The Showa Boston Activity Board invites JET alumni and Friends of JET to their screening of an original Japanese film, Aogiri – Phoenix Tree at Showa Boston on Sunday, June 5 from 2:15pm – 4:30pm. The film’s director, producer, and musical director will each be present and a discussion with them will follow the screening. Please RSVP to the event at https://www.facebook.com/events/1142334029142316/ or, if you do not use Facebook, email Dan Lowe at president@nejetaa.com.
A shuttle will be offered at 1:50pm from the taxi/bus pickup area of Reservoir station (Green Line D-Branch) to Showa. Free parking is also available on our campus (please take your first left after passing through the gate, park in the lot, and walk up the stairs leading to the building flying the American, Japanese, and UK flags)
About the Film (from the official press release).
The film is based on the true life story of Ms. Susuko Numata, a victim of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima ( a hibakusha).
The film reveals intricate details of the suffering of a young woman who in one horrific instant lost her leg. Though she was repeatedly forced into the depths of despair, she eventually made up her mind to live on as an atomic bomb storyteller for peace. In addition to telling a great many others, Suzuko Numata continually shared her story about her experience of suffering from the bombing with countless children under the Aogiri tree (Chinese parasol tree) which also survived the A-bomb and is now standing in Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park.
This tree is famous and its seeds have been spread around the world, just as the messages of the hibakusha must be. As some elements of this story had to be invented due to an absence of details, the character of Ms. Numata in the film is named Setsuko Tanaka.
Ms. Numata passed away on July 12th, 2011, four months after the Great East Japan Earthquake. In her last days she was extremely concerned about the victims of the calamity, in the area affected by the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident. Satomi Nakamura, the film’s producer, will never forget Ms. Numata’s words a month before her death; “I must live on to tell them my story… I do not want anybody in this world to go through the same pain ever again.”
Though an atomic-bomb and a nuclear power plant accident are two different things, they both share the horror of radioactivity. We live in an era when we must listen with full attention to the voices of the hibakusha and let them affect our thinking about the future of our planet.
This film sows the seeds of peace embodied in the message of the hibakusha. “No more Hiroshima! No more Nagasaki! No more war!”
This moving, informational and original film will be shown at 2:00pm at Showa Boston’s Provost hall.
The showing will be accompanied by Satomi Nakamura who is the film’s producer, Shuto Nakamura, the film’s director, and Shigetoshi Ito, the music director of the film. Takako Koike, a potter and the organizer/interpreter for the group will also be present.
After the film, there will be an opportunity for questions about the film and general inquiries about the experiences of those who managed to survive the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There may also be a song or two from producer/songstress Satomi Nakamura accompanied on guitar by Shigetoshi Ito.