Latest news with #AtomicPeople
The Guardian
04-08-2025
- General
- The Guardian
What Happened at Hiroshima review – this rushed, flimsy look at a world-changing atrocity isn't good enough
Last year, the documentary Atomic People told the stories of some of the survivors of the nuclear bombs dropped in 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Most of them nonagenarians, some in their hundreds, they described with unfaltering clarity their experiences of being caught in the blast. They talked of people coming towards them with organs spilling forth, skin peeling off, one carrying a baby 'burned black as stone', and of lives lived thereafter with knowledge that threatened to corrode them from the inside. Some of the estimated 78,000 who died instantly, out of a population of 350,000, left what looked like shadows against the buildings. Others were vaporised without even that tiny trace. Thousands more would die of radiation sickness by the end of the year, and then would begin the long tail of deaths from cancer caused by direct exposure and mutations passed down to later generations. Survivors were known as 'hibakusha', discouraged from speaking about their awful experiences, and were to varying degrees shunned thereafter, finding it difficult to marry and to find employment as people feared to let them 'taint' their families or face the horror they embodied. It was a harrowing, strangely ethereal and delicate 90 minutes of film, as interviewees remembered what their cities were like before the bombs, before the silver shimmer of the B-29 they all recall was first glimpsed against the clear blue sky. They closed their eyes and the very earliest days of childhood lived again. The documentary did not mark any particular anniversary – simply the fact that time was running out for these people, silenced for so long, to tell their stories, allowing them to function, in so far as is ever possible, as the warnings from history they want to pass on. The half-hour of What Happened at Hiroshima, marking the 80th anniversary of the bombings, feels, by contrast, like a rushed, crass thing – a duty done, a commissioning box ticked and a presenter, the journalist Jordan Dunbar, required to try to make up for its slightness by emoting instead. For many, perhaps, this will be the appropriate mode of delivery. I, however – ancient, intolerant, embittered on top of natural cynicism and reserve – still feel it as an unnecessary intrusion into a piece. Detachment and stoicism is what allows others' stories to be thrown into the sharp, stark relief they deserve. Anything else, I think, pulls focus and does a disservice to the viewer and, more importantly, the subjects. The 30-minute run time is simply too short for such a topic. Take off the introductory few minutes (where they tell you what you're going to tell you) and the last (where they tell you what they've told you) and there is precious little time left to tell anything at all. We skim the preceding history (the Tripartite Pact, 1940! Pearl Harbor, 1941! The B-29 was called the Enola Gay!), then take in a few memories from the quartet of survivors interviewed. We watch Dunbar, visibly moved, in a museum dedicated to the bombings , the room filled with a panoramic photograph of the cities' devastation. Then we take a brief look at the Cuban missile crisis and estimates of how many nuclear missiles are hunkered and bunkered round the world today – in case we thought the threat had receded. We're left with just enough time for a furrowed brow and a bathetic comment that the people in charge may not be listening to survivors' stories. When this generation is gone, asks Dunbar, will our leaders really understand what it means to push the button? This is where my patience really ran out. To descend to this level of asininity after the quiet dignity and appalling suffering recounted by contributors representing such a colossal, profound, world-changing event simply won't do. I'm going to be charitable and assume that this is not going to be our national broadcaster's only contribution towards marking the 80th anniversary of one of the worst atrocities in human history, of the dawn of a new age whose darkness and horrors have somehow had to have been accommodated within all of us since, wearing callouses on our souls. I'm going to assume there is something more fitting coming along. Perhaps this programme was intended for a younger, more tender demographic than mine and I am judging it by entirely the wrong criteria. I hope so. But I also hope that we can always distinguish between the need to reach and educate new audiences and the impulse to do so by pandering to them. What Happened at Hiroshima aired on BBC One and is available on iPlayer.
