8,000 first-year junior high students vanished in nine seconds—this is who they were.
On August 6, 1945, the first-ever nuclear bomb deployed in war was dropped on the city of Hiroshima Prefecture, leaving an estimated 140,000 dead in its wake by the end of that year. Among the victims, one particular age group stands out for the sheer number of fatalities sustained: 12 and 13 year-olds, children of first year junior high school age. We investigate the tragedy of this lost generation, piecing together surviving records and speaking with survivors, for whom the memories of children robbed of their futures that day are still burned deep in their memories, nearly eight decades on.
Direction
Patient archival reconstruction, no sensationalism.
Editing
Class rosters become devastating elegies.
Director
Suguru Miyajima
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
First-year junior highs were mobilized as 'building demolition units' that morning—Japan's wartime school system made them literal targets.
The film's release coincided with renewed global nuclear anxiety; its specific focus on 12-13 year-olds reframed 'Hiroshima' as stolen adulthood, not abstract tragedy.
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