Atomic Mom

2010 • Directed by

M.T. Silvia

Atomic Mom is a feature length documentary about two women, both mothers, who have very different experiences of the atom bomb. One is my mother, Pauline Silvia, who was a Navy biologist in the early 1950's and was sent to the Nevada Test Site where she witnessed five detonations. After decades of silence, she is in a crisis of conscience about the work she did. The other woman is Emiko Okada, a Hiroshima survivor who was eight years old when the bomb was dropped. Knowing the work that Pauline did, Emiko offers her an olive branch with a beautifully potent message of peace.