James Cameron pledges to tell Hiroshima, Nagasaki survivors’ stories

Filmmaker James Cameron says he feels compelled to make a film about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki due to a promise he made to survivors including Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who endured both attacks.

Speaking to CNN, Camereon called the project “a sacred duty” and confirmed plans to adapt Charles Pellegrino’s “Ghosts of Hiroshima” to portray the devastation through survivors’ testimonies and to remind audiences of the human toll of nuclear weapons. He described the film as both a moral and historical obligation and said the pledge he made to survivors fuels his determination to move forward to create a film that will carry their voices with unflinching honesty.

Cameron previously praised Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” but criticized it as “a bit of a moral cop out” for avoiding direct depictions of victims. He noted the film briefly showed charred bodies in a hallucination scene but “dodged the subject.” The film also drew criticism in Japan for its omission of the bombings’ human toll, with some viewers saying the story neglected to reflect the tragedy from Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s standpoint.

In a separate interview with Rolling Stone, Cameron explained how the storytelling approach for the film must be rooted in compassion rather than shock. “If I do my job perfectly, everybody will walk out of the theater [in horror] after the first 20 minutes. So that’s not the job,” he explained.

“The task is to tell it in a way that’s heartfelt. The task is to tell it in a way that the book does it, which engages you, and you project yourself into that person’s reality for a moment, and you feel empathy for them.” He added, “Empathy is our superpower. We have to recognize that and embrace it.”

By the end of 1945, an estimated 140,000 people had died in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki, with many more suffering long-term effects from radiation exposure. Among the survivors was Yamaguchi, the only person officially recognized by the Japanese government as having lived through both bombings.

Pellegrino’s “Ghosts of Hiroshima,” which includes testimonies from survivors like Yamaguchi, was released earlier this month. With “Avatar: Fire and Ash” due in December, Cameron said his attention is already shifting to the Hiroshima project, which he regards as the most significant responsibility of his career.