Film Description

This compelling and unsettling documentary explores the devastating consequences of nuclear warfare, as well as the long-term effects of atmospheric radiation. Director Hitomi Kamanaka takes the literal meaning of the Japanese word "hibakushu" (victim of radiation) and expands it to examine the health dangers posed by various kinds of nuclear contamination. Though the link to cancers and thyroid problems is not scientifically proven, the film prevents strong evidence that low-level radiation exposure is responsible for a new generation of hibakushu.

Radiation: A Slow Death begins in Iraq, where the incidence of cancer, particularly among children, skyrocketed in the years following the Gulf War--a fact attributed to the use of depleted uranium ammunition. It then moves 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 turns to Hanford, Washington, the site of one of the most hotly debated incidents in the U.S. involving radiation. Hanford is the site of a Nuclear Reservation which produced plutonium for nuclear reactors for 44 years, generating vast amounts of radioactive waste into the atmosphere, soil, and the Columbia River. Today, the local population complains of patterns of leukemia, thyroid problems, sill births, and other ailments, while the government steadfastly refuses to admit any link between these problems
and the nuclear waste. Though separated by time and space, the common peril of these sufferers delivers a strong message to the contemporary world about the very real consequences of radiation.