Film Screening: To the J**ps: South Korean A-Bomb Survivors Speak Out (Ienomu e: Zaikan Hibakusha Mukoku no Nijuroku-nen)

Directed by Nihon Documentarist Union.
Japan, 1971, 16mm, color and b&w, 53 minutes
Korean and Japanese with English subtitles
 

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki complicated the postwar discourse in and around Japan— which was now both a perpetrator and a victim. Yet not only Japanese citizens fell victim to the nuclear blasts, many foreign laborers also perished. For this documentary, NDU traveled to Busan in South Korea to follow a group of atomic bomb survivors ignored by the Japanese government and treated as an embarrassment by the South Korean government. In an extremely difficult and risky undertaking for the time, this group of filmmaking Japanese activists follows several survivors on their trip to Seoul to hand a petition to newly reelected General Park Chung-hee, who was in the process of consolidating his authoritarian rule.

The film will be preceded by:

Tyosen
Directed by Kokusai Kankyo-kyoku / International Tourism Office
Japan, 1939, 35mm, black & white, 13 minutes
In English

This short film was produced by the Japanese empire to promote tourism to the Korean Penninsula (or “Chosen,” as it was referred to then). The English voice-over provides insights into how the empire wanted its colonial holdings to be seen (and monetized) through tourism.

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Harvard Film Archive Planet at 50 special film screenings co-sponsored by the Reischauer Institute