Season 1 • Episode 2
LatestHiroshima is a 1995 Japanese / Canadian film directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara and Roger Spottiswoode about the decision-making processes that led to the dropping of the atomic bombs by the United States on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki toward the end of World War II. A combination of dramatisation, historical footage, and eyewitness interviews, the film alternates between documentary footage and the dramatic recreations.
Direction
Kurahara and Spottiswoode's seamless docudrama fusion.
Editing
Brutal cuts between boardroom debates and hibakusha testimony.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kurahara was a Japanese New Wave veteran who'd never tackled documentary; Spottiswoode had just directed Tomorrow Never Dies. Their clash of sensibilities created the film's uneasy tension.
The 1995 timing wasn't accidental—fifty years of silence was breaking, and this aired months before the Smithsonian's infamous Enola Gay exhibit controversy exploded.
CA
