From Trinity to Trinity

Kyoko Hayashi and Eiko Otake, Trans­la­tor

FROM TRINITY TO TRINITY recounts the pil­grim­age of Japan­ese atomic-bomb sur­vivor Kyoko Hayashi to the Trin­ity Site in north­ern New Mex­ico, where the world’s first atomic bomb test was con­ducted. Her jour­ney takes her into unfa­mil­iar ter­rain, both past and present, as she not only con­fronts Amer­i­can atti­tudes, dis­con­cert­ingly detached from the suf­fer­ing of nuclear destruc­tion, but dis­cov­ers as well a pro­found kin­ship with desert plants and ani­mals, the bomb’s “first vic­tims.” Trans­la­tor Eiko Otake, a renowned artist in dance (Eiko & Koma), offers fur­ther insight into Hayashi’s life and work, illu­mi­nat­ing how her iden­tity as “out­sider” helped shape her vision. Together author and trans­la­tor present one woman’s trans­for­ma­tion from vic­tim to wit­ness, a por­trait of endurance as a power of “being” against all odds.