More than 100,000 people acted as extras without pay in the making of the film, most of whom were Hiroshima locals, and many of whom had lost friends or family in, or had even personally survived, the bombing.
Scenes from this film were recycled uncredited in Hiroshima Mon Amour in 1958. Actor Eiji Okada also starred in that film, playing as a married Japanese architect who had an affair with a French film actress named Elle (Emmanuelle Riva).
Setsuko Thurlow, a Japanese-Canadian Hiroshima survivor and recipient of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize 2017 on behalf of the International Campaign To Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), was invited to introduce the film at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival in 2018.
The film was shot and made only once the official occupation of Japan by the Americans under the Allied Powers' monicker came to an end in late 1951.
The film was sponsored by Japan Teachers' Union.