"White Light, Black Rain": Hiroshima & Nagasaki Atomic Bombing w/ Filmmaker Steven Okazaki

Join us for a special screening of White Light / Black Rain, the Primetime Emmy Award-winning film by filmmaker Steven Okazaki, who will introduce the film.

Presented by the Nichi Bei Foundation and Friends of Hibakusha.

WHEN: Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026 at 1 p.m.

WHERE: Konko Church of San Francisco, 1909 Bush St. in SF Japantown

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki’s WHITE LIGHT / BLACK RAIN (2007, 86 min.) provides a powerful examination of the atomic bombings and their aftermath through a succession of vivid personal accounts from fourteen Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors (known as hibakusha), many of whom had never spoken publicly before; as well as four Americans, including one of the pilots and one of the crewmen who released the bombs, and two scientists on the observer planes that accompanied the B-52s that dropped the bombs.

The film reveals, in riveting detail, the moment before the detonation, the flash, then the horror and chaos that followed as hundreds of thousands (85% of the bombs’ victims were civilians) were vaporized, burned, crushed, drown and radiated.

The hibakusha describe their lives in the months and years after, as they continued to suffer from burns, unexplained radiation-related illnesses, starvation, poverty, prejudice, government negligence, then cancers.

PRIMETIME EMMY: Exceptional Merit in Non-Fiction Filmmaking

Produced for HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Executive Producer: Sheila Nevins

Produced, Directed & Edited by STEVEN OKAZAKI

This event is free to attend. Registration closes at 12:00 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. Walk-up admission is subject to availability.