Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9781574920857
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
ISBN: 1574920855
Label: Hallmark
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageAnalog
Manufacturer: Hallmark
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Hallmark
Release Date: August 20, 1996
Running Time: 165 minutes
Studio: Hallmark
Theatrical Release Date: August 06, 1995
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
By May 1945, the war in Europe was over and the German military was in ruins. The war in the Pacific, however, was far from done and the determination of the Japanese promised that the ultimate cost of victory would be very high. With the death of Franklin Roosevelt, the responsibilities of the presidency fell on Harry Truman. Truman had been kept out of the decision-making loop through much of his term as vice president, and had to rely on his gut instinct and on-the-job training to handle his new position. The U.S. Army had been working feverishly on the Manhattan Project (the "gadget"), and the Army's top brass urged Truman to use the awesome power of the bomb to end the war with the Japanese. Hiroshima uses a unique structure to convey the story of that fateful decision, mixing newsreels with new sepia-toned footage, color dramatizations, and interviews with Hiroshima survivors and U.S. military personnel. At times, the transitions between the segments can be a bit jarring, but Hiroshima is an extraordinary look at the human element of the decision to use nuclear weapons. Its painstaking attention to period detail makes it a historical drama that plays nearly like a documentary. Kenneth Welsh, in particular, is an uncanny Harry Truman, having obviously studied the president's clipped Midwestern twang and ramrod-straight bearing at great length. Unlike many other films on the subject, Hiroshima also shows the Japanese side of the equation, with a diplomatic corps ready to sue for peace while the fanatics in the military would never hear of it. Its unswervingly objective, balanced tone, and sober direction make Hiroshima a thoughtful and informative look at the decision that changed the course of history forever. --Jerry Renshaw
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
First of all, the title has nothing to do with the famous John Hershey novel of the same name. What we have here is a Canadian-Japanese co-production concerning the historical events leading up to the decision to use Nuclear weapons on Japan in World War 2. No docu-drama has ever topped 1974's "Missiles of October" but this COMES CLOSE in it's presentation and style. The actor playing Harry Truman gives a great performance. We see background meetings, insider infomation sessions and "perimeter" events that all lead to the eventual use of the Atomic bomb. Interestingly, we are shown politicians, scientists, military men, citizens and the everyday soldier, bomber pilot, etc. all working in their various capacities that eventually would be tied together in dropping the bomb on Hiroshima. Also we see for the first time, the Japanese execs and military leaders meeting and conflicting with each other over their intentions to fight a defensive battle on Japanese soil. They will disturb you so much with their attitudes and unwillingness to compromise or see reality that you will UNDERSTAND WHY the bombs HAD TO BE DROPPED. Even after Hiroshima, you will know WHY we HAD to drop the second one on Nagasaki. This is something overlooked by modern productions and this film hits the bulls eye about the Japanese military and their refusal to end the conflict. A very good work. Somewhat long, not as gripping or as intense as "Missiles of October" but a decent production.
Rating:  -
I'm not a big fan of "war" films, but this one kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I wasn't alive during WWII and up until now wasn't very interested in learning about how it played out. If only our school history classes were this inspiring, I think the world today would be a much more peaceful place.
Rating: -
Atomic bombing on Hiroshima involves a catalogue of good and evil in the human nature. From political/militaristic ambition for the hegemony over the new world, strategy and scientific achievement to conscience and religious beliefs of all kind of peoples, etccc.
Due to the demonic power of the supreme weapon, every human who involved in the project, from scientists to Generals and the president of the United States, were tested of their human conscience. And who sold the soul to the demon?
As this semi-documentary film has beautifully and correctly depicted, when the final decision of the atomic bombings was made, Japan had already known that she was going to be defeated at a severe cost of Japanese lives, and that was a matter of time.
One question that must be asked was: How can Japan end the war with the national polity and the sovereignty of Japan, e.g. the Emperor, intact?
In other words; gIf only the status of the Emperor is intact and unsullied, Japan can be reconstructed from any kind of adversity.h That was the whole nationfs hope.
