http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085218/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Fans of anime will love it. If cartoon animation, especially anime is not your thing, don't bother.

My first reaction to this flick was "What the hell is wrong with Japanese people?!"

The movie is about the bombing of Hiroshima at the end of WW2. Gen (our hero, a boy of about 10) and his family are starving. They work, but are not being paid because of the war. He has a sister and a little brother. Mom is pregnant, and not doing well. You can see where this is going. They're all starving, the boys steal a koi fish to eat, then the bomb drops.

SPOILER:

Gen is on his way to school, but survives by being shielded from the fireball somehow. This is where it gets intense, as if the writing hasn't roped you in already and you genuinely care about this kid. Dirty but uninjured, Gen finds himself in hell - zombies, or so he thinks, are wandering the streets, dying all around him.

His family doesn't fare so well...

Gen and some other survive, but life is literally hell for them. Gen witnesses a soldier die of radiation poisoning, then his own hair begins to fall out.

The writing is top notch, the characters genuine for anime, and the artwork is, in a word, grand.

This is a movie that will leave you thinking and quite moved for quite some time. It is NOT for kids, though. People are drawn melting, their eyes falling out, guts falling out, anal bleeding, and all sorts of gore.

But if you want a though provoking watch, see this one.

It's right up there with Akira.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094625/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Because you had mentioned this one to me, I watched it.

It completely stunned me. I could not believe how horrific the entire thing was. I don't mean horrific, as in a bad movie. I mean Horrific as in, Horror Movie. In fact, one of the very best I have ever seen.

This movie means to horrify you, by showing you something real. The scene where Gen finds his home after the blast is still lingering on my mind. What is so much worse, is that this is something that actually happened, and real people actually went through this sort of thing.

I highly recommend everyone watch this move. It will certainly give you pause before you ever again complain about somewhere in the world, and callously proclaim, "Just nuke em!" After seeing this movie, I wouldn't wish that fate on my worse enemy.

Thanks for the recommendation Paolo. I hope more people take your suggestion to see it.

I once saw an episode of "In Search of..." narrated by Leonard Nimoy. I may still have it recorded on VHS somewhere. The episode was "In Search of the Hiroshima Survivors" A lady who married an American and came to America describes her experience in Hiroshima. It was a horror tale and a half and all of it was ABSOLUTELY true...

Yes, I used to teach a class in Radiobiology. The required study is radiation sickness and the various syndromes associated with radiation exposure. Short term and long term effects are presented and the various syndrome effects by radiation dose. The Lethal Dose of radiation that is called LD 50/30, meaning the dose that will kill 50% of a population in 30 days was fixed at 250 RADS whole body radiation thanks to data from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It has since been raised slightly owing to data gathered at Chernobyl.

It was an interesting class. I miss teaching it.