Children of Hiroshima
| Children of Hiroshima | |
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Film poster
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| Japanese | 原爆の子 |
| Hepburn | Genbaku no Ko |
| Directed by | Kaneto Shindo |
| Written by | Kaneto Shindo |
| Starring | Nobuko Otowa |
| Music by | Akira Ifukube |
| Cinematography | Takeo Itō |
| Edited by | Zenju Imaizumi |
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Release date
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Running time
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97 Minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Children of Hiroshima (原爆の子 Genbaku no Ko?, lit. Children of the Atomic Bomb) also released as Atom-Bombed Children in Hiroshima, is a 1952 Japanese feature film directed by Kaneto Shindo, a docudrama made with extreme emotions, having "the capacity to wound".
One may reasonably admit that fiction and documentary exist in equal parts in this film and that is why it may be considered a docufiction as well.
It was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.
Takako Ishikawa (Nobuko Otowa) is a teacher on an island in the inland sea off the coast of Hiroshima after World War II. During her summer holiday, she goes back to Hiroshima to visit the graves of her parents and younger sister, who were killed in the bomb attack. She sees a beggar and realizes he is a man called Iwakichi (Osamu Takizawa) who used to work for her parents, now burned on the face and partially blind. She visits him at his home and asks about his family. His grandson, Tarō, is now in an institution. She visits the institution and finds the children barely have enough to eat. Takako offers to take Iwakichi and his grandson back to the island, but he refuses, running away.
Takako then goes on to visit Natsue Morikawa, who was another teacher at a kindergarten where she used to teach, and is now a midwife. Natsue has been rendered sterile by the atomic bomb blast and she is discussing adopting a child. Natsue and Takako visit the site of the kindergarten, which is now destroyed, and Takako decides to visit the students of the kindergarten.
The father of the first student she visits, Sanpei, has suddenly been taken ill from a radiation-related illness and dies just before she arrives. Another one of the students is terminally ill and dying in a church where many people with bomb-related injuries are gathered.
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