WFC Friendship Hour ~Leslie Sussan & “Hiroshima, My Father, and Me”

On October 29, 2023, we welcomed Leslie Sussan, author of “Choosing Life: My Father’s Journey in Film from Hollywood to Hiroshima”. Thank you to all who attended the talk.

 

Choosing Life shares the experience of Sussan’s father, a cinematographer for the US government in 1946. His footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki documented not just the effect it had on the cities, but also on the people, hibakusha (A-bomb survivors).

 

He spent over forty years working to release the footage that the US government classified as “secret” to the public.

 

We were grateful to learn from Leslie Sussan about her father’s effect on her life, Leslie’s relationship to Hiroshima, and her message about “the duty between generations to receive our parent’s stories, wisdom, and values to preserve them and to pass on to our own children that heritage.”

 

It made us realize the importance to recognize our interdependence and our effect upon the world.

We were surprised and pleased by the attendance of Nagai-Sensei, an organizer of the 10 Feet Campaign in Hiroshima, a civil movement which bought back the footage of A-bombed cities, that Leslie’s father has recorded, from the US government to share with the public at large. He shared his memories of work with the 10 Feet Campaign.

 

The evening ended with a chance for questions and answers from the audience. Thank you, Leslie for having such a heart for Hiroshima and we thank everyone for their attendance and engagement!