AN IT Tralee lecturer will see his documentary on an Irish doctor who survived the bombing of Nagasaki, released nationally tomorrow in selected cinemas throughout Ireland.

Bob Jackson – who has been lecturing at the IT Tralee for nine years since 2006 – shot and created a film called ‘A Doctor’s Sword’.

The documentary tells the story of how a young doctor from Castletownbere, Aidan McCarthy served in WW2 and who survived the dropping of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki in August 1945 while there as a prisoner of war (POW).

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At the end of the war, Dr McCarthy was given an ancestral samurai sword by Isao Kumano, who has been in 2nd Lieutenant in command of Fukuoka Camp in Nagasaki. The idea of a such a high ranking officer giving his sword away to someone who had been a POW was seen as an unprecedented and highly honourable gift.

The story piqued the interest of the IT Tralee lecturer who, along with his director Gary Lennon, spent time interviewing Dr McCarthy’s daughters Adrienne and Nicola in an effort to find out more on the origins of the sword.

The documentary is a result of this hard work and one that brings to light an incredible tale of perseverance and survival.

Check out the trailer for the the ‘A Doctors Sword’ documentary below…