Time Magazine
04-08-2025
- General
- Time Magazine
The True Story Behind PBS' 'Atomic People'
Eighty years since the first and only time the atomic bomb was used for warfare on Aug 6. and Aug. 9, 1945, survivors of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki open up about what it was like on the ground in Atomic People, airing on PBS Aug. 4. The U.S. had been developing the bombs since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. When the U.S. dropped them four years later, they instantly killed about 78,000 of Hiroshima's 350,000 residents and about 40,000 of Nagasaki's 240,000 residents. About a week after the bombings, on Aug. 15, it was announced that Japan would surrender, officially signing the documents on Sep. 2 and ending World War II. Most of the survivors were children when the bombs were dropped, yet they can recall those fateful days vividly. Dripping flesh Survivors recall initially seeing bright lights. In Nagasaki, Kikuyo Nakamura, who was 21 back then, said the mountains looked like they were on fire. Students in Hiroshima recall an intense light, a blinding light speeding towards them in their classroom. The effects of the bombing could be seen immediately in Hiroshima, survivors say. One man describes the roof tiles on his home shattering and a hole opening up in the ceiling. Hiromu said the sky looked like it was 'raining fire.' Michiko Kodama was in school at the time and recalls hiding under a desk as the ceiling came crashing down. Windows shattered and splintered across the classroom desks and chairs. Hiromu describes seeing someone with 'skin hanging off his face like an old cloth,' the 'flesh dripping like candle wax.' Kodama's father collected the 7-year-old from school, and while he was carrying her on his back, she saw people with melting flesh—which she calls 'a scene from hell.' Chieko Kiriake was 15 when she saw victims with skin from their legs peeling off. As victims started to die, students had to dig holes for them in their playgrounds. 'I cremated them,' Kiriake says. Underneath Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park are the remains of tens of thousands of victims. The aftermath Survivors who lost their homes had to build barrack huts. Food was scarce. Survivors describe going to the mountains to look for trees with edible fruits. They even ate bees eggs from bees nests. As Seiichiro Mise puts it, 'We really lived like cavemen.' One survivor said her father died after his stomach turned black and blue, and he vomited blood. By the end of 1945, about 90,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had died. Kiyomi Iguro, who was 19 in 1945, did not have any immediate injuries from the bombing, but believes that the miscarriage she had later in life was caused by radiation exposure from the bomb. 'I thought about taking my life,' she says in the doc, tempted to overdose on sleeping pills. A couple, Hiroshi and Keiko Shimizu, describe being too afraid to have children because of what abnormalities they might pass on. Nakamura said her son developed leukemia as an adult, and the doctor told her it was likely because she was breastfeeding. Survivors received some medical care and some form of compensation, but campaigns for more compensation and the abolition of nuclear weapons are ongoing. The doc ends with survivor Sueichi Kido at the United Nations in 2023, speaking about how scenes of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza make him afraid that another nuclear war could be on the horizon. Survivors hope that testimonies like Atomic People, on the devastating effects of the bomb, will prevent history from repeating itself. Atomic People premieres Aug. 4 at 10 p.m. ET.
Boston Globe
04-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
This week's TV: A JFK Jr. docuseries, ‘King of the Hill' returns, and Jenna Ortega is back as ‘Wednesday'
'Atomic People,' Monday at 9 p.m. on PBS: In the twilight of their lives, survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings are given what may be the last opportunity to tell their stories, in detail, with a raw emotion that signals the continued trauma of this horrific event. Their testimonies are interspersed with archival footage. Once forced into silence, the individuals known as hibakushas become a later generation's eyes and ears in a devastating documentary that already received the British Television Academy Award for Specialist Factual in 2024. Advertisement ' ': season 14 , Monday on Hulu: Has it been 15 years already? After its extended hiatus, streamer Hulu has started up the Hill factory again. Ten episodes of the new season drop today, all from the warped brains of creators Mike Judge ('Beavis and Butt-Head') and Greg Daniels ('Upload'). The season 14 conceit is that Hank and Peggy Hill have returned at long last from working in the Saudi Arabian propane business to retire among their old friends in Arlen, Texas. Their son, Bobby, is now an adult chef living in Dallas. Cast regulars Judge, Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon, and Stephen Root are returning, and Ronny Chieng joins the cast as a recurring character, the Hills' new Laotian neighbor. Advertisement 'The Pickup,' Wednesday on Prime Video: The summer direct-to-streaming action comedy continues trying to find its niche in the new world order for marquee stars like Eddie Murphy. Murphy and Pete Davidson play armored truck drivers challenged to a duel between law and disorder by Keke Palmer's diabolical and violent bank robber. Over one very long, hot day, the duo bond and bromance as chaos reigns around them. 'Lethal Weapon' and 'Beverly Hills Cop' vibes chime in a disposable slapstick buddy comedy. 'Wednesday': season 2 , Wednesday on Netflix: The Addams Family girl-powered spinoff from Tim Burton that made Jenny Ortega a star as the title teen arrives for season 2, part 1. It's back to school at Nevermore for Wednesday Addams, who deadpans her way through relationships with family, friends, and faculty, while testing her psychic powers and unraveling a new mystery. Luis Guzman and Catherine Zeta-Jones return as her parents, Gomez and Morticia Addams, with guest appearances from Joanna Lumley, Thandiwe Newton, and Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester. 'Outlander: Blood of My Blood,' Friday at 8 p.m. on Starz: In a historical time travel series, there's space for infinite prequels and sequels. The offshoot of the romance based on the Donna Gabaldon novels rewinds a generation. It focuses on the parents of main characters Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) and Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser (Caitriona Balfe). Heughan and Balfe are unlikely to appear in this show, although the potential for cameos and flash-forwards exists. Harriet Slater, Jamie Roy, and Jeremy Irvine lead the cast to Scotland and back. Bodices will rip, swords will be brandished. Advertisement Thelma Adams is a cultural critic and the author of the best-selling historical novel 'The Last Woman Standing,' about Josephine Marcus, the Jewish wife of Wyatt Earp.
