The release of Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” in 2023 looks at the journey of J. Robert Oppenheimer as he rushes to create the atomic bomb with a team. It also shows the physical and psychological impact of such a life-destroying weapon.
The U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945 near the end of World War II. Three days later, on August 9th, the U.S. dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
The exact number of deaths from these combined bombings has been called “unknowable” by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, but the number is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands.
Japanese portrayals of the bombings include In This Corner of the World by Sunao Katabuchi and Barefoot Gen by Mori Masaki.
Nolan's film highlights America's race for nuclear power that resulted in the mass deaths of Japanese people during World War II.
Guest:
Robert Frye is a producer and director of several documentaries on the threat of nuclear weapons. His latest documentary is "In Search of Resolution."
