HIROSHIMA PEACE CULTURE FOUNDATIONPEACE CULTURE
Vol. 1 No.81

May 2019 (semiannual)of Peace”, a presentation of peace activities and choir
performance by Asahi Junior High School, a report by
Takayama City residents who participated in the Mayors
for Peace “Peace and Exchange” youth support project“HIROSHIMA and PEACE”, and more.

Renovated Hiroshima Peace
Memorial Museum reopened on
April 25, 2019

Session I (reports on examples of peace
activities)
For the first item on the program on Day 2, Mr.
Hiroyuki Abe, mayor of Tama City in Tokyo, Mr.
Toshiaki Tanahashi, mayor of Mizuho City in Gifu
Prefecture, and Mr. Kazuhira Nishimura, mayor of Kasai
City in Hyogo Prefecture, each gave reports on peace
activities in their respective municipalities, as reference
information for future activities by other municipalities.

Following the reopening of the East Building in
April 2017, the Main Building of the Hiroshima
Peace Memorial Museum reopened on April 25,
2019, and the whole renovation process of themuseum has been completed.
The main building has displays of objects left behindby those who lost their lives in the bombing, as well as
photographs and artifacts that depict the horror of thebombing. They convey Hiroshima as it was on August
6, and the suffering and sorrow of the A-bomb survivors
and their families up until today.
There are no changes to admission prices.
(Peace Memorial Museum Curatorial Division)

Session II (reports, deliberation on bills,
discussion), Session III (summary) andClosing Session
Next there were deliberations on bills, coordinatedby Mayor Matsui as chair.

8 th Mayors for Peace Japanese
Member Cities Meeting
On November 5-6, 2018, the 8 th Mayors for Peace
Japanese Member Cities Meeting was held in Takayama
City, Gifu Prefecture.
This meeting is held annually with the aim of enhancing Mayors for Peace activities in Japan. This time,
148 members (including 39 heads of government) from91 municipal governments attended.

Opening session
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, President ofMayors for Peace, gave a speech where he said he would
like to work together with Mayors for Peace member
cities and put all efforts into building an environment toprovide support so that policymakers can act with reason and foresight towards the goal of abolishing nuclear
weapons. He asked for continued understanding and cooperation from member cities to abolish an “absoluteevil”, and achieve everlasting world peace.

Hiroshima Mayor Matsui (left) and Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue(right) chairing the 8th Japanese Member Cities Meeting

Prior to the deliberation on the bills, the Mayors for
Peace secretariat gave reports on the financial statementfor 2017 fiscal year for Mayors for Peace membership,and reports on peace study courses implemented by
A-bomb Legacy Successor and A-bomb testimony recital volunteers.
Next, Mr. Yasuyoshi Komizo, secretary-general of
Mayors for Peace, reported on the global situation andMayors for Peace initiatives.
This was followed by deliberation on the bills.
Members deliberated on activities to request membership to Mayors for Peace, the submission to the Japanese
government of a request asking for promotion of initiatives for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and activities
to create an environment where the wishes of the hibakusha from Hiroshima and Nagasaki can be shared withcivic societies throughout the world. The bills were ap-

Ta k a y a m a C i t y P r o g r a m : P e a c e F r o m
Takayama
Next was the Takayama City program “Peace From
Takayama” where conference participants were joinedby many residents of Takayama City.
There was a solo performance by a soprano opera
singer, a PR video about Takayama City, a presentationon peace initiatives in Takayama, peace video messages
from overseas sister cities and friendship cities, an explanation of the Declaration of Takayama City as a “City1

proved.
The session ended with the adoption of the summary
document, which incorporated an overview of the conference and other items.
(Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division)

