Confessions

2020

Overview

This work is a combination of two short films: an interview with Masaaki Kimura, a victim of the disaster in Kamaishi City, Iwate Prefecture, and fictitious stories about the tsunami experience. It was exhibited in February 2020 at the Tsunami Memorial Hall in Unosumaicho. The facility was built on the site of a disaster control center where more than 200 people lost their lives. There is a memorial monument right next to it.
Mr. Kimura is a former employee of Nippon Steel, and his life is with the history of Kamaishi. Most of the students at Unosumai Elementary School and Kamaishi Higashi Junior High School were evacuated to safety, but Kimura's wife, Takako, remained alone in the elementary school and went missing.
When reading various tsunami experience stories, I realized that the boundary between life and death for those who were involved really depended on a slight difference between “luck” and “judgment.” I tried to imagine their thoughts—for example, did they think about their beloved families, have regrets that they should have escaped earlier, give up and surrender to fate, or hope that their bodies would eventually be found? I also wondered what I myself would have felt at that moment. With these ideas in mind, I conceived a fictious story of the tsunami experience.

本作品は、岩手県釜石市の被災者であるの木村正明さんのインタビューと、津波体験を題材にした架空の物語による2種の映像を組み合わせたものである。岩手県釜石市鵜住居にある「いのちをつなぐ未来館」で2020年2月に発表した。この施設は推定で200名以上が亡くなった防災センターの跡地に建てられており、すぐそばに慰霊碑がある。
木村さんは新日本製鐵の元社員でもあり、東日本大震災の際ご家族が津波の被害にあわれたことから、その半生は釜石の歴史と共にあると言える。また、鵜住居小学校の児童と釜石東中学校の生徒の大半が助かったが、木村さんの妻のタカ子さんは小学校に一人残り行方不明となった。
一方で、様々な津波体験記を読むと、津波に巻き込まれた時の生死の境が本当にほんの僅かな「運」や「判断」の違いによるものだったということを痛感する。また、その瞬間に思うことは、最愛の家族や、早く逃げればよかったという後悔、これも運命なのかという諦め、この場で遺体が見つかってほしいという願いなど、非常に多岐にわたっていた。そして、もし自分が津波に巻き込まれたらその瞬間何を思うのかということが頭を巡った。そのような思いで架空の物語による津波体験談を構想した。

Credits

Interview Video (Left Screen)
Interviewee: Masaaki Kimura
Director of Photography / Editor: Yasushi Noguchi

Tsunami Story (Right Screen)
Cast: Koichi Sakaguchi, Nina Kumagaya
Director of Photography / Editor: Masumi Saito
Gaffer: Hidehiko Kato
Sound: Kazuki Suzuki
Project Director / Writer / Editor: Yasushi Noguchi

Documentation Video: Hideto Miyuki
Exhibition Coordinators: Osamu Umezaki, Momoko Iwai