A documentary featuring the late Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived the U.S. atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, is set for release across Japan in July, organizers said.
The film, "Niju Hibaku — Kataribe Yamaguchi Tsutomu no Yuigon" ("Twice Bombed, Twice Survived — The Last Words of Peace Speaker Tsutomu Yamaguchi"), will be shown in theaters in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they said. Yamaguchi died of stomach cancer last January at age 93.
A marine architect, the Nagasaki native was caught up in the Aug. 6 bombing during a business trip to Hiroshima and also the Aug. 9 bombing after returning to his hometown.
The film shows Yamaguchi tearfully speaking at the U.N. headquarters in New York, and elsewhere, on the need to abolish nuclear weapons, and a visit he received from American film director James Cameron two weeks before his death.
The film was directed by TV producer Hidetaka Inazuka, 60, from Tomakomai, Hokkaido. He met Yamaguchi for the first time in 2005 while making a program about the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings. Around that time, Yamaguchi lost his second son, also a hibakusha, to cancer.