Shortly after ascending to the throne of American power, know-nothing President Harry Truman took the cagey advice of his virulently anti-communist Secretary of State, James Byrnes, and, in the dying days of World War II, approved the use of the atomic bomb against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Framing the bomb as a way to avoid a mythical 'one million American casualties' in a seaborne invasion of Japan, Byrnes sold Truman a bill of goods: he actually intended to use the bomb to warn off the Soviet Union from any ideas of flexing their military muscle in the post-war world. As a result, approximately 140,000 people were incinerated, and thousands more condemned to a slow death, all in the name of furthering the foreign policy goals of the United States.
Here are the fruits of Byrnes' unconscionable wickedness. Interviews with a dozen survivors of these terrible war crimes are interwoven with horrifying footage of the carnage, deeply moving artwork created by those same survivors, and commentary by surviving crew members of the Enola Gay mission. The survivors are, each and every one, dignified and thoughtful reminders that the old 'eye for an eye' adage is pure, unadulterated bunkum. And have we learned any lessons from August 1945? Have we Hell. Watch this film and peer into the heart of darkness past and the heart of darkness yet to come.
Here are the fruits of Byrnes' unconscionable wickedness. Interviews with a dozen survivors of these terrible war crimes are interwoven with horrifying footage of the carnage, deeply moving artwork created by those same survivors, and commentary by surviving crew members of the Enola Gay mission. The survivors are, each and every one, dignified and thoughtful reminders that the old 'eye for an eye' adage is pure, unadulterated bunkum. And have we learned any lessons from August 1945? Have we Hell. Watch this film and peer into the heart of darkness past and the heart of darkness yet to come.