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The Hidden Story: a Documentary

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The Hidden Story: a Documentary RESOURCES FILM REVIEWS experience of children. Older the Hiroshima Maidens brought balanced, albeit essentially anec- and more sophisticated viewers to the United States in the 1950s dotal, account of the Hiroshima will want better storytelling for reconstructive plastic catastrophe. The and a more thorough analysis surgery; Sasamura Hiroshi, the For adult viewers, the film of the political, military, and principal of an elementary is unsatisfying. The witnesses, Hidden humanitarian issues than this school; and Masuda Tsutomu, a particularly Ms. Matsubara, sin- film provides. teacher-turned-painter. The Spir- cere as they undoubtedly are, Story The film begins by intro- it of Hiroshima cuts back and seem scripted and wooden. Their ducing us to the Tonai family, an forth among these witnesses, the accounts are poorly integrated A Documentary attractive young couple and their Tonais, and historical images of into the story of the Tonais’ jour- two sons, aged eight and twelve, the bombing. ney and easily overwhelm it, PRODUCED AND DIRECTED who live in present-day Hiroshi- The film tells its story making it seem superfluous. BY RANJANI MAZUMDAR AND SHIKHA JHINGAN ma but who have never been to through children—the Tonai There is little real analysis of the the annual commemoration of boys and the survivors who were reasons why the bomb was WOMEN MAKE MOVIES the atomic bombing on August 6. either children themselves dur- dropped or its long-term signifi- 462 BROADWAY, 5TH FLOOR The Tonais have decided to give ing the war, or teachers working cance. We do not get to know the NEW YORK, NY 10013 their children a history lesson with children. This emphasis Tonai family well enough to 212-925-0606 and to attend the memorial ser- highlights the inhumanity of the identify with them, nor are perti- [email protected] vice together, and we accompa- bombing and appeals to viewers’ nent questions broached about 1996. VIDEOCASSETTE. ny them as they eat breakfast, emotions. However, the film also their obvious ambivalence 58 MINUTES take the train into the city center, acknowledges at several junc- toward Hiroshima’s identity as and attend the ceremony. tures that Japan had been waging the first city decimated by As the Tonai family pro- an aggressive war in Asia and nuclear weapons. ceeds with its preparations, we that Hiroshima and its environs The Spirit of Hiroshima is meet three survivors of the were military targets; and Masu- thus best suited for younger, less bombing, who each tell us the da Tsutomu, the painter, asserts critical viewers. For more story of their experience: Mat- that Japan had in fact provoked advanced high school and subara Miyoko, a schoolgirl in the bombing by its aggression. college audiences, alternatives 1945 who apparently was one of The film thus provides a well would include the ABC News special Hiroshima: Why the Photo courtesy of Women Make Movies Bomb Was Dropped (1995) and Enola Gay and the Atomic Bombing of Japan (History he Hidden Story is a Channel, 1995), which interro- social history of peas- gate the bombing from “revi- ant women whose sto- sionist” and mainstream posi- T ries have rarely been tions respectively. John Junker- documented in traditional man’s Hellfire: A Journey From sources on Indian women. The Hiroshima (First Run Features, video/oral histories of four 1987) examines the work of women from different geo- the painters Maruki Iri and graphic regions of India, set in Toshi, and does a superior job 1987, are part of the Women of approaching the bombing Make Movies series. They rep- through the work of artists who resent the social structures of devoted their lives to exploring the respective communities that its meaning. n have bound these women and reinforce the conclusions in the David G. Goodman book, From the Seams of Histo- ry: Essays on Indian Women, edited by Bharati Ray. The film DAVID G. GOODMAN is Profes- illustrates the dual limitations of sor of Japanese Literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana- gender and caste that play an Champaign. His After Apocalypse: important part in the lives of Four Japanese Plays of Hiroshima these women. and Nagasaki is available in The video begins with a paperback from the Cornell University East Asia Program, Hindi movie song. The camera Ithaca, NY 14853. captures the view of the rice 78 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 3, Number 3 Winter 1998 RESOURCES FILM REVIEWS fields from a jeep speeding the utility of preserving the village and would get in return a However, they have a vision to through a monsoon on a high- forest; they know what fruits mere two pitchers of water for do whatever they can in order to way heading from the outskirts mother earth will