From left):Director Steven Okazaki, Shigeko Sasamori, and Theodore Van Kirk
Am only painfully aware that their war still continues 62 years after the WWII.
Those born after the end of the war now occupy 75% of the population of Japan.
Number of Japanese who know what August 6, 7, and 15 mean become less and less.
Some oversea dwellers send messages as a warning signal about the situation and yet people in Japan do not seem to notice.
I was invited to a premium preview of the documentary movie “White Light / Black Rain” directed by Steven Okazaki, a third generation Japanese American. I understand that the film received a good attention and had a fine review in this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
There was a reception before the preview and I saw mass media people, UN people, journalists, Ms. Yuki Hyodo active in Japan and in New York, and Seitaro Kuroda who is a painter-illustrator. Kuroda-san told me about his launch of “Pika Don Project” and trips around the world doing collaborations with artists. I had no prior knowledge of that and had a rather lengthy conversation. Kuroda-san was also acting in the preview movie.
An A-bomb victim whom I met at the U.N. with whom I started to exchange e-mails for some reason had triggered my work concerning Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was timely for that person to be in New York City in this summer when I had a plan to have an event. I asked him to participate and he accepted. He recommended “White Light / Black Rain” as the best movie he had ever seen.
Another A-bomb victim whom I met briefly when I visited Nagasaki in April this year was also acting in the film.
Am only painfully aware that their war still continues 62 years after the WWII.
Those born after the end of the war now occupy 75% of the population of Japan.
Number of Japanese who know what August 6, 7, and 15 mean become less and less.
Some oversea dwellers send messages as a warning signal about the situation and yet people in Japan do not seem to notice.
I was born in Yokohama and felt so ignorant when I started studying about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I’m ashamed of my ignorance. Recently, I encountered the story of 25 women called “Maidens of A-bomb”. Within 10 years after the end of the war 25 women with keloids went to the U.S. to receive orthopedic surgeries. Norman Cousins, a journalist, author held a fund raising campaign and made those treatments possible.
Surgical operations of the maidens respectively counted more than 30, I hear. A member of the group was Ms. Shigeko Sasamori, later became adopted daughter of Cousins, and still later acted in that film and also participated in the discussion after the premium preview as a panelist.
Ms Shigeko Sasamori, A-bomb victim, Resident in the U.S.
At that panel discussion sat Mr. Theodore Van Kirk, ex-navigator of B29 bomber Enola Gay next to Ms. Sasamori. He strongly asserted to the effect that the A-bombing contributed to the ending of the war and therefore saved lives of many and that this idea of him had not changed from the day of bombing till now. Ms. Sasamori kept shaking her head next to him showing her negation.
I had seen Mr. Kirk on a Japanese TV program before saying similar things and thought that he might have been a man of spirit of the U.S. military. He, at that panel also said that he had been referring to the Chinese and Cambodian people when he had spoke of saving the lives of many as Japan had been invading and killing those people.
Mr. Kirk said he had no nightmare in his life after that bombing and asserted that war itself should have been blamed.
From among the audience a question was raised concerning Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution indicating a high level of interest about the subject among American intellectuals. The new North Korean nuclear issue may raise American interest.
It may be even more salient than in Japan, which is within the DPRK missile range.
When I visited the Uragami Tenshudo (a Catholic Church in Nagasaki) I say three women giving a prayer to the Virgin Mary. I think two of those women are also acting in this film.
“White Light / Black Rain” will be shown in the U.S. on August 6 through HBO.
In Japan it will be released as “Hiroshima Nagasaki” in the end of July.
http://www.zaziefilms.com/hiroshimanagasaki/
Translation by Yoshio Hida
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