Kunhardt Film Foundation Presents An Interview Archive Original: The Silent Witness, a documentary about Tomiko Morimoto West’s experience as a 13 year old girl in Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945, the day the first atomic bomb dropped. West, now a 91 year old woman, didn’t talk about her memories from that time for many years, but now shares her story because she believes it will help people. West was working at a printing shop helping with the Japanese war effort when she saw a B-29 flying over the factory. When the nuclear bomb dropped she said there was no sound, just a white flash. She thought she was going to die in that instant, but believes the wall she was standing behind saved her life. She survived by escaping to a mountain cave. In the days that followed, she searched for her family who had all died as she witnessed the atrocities of nuclear war. West hesitantly says the experience made a better person out of her and that it gave her an appreciation for life.
A Screening Guide for The Silent Witness is available.
“I just want to make my point that war is not good.”
- Tomiko Morimoto West