The special exhibition for 2019 is “Lantern Floating:Memorial for the A-bombing at Hiroshima Ichijo”, andhas been put together based on recorded memoirs.
As the war situation worsened, classes for students
in present-day junior high school and older were cancelled from April 1945, and students were mobilized tofood production and munitions factories. In the bombingof Hiroshima, around 7,200 students lost their lives. In
particular, the students who were involved in building
demolition work outside near the hypocenter suffered
great damage. Most of the 1st and 2nd year students from
Hiroshima Daiichi Girls’ High School (commonly
known as Ichijo, today called Hiroshima Municipal
Funairi High School) had been mobilized, and 666 ofthem died in the bombing, making this the school that
suffered the greatest loss.
In August 1957, on the 12 th anniversary of their
deaths, “Lantern Floating”, a collection of essays inmemory of the A-bomb victims, was published by the
bereaved families. The collection is a detailed record of
the passage of time from the mobilization of students
through to the end of the war, and includes memoirs of
the bereaved families as well as posthumous writings ofthe deceased students.
In the triple-screen theater at the Peace Memorial
Hall, visitors can view a film version of the memoirs,
mainly made of memoirs writing by the parents of four
female students who lost their lives in the bombing.
There are also some words by Zoroku Miyagawa, who
was the school principal at the time, and information
about Masao Mori, a teacher who died protecting students who had fled into a fire cistern, with the cistern
still covering him when he died. Also on display are precious testimonial videos of the late Fumiko Sakamoto,who continued to speak about the A-bomb death of her
daughter, who was a student at Ichijo, to students visiting Hiroshima on school trips; and Miyako Yano, who
was a 2nd-year student at Ichijo who escaped death fromthe bombing because she had been unwell on the day
and not at school. The words of those who experienced
the bombing communicate their earnest wish for peace.
On display at the venue are 28 memoirs, as well as
the first published edition of Lantern Floating, the school
uniforms of Ichijo students, kept as mementos in theirmemory, and more.
The videos that are part of the special exhibition, including those that were produced in the past, can beviewed in the Library and on the Memorial Hall’s
homepage (https://www.hiro-tsuitokinenkan.go.jp/
english/). The videos can also be loaned out as DVDs
for peace study materials. Please contact the Memorial
Hall if you would like to borrow a video.

Submission to the Japanese
government of a request to
promote initiatives for theabolition of nuclear weapons
In line with the decision made at the 8th Mayors for
Peace Japanese Member cities Meeting, on November 9,
2018, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui (president ofMayors for Peace), Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue
(vice-president of Mayors for Peace), and Takayama
City Civic Activities Department Manager Toru
Takahara (filling in for Michihiro Kunishima, Mayor of
Takayama City where the Meeting was held) visited theMinistry of Foreign Affairs, and submitted the document
addressed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe requesting thepromotion of initiatives for the abolition of nuclear
weapons to Mr. Kiyoto Tsuji, the Parliamentary ViceMinister for Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Tsuji, receiving the document, stated“The Japanese
government
shares the objective of Mayors
for Peace to create a world freeof nuclear weapSubmission of the request document to theJapanese government (from front left: Mr.
ons. We would
Takahara from Takayama City; Nagasaki
like to work
Mayor Taue; Hiroshima Mayor Matsui; Mr.
Tsuji, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Forhard with full
eign Affairs)
understandingof the Mayors
for Peace approach. I am very encouraged by the twomayors leading the world on this. I appreciate your continued cooperation”.
(Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division)
Peace Memorial Hall special exhibition

Lantern Floating: Memorial for the

A-bombing at Hiroshima Ichijo−Records from a girls’ high schoolthat suffered the greatest sacrifice−

Period: January 1 (Tue.) ~ December 29 (Sun.),2019
Place: H iroshima National Peace Memorial
Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims B1F
Bottom right is “Lantern Floating” published in 1957.
Sequels and reprints were also published, and it has been read by generations as a precious record.

The Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the
Atomic Bomb Victims organizes a special exhibition ona set theme each year, and displays A-bomb testimonies,
to communicate the actual damage from the bombing.

(Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims)
2

Visit by Chinese People’s
Association for Peace andDisarmament delegation

Welcoming UN Disarmament Fellows
We welcomed trainees (fellows) participating in the
United Nations Programme of Fellowship on
Disarmament to Hiroshima over two days from October
1, 2018. The programme is run by the UN and aims totrain disarmament specialists.
This programme has been run by the UN since 1979.
Fellows have been welcomed in Hiroshima every year
since 1983, and with the fellows 2018, the total numberof fellows coming to Hiroshima has passed 900.
This time there were 27 participants, including
young diplomats from 25 countries.
On October 1, the group listened to an explanation
by Mr. Yasuyoshi Komizo, the Chairperson of thisFoundation, about the initiatives of Mayors for Peace toabolish nuclear weapons. This was followed by tours of
the Peace Memorial Museum, Peace Memorial Hall for
the Atomic Bomb Victims, the A-Bomb Dome andmore, after which the group presented flowers at theMemorial Cenotaph for the Atomic Bomb Victims. The
group also interacted with Hiroshima citizens, were given books that depict the reality of the atomic bombing
and a lei of paper cranes made with the colors of the national flag of each of the fellows, and were also presented with paper cranes made by Hiroshima high school
students out of copper sheets. At the end of the day, thegroup listened to a testimony by an atomic bomb witness.
On October 2, the group visited the Radiation Effects
Research Foundation, where they listened to a lecture by
Vice-Chairman and Executive Director Mr. Ullrich
about the effects of radiation on the human body. There
were many questions after the lecture.
The schedule for the programme this time had to besignificantly altered because of a typhoon, but membersof the group said that they wanted the programme to beheld as much as possible in accordance with the originalplans, and as a result they had a meaningful stay in
Hiroshima in the limited time available. The fellows all
listened to the lecture with great interest, and over thetwo days were able to deepen their understanding about
the reality of the atomic bombing, as well as sharing
memories of the bombed city of Hiroshima.

