The hibakusha humanize a story usually told in the US with emphasis on the American participants and conveying exclusively their perspectives. Three hibakusha relate their personal experiences in the bombings, bringing a focus to this film that is sorely lacking in most previous made-for-American-television Hiroshima documentaries. What separates this film above all from its predecessors, is the presence of hibakusha, living witnesses to the horrors of the bombing. The historical presentation nevertheless hews closely to triumphal American ideas about the bomb, the war and American power: the bombings singularly ended the war and saved lives-both American and Japanese-and its focus on Hiroshima reduces the bombing of Nagasaki to a historical footnote. The film suffers from the shortcomings of many cable historical documentaries (over dramatization, lack of depth, and flawed reenacting), but it does go beyond the historical narration typical of what might be labeled “orthodox American Hiroshima documentaries” by including the stories and presence of living hibakusha, survivors of the bomb. 1 While the title suggests, and the film itself claims that it will provide an in depth look at the immediate aftermath of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima in 1945, what it presents for the most part-with certain fascinating exceptions-is the orthodox American narrative of the bombings, supplemented with a brief examination of the strategic bombing survey and of the impact of the weapon on the civilian population of Hiroshima.Ģ4 Hours After Hiroshima on National Geographic Explorer On August 17, 2010, the National Geographic Channel premiered a new documentary titled 24 Hours After Hiroshima on its National Geographic Explorers series. 24 Hours After Hiroshima: National Geographic Channel Takes Up the Bomb