Believe me, it's not easy, and you won't feel carefree afterwards, but you must watch HBO's White Light, Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, playing this month, the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombings of those two cities on August 6th and 9th of 1945.
Sure, that was then, and this is now, and it's a little late to debate the morality of dropping the bomb, but in light of the current state of the world, a good stiff dose of the reality of the aftermath from any contemplated "nuclear option" is certainly in order. The sheer horror of the destruction, and the overwhelming human agony which ensued, is bracing stuff. The documentary features interviews with Americans involved with the dropping of the bombs, but the most enlightening segments are the reminiscences of the actual survivors. They tell of their physical suffering, beyond all imagining, begging medical personnel to kill them, put them out of their misery. And yet today, these people are thoughtful, sad, brave, changed forever, and we should be too, after hearing their stories.
Check out the White Light, Black Rain website on HBO.com, and the schedule for additional airings.
If America craves so-called "reality" programming, well, it doesn't get more real than this.
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