Powerful

I was channel surfing and could not turn away from Hiroshima - Out of the Ashes, a made-for-TV movie from 1990 starring Judd Nelson, Max Von Sydow, Noriyuki (Pat) Morita and a talented cast telling the story of the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath. Against the backdrop of the disaster--and they did a remarkable job in terms of a detailed set--a variety of personalities deal with the tragedy from their own perspective, including a doctor, a grandfather, a German priest, a young boy, his mother, and two American POWs.

I have always felt remorse for my nation's use of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even though it was before my lifetime, and I know that the situation was such that many Americans saw it as a boon to end the war by whatever means possible. My first real introduction to the aftermath of those bombs was the story Sadako and The Thousand Cranes. Later, I read the fictionalised acount Hiroshima by John Hershey, with detailed descriptions that really made me begin to understand the scope of the disaster. I have not read Black Rain, which also comes highly recommended, but I would like to. I firmly believe we can never let our world forget the suffering brought about by such a weapon. Kids today don't remember living in a Cold War or really having fear of atomic weapons. So books and movies, which make it so much more real, are a good route. Of course, today, kids live in fear of terrorism, and there is always the chance some crackpot group will manage to unleash atomic weapons, although of course we try to not think about that.

Seen in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11--and realising just how much larger the scope of destruction in terms of both numbers of people killed at the time and the deaths, ostracism, and illnesses that spanned generations, the movie really had an effect. And the moral of the story, of course, is that we must never let this happen again. To anyone.