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Hiroshima survivor's memoir to become feature film
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฎ Slovenia /Culture & Society

Hiroshima survivor's memoir to become feature film

From Delo · () Slovenian

Translated from Slovenian, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified New plan
  • A memoir written nearly 80 years ago about the horrors of Hiroshima after the atomic bombing will be turned into a feature film.
  • The film, produced by Donald Rosenfeld, is set to begin shooting in February 2027 and will star Takehiro Hira.
  • The memoir, by Kiyoลกi Tanimoto, was recently rediscovered and will be published by Random House and Penguin.

Kiyoลกi Tanimoto's harrowing account of Hiroshima after the 1945 atomic bombing, penned almost 80 years ago, is set to become a feature film. The movie, slated to begin production in February 2027, will star Takehiro Hira and is produced by Donald Rosenfeld.

This is an in-depth look at what the consequences of that bomb were. You can't imagine anything worse than Hiroshima, but it could be worse โ€“ today, supposedly 10,000 times more powerful. We really need to make sure this doesn't happen again.

โ€” Donald RosenfeldProducer Donald Rosenfeld discusses the film's relevance and the potential for even greater destruction.

Rosenfeld told The Guardian that the film's focus on Hiroshima's aftermath is particularly relevant today, given current nuclear threats. "It's an in-depth look at what the consequences of that bomb were," he stated. "You can't imagine anything worse than Hiroshima, but it could be worse โ€“ today, supposedly 10,000 times more powerful. We really need to make sure this doesn't happen again."

The memoir, a 230-page testament to the devastation, was written by Tanimoto after he returned to find Hiroshima in ruins. He died in 1986, but his memories remained unpublished and lost in an American archive until recently. They are now set for release on August 6, the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, by Random House in the US and Penguin globally. The book has already become a bestseller in pre-orders.

For many years, I could not live in Hiroshima, the city of my birth. On the day the atomic bomb fell, I was eight months old, a baby in my mother's arms. It took 40 years before my mother could bring herself to tell me in her own words how I had survived.

โ€” Koko Tanimoto KondoKiyoลกi Tanimoto's daughter reflects on the long-lasting trauma and silence surrounding the Hiroshima bombing.

The rediscovered writings were found among the papers of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Hersey, who befriended Tanimoto after visiting Hiroshima eight months post-bombing. Tanimoto's daughter, Koko Tanimoto Kondo, who was eight months old during the attack, wrote the book's foreword. She described the difficulty of living in her birthplace and the long silence surrounding the event, noting that "the explosion leveled almost everything in central Hiroshima." The heat at ground level was approximately 4,000 degrees Celsius, capable of incinerating wood, concrete, and human flesh.

the explosion leveled almost everything in central Hiroshima

โ€” Koko Tanimoto KondoKiyoลกi Tanimoto's daughter describes the immediate devastation caused by the atomic bomb.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Delo in Slovenian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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