Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation

May 2020

PEACE
CULTURE

vol.1 No.83 (semiannual)

ited the museum, as well as a lit candle and candleholder.
The message from the Pope states “I have come as apilgrim of peace, to grieve in sincerity with all who suffered injury and death on that terrible day in the historyof this land. I pray that the God of life will convert beauty to peace, unification and fraternity with love.”
The candleholder was placed in front of the Memorial
Cenotaph for Atomic Bomb Victims at the time of thepeace gathering. It is a brass candleholder, 1.15m tall. A
candle was placed in it and the Pope lit the candle.
Through this display, we hope that visitors will learnof the Pope’s strong desire for peace, and reaffirm theneed for the people of the world to join forces to createa peaceful world.
(Peace Memorial Museum, Curatorial Division and Outreach Division)

Display of the Pope’s message
and candleholder given to
Hiroshima CityOn November 24 (Sunday), 2019, Pope Francis visited
Hiroshima City for the first time since the visit of PopeJohn Paul II thirty-eight years ago. He participated in
the Peace Gathering held at Peace Memorial Park, anddedicated flowers at the Memorial Cenotaph for Atomic
Bomb Victims, and then listened to hibakusha testimonies by Ms. Yoshiko Kajimoto and Mr. Koji Hosokawa(which was read out instead of Mr. Hosokawa who was
unable to attend due to poor health).

International Festival 2019

―Let’s open the doors of the world,
Let’s meet the people of the world―
The International Festival 2019 was held on November
17, 2019, at venues including International ConferenceCenter Hiroshima and the Peace Boulevard green belt.
Commemorating the twentieth time this event has been
held and the thirtieth anniversary of the opening ofInternational Conference Center Hiroshima, the eventhis year was expanded, adding the large hall at theConference Center, Phoenix Hall, as one of the venues.
Seventy-six civic organizations and companies involved in international exchange and international cooperation activities in Hiroshima City and the surrounding
areas held forty events of great variety promoting intercultural understanding and consideration for the global
environment, multicultural coexistence, Japanese culture
experiences and more. A total of around 16,300 peoplecame to the events, which is a record high.
At the opening ceremony, following on from the previous year, there was a Japanese calligraphy performance by the students of calligraphy at Yasuda Women’s
University Faculty of Letters, Department of
Calligraphy. When the students wrote in strong lettering
the catchphrase of the International Festival “Let’s meetthe people of the world” participants gave them a big
round of applause.

Pope Francis (photograph: the City of Hiroshima)

Ms. Kajimoto was working as a mobilized student
around 2.3km from the hypocenter when the bomb was
dropped. She spoke about suffering serious injuries
trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings, the tragic scenes of people with burns fleeing from the city with
their skin hanging down, and about her father who
passed away a year and a half after the bombing.
Mr. Hosokawa was on the fourth floor of a building
1.3km from the hypocenter at the time of the bombing.
In his message, he spoke about the loss of his beloved
younger sister in the bombing, the time he spent living
in fear of a relapse of radiation sickness, and his work
passing on the message of Hiroshima, as the mission of
the hibakusha.
This was followed by a speech by the Pope on peace.
He spoke about remembering all the victims of theatomic bombing, and expressed his deep respect for thestrength and pride of the hibakusha. The Pope also said
that using atomic energy for war is nothing other than acrime today, that possessing nuclear weapons is immoral, and called for the people of the world to express together their wish for no more war.
From December 27, 2019, on the first floor of theEast building of the Peace Memorial Museum there is adisplay of the message that the Pope wrote when he vis-

Ken Noguchi Talkshow－Branching out into the Future and the World－
My Story as someone who was a failure
The guest speaker, alpinist Mr. Ken Noguchi, spoke
about his own involvement in environmental issues inthe Himalayas and Mount Fuji, and Japan Overseas
Cooperation Volunteers from JICA and Japanese people
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sections where visitors could try making a tartan designof Scottish kilt and a Celtic Knot, a section for making
Chinese paper cutting art and Chinese knotting, as well
as sections for trying on kimonos, tea ceremony, ikebana flower arrangement, Japanese calligraphy and more.
Both foreign visitors and Japanese participants showed
great interest as they participated in experiences of cultures from around the world.

living dynamic
lives overseas.
Participants
laughed at times at
the humorous talkby Mr. Noguchi
and listened intently to his uniquestory until the end.
Some participants
Mr. Ken Noguchi
said about the talkshow that they learned the importance of not only receiving information passively, but also actually seeing
the world for themselves.

World cuisine and traditional craft bazaar
On the green belt of Peace Boulevard in the south
side of the International Conference Center was theHiroshima International Village―Food Stalls of theWorld, where nineteen organizations sold various foodfrom around the world. At the International Cooperation
Bazaar, thirteen organizations sold crafts and other articles from various countries.

World music and dance－The beat of the Earth, a bounding rhythm－
As a twentieth anniversary event, a world music anddance stage event was held in Phoenix Hall. There wereauthentic performances from six groups on the themesof Asia, Africa and Central and South America. The
groups were: Bapang Sari Balinese Gamelan and Dance,
who performed ‘Traditional Gamelan music and dancefrom Bali, Indonesia’; the Hiroshima Korean Traditional
Arts College, who performed ‘Melodies of the traditional Korean arts’; Dance and Folk Music Departments ofHiroshima Korean School, who performed ‘Unified
Arirang’; Obaaba Dance & Drum Group and their entertaining friends, who performed ‘Experience real African
power!’; Unidos Rosa de Hiroshima, who performed‘Samba’; and El Combo de la Paz, who performed‘Passionate Latin and Salsa Beats’.
For the finale, ten organizations who have participated in this festival for twenty consecutive times came tothe stage, and were presented with a certificate of gratitude by Mr. Takashi Koizumi, the Chairperson of thisFoundation.

