NHK WORLD PRIME
Season 2 Episode 20 - A World of Boisterous Silence
Children who cannot hear learn through sign language at Meisei Gakuen, a school in Tokyo. Their small hands weave together many words. With no narration, the program explores the children's silent, vibrant world and the lives of alumni. The children's eyes sparkle as they recite, in sign language, the poem "The Song of Spring" from their textbook. They do not use their voices. But as we watch the silent recitation, the fresh early spring breeze caresses our cheeks, and tiny veronica flowers bloom in profusion before our eyes. For many decades, Japan's schools for the deaf gave priority to adapting to a society where hearing people are the majority. But at Meisei Gakuen, students are encouraged to embrace their deafness. We turn our eyes to that "boisterous world of silence" and perspectives on Japanese society, as seen by alumni of the school.
Episodes in Season 2
One Last Vision: A Photographer's Final Journey
49 min
Between Two Homes: A 102-Year Old Japanese Woman in South Korea
50 min
Strategy Gone Awry: Revisiting the US Air Raids on Japan
49 min
Valens's Return Home: A Rwandan Genocide Offender 22 Years On
49 min
Chasing the Father's Shadow: Vietnamese Children of Japanese Soldiers
The Fisherman and the Forest
50 min
Setsuko Thurlow's Quest: A World Without Nuclear Weapons
50 min
Tsuruko's Tea Journey
50 min
The Changing Face of Greed: A Power of Darkness Awakens - Part 1
49 min
The Changing Face of Greed: A Power of Darkness Awakens - Part 2
49 min
Lives Overshadowed by Crime: The Underground Website Murder
26 min
Lives Overshadowed by Crime: The Wakayama Curry Poisoning Incident
25 min
Survivor Trees: Hiroshima Revealed
49 min
I Was a Caged Bird: Psychiatric Hospitalization in Japan
Nike's Backstory: Unknown Bonds with Japan
49 min
A Life with Flowers
50 min
Houses for Peace: Exploring the Legacy of Floyd Schmoe
50 min
Mt. Ishizuchi: Mountain of the Gods
43 min
Hearing the Voices of Nagasaki Survivors
49 min
A World of Boisterous Silence
50 min
Life at the Bottom of China's Labor Market
50 min
China's Largest Relocation Policy: Part 1
49 min
China's Largest Relocation Policy: Part 2
49 min
An 18-Year-Old's Departure
47 min
The Pianist in the Rubble
49 min
Manzanar Revealed
49 min
