Screening the Film “The Lost Generation” & Panel Discussion
Screening the Film “The Lost Generation” & Panel Discussion: North Korean Nuclear Tests
10/14/2006
Japanese-American Businessman and Philanthropist Presents Film Screening & Discussion On Nuclear Issues at John Jay College in New York
New York—October 12, 2006—Todd Yamamoto, CEO of New York Travel Service, Inc., through his not-for-profit foundation, Kids For The Future, is hosting a film screening and panel discussion on nuclear issues at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 7:00pm. The event is being co-sponsored by the John Jay College Center On Terrorism and the John Jay College Department of English. Professor Jay G. Walitalo, a filmmaker and member of the John Jay English department faculty, will moderate the discussion. The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 445 West 59th Street, room 1311N.
Two rare documentary films on the events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be screened: ‘Lost Generation’ directed by Yuten Tachibana (1982), and ‘Prophecy’ by directed Susumu Hani (1982). These award-winning films are often referred to as the “10 Foot Movement” films. The 10 Foot Movement was a late 1970s/early 1980s project of several Japanese peace activists, including Kuniko Inoue, mother-in-law of Mr. Yamamoto. The group received a steady flow of donations that allowed it to purchase—ten feet at a time—the rights to all the post-A-bomb Nagasaki/Hiroshima footage shot by the US military. Both films incorporate footage obtained by the group. The films were last shown publicly at DOC Films at the University of Chicago in 2004.
The post-screening panel discussion will feature Professor Michael Flynn, the associate director of the John Jay College Center on Terrorism, and Professor Peter Romaniuk, an expert on international terrorism from the John Jay Political Science department. Discussion topics will include nuclear terrorism, proliferation, the recent North Korean nuclear test and its effect on the region’s military balance, the arms race between India and Pakistan, the security of nuclear weapons sites, and the relevance of Hiroshima/Nagasaki to the post-9/11 world.
Looking to future generations, Mr. Yamamoto—whose mother is a Hiroshima survivor—founded Kids For The Future with two goals in mind: “to teach leadership and communication skills” and “to promote understanding, trust and reconciliation.” The foundation is hosting the screening and panel discussion at John Jay College as part of its on-going campaign to raise public awareness—especially amongst young people—regarding nuclear issues. Towards this end, the foundation is currently raising funds for a new feature-length documentary film project that will connect the events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki to contemporary nuclear arms issues. Donations will be accepted.
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