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Radiation: A Slow Death - reviews

Booklist
September 2005

“Hibakusha,” a word normally used to denote survivors of an atomic bomb (specifically Hiroshima and Nagasaki), is here redefined, or perhaps restored to its original meaning: “victim of radiation.” This 90-minute, simply produced documentary chronicles the lives of people affected by radioactive materials: Iraqi children irradiated during the Gulf War by ammunition made from depleted uranium; Americans living next to a plutonium factory; and survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The sometimes-graphic footage varies in visual quality; some of it, evidently shot on video, is murky, while other scenes are vivid. The subtitled film, which includes frank and frequently emotional interviews with radiation victims, does not take an overtly anti-nuclear stance. The stark warning that the byproducts of radioactive materials are deadly is clearly made. —David Pitt

Educational Media Reviews Online- July 2005

Reviewed by Cliff Glaviano, Head of Technical Services, Bowling Green State University Libraries, Bowling Green, OH
Rating: Recommended Audience Level: Sr. High - Adult Subject(s): Environmental Studies, Health Sciences

Hibakusha, literally “victim of radiation,” is the Japanese word used to refer to survivors of the atomic bomb. Though the link to cancer and thyroid problems has not been scientifically proved, this film presents strong evidence that low-level radiation exposure, particularly to radiation released into the atmosphere from nuclear reactors, depleted uranium munitions, and from long-ago irradiated sites like Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl, is responsible for a new generation of hibakusha.This documentary consists primarily of interviews with those exposed to radiation, their survivors, or their doctors, in English, or in Japanese, or Persian with English subtitles. The story moves back and forth between Iran, Japan, and Hanford, Washington, though as an added DVD feature, the viewer can choose to view the segments arranged by country.

Strengths include devastating statistics, such as a four-fold rise in cancer and leukemia in Iranian children, and an 18-fold increase in adult deaths from cancer by 2003, only twelve years after the 1st Gulf War, with alarming stats regarding cancer and thyroid problems in the US and Japan, too. Weaknesses include a “genetics” doctor, who speculates on radiation induced reproductive problems for Japanese women and a rising rate of birth defects; and a tendency for exaggeration, or inaccuracy, in several subtitles. For example, “2000 tons of depleted uranium fell on the Iraqi people and their land,” more accurately stated is, “2000 tons of munitions containing depleted uranium fell on the Iraqi people and their land.” And, “By 2003, waste from Japanese nuclear power plants equaled 2350 times the plutonium of the bomb that fell on Nagasaki,” is a curious statement, probably the result of a minor translation error.

Technically, the film is excellent, especially considering the lengths of segments that were filmed outdoors, inside (or from inside) vehicles, in homes or hospitals. The sound and sound editing is likewise excellent: the viewer can see windblown dust, bending trees and grasses, but not hear the buffeting of the wind.

This film will enhance collections in the health and environmental sciences and is appropriate for audiences from high school through adult. As mentioned earlier, the “by country” DVD choice lends some flexibility to teaching the material since each country’s segments document separate sources of low-level radiation that are the source of health problems. For English speakers, about half of the films’ information is conveyed in subtitles, so appropriate reading skills and the ability to concentrate will be very important to your students as the film is used in instruction. The video is accompanied by links to a guidebook and a lesson plan on the Choices Video website.

Video Librarian- May/June 2005

The Japanese word “hibakusha” refers to survivors of the atomic bomb, but it’s been extended to include all victims of radiation in filmmaker Hitomi Kamanaka's Radiation: A Slow Death, which examines the health dangers posed by various kinds of nuclear contamination. Ranging geographically from Hiroshima to Iraq and the northwestern United States, the film takes a circuitous path, beginning in Iraq where the incidence of cancer, especially among children, escalated substantially in the years after the Gulf War--a fact attributed to the depleted uranium used in some American missiles. (Since the footage dates from before the 2003 invasion, sanctions on the importation of medicine are blamed for the exceptionally high mortality rate.) The focus then turns to Japan, where Dr. Shuntaro Hida has investigated the effects of exposure to radioactivity ever since he treated people after the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Later, the filmmaker travels to Washington state to learn from author-activist Tom Bailie about the impact of a plutonium factory on the local population (the film notes that a class-action suit on behalf of those apparently affected had recently been dismissed). Radiation: A Slow Death obviously has a strong point of view (a scientist who disputes Bailie’s assertion that the Washington case constitutes a governmental cover-up is afforded only a few minutes), and it’s obviously intended to generate sympathy for the afflicted, but its matterof- fact style is effective, and the evidence it presents certainly deserves consideration. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)

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