Japan’s cherry blossoms were never more poignant than last spring, when stunning canopies of pink and white spread across the Tohoku coast just weeks after the March 11 tsunami had claimed thousands of lives.
Japan’s cherry blossoms were never more poignant than last spring, when stunning canopies of pink and white spread across the Tohoku coast just weeks after the March 11 tsunami had claimed thousands of lives.
The contrast between the dazzling, evanescent sakura and the devastation around them struck Lucy Walker, a British documentary maker who headed to Japan just a few weeks after the earthquake. The fruits of her journey, a short film called “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom,” has now been nominated for the Best Short Documentary at the Academy Awards.
“(The cherry blossoms) are such a potent symbol of renewal and Japanese spirit and strength to continue,” she says. “The way the blossoms were budding in the middle of the debris: it was like a visual poem, a visual haiku.”
The movie opens with dramatic footage of the tsunami and the desolate, wounded landscape it left behind, before moving onto interviews with survivors. The blooming of the cherry blossoms prompts many to reflect on their loss, while giving them the strength to carry on.
Walker had been planning to come to Japan in April for a tour of her previous documentary, “Countdown to Zero,” about the dangers of nuclear weapons. The turbulence following the quake meant the tour was canceled, but Walker came to the country just under two weeks after the disaster, just as thousands of foreigners were leaving Japan for fear of radiation.
“Everyone at immigration looked very surprised to see us … (but) because of ‘Countdown to Zero’ I had a scientific understanding of radiation, so I wasn’t worried to the point of paranoia,” she says.
After touring around Kyoto and Hiroshima--which Walker describes as a “personal pilgrimage,” given her interest in nuclear weapons--she headed to the disaster zone.
Unsure of what she would find, she cobbled together the smallest possible crew: just a cameraman and a “fixer” to interpret and organize logistics. She took charge of sound herself.
At first, there was no plan.
“I wasn’t sure of what to expect. … I had a very open mind,” Walker says. “As a documentary maker you just want to understand what something is, what’s going on, and to see if there’s an opportunity to document something.”
The three were greeted by a surreal landscape, still blanketed with chaotic debris a full month after the earthquake. According to Walker, it was eerily empty of life: “There were barely any humans on the landscape at some points.”
After they spent a few days picking their way through the rubble, talking to people they met along the way, the central theme of the film suddenly presented itself: The cherry trees blossomed. Walker credits her cameraman, Aaron Phillips, with capturing the startling juxtaposition of the debris and the rafts of dazzlingly bright flowers.
“I always found sakura very poetic, and a strong symbol of life being fleeting and brief,” she says. “With all the tragedy, it’s such a reminder of that. And yet there’s more to sakura than that; there’s metaphor, tradition, the culture around it. I found it very interesting to see human beings trying to push forward in the face of such loss.”
Walker, however, didn’t need to point out the symbolism of the flowers to her interviewees; they reflected upon it spontaneously. She was surprised by their willingness to talk, given the scale of their grief and the stereotype of Japanese people as reticent and unwilling to express their emotions.
“There’s a bit of an assumption that Japanese people are very reserved, but I found the people I met were very clear and self-possessed and eloquent,” she says. “Everyone is in the film because they have something wise to contribute to it.”
She was also impressed by people’s response to the tragedy and their way of dealing with their grief.
“The thing that really struck me in Japan was the mindfulness, sense of community, compassion, and I think they really brought that to this disaster and that’s something people can really learn from.”
Constant aftershocks shook the ground during filming--“In the beginning I was just screaming, but I was used to it by the end,” says Walker--and finding food, water, gas and a place to sleep was difficult. One inn they stayed at was so full of male relief workers that the women’s communal bath was given up to the men, leaving Walker to wait until the small hours to have a soak.
These, of course, were small discomforts compared to the suffering of those around them, and Walker and her crew felt a strong sense of responsibility to relay the survivors’ experiences to audiences abroad. With foreign news crews having left well before, many people were eager to share their stories.
