Film sheds light on plight of left-behind parents

Apr 17, 2013

Film sheds light on plight of left-behind parents

by Masami Ito

Images of left-behind parents, holding up photos of their children, flash across the screen. In the United States, Canada, Europe and even Japan, these parents are waiting to reunite with offspring taken away by their estranged Japanese spouses. The documentary film “From The Shadows,” ...

Filmmaker captures the 3/11 stress of Tohoku's deaf

Mar 10, 2013

Filmmaker captures the 3/11 stress of Tohoku's deaf

by Tomoko Otake

Nobuko Kikuchi, a 72-year-old resident of Iwanuma, Miyagi Prefecture, couldn’t hear the emergency sirens that followed the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that struck on March 11, 2011. Nor could she hear the public announcement urging people to evacuate to higher ground as a massive tsunami approached ...

Filmmaker focuses on lives near nuke sites

Feb 13, 2013

Filmmaker focuses on lives near nuke sites

by Keiji Hirano

A documentary that recently began screening chronicles the experiences of Japanese communities hosting nuclear facilities and the high price paid by some of them because of the March 2011 Fukushima meltdown disaster, including farmers and fishermen unable to market their produce because of radioactive ...