Food stalls of the world

Other sections at the festival included: a display ofprizewinning artworks by children around the world foran art competition on the theme of ‘Peaceful Towns’; apresentation session by international students; ‘Earth
Square’, a space where people of all ages could enjoy
intercultural experiences; a section where visitors could
learn about Hiroshima City’s sister and friendship cities
while making crafts; an outdoor stage with performances of dances and music from around the world; a section
where visitors could support children in developing
countries by donating coins from around the world; anda quiz rally where participants could win prizes by answering quiz questions at each of the different venues.
Each venue was bustling with people, and participants
were able to deepen their understanding of international
exchange and international cooperation.
Many citizens and international students participatedas volunteer staff, and helped to make it an exciting
event.
It was a day where foreign and Japanese residents
could experience their cultures of the world.
(International Relations & Cooperation Division)

Music and dances of the world

Presentations on international exchange andcooperation activities
At the section for information on activities by civicorganizations, twenty organizations set up information
booths on their international exchange and cooperation
activities. There were also booths run by public entities,
civic organizations, NGOs, university students, companies and more, and visitors went around to the booths
they were interested in, interacting with the people there.
In particular, this year the Ministry of Internal Affairs
and Communications and the Akitakata City International
Exchange Association participated for the first time, providing information on their initiatives to promote multicultural cohabitation, which has become a hot topic in
recent years.

Mayors for Peace Japanese Member
Cities Meeting
On October 24-25, 2019, the 9 th Mayors for Peace
Japanese Member Cities Meeting was held in KunitachiCity, Tokyo.
This meeting is held every year with the aim of enhancing Mayors for Peace initiatives in Japan. A total of
147 representatives (including 37 leaders) from 83 municipalities attended the meeting this time.

Information and experience of foreign cultures
and Japanese culture
In terms of experiencing foreign cultures, there were

Speech by Mayors for Peace President
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, the President ofMayors for Peace, gave a speech, in which he stated “To
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Request for the promotion of actions
for the abolition of nuclear weapons is
submitted to the Japanese government

Based on the decision made at the 9 th Japanese
Member Cities Meeting, on November 28, 2019
Mayor Matsui, Mayor Kazuo Nagami of Kunitachi,
the host city, and Mr. Hisato Mitsutake, director of
the Tokyo Office of Nagasaki City and representing
Nagasaki City, visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
a n d s u b m i t t e d t o M r. N o r i h i r o N a k a y a m a ,Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, a request addressed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asking
for the promotion of actions for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Proceedings led by Hiroshima Mayor Matsui (left) andNagasaki Mayor Tauereach a situation where there are no nuclear weapons orwars, there are constraints on what we as cities can do.
However, I believe it is possible for municipalities thatshare the intention to achieve peace to raise their voices
together, and create an environment where their wishes
are properly heard by the national government.” He also
expressed his determination, saying “Mayors for Peaceis made up of leaders who represent cities. We must implement activities that share the atomic bombing experience not as something that is limited only to Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, but something that is shared widely
among civic society, and promote the abolition of nuclear weapons and the realization of world peace.”

From left: Mr. Mitsutake, director of the Tokyo Office of Nagasaki
City, Kunitachi Mayor Nagami, Hiroshima Mayor Matsui, and Mr.
Nakayama, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Citizens of Kunitachi also participate in program
Next, the Kunitachi City Program item ‘Peace From
Kunitachi’ was held, and many citizens of Kunitachi
participated together with participants from other municipalities. There was a performance by students from
Kunitachi College of Music Senior High School, a PR
video for Kunitachi City, a presentation on Kunitachi
City’s peace initiatives, a talk by a Kunitachi atomic
bombing and war witness, a chorus of the Kunitachi
Peace Song, reports by participants from Kunitachi Cityin the HIROSHIMA and PEACE (support program foryouth exchange for Peace), and more.

Mr. Nakayama said “We take the wishes ofMayors for Peace Japanese member cities seriously.
The Japanese government acts as a bridge between
nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states,
and as such we share the goal of Mayors for Peace toachieve the abolition of nuclear weapons. The visitby the Pope to Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a valuable opportunity to create awareness among the people of the world of the importance of peace, and we
extend our gratitude to you for welcoming the Popein Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The global situation regarding nuclear weapons is unstable, but the Japanese
government would like to continue with transparency
and further concrete initiatives.”(Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division)

Reports on examples of peace-related initiatives
In the first part of the conference program, there
were reports from the Mayor of Akashi City, Hyogo, Mr.
Fusaho Izumi on the Pacific War National Air-Raid
Victim Consoling Association, and from the Mayor of
Muko City, Kyoto, Mr. Mamoru Yasuda, on examples of
Muko City’s peace-related initiatives.
Next, there was a report from the Mayors for Peacesecretariat on the 2018 financial results for membershipfee payments, requests to non-member cities to become
members, peace initiatives leading up to the Tokyo
Olympics and Paralympics, and an overview of the 10th
General Conference of Mayors for Peace. Mayors for
Peace Secretary-General Takashi Koizumi (Chairpersonof this Foundation) reported on the global situation andMayors for Peace activities.
This was followed by deliberation on the submissionof a Letter of Request to the Japanese Government
Calling for the Promotion of Actions to Abolish Nuclear
Weapons, which was approved.
The session ended with the adoption of the generalsummary document, which included an outline of themeeting, and a speech by Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa
Taue, Vice-President of Mayors for Peace.
(Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division)

Attendance at Executive Conferenceof Mayors for Peace(Hanover City, Germany)
The 11 th Executive Conference of Mayors for Peace(President: Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui), was held
over two days from November 11, 2019, in Hanover
City, Germany, which is the Mayors for Peace Vice-

Members of executive cities who attended the conference

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May 2020

On the second day of the conference, participants deliberated on the Summary Notes that summarized theconference based on the previous day’s discussions. The
document was approved.

President City. Attending the conference were Mayor
Matsui, Secretary-General Mr. Takashi Koizumi(Chairperson of this Foundation), and members from ten
Executive Cities in Europe, North America and Asia.
Agreement on the basic direction for the next
visionIn his opening speech, Mayor Matsui stated that it isnecessary to increase the number of member cities in order to strengthen the network that has been built so far,and in particular, to encourage a policy shift among political leaders by developing an awareness of the importance of peace among citizens in nuclear-weapon statesand states that are allied with them.
At the conference, there was first a discussion on thestatus of achievement of the 2020 Vision and initiatives
that are under way as part of the current action plan.
Attendees reaffirmed the fact that, under the 2020
Vision, many member cities implemented independent
activities together with peace-related NGOs and otherorganizations with the aim of making progress in nuclear disarmament.
This was followed by a discussion on how to develop the next vision and action plan for 2021 and beyond.
For the next vision, it was agreed that the basic direction is “Realizing a world without nuclear weapons”.
Based on this, with the target of “Realization of safe andresilient cities”, the philosophy will be “Promoting aculture of peace”, where individual citizens are encouraged to consider and take actions for peace as part oftheir day to day lives. It was also agreed that there will
be further discussions with a view to developing thenext vision at the 10th General Conference of Mayors for
Peace, to be held in August, 2020.
Next there were reports on initiatives that have produced results: from Manchester City, UK, on the peaceeducation using A-bomb trees; from Muntinlupa City,
the Philippines, on the International Day of Peace eventto raise peace consciousness; and from Hanover City on
membership recruitment efforts as a lead city.
There was also a discussion on priority actions for
2020, the final year of the 2020 Vision, to ensure that
there is a smooth and steady transition to the next vision
and action plan. The three items decided on were: theexpansion of membership to achieve the target of bringing into force the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons, and other targets; the implementation of peaceeducation that aims to develop awareness among theyoung generations who will be leaders in the future; andthe enhancement of support for programs to accept
young people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, such as the
support program for the Youth Exchange for Peace.

