Pictures from a Hiroshima Schoolyard

Gr 9 Up—This hour-long documentary tells two related stories through historical photos and interviews. The first tells of Honkawa Elementary School in Hiroshima; when the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945, more than 400 students and 10 teachers died. Most of Hiroshima's wooden buildings were destroyed, but the school's concrete walls enabled it to carry on amid the devastation. Young teachers and students, including many war orphans, came from all over the area to repopulate the building once it was reopened. Food and basic supplies were scarce, hunger was widespread, and survivors eked out a living as best they could. Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, the minister of All Saints Church, A. Powell Davies, rallied his congregation to show compassion for the survivors. They sent a care package to the new students containing school supplies and toys. In response, the children sent hand-drawn pictures expressing their gratitude. Their brightly colored images of children at play in fields of flowers, a stark contrast to their war-ravaged home, speak movingly of the children's hopefulness and resilience. The church stored the pictures and organized an exhibition of the restored pictures in Hiroshima in 2010. The exhibition reunited the child artists, now in their 60s and 70s, with the pictures they had drawn. Their recollections, tearful and joyful, bring the story to life. This film does not gloss over the horrors of war but offers a hopeful antiwar message in recounting a gift that had great impact in many lives.