Abstract:

The Last Atomic Bomb profiles a Nagasaki survivor and a college student dedicated to making sure that the survivor's story will never be forgotten. As it documents their lives it interweaves the still controversial decision by the US to use the bomb on Nagasaki, censorship in the US and Japan of the bomb or its effects, discrimination against survivors by other Japanese, buildup of nuclear weapons during the Cold War, the antinuclear movement, and today’s nuclear proliferation issues. The Last Atomic Bomb relates the story of 10-year-old Sakue Shimohira hiding in a shelter near ground zero when the bomb exploded 60 years ago. Her emotionally wrenching experiences are interwoven with rarely seen archival footage and never-before-told accounts of what happened to her in 1945 and in subsequent years. One of the film’s most powerful moments describes her sister’s suicide as, she says, "the courage to die." Mrs. Shimohira, the survivor, found "the courage to live" and dedicate her life to abolishing nuclear weapons. 17-year-old Koichi Wada was working at this trolley station when the bomb dropped. He survived; his friends did not.The film follows Mrs. Shimohira – now age 70 – and two Japanese college students, Haruka Katarao and Fumioki Kusano, to Paris, London, Washington, DC and New York where they present letters to Presidents Bush and Chirac and Prime Minister Blair, inviting the government leaders to come to Nagasaki this August for the 60th year commemoration. In Paris Mrs. Shimohira shares memories in a moving encounter with an Auschwitz survivor. At the film’s conclusion it is clear that student Haruka has become motivated to carry on Mrs. Shimohira’s nuclear abolition message to young people around the world. Robert Richter, Director and with Kathleen Sullivan one of the two Producers of The Last Atomic bomb, was a young teen-ager when World War Two ended, cheering US victory over Japan with thousands of others in Times Square. He believed Pres. Truman who told the world that the atomic bombs were used to end the war and save American lives. Only during the course of this new documentary did Richter come to realize there is another very disturbing side to this widely accepted view of history.