So, it could have been possible for Japan to capitulate to the Allied much earlier under a single condition of assurance of the Emperorfs status, and, therefore, the atomic bombings could have been avoided; if only President Truman had not stuck that much to the word, gunconditional surrenderh; if only the Soviet Union and Stalin had not had been so ambitious to take control over the Far East and had accepted Japanfs request for the mediation; if only the State Secretary James Byrnes had not been so jingoistic and of anti-Japanese sentiment; if only Truman had listened to the poor professor Hoffmanfs explanation about the probable attitude of the Japanese when they used the word gmoku-satsuh(basically means gto ignoreh, but in this particular case, meant gI want to agree with you, but I cannot do so explicitly because of current situation.h) to respond to the Potsdam Declaration, etc. cc.
But, the bombs were dropped, and Japanfs defeat was confirmed.
The Japanese were, however, still in high morale. As an American journalist reported, the Japanese were still believing; gJapan lost the war in material way but Japan Spirit never be conquered!h
I do not know if it is authentically the words of the Emperor himself, but it seems genuine for the Emperor to say that; gOne can build a palace in a few months. A great tree requires hundreds of years. But even a great tree doesnft last forever.h
And so do those words: gIt is appropriate that we [the Emperor and the subject] share the [sufferings], [so that the Japanese nationals] will realize we are one family after all.h gHis subjects believed that within Him (sic) lived the soul of all that was Japanese cc the soul of Japan itself.h
I was born 20 years after the war ended and educated by the history textbooks which the left-wing scholars wrote in the way the American occupation forces satisfied so that the Japanese think the Japanese Imperial Army was evil, therefore, they have to accept the atomic bombings and other indiscriminate incendiary bombings as the punishment for the militaristsf war crimes.
Still, I strongly believe that our Emperor is the symbol for the ideal of Japanfs decency, the soul of Japan itself.
I do admire this film, gHiroshimah, that showed us broad view on political activities over the decision-making of the atomic bombings and Japanfs surrender. But it is not entirely satisfactory because it mentioned very little about the voices of the victims.
One survivor told his American friend about people who gdied in silence, with no grudge, setting their teeth to bear [the tremendous sufferings and agony]. All for the country!h
gYes, people of Hiroshima died manly in the atomic bombing, believing that it was for the Emperorfs sake.h(from John Hersey's book, "Hiroshima")
There is one hiccup: the superimposed narration said g[The Japanese Imperial Army in China] left behind 8 million dead civilians.h I do not think they have good hard documented evidences which support this awful allegation other than Chinese Communist propaganda sources. Even the notoriously unfair Tokyo Trial did not go that wild and far-fetched.
Apart from that, this is a good film in a decent documentary style with superb performances of the actors that I highly recommend to everyone.
Rating:  -
Here are the facts, none of which appear in this movie:
1. The US dropped the atomic bombs on Japan so that Japan would surrender to the US before the USSR declared war on Japan (The USSR was then an ally of the Allied Powers) This gave the US a superior diplomatic position over the USSR.
2. The US dropped the bomb in order to test the effectivness of a nuclear weapon on a populated area.
Both of these points are verifiable with White House / Pentagon memos, and can also be found at the Atomic Bomb Museum in Hiroshima, or the Atomic Bomb Museum's website....it is also worth noting why the US chose Hiroshima as a primary target:
1. Hiroshima was chosen because the city had not been bombed by conventional allied bombers. For this reason, it would be easier to tell how effective the atomic bomb was against a populated area.
2. Hiroshima was a manufacturing city, with a military base. Therfore, destroying Hiroshima would slow Japanese production and industry.
It should also be noted that the US dropped thousands of (conventional) bombs on Japan AFTER Japan surrendered (a war crime, under Nuremberg laws).
Here is testimony taken from a suvivor of the Hiroshima bombing:
"She came toward me, carrying a baby on her back and pulling a three-year-old and five-year-old by the hand. Her face was black and swollen large. It was afternoon, and she and the children were hungry. I gave them my lunch. She said they were thirsty. I went to get some water and when I got back, the three and five-year-olds had died while eating my lunch. The mother had died while breast-feeding the baby, who was still alive and suckling. The sight of them reduced me to tears. I made a little shelter out of .......Then I thought about my mother. I was confident she was safe at home, and thought about asking her to make......
