The Mushroom Club

In Hiroshima, an unknown number of children were born with abnormalities after the dropping of the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945. Many of these children were kept hidden by their parents until Japanese journalist Minoru Ohmuta organized the “Mushroom Club,” which advocated for government assistance. Filmmaker Steven Okazaki's documentary essay contrasts modern Hiroshima with images of the ruined city (Okazaki also visits Peace Park, observing that jet skis on the nearby river disrupt its meditative mood), while interweaving survivors' stories about the bomb and its aftermath. The cartoonist Keiji Nakazawa, for example, survived by chance when he stooped to pick up a rock; in the years that followed, he dedicated his life to depicting what happened in Hiroshima in cartoons and animated films (a clip from his work shows the bomb's destruction in horrific detail). Another survivor, Toshiko Saiki, still finds evidence of the bomb among the stones in the river (holding three buttons in her palm, she says, “To most people these are just buttons, but to me, they represent the souls of the people they belonged to.”). Members of the Mushroom Club also recount the struggle of caring for their severely disabled children for six decades. Toward the close, Okazaki observes that many contemporary Japanese have little interest in the past and that the memory of Hiroshima may be fading. By reflecting deeply on the legacy of Hiroshima, however, Okazaki has here created a potent reminder. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (J. Wadland)