Countless American documentaries have tackled the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, but surprisingly few have focused on the stories of those who experienced it firsthand-none, certainly, as comprehensively as White Light/Black Rain. The latest film from Berkeley-based, Academy Award–winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki (Days of Waiting) is arguably the most thorough visual account of the survivors yet. Weaving together the testimonies of fourteen hibakusha (those exposed to the bomb) with paintings by survivors and rarely seen archival footage, Okazaki brings their harrowing stories to life in an intimate, straightforward, and chilling collective tale. Just as John Hersey's seminal 1946 article-turned-book Hiroshima had placed a human face on the statistics of death and destruction, White Light/Black Rain gives voice to the stories-so often ignored in favor of debate and politics-of those who lived nuclear war, and continue to live in its haunting shadow.