A combination of dramatization, historical footage, and eyewitness interviews, the film alternates between documentary footage and dramatic recreations. The dramatizations and most of the original footage are presented as sepia-toned images, serving to blur the distinction between them. The languages are English and Japanese, with subtitles, and the actors are largely Canadian and Japanese.
Synopsis
The film opens on 12 April 1945 with the death of Franklin Roosevelt and the succession of Harry Truman to the presidency. In Europe, the Germans are close to surrender, but in the Pacific the bloody battle for Okinawa is still under way. American casualties have almost reached 900,000, with Japanese casualties at 1.1 million; 8 million Asian civilians have died in the war that began with Japan's 1931 invasion of Manchuria.
The new president knows nothing about the nuclear weapons being developed at Los Alamos, and he must decide on whether to use them and how. When nuclear physicist Leo Szilard delivers a petition signed by 73 scientists urging the president not to deploy the bomb, U.S. Secretary of StateJames F. Byrnes tells him: "You do not spend two billion dollars and then show them [American voters] nothing." Also urging deployment is Maj. Gen. Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project. The Interim Committee appointed by Truman recommends unanimously that he use the bomb on "war plants surrounded by worker housing", without warning. General George Marshall lays out plans for the invasion of Kyūshū in November and Honshū in March 1946.
In Japan, Minister of War General Anami Korechika argues that the homeland must be defended. The voice of reason is the new civilian prime minister, Kantarō Suzuki. In Tokyo, Admiral Yonai Mitsumasa assures the cabinet of victory.
On July 16, the Trinity test shows that a plutonium bomb (Fat Man) is feasible and that a nuclear blast is even more powerful than scientists predicted. The uranium bomb (Little Boy, which is untested but is expected to work) leaves Los Alamos for Tinian island in the Pacific. At the Potsdam conference, Joseph Stalin promises to join the war against Japan. Winston Churchill urges Truman to use the bomb to constrain Russian expansion. The Allied leaders deliver an ultimatum to Japan "to give them one last chance."
Truman strikes Kyoto off the target list, leaving Hiroshima as the primary target. The Enola Gay makes the drop on the morning of August 6, 1945. On August 9, the Soviet Union invades Manchuria and the Fat Man plutonium bomb devastates Nagasaki. Hirohito finally intervenes, telling the cabinet that Japan "must endure the unendurable" and surrender. Young army officers urge General Anami to join them in a military coup, but he tells them: "The emperor has spoken; we must obey him." On August 15, the emperor's surrender message is broadcast to Japan, and Anami commits ritual suicide.
Reception
Though not widely reviewed, Hiroshima was praised online: "Fascinating, and surprisingly ambivalent, docudrama rehashes familiar terrain with remarkable freshness precisely because of the emphasis on the politicians (rather than on the scientists), the bi-national approach, and an odd mixing of dramatization, newsreel footage, and even a few talking-head interviews with people who were there."[3]