During the conference

As the proposal from the first day to establish abranch in Europe was approved, when the European executive city members held their first preparatory meeting, Mayor Matsui opened the session by stating that it
is extremely meaningful that leader cities take the lead
to work together to create a peaceful world, and expressed his hope that they will work in solidarity tobuild peace not only in Europe but throughout the world.
Mayors for Peace will continue to strengthen the network that has been built to date and expand activities. In
order to do so, we will increase the number of member
cities throughout the world, including nuclear-weapon
states and countries allied with them, and create great
momentum for peace in civic society. By doing so, wewant to help to create an environment that strongly
pushes political leaders to change their policies, to aim
for a world that is free of nuclear weapons.
(Mayors for Peace and 2020 Vision Promotion Division)

Secretary-General Koizumi meetswith United Nations and government
representatives in Geneva, Switzerland
Mr. Takashi Koizumi, the Secretary-General of Mayors
for Peace (chairperson of this Foundation) took the opportunity of his visit to Europe to attend the 11 th
Executive Conference of Mayors for Peace to visit
Geneva, Switzerland. He met with United Nations andvarious government representatives, and asked for understanding and support of Mayors for Peace initiativesprior to 2020, which marks an important year with the
NPT (Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons) Review Conference and other events planned.

Approval of establishment of European Chapterof Mayors for Peace
In addition to the items above, there was a proposal
from Granollers City, Spain, and other European executive cities to launch the European Chapter of Mayors for
Peace in January 2020. The proposal was approved.
As the plan of the 2020 initiatives, the secretariat also gave an explanation on participation in the PEACEORIZURU Project (where peace messages are written
on paper cranes and sent out on social media) that is run
by the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Organizing
Committee in the lead up to the Olympic Games, andvarious activities being held in line with the 2020 NPT(Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons)
Review Conference.

Request for efforts toward the NPT Review
Conference and the Treaty on the Prohibition of
Nuclear Weapons
Mr. Koizumi first met with Ms. Elayne Whyte
Gomez, the Costa Rican ambassador to the UN in
Geneva. Mr. Koizumi said that although the current situation is similar to the chaotic situation in the Middle
East in 2015, which lead to the derailment of the 2015
Review Conference, there are over one thousand Mayors
for Peace member cities in Iran, and thus from the civic
society perspective there are some positive aspects. He
expressed his hope that the ambassador will work toward the success of the 2020 NPT Review Conference
and the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition
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May 2020

of Nuclear Weapons.
Mr. Koizumi next met with Ms. Kathleen Lawand,Head of Arms Unit at the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC). Ms. Lawand expressed her fear thatthe termination of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear
Forces (INF) Treaty between the United States andRussia would lead to the inability to legally regulate nuclear weapons, and said that in that sense, the Treaty on
the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons provides somehope. She also stated that the activities of Mayors for
Peace, an organization made up of cities all over theworld, are extremely important, as cities are the target of
nuclear weapons. Mr. Koizumi asked for her continued
cooperation in Mayors for Peace initiatives.
Mr. Koizumi next met with Dr. John Borrie,
Research Coordinator of the United Nations Institute for
Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). He spoke about theimportance of civic society, international organizations
and NGOs working together for the abolition of nuclear
weapons.
Dr. Borrie said that while we will mark the 50th anniversary of the NPT in 2020, the situation for nuclear disarmament is currently extremely difficult, and that this is
now also creating divisions between nuclear weapon
states and non-nuclear weapon states regarding theTreaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. He said
that it is precisely because we are in this situation that it
is important that civic society creates pressure for nuclear disarmament.

Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Ms. Fihn expressed
her gratitude for the ties of solidarity with Mayors for
Peace. She said that she is greatly inspired by the
Mayors for Peace approach of aiming for the abolitionof nuclear weapons from the perspective of protecting
the safety and security of citizens, and this has led to thecommencement of
the ICAN Cities
Appeal (wheremunicipalities incountries thathave not ratified
the Treaty on theProhibition of
Nuclear Weapons
lobby their own
Ms. Fihn (center), Executive Director
governments to With
of ICANsign the treaty).
All those with whom Mr. Koizumi met this time had
a common awareness of the great importance of the rolethat civic society plays in the abolition of nuclear weapons. This is the same direction as that taken by Mayors
for Peace, who promote the creation of an environmentthat developed awareness of the importance of peace in
civic society and pushes political leaders to change theirpolicies. The meetings demonstrated the need to continue to steadily implement initiatives that aim for the realization of a world without nuclear weapons.
(Mayors for Peace and 2020 Vision Promotion Division)

2020 Olympics as an opportunity to push forthe abolition of nuclear weapons
Mr. Koizumi met with Ms. Tatiana Valovaya, theDirector-General of the United Nations at Geneva. Ms.
Valovaya stated that the United Nations’ Sustainable
Development Goals(SDGs) match withthe aims of Mayors
for Peace. She also
said that she would
like to use the opportunities of the 10 thGeneral Conference ofMayors for Peace andthe Tokyo Olympics
and Paralympics in
Ms. Tatiana Valovaya, Director2020 to appeal to the With
General of the United Nations atworld for the abolition Geneva
of nuclear weapons.
Ms. Valovaya said that she is aware that 2020 is an
important year for Mayors for Peace, as it is the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb, and stated that she would fully support to Mayors for Peace
activities. She also spoke about the importance of communicating what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
to young people.
Mr. Koizumi next met with Mr. Nobushige
Takamizawa, the Ambassador for Disarmament of theDelegation of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament.
Mr. Takamizawa referred to the fact that the resolution
for the abolition of nuclear weapons that Japan proposedin 2019 was adopted at the 1st Committee of the United
Nations General Assembly. He explained that in order toensure that the 2020 NPT Review Conference is a success, rather than adhering to past resolutions, theyshould be renewed.
Mr. Koizumi also met with Ms. Beatrice Fihn, theExecutive Director of the International Campaign to“Peaceful Towns” Children’s Art
Competition 2019
Mayors for Peace held the “Peaceful Towns” Children’s
Art Competition with the aim of further enhancing peaceeducation in member cities. The competition was open
to children from 6 to 15 years of age in all member cities.
The contest in 2019 was the second time that thecompetition has been held. There were 2,829 artworks
entered in the competition in 70 cities in 21 countries allover the world. After deliberation in each member city,
341 works were sent in to the Mayors for Peace secretariat.
In each of the two categories (Category I: 6-10 years