Then when I got home, she was not there. A woman with a black face was lying in the air-raid shelter. Who are you? I asked. "
If you want a more accurate picture of the atomic bombings in Japan, I suggest you look elsewhere....please excuse my lack of proofreading, I don't have much time to write this. The above testimony is a direct quote from the Atomic Bomb Regristry in Hiroshima
Rating: -
This movie gives a sense of the common humanity of both sides, in at least two ways.
First, the movie draws parallels between the make-up of both governments near the end of the war, beginning with U.S. President Truman and Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki. The two men took office within 5 days of each other, and had their first cabinet meetings at nearly the same time. Both meetings are in the film. You can see each man adjusting to the reins of power as he meets with the military leaders of his country. At his meeting, Suzuki chooses in a calculated way to present himself as a fierce warrior ready to die in battle, while Truman makes no such speech, yet you get the sense that the President, too, perhaps because of his lack of experience, is aware that he needs to communicate himself as a strong leader in order to earn the respect of the officers and civilians in his cabinet. Truman had the military men under his unquestioned command, though, which cannot be said for Suzuki; and Truman was the highest authority in the U.S., while in Japan that title lay, technically at least, with Emperor Hirohito. Yet very quietly, the movie draws Suzuki and Truman together as two men in a common situation, determined in their own ways to see an end to the war. The parallel is not trumpeted in an obvious manner; I did not see it myself until revisiting the movie after several years; but this is a subtle and complex film with many such finely drawn portraits.
Beyond Truman and Suzuki, we get a good sense of the general disagreements within both governments, usually but not always between the military and civilian men. In Japan, of course, the tension between the two groups became an outright struggle, unlike the more nuanced situation in the U.S., where a civilian, Secretary of State Byrnes, comes off as a hard-liner, and where scientists contribute to the civilian roles (prominently, but not completely, in opposition to the hard-liners). At one point Colonel Groves, the head of the Manhattan Project, confronts Secretary of War Stimson with the same kind of martial anger that the military leaders of Japan display so memorably throughout the film. The latter speeches feel authentic, to this particular American, who knows nothing personally of Japan; the dialogue and general portrayal of Colonel Groves can feel ham-fisted and over the top. I can't say whether the portrayals of Byrnes and Groves are historically accurate, but whatever the case, the abundance of tension makes for very interesting drama to say the least; and the drama draws out one of the most tragic facts of the Hiroshima story: the presence in both these countries, near the end of World War II, of war-weariness.
Secretary Stimson's general disposition "not to outdo Herr Hitler in committing atrocities against noncombatants", his willingness to protect the heart of Japanese culture from atomic destruction, and his old age and frailty all mirror Suzuki's old age and the softer line of all the Japanese civilian leaders toward the war.
None of these similarities are allowed to obscure the contrasts between the two countries, in both politics and culture, which are laid out in wonderful complexity -- and, as far as this amateur historian can tell, with authenticity. The movie is not against the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki but, perhaps because its Canadian origins help provide some neutrality, it does not wrap Americans in protective clothing, either: they come off as human beings with both warts and strengths.
The second way in which the movie draws a common humanity is by including snippets of interviews with real-life soldiers and civilians from both sides. Dramatically these interruptions feel awkward, and they introduce the feeling of a documentary into what is essentially a docudrama. I think the movie pulls it off well enough, but there is no good way to include these interviews. If you're patient, they add to your appreciation of the story; but keep in mind that the movie is essentially not about ordinary people but rather their leaders.
Bravo to the producers for using actors and film-makers from both sides. I have always loved the Japanese sections of the film, and perhaps it means something that years after first watching it, the chief thing I remembered about it was the power of the Japanese language and the sympathetic humanity of the Japanese roles -- perhaps especially the warriors. The portrayal of Army Minister Anami is especially unforgettable.
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