Bring Mr. Mori to the USA

Help fund Shigeaki Mori's first trip to the USA.  Memorial Day, 2018

      Back in 2013, we started out on the journey to create a film that has become Paper Lanterns.  The film is about Normand Brissette, Ralph Neal, and ten other American POWs that were killed in Hiroshima as a result of the atomic blast. The story itself is told through the eyes of an unlikely hero.  His name is Shigeaki Mori.  He is a survivor of the bombing of Hiroshima, being only 8 in 1945.  Mr. Mori would go on to spend more than 40 years researching and memorializing the lives of the POWs that were killed there.  Mr. Mori researched the fate of each one, and reached out to find family members back here in the states.  To provide information where he could, and to make sure each one was recognized as victims of the bombing. To make sure they was remembered.  During the making of the film, we were able to bring Susan Brissette Archinski and Ralph Neal to meet Mr. Mori in Hiroshima.  It was the first time he would be visited by family members of the fallen POWs.


Paper Lanterns Trailer


    The Mori’s have worked so hard to show us what peace and reconciliation means.  It’s time for us to help write this final chapter for them.


With your help, we can write the final chapter. 

We’re planning on bringing Mr. Mori, and his wife, Kayoko, to the United States in May. They would travel to San Francisco for screenings of the film, and then on to Boston, where they would spend Memorial Day in Lowell, MA, the home of Normand Brissette.  We will also have a public screening in Boston with the Mori’s as our special guests.  

To bring them here will take funds, and that’s why we are here.

With their age in mind, we need to find the best way to let them travel in comfort.  Here’s a list of the things the money will be used for:

-Airfare/Train tix from Hiroshima, Tokyo to SF, then SF-Bos, and then back to Tokyo/Hiroshima.
-Hotels and transfers
-Their meals and any other support they will have once here.
-Travel within the states that will include SF, Boston, Lowell(North Shore), possibly NYC
-Costs to capture video and any additional content of the trip here.

What happens if the trip needs to be cancelled?

Even with all the best planning, something might come up that will put a halt to the trip. If something delays the trip, we will hold the funds and use as soon as an alternative date can be set.  IF the trip has to be cancelled and rescheduling is not possible, we will do our very best to return the funds.  If we can't track you down or you submit anonomously, we'll plan on donating any remaining funds to the Centerville Vets Monument fund in Lowell, MA.