The Mayors for Peace President's Award, The first prize:
Ms. Kiana Bordbar in Shiraz, Iran (10 years old)
《Message from the artist》Peace means entering into no war,
making global peace, establishing sociopsychological and physicalsecurity, etc. Kiana drew the mothers with different nationalities
who are holding their hands so kindly that all children regardless of
their nationalities can live and play happily and in safety. Where
there is peace and no war, the sun is brighter, gardens and meadows look more beautify and children are happier. The traditional
costumes shown in this work to symbolize the whole world include
Austria, Mexico, Yemen, Japan, Russia, Belarus, and India.

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old and Category II: 11-15 years old), one artwork was
selected for the grand prix, two works for awards of excellence and 3 works for prizes. One of the grand prix
award winners was then selected for the Mayors for
Peace President’s Award. Mayors for Peace created clear
file folders with a copy of the Mayors for Peace
President Award-winning artwork on it, and uses it invarious activities to spread awareness of the importanceof peace education.
(Mayors for Peace and 2020 Vision Promotion Division)

greater understanding of the reality of the bombing andshare a desire for peace.
After the interns return to their respective homecountries, they conduct various peace activities based onwhat they learned in Hiroshima. Through this internshipprogram, the secretariat hopes to spread the desire ofHiroshima to create a world free of nuclear weapons
throughout the world.
(Mayor for Peace and 2020 Vision Promotion Division)

Support for universities offering
Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study
CoursesMayors for Peace secretariat is
accepting interns from overseas
member cities

First Peace Study Course at University of
Science Malaysia
On August 20, 2019, twenty students and two teachers from University of Science Malaysia conducted apeace study tour in Hiroshima City, which was the firstsuch tour since the course received certification as a
Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study Course. This
Foundation provided support in implementing the program for the tour. The group visited the Peace Memorial
Park and Peace Memorial Museum, as well as listening
to an atomic bombing testimony by Ms. Keiko Ogura
and a recital of atomic bombing testimonies. Throughthese activities, the group learned about the truth of theatomic bombing.

Mayors for Peace invites young employees of member
cities to come to Hiroshima as interns and work in the
Mayors for Peace secretariat. Last fiscal year, one intern
was accepted from each of five cities in five countries.
The interns gained experience in work such as updating the information on member cities in their homecountries and conducting surveys on cities that have notjoined Mayors for Peace. The interns also provided information on peace activities being conducted in theirown city to employees of this Foundation and membersof the public, thus enhancing mutual understanding andsolidarity.
The interns also participated in other activities suchas visiting Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Peace
Memorial Park, the Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic
Bomb Victims and the Radiation Effects Research
Foundation, listening to atomic bombing testimonial
talks, and holding discussions with young people in
Hiroshima. By doing so they were able to develop a
No. ofPeriod of stayinterns
Kazakhstan Semey
1 June 19 – July 2, 2019
Spain
Granollers
1 July 9 – 26, 2019
Iran
Tehran1 September 4 – 27, 2019
BrazilSantos
1 November 18 – 29, 2019
EnglandManchester
1 February 3 – 14, 2020
CountryCity

Touring the Peace Memorial Park guided by peace volunteers

University from Korea conducts peace studies
in Hiroshima
On January 21, 2020, 18 students and one teacher
from Kyungpook National University College of
Humanities conducted their second peace study tour in
Hiroshima City since the certification of their
Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study Course. They were
provided support by this Foundation. The group visited
Peace Memorial Park and the Peace Memorial Museum,
listened to an atomic bombing testimony by Lee
Jongkeun, participated in an atomic bombing testimoni-

An intern giving a presentation on Tehran City’s peace
activities to Hiroshima citizens

An intern visiting Peace Memorial ParkA peace volunteer shows the group around Peace Memorial Park

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al recital and other activities, learning about the realityof the atomic bombing.
(Mayors for Peace and 2020 Vision Promotion Division)lected photographs andother materials held by
various institutions andprivate individuals
overseas by acquiring
photographic data anddispatching staff members abroad.
In this exhibition,
we look back on theatomic bomb damage
suffered by Hiroshima
and the restoration after the atomic bombing, with a focus on ca. October, 1945―Photo by U.S. Miliphotographic materials tary
Donated by Mrs. John V. Peterson
and witness accounts Courtesy of the Naval History andthat we have collected Heritage Command
Collected in 2016
from overseas in recent
years.
(Peace Memorial Museum Curatorial Division)

Participation in the Obama
Foundation Leaders: Asia-Pacific
Program
For five days from December 10-14, 2019, a staff of thisFoundation participated in the Obama Foundation
Leaders: Asia-Pacific Program 2019.
This program was organized by the Obama
Foundation for around two hundred participants fromthirty-three countries and regions, including Indonesia
and Australia. The aim of the program was to enhance
the skills of young leaders, thus empowering their activities, developing connections among participants andcreating a new generation of role models.
Talk by former President Obama
As part of the program, there were talks by people
who are successful in various different fields, including
former President Barak Obama and his wife, and Mr.
Tony Fernandes, CEO of the Air Asia Group, the largest
LCC in Asia. There were also workshops where participants could learn about how to develop leadership skills,
opportunities to participate in volunteer activities in thelocal community, and more.

