In 1951, Children of the Bomb, a collection of eyewitness testimonies from children who had survived the controversial bombing of Hiroshima, was published. Kaneto Shindō’s film adaptation played at Cannes in 1953, but the Japanese Teachers Union, who had funded it, were unhappy with the result. The second version made and here presented is a much tougher docudrama, a harrowing but vital contemporary account of the event. It is critical of both the Japanese and US militaries in a manner that saw it face difficulties with its release, languishing in obscurity until recent years. The centrepiece recreation of the blast and its immediate aftermath uses thousands of natives of the city as extras, many of whom survived the attack.

Screening as part of the Fallout season.

Notes by Kevin Coyne.