“I like to think that documentaries get to know people a bit better,” she says. “You can be a bit more human--it’s an opportunity to get to know people a long way from yourself. You can walk in their shoes and get under their skin.”
Walker, who has depicted Amish communities in the United States and Brazilian scavengers in the past, says she intends “ The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom” to be both healing and educational.
“A lot of people don’t really realize how bad the tsunami situation was. For me, it’s really nice for the rest of the world to understand it a bit better … and to understand what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes. Hopefully this film will show solidarity, and help the rest of the world understand a bit better how Japanese people rose to this disaster,” she says.
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Following are excerpts of the interview with Walker:
Q: What stories stood out for you in particular?
A: There was one man I remember, a volunteer in an evacuation center of 600 people in Kesennuma (in Miyagi Prefecture). He was so selfless and worked so hard even though he’d lost so many relatives, but he had so much to do for people who had lost more than him. I was so moved by his story and moved by those of other people. It’s those kind of human beings you wish you had around you in a disaster. But they also talked so openly about it.
You know, I was impressed by everyone I met, and even stories of people I didn’t meet--like Miki Endo, in Minami-Sanriku (in Miyagi Prefecture), the (town official) who stayed at her post until she was taken by the tsunami. Such bravery and self-sacrifice. ... You know, very often the world around us, it seems that we’re living in a more selfish “me, me, me” world, but you ask yourself, “How many people would have done what Miki Endo did?” And you want to say many, but in reality it’s probably very few.
Q: When did the idea of having sakura (cherry blossoms) as the central motif of the movie come to you?
A: Well, I mean, the film itself is very straightforward: it starts with the tsunami and ends with the sakura. It’s a little bit simple in a way, quite “wabi-sabi” (a quality of rustic simplicity), I suppose. I had the idea of the sakura before, but I happened to be in a situation to make it when the disaster hit. I also trusted that if I thought it was important (others would too). It felt like a calling.
Q: Would you do something similar again, going to a disaster area and making a film?
A: I never really get very far ahead of myself. When I hear about a disaster, I don’t think I have to shoot off and go there. But this was a very unique situation. It was just the time and place that I was at.
Q: What do you think you will turn to next?
A: It’s a lot of work (to make a film). It’s not like a sausage factory. Everything is very project-based, so we haven’t figured where we’re going next. We’re talking to different people about screenings and we would love to get it shown in Japan for the anniversary, you know. ... And the embassy in the U.K.
The intention for the film is for it to be healing and to raise funds. We just want to share it so we’re looking for ways to do that. We’re not about making money. The intention is just to get it seen. We’re still exploring everything.
Q: How do you feel about being nominated for an Academy Award?
A: It’s so gratifying. … I mean the parties and the dresses, it’s fun and stuff but actually--well, it’s not even that fun, really--but it’s such a huge academy, it’s just a really big deal for a documentary, it’s like a stamp of approval. I’ve been getting wonderful e-mails from Japan, and I made it out of a love of Japan. Japanese people have incredible, wonderful characteristics that are very inspirational. I mean, I made the film for a non-Japanese audience, such as myself, so it’s great to hear that Japanese people found it healing, helpful, meaningful. I’ve had such wonderful feedback from Japan. We get so happy to hear that.
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Screenings of the film are currently being organized. More information is available at http://thetsunamiandthecherryblossom.com/
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Editor's Note:
This article is part of The Asahi Shimbun AJW's coverage marking the first anniversary of the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake. The disaster triggered a devastating tsunami as well as the Fukushima nuclear plant accident, the world's worst radiation crisis since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. From early March, AJW will present “Remembering 3/11,” a special series of features and analytical articles examining the state of the Fukushima nuclear plant, growing radiation concerns and Japan's recovery from the disasters. This coverage will also include special reports featuring foreigners who lived through the disasters in Japan and the contributions they made to their communities.