Children of Hiroshima
1952 film by Kaneto Shindō
Children of Hiroshima (Japanese: 原爆の子, Hepburn: Genbaku no ko; lit. "Children of the Atomic Bomb") is a 1952 Japanese drama film directed by Kaneto Shindō and starring Nobuko Otowa. It was written by Shindō based on the 1951 book Children of the Atomic Bomb by Arata Osada.
Plot
Takako Ishikawa is a teacher on an island in the inland sea off the coast of post-war Hiroshima. During her summer holiday, she takes the ferry to her hometown Hiroshima to visit the graves of her parents and younger sister, who were killed in the Atomic bombing. She sees a beggar and recognises him as Iwakichi, a former servant of her parents, now burned on the face and partially blind. She follows him to his poor shack, where he is looked after by a woman living next door, and asks about his family. With his wife, his son and daughter-in-law dead, Iwakichi's only surviving relative is his grandson Tarō, who lives in an orphanage. Takako visits the orphanage and finds the children barely have enough to eat. She offers to take Iwakichi and his grandson back with her, but Iwakichi refuses, running away.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Children of Hiroshima” is 1952 film by Kaneto Shindō. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Children, Hiroshima and film, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “1952 film by Kaneto Shindō” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5098451. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1952 and 1951.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Children of Hiroshima” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.