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Event To Commemorate Fukushima Disaster

UK Japan Studies Program

Wednesday marks the fourth anniversary of the earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear meltdown in Northern Japan.  The University of Kentucky’s Japan Studies Program is commemorating the disastrous chain of events with a special screening of True Songs…a film that follows Japanese artists and their dramatic reading of the late Kenji Miyazawa’s “Milky Way Railroad.”

Credit UK Now

“It’s a story about loss, and rivers, and water, and death, and separations, and people coming together,” said UK Professor Doug Slaymaker.  “From that description it’s easy to understand why that would make sense in this particular context,” Slaymaker told WUKY.

The film also touches on universal themes like “how everything changes.  Everything changed on that day.  Things we thought were really important yesterday don’t matter today and how do we live our lives accordingly?  How to go forward is one of the big parts of this film,’  Slaymaker said.

The special free screening of True Songs takes place Wednesday night at 7 at the Kentucky Theatre.  A question and answer session with Suga Keijiro, one of the artists featured in the film will take place afterward. 

Credit UK Now
Japanese Poet Suga Keijiro will participate in a Q and A session following the film.