Ikiteite yokatta (1956) - full transcript

Promoted by Ministry of Culture
and recommended by Cinema Club

Production by "Japan Council
against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs"

It is good to live

Production:
Japan Document Film

Photography:
Kiyomi Kuroda, Hiroshi Segawa

Editing:
Haruo Jinbo, Fusako Shuzui

Music:
Katsutoshi Nagasawa

Directed by Fumio Kamei
Hiroshi Teshigahara, Seikyo Yamazaki

Hiroshima.

Heiwa Ōhashi (Peace Bridge),

Heiwa Kaikan (Peace Hall),



Heiwa Ōdori (Peace Boulevard).

In this boulevard,
stands the very famous

Sadao Maruyama's Memorial stele
for the victims of atomic bomb.

Near the epicenter,

the remains of the
Industrial Promotion Hall.

Now It's hosting sparrows,
doves and other wild birds.

This is the story of a woman
encountered by our film crew.

At that time,

I and my husband
wandered around the city,

sadly looking for
our lost child.

So we met on the street
those people with little children.

They were imploring us saying:
"Give me some water!"

They were hopeless,
they just wanted some water.

There was no way
we could help them.



They were dying one by one...

A mother hugged her son,

and the burned skin
started to hang down.

Red Cross Hospital at that time.

Hair loss and
bleeding from the gums,

persistent diarrhea.

Even physicians
didn't know what to do.

Patients breathed
their last one by one.

A human shadow etched in stone.

Someone who rested here
for a while.

Suddenly, he melted
by the heat ray of 5000°C.

Hiroshima Gokoku Shrine

Ten years have passed,

today's Hiroshima is crowded
by coin laundries and cabarets.

Occasionally,
the scar raises up,

in other words,
when a keloid girl is seen,

people don't care,
they're busy with their lives.

Also the human
shadow etched in stone,

now got fainter and
it almost disappeared.

The flow of time
will erase all memories they say.

Well, the Red Cross Hospital
has also been completely renovated,

except for the memorial tower
in one corner.

There are no more traces
of such tragedy.

But, on the other hand,

as soon as we enter in
hospitals or homes in backstreet,

the flow of time
can't fade the fallout.

Facing the great destruction
of the A-bomb

the crew was horrified.

A mother watching over her son
with acute leukemia.

According to our results,
acute leukemia is extremely lethal.

First, there's no way
to fully recover.

Escaping death
is the real problem.

That's because at this moment
there aren't many effective drugs.

Here we are using this one

combined with blood transfusion
and finally we get some results.

Here is a person affected by leukemia
and is fighting for life.

While working at the market
in front of Hiroshima Station,

this wife is serving
a bedridden husband.

Our family fortune is almost gone,

but in return,
It saved your life,

I'm grateful.

Even if you sleep all the time,

you are still alive,
and that's enough for me.

It is painful to die.

Now a leukemia patient is dead.

Hamashiro, a farmer of
the suburbs of Hiroshima.

He wasn't directly related
to the atomic bomb.

He came to Hiroshima to
undertake a job one week later.

He slept outside for two nights.

Ten years later,

the older brother regrets:
"He ended up like this!"

Many people affected by exposure of
atomic bomb had similar situations,

We can't imagine
how worrying it is.

Hamashiro's corpse is carried
to the dissection room.

RADIO: "According to
Chūgoku Shinbun..."

Grandfather brought up
all by himself these brothers

who lost their parents
due to the atomic bomb.

Certificate of commendation

"... Second news:"

"Today at 14:30,
at the Red Cross Hospital,

the fourth person died
from A-bomb disease this year.

He was a farmer from
Toyota District, Hiroshima.

at the age of 30.

Name of disease:
acute myeloid leukemia.

He got ill last fall
and hospitalized in Dec.

Since that, his situation
continued to worsen,

with persistent bleeding
from gums,

the number of leukocytes in..."

