were portrayed in US propaganda.