Hiroshima-Nagasaki, August 1945

Harvard Film Archive, projection print somewhat scratched, HFA Item no: 9675. From The Amos Vogel Annenberg School of Communications Collection

Running time on release was 16 minutes, Cf. OCLC website July 13th, 2009

Producer, Erik Barnouw; camera, Akira Iwasaki; writing, Paul Ronder; editing, Paul Ronder, Geof Bartz; music effects, Linea Johnson, Terrill Schukraft

Narrated by Kazuko Oshima and Paul Ronder

This documentary is a compilation of silent black and white film footage shot by nine Japanese cameramen in Hiroshima and Nagasaki shortly after the U.S. Airforce dropped the first atomic bombs in early August 1945. Due to the unmitigated nature of this documentary record of the aftermath of the atomic blasts, the film was not released for twenty-five years. Although the majority of the footage was filmed by Japanese cameramen, an English-language voice-over narration has been added, along with a few scenes from American sources. A narrator possibly (Robert Oppenheimer) relates facts about the creation and design of the atomic bomb. We see a Japanese survivor relating her personal experience of the bombing, as well as images of the wounded, and the burn patterns left by the kimonos that burn victims were wearing at the time of the explosion. The intensity of the atomic blast meant that the patterns of the kimonos worn by survivors were transfered to the victim's skin by the flash of atomic heat

Title on container label: Hiroshima-Nagasaki

Writer-editor, Paul Ronder ; narrator, Kazuko Oshima, Paul Ronder ; music, Linea Johnson, Terrill Schukraft

Previously released by Columbia University Press, Center for Mass Communication

Shows Japanese cinematographers' record of the devastation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan only days after the atomic bombs were dropped. This film is edited from footage confiscated by the U.S. Army, classified "secret", and only recently declassified by the U.S. Dept. of Defense and returned to Japan

Narrated by Kazuko Oshima, Paul Ronder