Hiroshima training for United Nations
tour guides
The City of Hiroshima has permanent atomic bombing
exhibitions at United Nations facilities in New York,
Geneva and Vienna. The exhibitions are organized jointly with the Nagasaki City, and include atomic bombing
artifacts and photo panels. Large numbers of visitors, including state leaders, visit the exhibitions every day.
To be able to communicate the truth of the atomic
bombing more effectively through the exhibitions, it is
crucial to share information on the reality of the bombing with tour guides and guided tour employees. To doso, from 2017 the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
has been inviting tour guides from the three United
Nations facilities to Hiroshima, and holding theHiroshima Training for United Nations Tour Guides, toensure that the tour guides understand the reality of thebombing. This time was the third time that this training
program has been held. Six tour guides participated intraining over five days, from November 30-December 4,
2019.
The training included listening to lectures, visiting
the Peace Memorial Museum, touring monuments andbuilding remains from the bombing, listening to atomic
bombing testimonies, participating in sessions with volunteers, and touring Hiroshima City.
As a new initiative, this time an atomic bombing testimony was interpreted into English by an A-bombLegacy Successor who is the daughter of the person who
gave the testimony, and together mother and daughter
communicated the reality of the atomic bombing andFormer US President Obama giving a message to participantsThis Foundation’s staff, through participating in discussions with young leaders in the Asia-Pacific region,
had the opportunity to discuss values with the other participants. Our staff also spoke about the actual damage
from the atomic bombing and the activities of Mayors
for Peace, and asked for understanding and support for
future activities.
(Mayors for Peace and 2020 Vision Promotion Division)Special Exhibition

Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Damage andRestoration as Shown in Collections
from Overseas
Venue Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum East Building 1F
Date December 27, 2019－Late July 2020 (tentative)
Free Admission

Photo materials have an important meaning to better understand the real aspects of the atomic bombing. Besides
a number of photographs that we are already aware of, it
is believed that many photos unbeknown to us still exist
overseas; there were many foreigners who entered
Hiroshima after the atomic bombing.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum has col-Tour of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum led by the
director, Mr. Takigawa

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our household belongings, sent them to the employee
lodgings in Funairi Town in Hiroshima, and left Tokyoin a rush. However, since military supplies were prioritized when sending cargo at that time, we did not know
when our belongings might arrive. We did not even havethe necessities we needed to live in the employee lodgings, so the only thing we could do was to temporarily
move in to my father’s family home in Nishi-shinmachi.
At that time in 1945, the inn that my father’s family
owned had stopped business due to the war. There were
five people living there―my grandfather Eikichi, my
grandmother Ryou, my father’s younger sisters Hatsuyo(the eldest daughter), the frail Tsuyuko, and Fujiko who
worked at the prefectural government office. Our familyof four was added, and on July 20 my younger brother
Hiroshi was born, making us a family of ten.
Up until August 5, the day before that fateful day, wewere living a completely normal life as citizens in Nishishin-machi.

Tour of monuments led by a volunteer guidetheir desire for peace. After touring the exhibits at themuseum, the curator provided an explanation to the participants on how the museum decided on the display
concepts and the exhibit selection process, and there
were many questions from participants based on theirperspective as atomic bombing exhibit guides.
The participants made comments such as: “Listening
to the testimony, I was shocked to the extent that itchanged the way I view life,” and “This was a valuable
experience that I could only have in Hiroshima, and it
has given me great encouragement for my own work in
the future. By using what I’ve learned here in my tours,
I will be able to communicate the need to abolish nuclear weapons with a greater sense of reality.”
Based on this project, we will continue to work tostrengthen our capacity to communicate the ‘Spirit ofHiroshima’ in the international community, by enhancing the exhibits on the atomic bombing at United
Nations facilities, and expanding the tour commentary
about the atomic bombing and the abolition of nuclear
weapons. We are also examining the possibility of dispatching atomic bombing witnesses and museum staff toUnited Nations facilities in the future, to conduct atomic
bombing testimonies and on-site training on the realityof the bombing.
(Peace Memorial Museum Outreach Division)

Coincidence determined the fate of our family
Because there was a concern about air raids on
Hiroshima too, at the end of July my mother took justmy newly-born brother and younger sisters and temporarily evacuated to a relative’s house near Miyajima. My
father had to work and I had to go to school so we
stayed in Hiroshima.
Coincidence changed the fate of our family. August
5 was a Sunday. I had decided to go to visit my mother’splace alone. My grandfather strongly opposed this, so I
promised him that I would “definitely come home by theend of the day on the 5th, and go to school on the 6th”.
However, when I met up with my mother for the firsttime in a long time and saw my newly-born baby brother, I broke my firm promise to my grandfather and did
not come home on the 5th.
The next morning, the 6th, I went out to the seashore
in front of my relative’s house and was idly looking overthe sea to Hiroshima, which was 20 kilometers away,when all of a sudden, I witnessed a powerful flash,something that I had never seen before. About ten seconds after that came a dull booming sound.
When I think about the fact that in the instant of thatflash, Hiroshima was destroyed and tens of thousands ofpeople lost their lives, even now I get goosebumps.
At the time that the bomb was dropped, my father
was working at the factory five kilometers away fromthe hypocenter. For days and days after the bombing, hewalked around the burnt ruins of the city looking for his
parents and sisters. Finally, he found the bodies of his
parents, Hatsuyo, and Tsuyuko under some rubble. It
was more than ten days after the bombing that he foundtheir bodies.
On August 18, my father, mother and I went to the

Memoir of the A-bombing“The day that changed the fateof my family”

by Noboru Sueoka
Atomic Bomb Witness for thisFoundation
Our family before the bombing
In the year the atomic bomb was dropped, 1945, myfamily moved from Tokyo to Hiroshima in May or June
because my father got a work transfer. It was a suddentransfer. My father worked at a major chemical factory.
There were four in my family: my father Shigeru, mymother Kikuko, me (7 years old) and my younger sister
Yukiko who was two.
My father’s family home was in Nishi-shin-machi(now known as Dohashi-cho, which is very close to
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum), and for a longtime the family ran a large traditional inn.
Once my father’s transfer was decided, we packed

Hiroshima reduced to ashes (October 1945, Photo by US Army,
Contributed by Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum)8

PEACE CULTURE No.83

May 2020

burnt ruins of the family’s inn. We dug out the bodies of
my grandparents, half of which were not burned, fromunder the rubble, and cremated them there. When we
cremated them, my mother was saying something in a
low voice, but I did not know what she was saying. My
mother said “Look, this is your grandfather,” but I could
not believe that the dead body in front of me could be
my grandfather, who had seen me off at the front dooron the morning of the 5th. I still keenly remember thesmell, which was something like rotten fish. Even today,
decades later, when I smell anything similar to thatsmell, the scene from that time flashes vividly in front of
my eyes.
Later in life, my father contracted lung cancer andpassed away. Fujiko, who left the house together withmy father on the morning of the 6th to go to work at the
government office, was never found.