provide, and her family. When Gora shared break the cycle of discrimina- of Delhi to the state of Madhya what should and should not be water with the untouchables of tion and poverty. The common Pradesh. The first stop is Asna cultivated on her soil. Sarala, the village, who were prevented threads that bind these women’s village in Bastar where we like Mitki, was conscious that from coming anywhere close to experiences include their posi- are introduced to Mitki Bai, a men were not supportive of their the well, she was chastised by tion in society, economic worth, militant forest preservationist. networking efforts, and as mem- the Rajputs. gender, and religious beliefs Prompted by the meager daily bers of Forest Protection Com- The other farm woman is which are different from the wages of Rs.10, Mitki Bai and mittees or as Forest Rangers Kamakshi from Magra, near dominant Brahminical tradition her supporters defy the orders of their interests were purely Kanchipuram in South India, of India. Despite these limita- the forest rangers, who had administrative. Thus women whose plight is worse than that tions, Mitki and Sarala have barricaded access to the forest, organize samitis (committees), of Gora Bai. She, along with the demonstrated that networking to gather roots, leaves, and meet the district authorities, and other women from her commu- can bring about change, slowly mushrooms that supplement make their demands known in nity, work on the Mudaliars’ but surely. Gora and Kamakshi their basic diet of rice. While order to elicit changes. Both land cultivating rice and other are optimistic that someday helping themselves to the forest Sarala and Mitki are leaders crops. These women face dou- their conditions will improve. resources, Mitki Bai and her seeking change and are reason- ble discrimination, from the The videotape is a useful friends also protect the forest ably successful. upper-caste land owners as well educational tool for students from wanton destruction. The third woman, Gora Bai, as from their menfolk who of Indian women’s history, Mitki Bai’s networking with is from Suni in the district of expect them to perform all the women’s studies, and sociolo- other women in the village Bikaner, Rajasthan, the desert domestic chores and also the gy. For the most part, the video results in regular meetings region in Northwestern India. back-breaking jobs of trans- captures or “recovers” the histo- demanding permission to enter Even though Gora Bai is a Mus- planting rice, threshing, and ry of these women in their envi- the forest and for reforestation lim by birth, her language and winnowing the grain. ronment. Photography is good; (the planting of Mango and customs are typically that of the Although Kamakshi does however, narration could have other useful trees). The move- majority Hindus. For most of not make any effort at organiz- been supplemented with more ment gathers momentum, her forty years of married life, ing the women to protest dis- captions, at least for pertinent spreads to twelve neighboring Gora Bai has worked long crimination, she is aware that information such as the names villages, and later to the entire hours. Her day begins at sunrise her society has not changed. of the tribes, people, and places district. with chores such as milking According to her, the upper because they are not easy to Despite being chastised by thirty cows, churning forty kilo- caste treat them in the same follow. n their menfolk for shirking grams of milk into butter, mak- manner as they did before domestic chores, 400 women ing cow dung cakes for fuel, India’s independence. Kamak- Salli Vargis march to neighboring villages to grinding nine kilograms of shi would like to evoke change gather support, and ultimately wheat, cooking rotis, and work- so that her daughter and the 2,000 women march to the ing in their dry desert field from younger girls in the village will collector’s office in Jagdalpur 9 a.m. to sunset. not have to go through the cycle where their demands are finally Years of hard work have left of poverty and discrimination SALLI VARGIS teaches U.S. and World History at Georgia Perime- met. Mitki Bai’s life as a lower- Gora Bai wrinkled and aged. that she has endured. ter College, Decatur Campus, caste Bathra is atypical because She has experienced Rajput As an untouchable, she Georgia. Previous to this appoint- she performs rituals of the Brah- domination and perpetual describes the humiliation they ment she taught Asian, U.S., and mins such as surya namaskar indebtedness to them. Her fami- suffer every day. Until indepen- World History at Stella Maris Col- and an elaborate puja around the ly is repaying the loan that her dence, her community was not lege, Chennai, India. tulsi sthal. father-in-law had taken from the permitted to enter the temple, Sarala Sardar from Bankura Rajput landlords.
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