No More Hibakusha!

In 1945, the Bomber Commands of Great Britain and the United States organized a bombing raid that devastated the ancient city of Dresden. On February 13, 1985, exactly forty years after its destruction, the city celebrated its renaissance with the re-opening of one of the most beautiful opera houses in Europe. One of the guests at this gala was the Canadian navigator of one of the bomber planes, returning to Dresden on a mission of peace that brought him face-to-face with the people who were once his enemies.

The bombing of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, by a nation he knew only by name, thrust nine-year-old Minoru Fukushima into a world of racism so malevolent he would be forced to leave Canada, the land of his birth. Like thousands of other Japanese Canadians, Minoru and his family were branded as an enemy of Canada, dispatched to internment camps in the interior of British Columbia, and finally deported to Japan. Directed by Michael Fukushima, Minoru's son, the film artfully combines classical animation with archival material. The memories of the father are interspersed with the voice of the son, weaving a tale of suffering and survival, of a birthright lost and recovered.

This film records a lecture given to students by outspoken nuclear critic, Dr. Helen Caldicott, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility in the United States. Her message is clear: disarmament cannot be postponed. Archival film footage of the bombing of Hiroshima and images of its survivors seven months after the attack heighten the urgency of her message: namely, that unless we shake off our indifference and work to prevent nuclear war, we stand a slim chance of surviving the 20th century.