'The Atomic Bowl' Coming to PBS in July

An all-star football game on a killing field in Nagasaki--and "The Forgotten Bomb"

Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre.” Now watch trailer for acclaimed 2025 film “The Atomic Bowl” coming to PBS in July. You can still subscribe to this newsletter for FREE. Sustain this newsletter by ordering one of his books.

Just a quick post here to report that my new award-winning film, “The Atomic Bowl: Football at Ground Zero—and Nuclear Peril Today,” will start streaming at PBS.org and via PBS apps and public TV stations on July 12. Here is a link to watch a brief PBS preview. More links and early response to the film below.

If you are a media/film person and wish to view the film in advance, and/or interview me, you can contact me via Substack please and thank you (or write to: epic1934@aol.com)

Summary:

A timely new documentary on the disturbing and long-forgotten 1946 U.S. military all-star game on a killing field in Nagasaki where 80,000 had perished just weeks earlier--and the vital lessons and warnings for today as nuclear dangers proliferate and the civilian death toll in current wars surge.

Narrated by Peter Coyote. Produced by Lyn Goldfarb. The 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings arrives in August.

“Even if Hiroshima remains pre-ëminent in our historical memory, Nagasaki may be of greater consequence in the long run." --Nuclear historian Alex Wellerstein, The New Yorker

Now a few more links:

Web site for film:

https://gregmitchphoto.com/atomicbowl/

Two-minute trailer:

My previous award winning film “Atomic Cover-up” still available via PBS. org and PBS apps, in its short (27 minutes) version—the full version, at 52 minutes, can be watched for free via Kanopy.

My piece here on the tragedy of the Nagasaki bomb.

A few of the early responses to “The Atomic Bowl”:

“The story is riveting, and really fantastic archival film-making.” — Ben Proudfoot, winner of Academy Awards for best short documentaries The Queen of Basketball (2021) and The Last Repair Shop (2024)

“A great movie–a hidden chapter in atomic history revealed.” — Jayne Loader, co-director of The Atomic Cafe (film now in the National Film Registry)

“Fascinating. Poor Nagasaki got lost because it was the second bombing–you make that point and demonstrate it with that crazy football game.”–Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize winner for The Making of the Atomic Bomb

“A hell of a historian and doc film maker. Pay attention when this comes out.” — Rod Lurie, director of The Outpost, The Contender and other films.

“This is superb and elicits very strong emotions. And also quite timely.”– Sarah Kernochan, two-time Academy Award-winning documentary director

“It’s a fascinating story, very well told, and one I knew nothing about. The archival research is fantastic.” –Deborah Shaffer, director of Academy Award-winning Witness to War, The Wobblies, and other films.

“A riveting film, and the topic couldn’t be more urgent. The Atomic Bowl is terrific, and it’s remarkable how much you convey, and how powerfully you convey it, in less than an hour’s running time.” — David Sterritt, former chair, National Society of Film Critics.

“Brilliant.” — Robert Jay Lifton, author of Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima, winner of the National Book Award