After Hamashiro's death news,

The grandfather
suddenly became anxious.

He is very worried about the spots
that sometimes appear on his hands.

Until grandchildren become independent,
he feels like he can't die.

Hamashiro's mother welcomes her son
who is now dead and cold.

She said:
"Welcome, welcome back!"

She was stuck to the coffin.

After only two weeks,
Hamashiro's old brother

took part in street fundraising
with other A-bomb survivors.

A-bomb survivors‘ petition
for National Security

... we ought not remain silent!

Bikini, Enewetak Atoll and the
Marshall islands are peaceful countries,

we must protest at all costs
against nuclear testing!

Atomic dust.

We tried to place the atomic dust
on a photographic plate.

The near-death Kuboyama,

Kuboyama's wife,

The wife and her mother.

Items from A-bomb ruins

National relief for A-bomb survivors

1 Yen Donation

Also in Nagasaki, the terror of
the atomic bomb is the same.

A 13-year-old boy
didn't notice anything himself,

he was happily going to school...

After a medical examination,
he was diagnosed with leukemia.

Child's parents died by explosion,
and now his grandmother is raising him.

The total number of leukocytes
is 388'000.

It’s about 50 times more
than a normal person.

Erythrocytes are also not too good.

Almost half of a normal person.

I can't really give
any prospect for this boy.

But it’s a critical situation.

Because he doesn't
want to fall behind in class,

He said:
"I want to go to school soon!"

The dogs used in experiments
torment the hospital.

This little 14-year-old girl

has been suffering from
thoracic empyema for 10 years.

... bronchiolitis and thoracic
empyema seem to be connected.

As for now,
that empyema is leaking out

from trachea and then from mouth.

It can't be healed without surgery.

But I don't know if her
body can endure surgery.

This girl's mother
is working as day laborer.

I don't grudge the atomic bomb,

I believe we should just
pray to the Virgin Mary.

It is painful to die.

But...
it is also painful to live.

Nagata was exposed
to the bomb in July,

He was hit from the top of his head
to the tip of his toes.

When he was a kid,
he always had a hard time.

They called me
"baldie" or "fritter".

I was giving up...

However, Nagata's most
painful memory was when

after graduating from middle school,
in an employment exam for a company.

He was rejected
due to the head injury.

Nagata was encouraged
by his older sister

to undergo a plastic surgery.

While cutting with a scalpel,

Gradually they stretched the
skin of the hairy part of the head.

This is a way
to treat the bald part.

One or two more times and
It will be much better.

- How is your hand?
- It's good.

The skin from thigh is grafted
on the damaged hand.

Okay, I think it's good.

Today it's enough.

There is a small bath in
A-bomb survivors' Assoc. office.

For women with keloids
on their bodies,

It's a lovely and safe place.

They were denied access
to the city's public bath,

for making other guests
uncomfortable.

Here is heaven, so to speak.

She's finally out!

The evacuation center suddenly
became an orphanage.

The director of the institution...

who founded it and
got these children together,

He told us:

It was a long time ago,
we did a fire drill.

That time he asked the kids
to evacuate

with the things
most important to them.

What we usually think

as the most important thing for a child

is kimono,

clothes, or school
textbooks are also important.

Food is important.

Anyone would bring such things.

But it's just people's expectation.

The gathered kids
won't bring such things.

Children gathered...

and brought
photos of their parents.

From now on,

what they are looking for
are essentially their parents.

All their efforts
are for parents.

Without big dreams
like a normal child.

A junior high school student who wants
to become a barber when he grows up.

A girl who wants to be
a dressmaker.

Living quietly.

Thanks to the help of her mother,

a keloid daughter had
three plastic surgeries.

The keloid that should have
disappeared is still there,

after cutting it
the keloid grows back.

After a few days,
it was cut off again.

But the keloid has not healed.

I had given up on my face
until recently.

Before going to work
in the morning,

mother's feelings while hiding
the wound on her daughter's hands.

