NEW YORK (Kyodo) A film that follows more than 100 atomic bomb survivors as they travel around the world on the Peace Boat premiered at U.N. headquarters Monday.
Directed by Costa Rican Erika Bagnarello, "FLASHES OF HOPE: Hibakusha Traveling the World," captures the voices of 103 victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bombings.
The 62-minute documentary covers their four-month global journey aboard a vessel operated by the Japan-based nongovernmental organization Peace Boat, which visited 23 ports in 20 countries from Sept. 7, 2008, to Jan. 13.
The voyage was designed to allow the hibakusha to pass along their stories, memories, suffering and hope for the future through interaction with people they met at each stop, including activists, politicians and ordinary citizens.
"The time is ripe because of the U.S. administration," Akira Kawasaki, the coordinator of the Peace Boat project, told an audience after the film's premiere. He was referring to President Barack Obama's call for a nuclear-free world, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.
"We are trying to use this momentum and this film as a good educational tool," Kawasaki said.
The film includes scenes from the Japanese antiwar animated movie "Barefoot Gen," which portrays the life of a boy who survives the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.
Every year, the Peace Boat project charters an ocean liner to provide its passengers with the opportunity to interact with people from around the world to discuss international problems.
Among the hibakushas' stories woven into the film is that of Setsuko Thurlow, who lost eight family members on Aug. 6, 1945. As a central and charismatic figure, Thurlow insists in the film it is her moral responsibility to educate herself and others to make a stand for the total elimination of atomic warheads.