A startling documentary on official and media manipulation of the American narrative on the creation and use of the atomic bomb, Bombshell debuts nationally on PBS series “American Experience” on January 6, 2026.
Everyone should watch it in this time of growing nuclear peril. It covers ground I have researched and written about (in dozens of articles and four books) for over four decades, and lately made the focus or two related films that I’ve produced and directed for PBS. I’ve been Involved with Bombshell since nearly its beginning, aiding director/producer Ben Loeterman in the grant process, as one of the expert advisers, and as an on-screen commentator. I’m proud to say that in the film I also provide, off-screen, the final word.
Here is the 30-second trailer:
Go to the main PBS site for the film which will include extras, background on the film and historical context, and much more. Among the key characters in the 80-minute film: The famed New York Times science reporter who became the bomb’s chief propagandist and radiation denier; the little-known African-American and Asian-American reporters who were among the few early skeptics about the use of the bomb; the Japanese photographer who took the only pictures in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and then saw his images suppressed by U.S. for years; John Hersey, who wrote the richly influential “Hiroshima” article and book–and former Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson who penned the key, and ultimately triumphant response (in terms of public and media opinion)..
Now here are links to some of my own explorations of this vital subject:
–First off, my latest film, The Atomic Bowl, is airing on many PBS stations directly following the Bombshell premiere on January 6. The film, which explores the bizarre and revealing all-star football game the U.S. staged near ground zero in Nagasaki just months after the atomic bomb destroyed half the city, debuted in August over hundreds of PBS stations in its 60-minute version. Now, alone or in tandem with Bombshell, it will generally appear in a 30-minute cut. In any event, you can watch the longer version right now streaming over PBS. org. Go here to read much more about it and/or watch via VImeo, and here you can consider the companion book of the same title.
–My widely-acclaimed previous film for PBS, Atomic Cover-up, is still streaming at PBS.org in its shorter (half-hour) form, and free at Kanopy (at one-hour). It played at two dozen festivals around the world and won several awards, including the top prize from the Organization of American Historians. Read much more here. Bombshell refers to images of human destruction from Japan, but that is the focus of my film: The burying for decades of the most important footage shot by elite Japanese and American film crews in the weeks after the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and why it matters today. Read responses to the film and again there is a companion volume.
— One of my two popular Substack newsletters was inspired by the release of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which I had some issues with. It has continued since on nuclear issues and threats, and I have been, and will continue, posting on various aspects of Bombshell. Take a look and you can subscribe for free.
— Bombshell includes a brief segment (with my commentary) on the subject of my award-winning 2020 book The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood–and America–Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The first movie drama about the creation and use of the bomb, MGM’s The Beginning of the End, started out as a critique of the atomic bombing of Japan and development of bigger weapons but wound up as a pro-bomb romance under orders from the White House and Pentagon.
— Most of the material in Bombshell was originally covered extensively in my 1995 book, co-authored by the late Robert Jay Lifton, Hiroshima in America: Fifty Years of Denial. While the book focuses on the early responses to the bomb and the attacks on Japan, it also includes a lengthy, brilliant, psychological analysis by Lifton of Truman’s decision to drop the bombs, along with pro- and anti-bomb cultural touchstones since 1945.
