In 1951, Shindo made his debut as a director with the autobiographical "Story of a Beloved Wife", starring Nobuko Otowa in the role of his deceased common-law wife Takako Kuji. Otowa became Shindo's mistress (he was married to his second wife at the time), and would go on to play leading roles in almost all of his films during her life. After directing "Avalanche" in 1952, Shindo was invited by the Japan Teachers Union to make a film about the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. "Children of Hiroshima" stars Nobuko Otowa as a young teacher who returns to Hiroshima to visit her family's grave and find surviving former students and colleagues. It premiered at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, being the first Japanese film to deal with the subject of the atomic bomb, which had been forbidden under postwar American censorship. Children of Hiroshima met with acclaim, but also with criticism for its sentimentality and, according to the producing Japan Teachers Union, for not being political enough.