Hiroshima Mon Amour ending explained

What happens

He and she do not agree to stay together; she is due to fly home. Instead they give each other the names of their places: he becomes Hiroshima, she becomes Nevers. Two lovers turn into two histories.

The last image

Having traded names, the two stay apart, each now carrying the name of a place of loss.

What it says

The ending says private grief and public history cannot be separated. She cannot truly know Hiroshima, and he cannot know Nevers, so they carry each other's loss as names. The film ends there because it will not pretend that remembering can be finished.