2020 / Japanese American National Museum “Under a Mushroom Cloud Film Festival” Jan. 18-19

Japanese American National Museum
Under a Mushroom Cloud Film Festival
Saturday–Sunday, January 18–19, 2020
http://www.janm.org/exhibits/under-a-mushroom-cloud/events/

In conjunction with Under a Mushroom Cloud: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Atomic Bomb, the Japanese American National Museum will screen four world acclaimed films related to the atomic bombs.

These films tell the story of people who were under the two mushroom clouds.

The JANM encourages the public to see the films and share these stories of resilience, love, and hopes for peace.

All screenings are included with museum admission, but please RSVP for each separately.

This festival is co-presented with the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles.

Paper Lanterns (2016)
Saturday, January 18, 2020, 5:30 p.m.

Paper Lanterns is a documentary that follows the quest of Shigeaki Mori, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, and his desire to account for those killed on August 6, 1945.

Mori discovers that 12 American prisoners of war also died that day, but they were forgotten. In the film directed by Barry Frischette and Max Esposito, Mori searches for the relatives of two of the POWs: Normand Brissette and Ralph Neal.

He also campaigns to include the names of the 12 American POWs at the Hiroshima Peace Museum with the thousands of others killed.

The film documents Mori’s encounter with President Obama in 2016 at the Hiroshima Peace Museum.

60 minutes.

Q&A to follow with filmmakers.

Nagasaki: Memories of My Son (2015)
Sunday, January 19, 2020, 11 a.m.

In this 2015 drama, Nobuko Fukuhara, a midwife, has lost her husband and eldest son to World War II and her youngest son Koji to the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

After the war, Nobuko has only her work to keep herself occupied until an apparition of Koji begins to visit. The two have long conversations, which make Nobuko happy, but also reminds her of her losses.

Directed by Yoji Yamada, the film was submitted to the American Academy Awards for its Best Foreign Language Film category.

Kazunari Ninomiya who played Koji won several Japanese film awards for this role.

135 minutes. In Japanese with English subtitles.

In This Corner of the World (2016)
Sunday, January 19, 2020, 1:30 p.m.

The award-winning 2016 Japanese animated feature written and directed by Sunao Katabuchi, In This Corner of the World (Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni) depicts life in and around Hiroshima before, during, and after World War II.

Based on a manga written and illustrated by Fumiyo Kono, the story traces the life of a young woman named Suzu as she marries, relocates to Kure, and tries to maintain her optimism in the face of the worsening Pacific war.

But Suzu and her family are unable to avoid tragedy and the loss of loved ones. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Japan’s subsequent surrender heighten Suzu’s despair.

Slowly, she and her remaining family rebuild their lives as they and their friends work together.

129 minutes. In Japanese with English subtitles.

The Face of Jizo (2004)
Sunday, January 19, 2020, 4 p.m.

Kazuo Kuroki’s 2004 film The Face of Jizo is based on a play with the same name by Hisashi Inoue.

The central character Mitsue survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the end of World War II, but lost her only relative, her father Takezo. Working as a librarian in the postwar, she meets a young man named Masa doing research at her library.

The two are mutually attracted to one another, but Mitsue cannot forget her grief for her father, whose ghost visits her.

This is considered the third film of Kuroki’s War Requiem trilogy along with Tomorrow (1988) and A Boy’s Summer in 1945 (2002).

99 minutes. In Japanese with English subtitles.