time in my life I experienced the collapse of a communist state, the People’s Republic of Romania, currently
just named Romania after the ‘Revolution’. At the time,
I was a student at the linguistics department at Bucharest
University and working as a Romanian language trainee
posted at the Japanese Embassy. I received a phone callfrom Counsellor Tsushima, who was the deputy chief ofMission (DCM), who told me that because of some unstable situation in the country, he requested me to cometo the embassy from tomorrow and work there temporarily. In Romania at the time freedom of speech wasstrictly controlled, and the only things broadcast on the
television or radios were communist propaganda programs or news about the activities of the president, suchas ‘Our great leader Comrade Ceausescu visited a factory and encouraged the workers’. Because of the propagandist language used, Romanians called jokingly thattime ‘The Golden Age (Eopoca de Aur)’. The greatest
enjoyment for the people was distracting themselves bysatirizing the political situation.
In Eastern Europe at that time, it was a popular trend
to use the recreation tickets handed out at the workplace
to spend holiday such as in the areas around Balaton
Lake (Hungary) and the Black Sea. In 1989, because of
the political unstability in Central and Eastern Europe inparticular, Hungary’s border security was relaxed, andpeople from East Germany coming on holiday started toenter Austria. I presume the Austrian border police, whowere at the front line in the Cold War, were also astonished, because many East Germans continuously defected to West Germany via Austria. People in East
Germany soon found out about this situation, and many
East Germans said they were going for a ‘picnic’ thentook this route, ultimately leading to the collapse of East
Germany. In West Berlin, which had become an isolated
inland island under the joint control of the four winnersof the war (United States, United Kingdom, France,
Soviet Union), the wall that surrounded the area except
Soviet Union sector occupied by the western winners
was destroyed, and people were now free to move between East and West Germany even in areas other than
Checkpoint Charlie (the border control point between
East and West Berlin).
This was the kind of political situation occurringconsecutively in East Germany, Czechoslovakia (which
was later divided) and Hungary, and apparently it was sobusy that the Foreign Service officers working in the
Eastern Europe Division of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs at the time were exhausted from working day
and night and were sleeping on the floor. One key point
in analysing the situation was whether or not the political turmoil taking place in Eastern Europe would also
spread to Romania and Bulgaria, which were understrong political controls. Political officers in the
Embassies had a meeting for exchange of views in
Vienna, which was the gateway towards Eastern Europe
at the time, to discuss this issue. In particular, in the caseof Romania it was thought that any contact with dissident groups would result in arrests, imprisonment andtorture, and it was an open secret that Romanian local
staffs at the Japanese Embassy at the time were regularly reporting on the internal goings-on at the embassy to
the Protocol office in charge of the diplomatic corpsthat also dispatched them. There was also a possibility
that listening devices had been installed in the Embassy,
and for this reason, the consultation of a confidential
nature were often held in the Embassy compound outside of the office building.

In conclusion, our request
Life during the war was full of uncertainty and there
were restrictions, but the Japanese people worked together in family units, leading a happy life looking afterand supporting one another. That was the case for myfamily too. That family was taken away from me in an
instant.
At this very moment there is a war waging between
countries somewhere. We do not know when nuclear
weapons might be used. Nuclear weapons must definitely be abolished. As hibakusha, this is our strong request.
Seventy-four years have passed since the end of the war,and there are fewer generations who have experienced
war. I firmly believe that now is the time to pass on thetragedy of nuclear weapons more broadly to the wholeworld―this is the path that will lead to the abolition of
nuclear weapons.
Profile[Noboru Sueoka]
Born 1937. At the time the atomic bomb was dropped, was living in a
family of ten people, including his grandparents, in Nishi-shin-machi,
800m from the hypocenter. On the day of the bombing, the life ordeath of the family members was decided by pure coincidence.
Has worked as a Hiroshima Peace Volunteer since 2004, as an A-bombLegacy Successor since 2016, and as an Atomic Bomb Witness since
2017.

Thinking about Peace:

When the state collapses: Taking
the example of the collapse of
the Ceausescu regime―Thirty years after the end of the Cold War―by Yasuhito Fukui, LLD
Associate Professor, Hiroshima
City University Hiroshima
Peace Institute
1. Introduction
Even today, thirty years later, I cannot forget the first9

PEACE CULTURE No.83

May 2020

At this time, a valuable information source wasRadio Free Europe (RFE), where defectors from Eastern
Europe broadcasted information to their home countries.
The BBC, Deutsche Welle and others also broadcasted
in the Romanian language. RFE was based in Munich,and was an important activity base at the time forEuropean intelligence service, just like the German
Federal Intelligence Ministry today. In this way the
Romanian language broadcasting unit was broadcasting
the latest information about Eastern Europe, which was
not broadcasted domestically in Romania. On December
16, 1989, it reported on the news that the people had finally revolted in Timisoara, and had clashed with the security forces and were suppressed, and this led to thestart of rumors of riots among the people. For this reason, the Japanese Embassy also entered a state of alert. I
was one of the stuff assigned temporarily as an extra
member of the political affairs section, and began towork immediately.

