Heart of Vision: I Lived Before You is a one-hour documentary of Takashi Tanemori, who as a child survived the bombing of Hiroshima. Now in his 70s, nearly blind because of the radiation fall out, he continues his process toward physical, emotional and spiritual healing.

Heart of Vision begins on 9/11 with the filmmaker's relationships with other travelers stranded in Atlanta Georgia's airport. A supportive relationship develops with an elderly couple. Soon after, the filmmaker meets Mr. Tanemori in the San Francisco Bay Area. The two develop a relationship over the course of 5 years.

The first half of the video focuses on Mr. Tanemori's speaking engagements at high schools, community centers, and churches around the Bay Area; he speaks about the loss of his family and his long journey to find inner peace through forgiveness. The second half of the video follows Mr. Tanemori as he returns to Hiroshima during the 60th anniversary of the bombing and faces his estranged sister, Satsuko. Mr. Tanemori - who has grown as a man and found forgiveness since he left Japan - is forced to confront the twin, inextricably linked legacies of the bombing and the rift with his surviving family.

The "Path" of Hiroshima has taught me this important lesson: People who experience the losses of war, and all of us, have much to gain by putting aside feelings of revenge and learning to forgive and make peace with their own painful pasts.

"I lived my life before you," said their father before his death. "I taught you the things I received from my father." He asked his children to live their lives as they had been taught, teaching their children the lessons learned by their parents. Above all, the Tanemori children were taught to be true to themselves and to live for the benefit of others. Though now divided by cultural and linguistic barriers, brother and sister discovered that they have each, in their separate ways, lived by the teachings of their parents. Both Takashi and Satsuko Tanemori's stories are valuable, multilayered oral histories that communicate the shared experiences of war in the 20th century, and the ability to find peace despite their divided hearts.

The video is meant for Broadcast television both in the USA and Japan. The aim of this video will be to foster an exchange between an older and younger generation, as seen through the exchanges between Mr. Tanemori, his sister, and the filmmaker 40 years his younger.

Perhaps the experiences of our grandparents will help younger generations learn about conflict, loss, and the importance of family ties.

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"I, Takashi 'Thomas' Tanemori, am a survivor of Hiroshima. My life-journey vividly demonstrates the horrors of the Pacific War and of the impact on those who survive, a rite of passage marked by the discovery of forgiveness. I was eight years old, and was seven tenths of a mile from Ground Zero when America dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. I survived, but six members of my family, including both parents; all of my friends were killed in the blast and the ensuing inferno. I became an orphan. To survive I searched garbage cans for food in the poverty-stricken rubble of post-war Japan. I was shunned as a social outcast in postwar Japan where society revered the unbroken filial relationships. I went from being the treasured Number One Son to an ‘oyanashigo’ — a street urchin.

"My life was controlled by Revenge! I lashed out at others for their icy unwillingness to help. At the age of 18 I knelt over my father's grave and vowed to take revenge on the American people. Driven by that raging desire, I was propelled on a harsh journey toward manhood across the Pacific Ocean to America. When I arrived in America instead of picking from the rumored "Money Trees" I found myself ‘picking fruits for my enemy’ in a migrant labor camp. I was subjugating myself to racial bigotry just to survive. I was angry and frustrated when I saw the ‘road’ to revenge was not going as I had intended.

"Today, I am 68 years old, a resident of Lafayette, California with my guide dog, Yuki. I am nearly blind as a result of long-term exposure to the dying embers of the Hiroshima bomb. The suffering and the memories still remain in the scars on my body. Yet, they are all forgiven! At last I can truly see and feel my heart and the heartbeat of others. I often wonder what would have become of me had I continued in my quest for revenge and retribution. I also wonder what will become of our world if we continue on this current path."

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