... Don't look at me!

You try to stand still
biting your lips and looking down.

Weeping in the crowd's insolent stare.

Instantly a flash leaps
in my mind like a spirit!

Oh, that day...
― "Hiroshima Poems"

Despite having a beautiful face
marked atrociously,

she is studying to create
a more beautiful design.

Fukada was doing business
in Shanghai, but...

during the visit to the ancestors' tomb
to thank for the achievements,

he was irradiated
at Hiroshima station.

A recent test found that
the amount of leukocytes were 44,000.

For average person
it is about 7,000 to 8,000.

Eosinophilic leukemia
was diagnosed,

and he's under treatment now.

For more than ten minutes
he was critical.

He got transfusions from his
wife and children so he endured it.

I also peddled soap...

But it wasn't enough
to raise four children.

Outside Nagasaki,

she's renting a barn
from an acquaintance.

We didn't have a place to go,
now I'm very much obliged.

Since we finally moved here,

things have become strained.

It takes about 2000 or 3000 yen
to get electricity.

But I can't afford it.

I'm using the old lamps in the house.
But it's dangerous,

They can't be used that long.

My children are in trouble for studying,
their grades dropped,

I really have to do something...

I'm 53 now, If I die
these three people...

I won't leave them alone...

In my opinion,

At first I thought it didn't matter
if I had a child.

I couldn't do a little more...

Those three people moved here,

I afflicted them
with my illness...

If I were to die now,

I would feel sorry for my children.

Somehow, my children's future...

I hope they could go to school,

but I'm unable.

Nothing but death awaits me.

He's really happy
to go to the hospital.

Because he can meet his father
and eat at the hospital.

To save on bus fee, he walks halfway
and then gets on the bus.

Hospital cleaners,
Yamaguchi and old women

bring the leftover food.

I want to fill their stomach
with rice to make some progress.

I couldn't forget
when A-bomb survivors,

despite their difficult times,
they helped me.

That's why I bring food
to these three children.

I said:
"Give it to them!"

One day,

Fukada confided to Yamaguchi that
he considered family suicide.

He said that it's better to die
than to suffer so much.

I understand that it's painful,
even so we've survived the atomic bomb.

And we are still alive.

Like a person condemned to death,
don't give up and cheer up a little more!

I encouraged him:
"Let's live!"

Every Saturday,
they sleep near their father.

However,

Fukada can't fall asleep
on such a night.

It is painful to die and to live.

But It's good to live.

Yamaguchi was squashed by
the steel frame of the factory.

Plastic surgeries
didn't succeed so far.

Next, a representative of
A-bomb survivors of Nagasaki

and delegate of
"A-bomb Maidens" Assoc.

Please come to the stage,
Misako Yamaguchi.

I was in Nagasaki
when I was 15 years old.

I was exposed to atomic bomb
and suffering big injury.

I was in hospital for 7 months,
I came back home and

there was no house,

My mother, my father,
my sister and my brother...

all died in the atomic bomb.

I was the only person left
to rely on.

This painful long rush
of the last ten years,

I hope you will understand...

Everyone in this gathering,

Please don't ever drop...

that horrible thing
all over the earth again!

Due to the atomic bomb in Nagasaki,

there are people that
have lost their own house,

spending the last ten years
living with their mothers.

If their mothers would die tomorrow,

how could they
live from that moment?

When they think about it,

they prefer to die
in the meantime.

But even if we die now...

who will protect the world from
that horrifying thing that is A-bomb?

I went to the "August 6th convention"
and came back to Nagasaki.

I'm very, very glad...

Because we have so many people
by our side,

Let's cheer up and live
from now on!

No parents and no providence,

Hiroshima Meiseien,
where blind orphans are educated.

Two keloid childcare teachers
are working here.

Even without
memories of their parents.

These five blind children,

stay with the music box all day long.

Helping a student
at painting lesson.

