HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) The 1953 Japanese film "Hiroshima," which depicts the devastation of the city and its people by the 1945 atomic bombing, will be screened with English subtitles at a May international event in Barcelona, the group working to translate the film said.
Yuka Takeshita, 22, a senior at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, volunteered to help with the subtitles after a screening at the university last October. "I hope people around the world watch this film and it gives them an opportunity to think about nuclear issues," Takeshita said at a news conference.
Takeshita and other students from the university plan to show the subtitled version at the International Conference of Museums for Peace in Barcelona and to release a DVD in July. They are also hoping to add subtitles in other languages.
Ippei Kobayashi, a 64-year-old film producer and son of Taihei Kobayashi, who worked as assistant director on the film directed by Hideo Sekikawa, had floated the idea of adding English subtitles.
An incredible 90,000 Hiroshima residents and survivors of the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing reportedly took part in the film as extras, which is based on "Gembaku no Ko" ("Children of the A-Bomb"), a compilation of notes on the survivors' experiences.