In an artful flashback, Shindo intercuts a close-up of a clock with several high and wide angled shots of jolly schoolchildren and crawling infants. The sound of the clock ticks louder and louder as its arms move toward 8:15 am, until it stops, and the bomb is dropped. There is a loud silence - then Shindo's camera zooms into tight, close, elegant shots that juxtapose withering flowers with burned and battered bodies, flightless birds with weeping children. The next aerial shot we see is not of the lively city and its beautiful landscape; it is of the infamous mushroom cloud. In one particularly moving memory, Takako narrates how a man sitting on a stoop was vaporized instantly. Shindo films the naked stairs where the man once sat, then the man appears, sitting, his elbows on his knees, face downcast - recalling Auguste Rodin's sculpture, The Thinker - then he disappears again. It is only this man's "thoughts," Takako says, that "live on."
As Takako walks the city, she is reunited with Iwakichi (Osamu Takizawa) who once worked for her parents but is now a nearly blind beggar. She learns that his son died in battle and his daughter died in the blast. His grandson, Taro, now lives at an orphanage. Later in the film, Takako learns that the bomb has rendered her dear friend and fellow teacher Miwa Saitō (Natsue Morikawa) infertile. Takako's former students and their parents also suffer from physical ailments, as well as, in the words of Miwa's husband, "emotions left from the A-bomb."
While Children of Hiroshima was circulated globally upon its initial release, exposing the world to Japan's trauma, it was not shown in the United States due to post-war censorship laws. It did not have its American premiere until 2011 - several decades and wars later. It was first screened on Shindo's 99th birthday and was part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's retrospective, subtitled "The Urge for Survival." While that tagline certainly reflects the resiliency of the survivors, Children of Hiroshima seems far more committed to capturing their sadness, injury, and cautious optimism.
Beyond the incredible acting, the textured filmmaking reinforces these tangled feelings. The film's impressive aerial shots allow audiences to view Hiroshima from above, as it might look from the perspective of an aircraft, with the city and its people seen as targets of the bomb. The architectural remains of what has come to be known as the Atomic Bomb Dome is a reoccurring image in the film, a symbolic skeleton. Akira Ifukube (who is best known for his work on the Godzilla scores) created a ghostly soundtrack that only adds to the film's complex composition.
Takako's resolve during her reunions is almost austere at times, reflecting Shindo's interest in strong female leads. Like his early mentor Kenji Mizoguchi, Shindo's films feature women that are generally stronger than men. Japanese film critic Tadao Sato argues that Shindo likes to contrast assiduous women with "lazy men" - he did, after all, make a mid-career comedy called Strong Women, Weak Men (1968). Nobuko Otowa, was this archetypal woman. Both Shindo's lover and favorite actress, Otowa played the leading roles in almost all of the films he directed during her lifetime. In Children of Hiroshima, Otowa performs as a reliable narrator. Takako's restraint and thoughtfulness offer a breath - a beat of reflection - as the film elicits the raw grief that accompanies war.
Directed and Written by Kaneto Shindo
Based on the book by Arata Osada
Cinematography by Takeo Itô
Edited by Zenju Imaizumi
Music by Akira Ifukube
Produced by Kôzaburô Yoshimura
By Rebecca Kumar
