''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a 1946 propaganda/documentary film about the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...
, produced by the
Army-Navy Screen Magazine.
The film describes chronologically, and for the most part, dispassionately, the testing and the use of the atomic bombs impact on Hiroshima, describing where the bomb was actually dropped, and the damage done to military industrial targets, as well as noting which edifices sustained less damage, like those built with reinforced concrete. An interview is shown with a
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
priest, who describes his experience, and notes that he believes that approximately 100,000 people died.
Then the film moves on to Nagasaki, telling the audience that U.S. President
Harry S. Truman warned the
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese that he would use more nukes if they didn't surrender. The Nagasaki mission is described, showing the two plants that were the basic targets, and the valley that they planned to bomb, and then shows the mushroom cloud, "the funeral pyre of an aggressor nation".
At the end, the film takes a rather sober view of the future of atomic power, showing an "atomic shadow" of someone in the Hiroshima blast, saying that this could be someone of any race or creed, and that the future of atomic power could help mankind, or destroy it, depending on how people use it.
See also
*
List of Allied propaganda films of World War II
External links
Complete film at archive.org
1946 films
American World War II propaganda shorts
Documentary films about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
American black-and-white films
American documentary films
1946 documentary films
1940s American films
{{WWII-documentary-film-stub