Memories Transposed

On Monday, I found the students at the junior high school where I currently work in Japan were being shown a movie from 1983 called この子を残して, which literally translates to something like "The child left behind" but was given the title Children of Nagasaki for some western release, though it is difficult to obtain outside of Japan now. Directed by Kinoshita Keisuke, one of the luminaries of 1950s cinema, it has a style out of step with '80s Japanese cinema, featuring long takes, wide shots of ensembles, and few closeups. It endeavours to be partially an unvarnished account of a survivor's experiences of Nagasaki, during and after the bombing. It comes from a very particular perspective yet argues for sensitivity and reflection. It's very simple in its philosophy and while Kinoshita was not among Japan's greatest directors and this was not one of his best films it still has an appreciable impact.

Kinoshita's most famous works were made in the 1950s with actress Takamine Hideko, including the two Carmen movies, Carmen Comes Home and Carmen's Pure Love, the former being Japan's first full length colour film. Carmen Comes Home, the story of a stripper who returns to her rural hometown, is an attempt to harmonise two aspects of Japanese culture; its deep rooted conservatism and its enormous sex industry. Children of Nagasaki attempts a similarly impossible task with a little more success, being the true story of Nagai Takashi, a Catholic Japanese doctor and author who wrote about his experiences surviving the bombing of Nagasaki.

For many in Japan, Catholicism remains a symbol of the worst of western cultural decadence, so Nagai's life of remarkable humility and contemplation provides a striking counter example. That he should be the lens through which a story of the atomic bomb's horror and devastation is told makes for a complicated narrative from the start.

The film shows Americans in a negative light, going beyond the atomic bombing to show some of the most graphic footage from the Vietnam War of the depredations of American troops, the purpose of which I suppose can only be a general comment on the fundamental character of Americans. The film does not go into Nagai's experiences in Manchuria in the 1930s where he was at odds with the Japanese military.

It's a sobering example for the students, I should think. At the very least, I think it's useful to show them that sometimes misfortune may befall them that was beyond their control to prevent.