Review - Two Films on Hiroshima

With no character representing the upper social class was shown, the story is told entirely by ordinary citizens. Comparing the two films, the different uses of character perspective affect a great deal of audience's perception of the story. In details, in the American one, with the story told by people who have authority, power, the decisions made by them, especially the one concerning dropping the bomb on a city with living people seem to be legitimate, comprehensible. While in the Japanese one, with the story mostly revolves about the personal memory of the teacher, the feeling the film brings about is something personal, and that we, the audience, can find it really easy to pay sympathy, to understand with. This has much to do with the two countries opinions about the bombing incident in Hiroshima with the American claiming their action to be judgmental, vital to bring about an end to the war, while the Japanese say the bombing was over the top, and triggered an even more severe war than before the incident. This matter remains controversial to this day in many other aspects of life besides media.
             Secondly, the use of the camera also differs in the two films and implies what America and Japan wants to hide and show. In The Beginning or the End, the most parts of the film were shot from above, from the airplane looking down to the ground. However, Children of Hiroshima was shot mostly from below with most of the scenes taking place on the ground looking around or looking up at the sky. These two different techniques result in two different ways of depicting the 1945 tragedy. This effect can be seen clearly in the scene of the bomb being dropped. In the American film, we can hardly see any fatality and casualties, except for the burning ground without any human shown hurt or dead, from the explosion. Although they did show the soldiers on the airplane which dropped the bomb questioning themselves for what they have done, the emotion of the scene was not seen as dramatic as expected from one of the most dreadful events in human history.