municated to the world from Tokyo. Later, corpses that
became proof of the suppression of the people were unearthed, and images of the many coffins carrying thedead bodies at a church were broadcast on television.
However, we still do not know how many people losttheir lives in that clash, even today. One thing that isclear is that the insurgence was triggered by the gathering that was held to protest the persecution of the pastor
Laszlo Tokes, whose name indicates that he was a
Hungarian minority Romanian and that in response, thesecurity forces opened fire in attempt to stop the protest,
and as a result many people lost their lives. In the background is the fact that communist regimes in Eastern
Europe were falling like dominos and there were regimechanges one after the other. The security authorities inTimis County, consulting with the central government,
took hard-line measures in order to maintain the administration at that time.
3. Official protest meeting organised by thegovernment in front of the Communist Party
headquarters
What was President Ceausescu doing at the time of
the Timisoara revolt? He was on a trip abroad in Iran.
Naturally he must have been informed the uprising inTimisoara. Although there were information that thepresident returned home a few days later, Romanianstate-run television broadcast no reports on what happened in Timisoara. After a while, the Japanese Embassy
received information that the Romanian government
was planning an organised protest meeting where
Ceausescu would criticize the insurgence in Timisoara.
The meting was to be held on the afternoon of December
21, five days after the incident. The location was notvery far from where the Japanese Embassy was locatedat the time, so we also went there, monitoring the situation in the city along the way.
At the place where the official protest meeting washeld, there was the former Royal family’s Palace, which
was transformed as the national art gallery; theRomanian Athenaeum concert hall, which is an historical building; the prestigious Athenee Palace Hotel andBucharest University library; and also the headquarterof the Communist Party. The headquarter was used before as the Ministry of Home Affairs to protect the palace located just in front of the Palace, and the access tothe surrounding area was restricted. Something thatcame to light after the gun battle described below wasthat people who were loyal to the Ceausescu regime
lived in the apartments surrounding the party headquarters, such as members of the secret police, and they protected the headquarters. This was the historicalbackground of the headquarter building, and there weremany surprising things that were found out about it later, including the fact that these two buildings such as
former Palace and the Ministry was connected by underground tunnels. We were told to take care in the surrounding area, as cars with 1B3 number plates, whichwere allocated to the cars of party officials and government VIPs, drove recklessly in the area. When
Ceausescu came to the official residence and theCommunist Party headquarters in the Primavera area,
the roads would sometimes suddenly be blocked, eventhough it was in the middle of the city.
This was the place that was chosen for the meeting,and the residents who were mobilized gradually filled
the location. There were heavy security measures; presumably to prevent any reoccurrence of what happened

2. Insurgence at Timisoara
Although people had started to talk covertly about
the insurgence at Timisoara, crucially, there was no evidence, so other embassies were frantically trying togather information. The embassies of the major nations
decided to dispatch diplomatic staffs to verify the situation in Timisoara. The ambassador at the time,
Ambassador Ichioka, consulted the matter with the
Ministry in Japan, and as a result decided to dispatch
two officers to the area. Of course, if they failed, there
was a risk of retaliatory measures, such as diplomatic officers being expelled from the country as persona non
grata and the Romanian driver being arrested on acharge of treason. While some thought that we should
be cautious, the conclusion was that the only way to obtain evidence was to go to Timisoara. An ambassador’s
car vehicle was used as it was less likely to be blockedby authorities along the way, and the three members quietly departed from the Embassy, trying not to attract attention.
The United States, France and Germany had all triedin the same way, but because they tried to enter from themain road they were stopped at the police security
checkpoint and sent back. The Japanese team tried toenter Timisoara from not the main road but a rural road,
although they nearly got lost along the small traffic roadwhere there were no streetlights. Although they wereseen by a policeman at a village police station along theway, they somehow arrived in the center of the town.
There, they saw stores that had been destroyed, theirwindows smashed and the glass shattered everywhere;
and marks from gunshot and bloodstains―it was clearthat an insurgence had occurred in Timisoara and thatthe general public had been suppressed. After this, they
were found by the secret police that were patrolling thecity and were kindly requested to come to a hotel wherea temporary command post had been set up. There, they
were interrogated briefly. They were told that because
they had entered the city, which had been designated as
an area that foreigners are prohibited to enter, thus they
were requested to leave and led out of the city escorted
by a police car.
The two diplomats were only asked why they had
come to the city, but the Romanian driver had his hairpulled during the interrogation and was continually
threatened―he must have been terrified surely. In theend, Japan was the only country to successfully enter
Timisoara, and the news of the tragedy there was com10

PEACE CULTURE No.83

May 2020

in Timisoara. We were watching the meeting from a little further away, near the Athenee Palace Hotel, but because there were a few Japanese people who spoke
Romanian, it is likely that the plain clothes security police noticed that we were from the Japanese Embassy
and had come to monitor the meeting. The organised
meeting this time was different from usual one that had
been held in the past: after transporting people who had
been mobilized, a bus parked lengthways in front of theCommunist Party headquarters, like a shield. In a shortwhile Ceausescu appeared on the balcony at the front of
the building.
The statement criticizing what happened at Timisoara
had already been released, and immediately after
Ceausescu started talking there was the sound of an explosion in front of the building. The surprised people
climbed over the barricades of security police and plain
clothes secret police and started to move towards thecity center, so we also hurriedly returned to the Japanese
Embassy. Looking at the video that was shown later, thestunned look on Ceausescu’s face as he realized something unexpected had happened was memorable. His entourage of officials were panicking, and on the other
hand members of the public started yelling “Down with
Ceausescu!” and filling the streets of the city. There
were cars sounding their horns, and it was just like a liberated zone. But this was not the end and it was the beginning of a sort of civil war on the streets.
Coincidentally, on that day a member of the Embassy
in a neighboring country had travelled to Bucharest, andhad a room in the Intercontinental Hotel in front of
University Square. That room was on an upper floor andhad a good view of Bucharest University, but looking
down on the road after the meeting, blinded vehicles
equipped with machine guns had appeared out of nowhere, and had started to force their way into the crowdof people. That Embassy official quickly called theJapanese Embassy from his hotel room and told them
what was happening, and just like a messenger game thediplomat at the Embassy communicated the same thing
to Tokyo. For this reason, we had the strange situation
where once again for some reason the news on thestrained situation in Bucharest was being reported immediately from Tokyo.
Actually, after the meeting in the city of Bucharest,
from that evening the security forces were deployed andthere was a tense atmosphere. The airport was closed,
and because of the strict controls on the press from theend of the Ceausescu regime, the only member of theJapanese media was the special correspondent for theJapanese Communist Party bulletin. Today it is basicallythe same―when anything happens, the special correspondents acceded to the Eastern Europe press club in
Vienna just call up the Japanese Embassy in Romania
and ask the situation. It was the same situation in othercountries as well, so no-one was able to report on thenews. Eventually in the evening there was a sound ofgunshot in the dark, and the shooting started. First it waswarning shots into the air, so actual bullets were passing
right by the window of the hotel we were in. I rememberthat we hurried to the far end of the room, feeling thefear that if any of us were hit we would definitely die.
The sound of gunshot continued, and after a whiletanks appeared. The tanks were shooting blanks, but it
was enough to scare the people. The square that we werein during the day had turned into a battlefield. We weremonitoring the situation, at the same time fearing for ourlives on site. The university library was set on fire, there

