The Ultimate Wish

Her story of survival and its aftermath is the core of this powerfully moving documentary. We follow her, in the company of students Fumi and Haruka, as they talk to high school and college students in London, Paris, New York and Nagasaki, and we see Sakue in a gripping encounter with a Nazi Holocaust survivor.

Interwoven with archival footage, Sakue responds to their questions and describes in graphic detail what happened on August 9, 1945 to her, her family and her city. 75,000 were instantly killed, another 75,000 experienced the consequences of radiation, fires, famine, disease and discrimination. Even ten years after World War Two ended and her sister had the "courage to die" by committing suicide, Sakue found the "courage to live" and join in the global struggle for nuclear abolition.

As Sakue's story unfolds we learn from experts about the U.S. decision to use the bomb, dissents by Generals MacArthur and Eisenhower, the anti-nuclear movement of the 1980s, nuclear proliferation today and the drive for power and dominance that motivates it, the importance of nuclear issues to be part of the curriculum, and the status today of efforts to reduce the nuclear arsenals of the world.

A unique piece of history, The Ultimate Wish focuses on a living witness to one of the world's most momentous events. At the same time it is an inspirational biography of a courageous woman, and an alert to everyone today about the dangers of continued nuclear proliferation.

There are other documentaries about the atomic bomb, but none include what is in this one, for the first time:

• It challenges the widely held U.S. assumption that dropping the bomb on Nagasaki was essential for military victory. The provocative arguments about that decision have never been part of a U.S. documentary.
• It presents information about an almost unknown part of post World War II history: the Press Code imposed by the U.S. occupation government on Japan’s media. Prohibiting media reports on the bomb or its health effects, the Code had a significant effect on how survivors were mistreated in their own country and how their health problems were misunderstood.
• It presents information about the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, a U.S. agency that gathered data from thousands of survivors, sent that data to the U.S.—not Japan—and did not attempt to ameliorate the health problems of the survivors.
• It also is innovative in crossing generations, by showing an elderly bomb survivor accompanied by students who have taken up her cause.

57 minutes

Study areas: Asian American Studies, Women's studies, human rights, World War Two, history, sociology, nuclear proliferation, terrorism