ORIGINAL CHILD BOMB
Fifty years ago, poet and social activist
Thomas Merton wrote a one-poem book (illustrated by Emil Antonucci) titled
Original Child Bomb: Points for Meditation to be Scratched on the Walls of a Cave (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1961). Forty-three years later, inspired by Merton's poem, Carey McKenzie a.k.a. Carey Schonegevel directed a documentary feature film titled
Original Child Bomb (Santa Barbara: Unquiet Projects, 2004).
Both book and film are laudable and worthy, each in their own way. Merton's small book is easy to find, on loan via
WorldCat or for sale by various booksellers. Schonegevel's film, however, is extremely difficult to find.* Nevertheless, it was worth the effort; and I want to make it easier for
you to screen this film than it was for me. First, let me lay some links on you:
Original Child Bomb[This is the "official" Web site.]Original Child Bomb (2004) - IMDbDirected by Carey Schonegevel. With Emlia Breen, Karl Geary, Kohei, Tony Marceca.Original Child Bomb « Perspective: the filmmaker’s point of viewOne of the captivating aspects of this production is its use of vintage color motion-picture film. There are many scenes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, before the nuclear combat bombs were detonated, which are all the more interesting simply because they're in color. Of course, there are other scenes which immediately foretell the tragedies to come....
But up until the moment of those nuclear detonations, citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki went about their daily routines — albeit their lives were punctuated by air-raid alerts, hectic wartime work schedules and shortages of basic necessities. Here are some commuters, either going to work or else heading home after a busy and tiring day....
In depicting the horrible moment of nuclear detonation at Hiroshima, director Schonegevel employs animation based upon
Keiji Nakazawa's manga series
Barefoot Gen (Tokyo: Chuokoron-Shinsha and Shueisha, 1973 to 1985).** The actual animation is probably from the anime series
Barefoot Gen, directed by Mori Masaki (Tokyo: MADHOUSE, 1983).
Another interesting and thoughtful aspect of this film is Schonegevel's occasional use of amateur animation by Emilie Hubley. Hubley uses the horse to both symbolize strength and serve as a conduit between past and present.
Yet another perspective is introduced by a present-day Japanese boy who goes back in time to see Hiroshima as it was, in the days and weeks following 1945's nuclear detonation. This artistic device is employed as a means of connecting the "now" with the "then" — and, by the way, there's relevant music throughout.
Indeed, film of the nuclear detonation's immediate and short-term casualties is stunning. These hard-to-watch scenes are necessary, in my opinion, for emphasizing the horrors of war. Right-wing malarkey asserting this is an "anti-American" film is nonsensical: Cruelty, hypocrisy and suffering are all products of the might-makes-money idiocy which is modern war's engine — no matter the nationality of perpetrators.
Not all victims of nuclear detonations are Japanese. Approximately 250,000 U.S. military personnel have been exposed to harmful levels of radiation, thanks to the frenzy of nuclear-weapons tests during the post-war era. Of course, the U.S. government continues its policy of denying disability claims so as to save compensation money and political face. Post-service treatment of U.S. military veterans by the U.S. government hasn't changed over the years: It's still an adversarial and one-sided relationship.
McKenzie's, or Schonegevel's, film is mysteriously kept under tight wraps and screenings are rare outside the comforting confines of academe. Unquiet Projects in Santa Barbara is ironically named! Perhaps a recipe is at work: one part artistic elitism, one part greed, one part peace-activism snobbery, one part right-wing retribution from capitalistic film-distribution corporations. Add 'em all together and you end up with a fantastic film which few can readily screen. More's the pity.
Well, if you're willing to do a wee bit of work you can screen that film! Firstly, you need to have iTunes installed in your computing system. Then, you need to click
here and wait for a 662-Megabyte file to download. Whee! Then, if the universe deigns to smile upon you, a much-needed and well-made film will present itself.
__________*The only place Schonegevel's film Original Child Bomb is readily available is the iTunes Store and, of course, you have to install iTunes to not only buy the file but to play it back as well. That's because it's an M4V file, which contains a digital rights management control used by Apple Inc..
**Nakazawa's manga series was extremely well-received by the public, hence other artistic media of communication were soon brought to bear. Here is a list of what Barefoot Gen inspired:
Anime series — Barefoot Gen directed by Mori Masaki (Tokyo: MADHOUSE, 1983)
Anime series — Barefoot Gen 2 directed by Toshio Hirata (Tokyo: MADHOUSE, 1986)
Feature film — Barefoot Gen directed by Tengo Yamada (Tokyo: Gendai Productions, 1976)
Feature film — Barefoot Gen: Explosion of Tears directed by Tengo Yamada (Tokyo: Gendai Productions, 1977)
Feature film — Barefoot Gen: PART3 Battle of Hiroshima directed by Tengo Yamada (Tokyo: Gendai Productions, 1980)
Novel — Barefoot Gen Will Never Forget About the Bomb by Keiji Nakazawa (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten Publishers, 1982)
Novel — A Letter to Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa (Tokyo: Kyouiku Shiryo Publishing, 1991)
Novel — Autobiography of Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa (Tokyo: Kyouiku Shiryo Publishing, 1994)
Novel — Barefoot Gen in Hiroshima by Keiji Nakazawa (Tokyo: Kodansha Limited, 1999)
Novel — Seen Where Barefoot Gen Was by Yoshiaki Fukuma and Kazuma Yoshimura (Chiba: Azusa Shuppansha, 2006)
Novel — Barefoot Gen Will Never Forget About Hiroshima by Keiji Nakazawa (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten Publishers, 2008)
Television drama — Barefoot Gen directed by Shosuke Murakami and Masaki Nishiura (Tokyo: Fuji Television Network, 2007):'(
=^..^=
