Nagasaki Stories

Most films about the destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima look at the devastation from an abstract historical and political perspective. Filmmaker Jos de Putter chose another angle. In nagasaki stories he looks for personal stories and memories. The film centres around former journalist Kyushiro Kusbabe, who lost his wife and mother to the bomb. Together with his sister-in-law he takes the train from Tokyo to Nagasaki to participate in the commemoration of the bombardment. They dredge up memories of their childhood years in the multicultural city of Nagasaki and contrast it with modern-day Japan. Their stories are complemented by recollections of two contemporaries: an old photographer and a kamikaze pilot. We also see and hear two daughters of a tailor who went broke due to changes in the kimono fashion. The personal tales are interspersed with fragments from home movies.