Pictures from a Hiroshima Schoolyard: Seventy-five Years Since the Atomic Bombings of Japan

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Details on this week's virtual seminar on Hiroshima, 75 years after the bombing

August 2, 2020

By David Janes–

How can art heal? What role do gifts play in building bonds of friendship? Is it possible for the strongest of enemies to become friends? These topics are central to the 2014 documentary film Pictures from a Hiroshima Schoolyard, which will be the focus of an EngageAsia webinar on August 5 featuring the film’s Director, Producer, cultural advisor, and key leaders at All Souls Church Unitarian in Washington, DC—all of whom are central to the film.

Pictures from a Hiroshima Schoolyard focuses on the amazing story of a gift exchange between All Souls Church in Washington, DC and elementary school students in Hiroshima in 1947, just two years after the end of the war. After sending art supplies to children in Japan, these children drew amazing works of art that were sent to the church. After years in storage and no luck in figuring out much about those drew the pictures, filmmaker and artist Shizumi Manale saw the drawings and was inspired to learn more. She became determined to find those who drew them and used her own funds to seek them out. After significant effort, she located 36 of these artists, now older men and women. With the help of the church, the pictures are restored and will travel back to Hiroshima for an exhibition that reunites them with the artists.

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Why make a film on this topic? In the words of Producer Shizumi Manale, “We cannot change the past, or prevent all pain, but we can create a different future. We can stop and bear witness, standing or falling down on the floor and weeping with the suffering, and we can respond. What seeds of hope and possibility and peace will you share, seeds that may just sprout and bloom and root us in who we have been and who we are for generations to come?”

The Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima, Japan: a tribute to hope.

What is remarkable about this film is that it highlights how immediately after World War II grassroots efforts played a role in connecting Americans and Japanese, which laid the groundwork for transitioning hatred and war to friendship and peace. It was likely impossible for most people to imagine during WWII that Americans and Japanese could become friends and allies. Contemplating this should be one key lesson for remembering the 75^th Anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan – we can imagine a different and more peaceful future and even through small acts we can find ways to materialize that.

To learn more about the film, its production and meaning, please join EngageAsia on August 5 from 7 to 8pm EDT for this webinar. You can also view the film prior to the webinar on Amazon.

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