Notes on politics, film and Japan

[Peter Durfee]

At 19:34 -0400 99.6.3, Kyoshiron at aol.com wrote:
>The Japanese aversion to the unpleasant is well known; But to regard
>contemplation of the inhumanity of Hiroshima, under ANY circumstances, as a
>compromise of integrity is as asinine as it is insensitive.    Fred Shimizu

This sounds to me like a misreading of what was said. There is no question
that Hiroshima is a proper and important subject to examine--through
experimental film or any medium--and it should be examined by as many people
as possible. But the situation posited in this thread, where a work on
Hiroshima would be selected on the basis of its being on an "inoffensive"
topic, and another work passed over because it stepped on political toes, is
not acceptable. It was this potential exclusion of a work less universally
recognized as valuable, not its replacement with a film on Hiroshima, that
was the issue here.

Respectfully,
Peter Durfee