Cinema
Children of Hiroshima
原爆の子
Kaneto Shindo · 1952
Synopsis
Takako, a schoolteacher on an island in the Inland Sea, returns to Hiroshima during the summer to pay her respects at the graves of her parents and her sister. There she recognises Iwakichi, her family's former servant, now a beggar, burned and almost blind, whose grandson lives in an orphanage. She meets again a former colleague whom the bomb left sterile, then sets out in search of her pupils from the kindergarten. Flashbacks recall the day of the attack, according to Turner Classic Movies.
Context
The film was commissioned by the teachers' union and drawn from the children's testimonies collected by the educator Osada Arata. The end of the American occupation had made the subject possible, and it was released on 6 August 1952, with music by Ifukube Akira. The union judged it not critical enough and had another film made on the same material the following year. Turner Classic Movies states that it was not shown in the United States before 2011.
Who it is for
A film of one hour and thirty-eight minutes, in subtitled Japanese, restrained in tone despite its subject.
Prizes and reception
In competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1953, it brought its director international recognition.