CALL FOR PAPERS "Like any powerful text, Hiroshima must be read, absorbed, and recreated by each generation searching for its own truths" - Robert J Lifton HIBAKUSHA CINEMA: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Nuclear Image in Japanese Film August 1995 will mark fifty years since the dropping of atom bombs 'Fat Man' and 'Little Boy' on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While a great deal of media attention and expert commentary will no doubt (re)assess this important time as an historical and political event, I am seeking papers for a critical anthology (to be published mid 1995) which will concern the manner in which Japanese filmmakers have responded to the atomic bombings and the broader, cultural manifestation of "nuclear imagery" in Japanese film and television. Recent events all add fresh perspective to the growing body of film addressing nuclear themes, such as President Bush's refusal to apologise for the atom bombings in a reciprocal gesture for the attack on Pearl Harbor during its 50th anniversary; the Japanese decision to allow its troops to act as UN peacekeepers in Asia; the arrival by sea of tons of European 'waste' plutonium stockpiled for use in Japanese fast breeder reactors; and regional proliferation of nuclear materials in a post-cold war world (China, Korea, Taiwan, The Philippines). The anthology will explore the medium's artistic and commercial responses to perhaps the most significant event of the 20th Century and its legacy. Contributors might consider essays of 3-5,000 words on the following topics/methodologies: close reading of individual texts; auteur influences (Kurosawa); reenactment, docudrama and flashback in Hiroshima/Nagasaki narratives; historical interview; genre analysis (e.g. nuclear imagery in Japanese science fiction); comparison between foreign and Japanese renderings of the atom bombings; non-fiction films; US occupation and film censorship; animation and fantasy; monsters and nuclear metaphors. Send proposals (150 to 250 words) or completed manuscripts and a brief author biography by 1 MAY 1993 to: Mick Broderick Australian Film Commission 8 West Street North Sydney, NSW 2060 AUSTRALIA Fax: 61 2 959 5403 e-mail: [log in to unmask] Note, first line of e-mail message must read "Attn: Mick Broderick" ----- forwarded message ends here -----