Meiro Koizumi

"On the night of the August 8th air raid, there were many tragic scenes everywhere in the city, but among them, the most horrible was the bomb shelter in Koyanagi-cho by the Hitone Bridge and Hosogasawa crossing. The bomb shelter in Koyanagi-cho was known as a model shelter at the time, so when the air raid started, many people in the neighborhood as well as passersby took refuge there. They are thought to have numbered around 30. Eventually, the city was filled with fire caused by the Americans’ incendiary bombs, and many people were injured or killed. The entire area around the bridge, including Koyanagi-cho and Sakae-cho, was ablaze, and everyone in the bomb shelter was suffocated by heat and smoke. Several civil defense volunteers took notice of the situation and pulled bodies out of the shelter, but all were dead, except a few who came back to life after artificial respiration. According to the officials, 12 people were killed in the shelter, and many others around the shelter." - from official record of the city of Maebashi Mr. Harada was one of the survivor. He was 8 years old. He was saved by an unknown madam. His body was found under her body. The madam was killed. Till today, he doesn't know who she was. He thinks he has been living his life with this unknown madam, though she never speaks to him in his mind. _ Meiro Koizumi recorded the story of a survivor of World War II, Mr. Harada, who lived through an American bombing of the city of Maebashi when he was eight years old. For a long time, Mr. Harada kept silent about this traumatic event but in the last ten years decided to share his story. Meiro Koizumi seeks pure emotion, uncontroled moments, he explores the psychology of his characters and directs them as actors to situations sometimes out of control. He asked Mr. Harada to turn into a <>, not to just tell but to replay the scene and mimic the sound of the bombs falling on the town. With minimal staging, Meiro Koizumi questions the ways to narrate such an experience, between personal trauma and the necessity to deliver a testimony.