Before we gave up on the woman
on the right.

I realized that even someone like me,
it's important for these children.

I have gained confidence to live.

It is as if...

such unfortunate children
have saved us.

This is what the
childcare teacher told us.

What did you draw here?

It's a sky, that's getting dark.

One day, they went to picnic.

Even if they can't see,
they enjoyed it a lot.

Please,
start feeding yourself soon.

It's difficult to depend on the
care of others when you grow up.

She made them live in this way.

To participate in the
school speech contest,

Kyoko Fukutomi, a blind girl,
is practicing her speech:

"When the atomic bomb dropped,

I was 4 years old.

I was with a friend,
playing with a doll.

As soon as it exploded,

I was buried in a soil wall.

I was saved because
my mother dug me out.

My house was burned.

So my mother and I
took refuge in a dry riverbed.

Many injured people
were groaning.

That night,
we slept outside there.

The next morning,
when you woke up,

in that moment,

I said while crying:
"I'm blind!"

My eyes became blind

in the night when I was sleeping.

When the sun rose
in the morning,

my eyes were dark.

Since then,
my eyelid is closed tightly.

It never opened again.

I forgot all the things I've seen,
but I remember only one,

Only the mole
under my mother's mouth.

At now, I go to a school
for the blind learning koto.

When I grow up,
I will become a koto teacher.

I want to live happily
with my mother.

Also...
because in the world,

there are very good
scientists and politicians.

I would like to meet them and...

ask them not to create something...

like the atomic bomb."

Ten years without parents
were really painful.

This child who still sleeps with
the ashes of her parents on the bedside.

She grew up well and
she holds the office now.

These orphans from the
A-bomb are meeting together.

Their favorite song is:
The song of happiness.

Happiness is our wish

The work is very hard

and we work hard
putting our future into it

To create a bright society

Let's sing together

The song of happiness

Let's follow

the spreading echos...

At "Nagasaki A-bomb Maidens" Assoc.

in order to be autonomous,

they devote themself
on the knitting workshop.

Hirata was pinned
under her house.

Fractures and right eye damaged.

She has been bedridden
for ten years.

Her father is worrying about his child,
and is doing his best.

A-bomb affects the body exhausting it.

Now, a long winter is about to leave
from Hirata's sickroom.

Nowadays she is
fascinated by red rose bud.

Because "Hiroshima Council against
A and H Bombs" sent a brace to Hirata,

She started walking training.

Old friends from Girls' High School
encouraged Hirata.

Keloid mother who
knew the joy of living.

When my husband said

he was going to get me for the
rest of my life, whatever happens.

I was really terrified.

Even if everyone reassured me,

I thought it was better for me
to not get married.

After all,

I think that the strongest among us
is my husband.

Watanabe was squashed by

the steel frame
of the factory at the age of 16.

Because of fractures with nerve damage,

she lost the sensitivity in legs.

She was hospitalized once, but...

They told me that
it's like I don't have a waist.

Well, after being cured

from bedsore,
I came back home,

I haven't been out
for ten years since then.

I was born in Nagasaki
and grew up in Nagasaki.

But I ignore how is Nagasaki now.

Last year, "August 6th convention" was

the sunshine of Watanabe's mind.
- Yeah, there was the convention.

Thanks to that event,

I knew that there is a deep interest
in the A-bomb survivors.

Before that, I lived with the idea
that society was coldhearted.

[Hiroshima, 10th Remembrance Day]

However, at that time, I truly
reflected on it for the first time.

I usually get up around 7
in the morning.

I eat breakfast,
and I wash my face.

I start working around 7:30.

I stand for about 3 hours
using the machine.

Then, I lie on stomach
for 3 hours.

I patch together by hands
and again upright for 3 hours.

After that, I lie down for 3 hours
and then I get up again for 3 hours.

Then it's like this until 12 PM.

I rest around 12:30 PM.

