Atomic bomb movies from a Japanese perspective

This week marks 79 years since the world was transformed. On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima – the first use of nuclear warfare in human history. Just three days later, on August 9, Nagasaki suffered the same fate. Japan surrendered on August 15, and a formal armistice was signed on September 2.

However, the advent of nuclear war did not end the war, but instead brought mankind into the Cold War. Nine countries Today, humanity has nuclear weapons, and the threat of mass destruction looms over our collective consciousness like a never-ending Cold War. Yet, for many, the true scale of the devastation of the atomic bomb remains an unimaginable horror confined to the history books.

Collective denial of the horror of the atomic bomb

The extent of this lack of knowledge, and the complete refusal to face the reality of the atomic bomb, has been exposed recently. Just yesterday, August 8, 2024, the United States and other Western allies Announce Since Japan did not invite Israel to the Nagasaki peace ceremony, they will boycott the event.

It is worth noting that Israel is currently being tried for genocide in an international court. Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Arrest warrants have been requested for Israeli leaders, accusing them of crimes against humanity. The United States, the country that built the atomic bomb, refused to participate in the peace ceremony on the grounds of reasonable diplomatic exclusion.

In addition, Christopher Nolan’s films Oppenheimer It will premiere in 2023 and be released in Japan in 2024. The blockbuster film, which tells the story of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, won seven Oscars and five Golden Globes.

Conspicuously absent from the story is any mention of the impact of two atomic bombs on two Japanese cities. When asked about his choice to omit images of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and their victims, Nolan claim “Less is more,” meaning that subtext and the audience’s imagination are more powerful than explicit visuals. In a world where few films dare to show the true horror of the bombings or the faces of the survivors, this rationale makes little sense.

In one key scene, Oppenheimer himself turns his back on images of the Hiroshima ground zero that are shown to him and his Manhattan Project colleagues. As I watched, I couldn’t help but wonder if this decision was also a subtle encouragement for the audience to look away.

Barefoot Gen Vol. 2 Author: Keiji Nakazawa

About Barefoot Gen

No matter how much Keiji Nakazawa wanted to, he couldn’t look away. When he was 6 years old, an atomic bomb was dropped on his hometown of Hiroshima. He decided to start writing about the reality he experienced when his mother died. As he saw the tiny bone fragments in the crematorium, Nakazawa thought of his mother, who raised her three remaining children despite her life being destroyed by the atomic bomb.

“After her body was cremated, I was filled with anger. There were no bones in the ashes. All I could find were some small bones and I couldn’t tell whether they were from her head or feet. I was very angry. The atomic bomb blast even made me lose my mother’s bones,” he told China NewsRie Nii in a 2012 interview.

Nakazawa continues to create autobiographical manga Barefoot Generationthe first volume was published in 1973. The series ran for more than a decade and was adapted into three live-action and two animated films. The most notable adaptation, also known as Barefoot Generationwhich premiered on July 21, 1983, 40 years before Oppenheimer premiered in the United States.

The cruelty of the barefoot generation

Directed by Masaki Mori and written by Nakazawa, the film tells the story of Moto Nakaoka and his family in Hiroshima during the final months of World War II. Six-year-old Moto Nakaoka lives in a simple, run-down house with his brother, sister, mother, and father.

He and his brother Shinji were typical boys – energetic and mischievous. They often fantasized about large rice balls and red bean paste. Their young minds were immersed in dreams. They were almost inseparable, sharing everything from the meager meals to the thin, worn futons they slept on.

Their mother, Kimie, was gentle and tired. She was pregnant with another child. The family ate only porridge with a few pickled vegetables. Although the Nakaoka family was poor, they had a harmonious relationship.

[OnthemorningofAugust61945allthatchangedThedaywashotandclearthesummerheatbearingdownonthecityGenandhisfriendsarrivedatschoolasusualForamomenttheworldwasenvelopedinanunnaturalblindingwhitelightasifthesunitselfhaddescendeduponthemAneeriesilencehungintheairthecalmbeforethestormThenthebombsfell[1945年8月6日早晨，这一切都发生了变化。天气炎热晴朗，夏日的酷暑压在城市上空。Gen和朋友像往常一样到校。一瞬间，世界被一种不自然的、令人眼花缭乱的白光笼罩，仿佛太阳本身降临在他们身上。空气中弥漫着一种诡异的寂静，这是暴风雨前的宁静。然后，炸弹落下。

The explosion was a catastrophe. The film captures the moment in excruciating detail: a scorching heat wave that spread outward, vaporizing everything in its path. People weren’t just killed – they were erased, turned into shadows burned into the walls, Their form is inscribed in the last moment of their existence.

A little girl was burned to ashes, her eyes bulging and leaking fluid from her sockets, her skin blistering and blistered, peeling off layer by layer until only fragments of broken ash remained. A postman, an elderly man, a mother with a newborn in her arms, and a dog all suffered the same fate.

