ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Rawal Afzal I had very recently picked up a lot of interest in the Indo-Pak history of wars and after extensive reading about them I turned to the two world wars. I really wanted to know the kind of horror the people of Japan went through on those days. I first came across this documentary film in 2008 or so on a forum, but those were just short clips available on YouTube. So I decided to find its full version.I got done with it just an hour ago and I am still get over it. I can still feel the impact of what I have watched. A brilliant initiative by the BBC one must admit. Greatly detailed to the extent of almost making one cry hearing the accounts of the survivors. The most horrible being the woman who had to let her daughter die and the "creature" that the doctor saw on his way back to Hiroshima.This documentary film deserves full marks not only for the way the pain, suffering and horror is depicted but also for being quite impartial - we should remember that the film ends with this question being posed and with that Japanese doctor implying that it wasn't needed.All in all, I pray to the Almighty that no people on the face of earth are made to go through anything even remotely similar to this again. May the world be protected from wars in general. Although it may years to complete and I know I am waiting for something years and years away, I am eagerly waiting for my favourite film- maker James Cameron to complete and release his film on the nuclear bombings of Japan. That man knows the secret to making masterpieces and I can confirm that it will be a once in a lifetime affair. Here I wait.......

anthony_retford There was a comment in this film about the compassion and the Japanese. I realize that many people died in the two blasts and that many died subsequently. In all of my readings I have never seen any instance of Japanese compassion. It is though the nation was born without it. I have viewed the Japanese people of that time as automatons to their Emporer, willing to die but not live. I am slightly older than the use of these two bombs and nothing will convince me that millions of Japanese would have been enlisted to fight any invasion, including school girls. The leaders of Japan seemed to view their citizens as fodder. We can imagine the reaction around the world if Truman had not used these bombs. He would have been castigated. I thought the puny power of these bombs compared to today's H-bombs should have been mentioned. Now the circle of death reaches out over 20 miles.

dy158 Being once a former History student, history-relating subjects are often of interest to me. Especially if it's something which I had learnt in my past History classes. The fall of Japan in WWII was one of those things I learnt.Imagine my surprise when I saw this on air here last year. Given it was also a good time to refresh somehow some of the events I had learnt from my History textbook, this show viewed the atomic bomb dropping on Hiroshima through the eyes of those who had survived to tell their story. Whatever I had understood in the History class was through the events in the textbook, this is more raw and humane for a change.It's always scary to understand about the after-effects of the atomic bomb that often it's only those who experienced, and survived to tell the tale, will give a very different perspective. Even more terrifying, hearing from the survivors themselves. Yeah, often it's being discussed normally close to the WWII's anniversary that whether it is justified to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to finally force Japan to end WWII in the Pacific region, but then, this is still a topic which is very touchy even till now.Given I also remembered my father once went to Japan for business for some time and he did went to the memorial centre in Hiroshima and when he brought back the brochure, I almost felt sick. At the contents, that is. When it showed the images and the graphics in the brochure, I cannot really bear to see it after one look.Often, the horrors of war remains in those who had went through it. It's always never nice.If you are one of those who want to know how the whole thing went before WWII finally ended in the Pacific, this is recommended.

yossarian100 The message of this fairly well made documentary is its gift. No finger pointing. No demanding of apologies. No assignment of blame. Just a dramatic portrayal of events. Very dramatic. Some of the scenes, personal and intimate scenes, are very painful to watch but are there to illustrate a horror which is hard to imagine otherwise. I came away with the feeling that dropping the atomic bombs was a terrible thing, so terrible it is beyond comprehension, but, still, a necessary thing. However, this documentary is all about the sadness, the almost unbearable sadness, of it all. If you're trying to gain a better understanding of these events, I highly recommend this.