Her mother is running
a small wooden sandals shop,

She sends her youngest son
to university.

Watanabe is helping with
her brother's university expenses.

She wants to help her mother

who lost her husband and
the eldest son due to A-bomb.

Thanks to my mother's care,
I have lived these ten years.

And now thanks to my job,
I can live the life I wanted.

I will never forget it.

But...

for whom I have to
continue living like this?

Today's broadcast will end soon.

Have a good evening.

Now, Watanabe is going out
for the first time in ten years.

She was born in Nagasaki
and grew up in Nagasaki.

She lamented that
she didn't know Nagasaki.

Our crew were moved
by Watanabe's words.

We ask to Atomic Bomb Council

to let Watanabe's
long-standing dream come true.

This is Tsukimachi district...

- People have more free time.
- Also here another cinema?

Watanabe, who only
knew wartime clothes' days,

she was just astonished.

Atomic bomb epicenter stele:
500m above ground

Ah, they built a monument here!

It's not very pretty.

- It's beautiful.
- What a mighty statue.

Is this the Urakami Cathedral?

Both towers are gone.
That's what happened.

There were bells on both of them.

One drop over there.

A shrine where one of the gate's pillars
was blown away by the explosion.

Maidens of Peace's Monument

"Since the day of the A-bomb,

they have risen to heaven
while praying for world peace,

in memory of the maidens of
Jōsei Practical Girl's School."

Mitsubishi Electric Factory
where Watanabe was on that day.

- I was in the main building.
- The main building is beautiful again!

I wish I had been in
another building at that time.

It collapsed thunderously!

Over there he died.

The place where her brother died.

Anyway, it was tall,
and now it's all flat.

The other side collapsed first,
but still...

I'm not sure...
He was there.

He was just over there.

I lost all hope.

The body was found
after two months.

We are a sort of assurance.
In my personal opinion,

there is no need
to create such a culture.

We stopped in front of Senji Yamaguchi's
shop, a "A-bomb young survivors" member.

He was talking about it when
he went to Tokyo recently,

to make a petition against
Atomic and Hydrogen bombs

in favor of
A-bomb survivors' National security.

A-bomb survivors'
congress petition group.

We, the survivors,

our cry from the heart is,
of course,

to entirely restore our bodies

to our original shape.

But before that,

we all together don't want that

such a tragedy could happen again
anywhere in the world.

Watanabe was very much happy.

The weather was good today.

It's so beautiful.

Their city was burned
and their husbands were robbed.

And despite their faces
were marked,

old ladies day laborer
continue to work silently,

to turn the epicenter
into a beautiful park.

The atomic bomb fell around 11:02,

that day, around 7 PM,

they say that another bomb
was dropped on Urakami Cathedral.

Then Catholics started to blame
the Cathedral itself.

All survived believers said that

If God exists, then he won't allow

another bomb
to be dropped on the church.

That's the proof that
God doesn't exist.

At the time of the atomic bomb,

no one went to the church.

Now I started to
believe in God again,

After the bomb
I couldn't really believe in God.

This world was like hell
on the earth.

First the 26 Martyrs' execution,

those who until the end,

didn't succumb to the limitless
religious persecution.

Urakami believers were temporary

wavered by the atomic bomb.

A girl waiting for
her mother day laborer.

The mother of this girl...

made a model of clay
of her child hand,

It was exhibited at the
A-Bomb Memorial Museum.

"You have no sense of shame!"

She received furious dissent
from relatives and acquaintances.

But the mother decided to
exhibit it anyway.

This person has a strong faith.

Human can never
fully comprehend God.

This mother's wish is

to show her daughter's hand

to mothers all over the world.

The rice is ready!

Damage caused by the atomic bomb

It's a terrible thing
that it had to happen.

This mother in particular who
transforms misfortune into happiness.

She is a Japanese mother
with wonderful wisdom.

It's good to live
THE END

Subtitles by Rocchio