Gen was thrown to the ground. His body was burnt black. His clothes were burned to tatters. When he opened his eyes, he saw a scene from hell. The sky, once a bright blue, was now a roiling mass of black and red, as if heaven itself was bleeding. His friends were killed in the carnage.

Gene stumbled to his feet and began looking for his family. The air was filled with the acrid stench of ash and burning flesh. Once home, Gene fumbled through the rubble, his hands raw and bleeding. He found Jin Mei trapped under the rubble of their home and pulled her out, but his brother, sister, and father were still trapped in the burning house.

Gen and his mother are forced to leave their family behind. The fire consumes everything in its path, including the fragile bodies of his father and brother. His father’s last words plead with Gen to stay alive. To protect his mother and the unborn child she carries. This responsibility will weigh heavily on Gen’s tiny shoulders.

Some might say this is too graphic, but it does reflect the horrors that Nakazawa experienced firsthand.

“We found a child’s skull at the entrance of the house, just as my mother had described. I will never forget the moment I held Susumu’s skull in my hands. Even in the hot August, I felt a chill as if a pile of ice was poured down my back. My brother was conscious when he was burned to death,” he told China News. “My mother told me that she could hear my brother screaming in the fire. His screams kept ringing in her ears. She was haunted by the cries of Susum and my father throughout her life.”

“In the room next to the entrance, we found my father’s skull. While digging in another small room, we also found my sister’s skull. The bucket was filled with their bones,” he continued.

After the bomb went off, Hiroshima became a ghost town. The survivors were reduced to living skeletons. Their skin began to peel off in grotesque flakes. Their eyes were hollow and lifeless. The film doesn’t shy away from the horrific realities of radiation sickness: hair loss, ulcers that won’t heal and parasitic maggots, and the slow, painful death that follows. Corpses littered the streets, some charred beyond recognition, others swollen and deformed from radiation poisoning.

One of the most heartbreaking scenes is seeing babies still suckling at their dead mothers’ breasts, too young to comprehend that their source of nutrition is no longer there. The babies cry out. Their tiny hands grasp at cold, unresponsive flesh, their hungry mouths smeared with blood.

This is also similar to the reality that Nakazawa experienced.

“There were a lot of people around me whose skin was falling off. The skin was falling off from their shoulders to the backs of their hands and hanging down to their nails. The skin on their backs was hanging on their hips like some kind of cloth wrapped around their bodies. They were dragging the skin on their legs behind them and couldn’t lift their feet. A group of these people walked towards me,” Nakazawa told China News.

Amid the ruins, Kimie gave birth to a baby girl, Tomoko: a fragile new life in a shattered world. Gen, driven by his deep love for his sister, took on the role of protector. He worked tirelessly to provide for her. Eventually, he found a job and saved enough money to buy her milk. But the harsh reality of their situation was unforgiving – Tomoko, weakened by malnutrition, died before he could save her.

Yet, amid this relentless suffering, there are flickers of hope in the film. Gen and his mother persevere, and against all odds, possibilities for the future emerge. A young boy walks into their lives who bears a striking resemblance to his dead brother, Shinji, suggesting that even in the bleakest of circumstances, the Nakaos might find a way to rebuild—like the tenacious grass that begins to grow from the scorched earth near the end of the film.

Barefoot Gen Vol. 2 Author: Keiji Nakazawa

The necessity of memory

Barefoot Generation It’s sickening. It’s vivid. It’s almost unbearable. But so are the realities of the atomic bomb. Rather than indulging in saccharine movies that gloss over history’s darkest moments, perhaps it’s time to confront the harsh realities we’ve long chosen to ignore. Barefoot Generation It opens our eyes to the brutal truth of the past and forces us to confront the nightmarish devastation wrought by the atomic bomb.

The United States must face up to its brutality, and Japan must face up to the suffering it endured and the crimes it committed during the war. Glorifying and censoring these painful memories will only humiliate the victims. Only by facing these horrors can we truly learn lessons and pay due respect.

Keiji Nakazawa died on December 19, 2012. He left behind these Character:

“I can still speak, so I will definitely continue to convey the idea that Yuan is very angry. I think the Japanese people still need to reflect on their responsibility for the war and the atomic bombing.

“I will thoroughly hold accountable those who are responsible for the war and the atomic bombings, whether they are Japanese government authorities or American government authorities. Through comics, I will fight them to the end.”

For those who have lived through nuclear war, the trauma is not a relic of the past but an everyday reality. The effects of radiation continue to plague not only humans but the environment as well. Scientists are still puzzled over how to manage highly radioactive nuclear waste, whether from nuclear power plants or old test sites that are too contaminated to be habitable.

As global tensions rise and the threat of nuclear war looms, we must confront the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To promote a more balanced understanding of nuclear weapons, we must stop avoiding uncomfortable realities and listen to the voices and stories of those who lived through the Holocaust. Their firsthand accounts are not just footnotes to history, but living testimonies that urgently demand our attention and action.

Barefoot Gen Vol. 2 Author: Keiji Nakazawa

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