Live on Zoom: Web Link
(RSVP recommended but not required: Web Link
Zoom Host: Paul George, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center Director Emeritus
Join us for this documentary film screening in commemoration of the world's only nuclear weapons attacks. Rothauser's deeply moving documentary (54 min.) about the survivors of those attacks (hibakusha) features testimonies of the Japanese, Korean, and American survivors of the 1945 Atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and reveals their inspiring dedication to peace and nuclear disarmament after the war. Leading peace activists and scholars, Noam Chomsky, Helen Caldicott, Robert J. Lifton, John Dower and Freeman Dyson provide commentary in the film narrated by Phil Donahue.
The film is followed by a Q&A session with the film's director livestreamed with viewers. The world premiere of "Hibakusha" was at the U.N. Non-Proliferation Treaty Conference in 2010, when the Secretary General of the U.N. requested copies of the film for delegates - and it remains a moving and inspiring record of the bombings and their aftermath. We see the emotional connection among the survivors, and youth in Japan and the many visitors from peace groups that come to Japan to commemorate the bombings and talk about their own work for nuclear disarmament.
The 9 min.trailer can be viewed at Web Link - some images in the documentary are graphic but the film can be viewed by teens and young adults.
NOTE: The documentary Hibakusha will continue to be streamed on demand throughout the month of August, Aug. 1- 31 on the PPJC's YouTube channel, free to all viewers: Web Link AS WILL A SECOND ROTHAUSER FILM: "Article 9 Comes to America." The film tells the story of the amendment written by U.S. occupation forces in 1946 and added to the Japanese constitution, which renounces war as an instrument of national policy. It is a legacy and a template for the world to consider following as a path for peace, especially now as the Secretary General of the United Nations has made an urgent proposal for a global ceasefire during the pandemic.
The film explores the concept of Article 9 with peace activists and scholars, some of whom are included in the Hibakusha film: Noam Chomsky, Helen Caldicott, John Dower, Freeman Dyson as well as Peter Kuznick, and Akihiko Kimijima. Filmed in 2016, it remains an inspiring record of the power of the amendment for peaceful resolution of conflict, and the campaigns to include a similar amendment in the U.S. Constitution.
In the film, the concept of the article 9 is challenged by a dramatized right-wing intellectual who eventually embraces the concept of the amendment as Article 9 is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.
Article 9 has stood since since its inclusion in the constitution, during the Korean War and Vietnam and the war on terror, but it has faced opposition from those who would remove it. However, see an article about poll results of the Japanese People in support of keeping the article in their constituteion at: Web Link
Contact WILPF at wilpf.peninsula.paloalto@gmail.com or the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center at ppjc@peaceandjustice.org if you have questions about the films.