was shooting from the national art gallery that was theformer Palace, and from neighboring apartment blocks,
and to be honest it was very scary. Stray bullets evenflew into the Japanese Embassy, which was away fromthe city center, and smashed the windows. Vasile Milea,
the minister of defense, was found dead, who was forced
to resign to take responsibility for the incident. It is notclear whether he killed himself or whether he was murdered, but in any case he was replaced by General
Stanculescu, who had been in charge of the cleanup operation in Timisoara. However, Stanculescu realized thenature of the situation and rejected his orders, and as aresult the military switched to the side of the people. At
around midday on the 21st, Ceausescu and his wife tried
to flee by helicopter from the Communist Party headquarter, but they were forced to land at Titu air base.
After attempting to flee on land they were arrested on
the 23rd.
4. Closing remarks
Political Power was seized by Iliescu and his supporters, who on December 22 announced the establishment of provisional government by the National
Salvation Front (FSN). On December 26, Ceausescu andhis wife were sentenced to death in a court-martial trial
held as a formality, and soon after their execution wasreported on television. While the glorious Ceausescu regime had come to a shocking end, Ceausescu loyalists inthe secret police and other organizations opposed therevolution to the end, opening fire from buildings aroundthe Communist Party headquarters and so on. Actually
the only places where there were gun battles apart fromthe area near the headquarters were the Ministry of
Defense and the area surrounding the television station.
It was truly a battle on the streets to seize power.
Fortunately, the Japanese Embassy at the time was safely away from those areas. Around eighty Japanese nationals escaped in the embassy to be protected. There
was also a reporter from a public broadcasting agency
who pretended to be taking refuge but actually came into the Embassy and interviewed people, secretly making
contact with outside parties by phone―to be honest, thiswas extremely vexing as the lives of Japanese nationals
were at stake.
At the same time as this situation was occurring locally, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs cabled instructions to the Japanese Embassy in the United States,
saying that agreement had been reached that when the
United States were evacuating US citizens over land,
Japanese nationals would be evacuated with them.
Preparations for departure began the next morning.
When we left the Embassy and were waiting in a line ofcars on the road next to the US Embassy, gunfire brokeout from a nearby building of the secret police, and themarines who were guarding the US Embassy returned
fire. There were children crying, and we were also terrified. Eventually the gun battle stopped, and our group
left, heading for neighboring Bulgaria. A few weeks later, when the situation became safe, they returned to
Romania. In Romania, after a while the rebel loyalists
surrendered and gun battles in the city finally ended, but
in the areas where there had been fierce battles thecharred remains of buildings remained for a long time.
Afterwards there were daily demonstrations in frontof the Romanian office of the Prime Minister (previously the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and at University
Square as well there were continuous demonstrations tocommemorate the deaths of the young people who had
11PEACE CULTURE No.83

May 2020

lost their lives in clashes between the demonstrators andthe security forces. In June 1990, President Iliescu, who
was now in power, was said to have called miners to
Bucharest, who then violently attacked the members of
the general public participating in a demonstration; thedemonstration collapsed. It seemed that even though theregime of a state had changed, it would take some timeto establish a true democracy. In fact, it was in 2004,
when I had assumed my second post as the chief of political section, Romania joined NATO, and it was 2007,
after I had left, that Romania joined the EU. After this
there was an increase in the number of Romanians whowent looking for work outside of the country, and in
2018 there were demonstrations by Romanians living
abroad. Currently Romania is slowing walking along thepath to democratization. The chains of events describedabove are extremely instructive to me when I consider
the fundamental concepts of peace, civilian and thestate.
The Salomon Dictionary of International Law defines peace as ‘a situation without war’, and there aresimilar passages in books published by colleagues at theHiroshima Peace Institute. So, should the Romanian
Revolution be called war? According to this definition,cases where war breaks out because two states declare
war on each other is classified as war, but a non-international armed conflict does not come under this definition, as may be seen from the fact that people see this asa power struggle within the Communist Party and call it‘the Palace Revolution’. On the other hand, however, abattle, which could also be called armed conflict, did
break out and people lost their lives. The definition of‘the civilian’ is difficult as well, because the secret police who suppressed the demonstration were not wearing
uniforms, and looked no different from civilians.
Regarding the state, similarly although the regimechanged through political upheaval, it is hard to comeup with a persuasive argument for how the state wastransformed under those circumstances. The events ofthat time show to us the need for an elucidation of thehistorical facts, and the difficulty of explaining the nature of war and peace, which cannot be seen simplistically, and the relationship between civilians and thestate.
(Submitted February, 2020)

Multilingual everyday living informationsite For International Residents translated
and released in eight languages
In April 2019, the Japanese government established a
new residency status, and as a result it is forecast that
there will be a further increase in the number of foreign residents in Hiroshima City as well. For this reason, a web site has been created to provide
comprehensible living information for foreign residents of Hiroshima City. The site is called For
International Residents (in eight languages), and was
released at the same time as the renewal of thisFoundation’s International Relations and Cooperation
Division’s homepage (https://h-ircd.jp/).

Vietnamese page

【Updated content】
1 Top page
To ensure that it is easy to access everyday living information, the information is organized in categories,
with a simple design using pictograms.
2 Number of languages
Eight languages: Japanese, English, Chinese, Spanish,Portuguese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog
3 Emergency information and notifications
A list of notifications and emergency information isprovided on the top page.
4 Addition of a question form
A question form has been added in the Hiroshima
City Consultation Service for International Residents
in each language, to ensure that it is easy to ask questions or ask for advice using email.
5 New FAQ section
Questions that are frequently sent in to Hiroshima
City Consultation Service for International Residents
are listed in this section.
(International Relations and Cooperation Division)

Profile[Yasuhito Fukui]
Born 1964, in Hyogo Prefecture. Obtained doctoral degree (law) from
University Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne. Specializes in international law(international disarmament law, international human rights and humanitarian law, etc). Resigned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in
March 2015. Assumed position at Hiroshima City University
Hiroshima Peace Institute.
Main works include Gunshuku Kokusaiho no Kyoka (Strengthening
Disarmament Law (February, 2015; Shinzansha Publisher Co., Ltd.)and Tsujo Heiki Gunshukuron (Theory of Conventional Arms
Disarmament) (March, 2020; Toshindo Co., Ltd.)

Information

Our Newsletters Are Accessible on the Internet
You can read our newsletters (Japanese version and English
version) on the Internet.
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