Recognized for his fiercely political filmmaking, Shindo was commissioned by the Japanese Teachers Union to direct a project about the atomic bombing of Japan and its horrific aftermath. The Union swiftly turned against the completed film, angry that Shindo had not been more openly critical of the American military authority. Children of Hiroshima is today recognized as an important and lasting milestone of anti-war cinema, a film able to capture the terrible magnitude of the bombing from the victim’s perspective and using disarmingly simple means. The profound sense of loss and unprecedented human tragedy is given added force by Shindo’s intimate portrait of his native Hiroshima. – BG