1. In Rhapsody in August, the character Kane (Grandma) says, "There are people who are silent while they are talking."
   
   How does the filmmaker Akira Kurosawa use silence to communicate his ideas?
   
   What visual details of the film help to communicate his point of view?


2. Why do you think the movie is set in Nagasaki, rather than in Hiroshima?
   
   How does the film portray the bombing of Nagasaki?
   
   According to the film, who was responsible for the calamity? Do you agree?
   
   How would you compare the atomic bombing of Japanese cities with the war crimes of World War II
   
   What were the alternatives to bombing Nagasaki?


3. Why do Kane's grandchildren know so little about the war?
   
   Why does she choose to reveal herself to her grandchildren rather than to her own children?


4. How do the various Japanese characters in the film view America? Are these positive or negative images? Why do you think they have these views?
   
   How "Americanized" are the characters? What details about their lives indicate their attitudes toward America?


5. What does the separation between Kane and her brother Sujijiro suggest about Japanese family life before the war?
   
   How does her memory of her family as a child compare to the family she has as a grandmother?
   
   How do the children view their own parents?


6. How does Nagasaki present its history in the film?


7. Do you think the United States should contribute a monument to Nagasaki's memorial park? Why or why not?


8. In just seven years between 1945-1952, Japan went from being an enemy of the United States to a firm ally. Does the film Rhapsody in August give any clues about why that change happened so rapidly?


9. Why is oral history--the stories told by Grandma to her grandchildren--so effective in recording the history of the bombing of Nagasaki?
   
   How can your own grandparents, or other people of their generation, help you understand aspects of your own history?
   
   What are the shortcomings of basing history on the spoken word rather than on written documents? What are the advantages?
   
   How does Rhapsody in August provide its own oral (and visual) history of the period around 1991?

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