The Chinese People’s Association for Peace andDisarmament (CPAPD) is a national organization in
China that promotes peace and disarmament.
This Foundation and CPAPD have continued mutual
visits for thirty years, since 1988. In 2018, a delegationfrom CPAPD visited Hiroshima and Tokyo from
November 25 to 28.
During the delegation’s stay in Hiroshima, they met
with Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, the president of
this Foundation, where Mayor Matsui made a request
for cooperation in activities to recruit cities to Mayors
for Peace and activities for the abolition of nuclear
weapons. In response, the head of the delegation andsecretary of CPAPD, An Yuejun, said that he would liketo further promote exchange and cooperation between
the two organizations, to contribute to the developmentof the relationship between Japan and China.
The group also held a discussion with the membersof the 2017 Hiroshima Residents’ Peace and Friendship
Delegation, visited Peace Memorial Park and the Peace
Memorial Museum, and listened to an A-bomb testimony by Kiyomi Kono, thus deepening their understandingof the reality of the atomic bombing.

Visiting the mayor

The delegation also attended a discussion session
with university students from Hiroshima, where they exchanged frank opinions about the China-Japan relationship as viewed by young people.
The group then went to Tokyo, where they visitedthe Japan Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs(Gensuikyo) and other related organizations.
2018 was a landmark year, marking the 40th anniversary of the Japan-China Peace and Amity Treaty, and thevisiting delegation repeatedly talked about the importance of friendship between the two nations. Throughthis visit, we were able to reaffirm to each other the significance of continuing civic-level exchange activities.
(Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division)

Mayors for Peace secretariat
accepts interns fromoverseas member cities

The group of fellows after presenting flowers at the Memorial Cenotaph for the Atomic Bomb Victims

Since 2014, Mayors for Peace has been inviting young
government employees from oversees member cities to(Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division)
3

Hiroshima as interns, where they work in the secretariat.
This year the secretariat accepted six people from six
cities in six countries.

Conference on International Humanitarian Law in AsiaPacific in Jakarta, Indonesia, at the request of theInternational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). At
the second session of the conference, Human
Considerations Around Nuclear Weapons, he gave a presentation titled “Civil Society Perspective towards aWorld without Nuclear Weapons: Mayors for Peace atWork”.
In his presentation, Mr. Komizo spoke about thehibakushas’ experience and emphasized their desire tocreate a world free of nuclear weapons and their wish
that no-one should ever again go through what they did.
He gave examples of wide-ranging nuclear disarmament
promotion activities by civic groups, as well as examples where the leaders of nuclear weapon states haveachieved nuclear disarmament amidst heightening international tension, pointing out the importance of diverse
civic groups working together as well as leadership by
policymakers. He also spoke about Mayors for Peace,led by Hiroshima and Nagasaki cities, and their two key
objectives for their activities for the achievement of apeaceful world: to realize a world without nuclear weapons and to create safe and resilient cities. He emphasized that it will be possible to achieve a world free of
nuclear weapons if the national and local governments
cooperate with a wide range of civic groups, and called
for participants to work together with Mayors for Peaceon specific measures to achieve nuclear disarmament.

Past intern acceptance data
No. ofPeriodpeopleGermany Munich
1 June 18−July 13, 2018
Cameroon Fongo-Tongo
1 August 21−September 14, 2018
BrazilSantos1 October 22−November 2, 2018
Iran
Tehran1 November 12−November 28, 2018
RussiaVolgograd
1 December 3−December 19, 2018
CanadaMontreal
1 January 16−February 13, 2019
CountryCity

During their stay, the interns were involved in updating information about member cities and surveying cities in their home country that are not yet members, aswell as writing articles for the email magazine and otherwork in the secretariat. For their part, the interns gave
explanations to the secretariat and employees of thisFoundation on peace activities in their own city. In thisway we were able to promote mutual understanding andstrengthen collaboration.
The interns also visited the Peace Memorial
Museum, Peace Memorial Park, Peace Memorial Hallfor the Atomic Bomb Victims, and the Radiation Effects
Research Foundation. They also listened to A-bomb testimonies, and held discussions with young people from
Hiroshima, thus deepening their understanding of the reality of the atomic bombing and sharing the desire forpeace.

Presentation by Mr. Komizo

There were also proactive questions from participants (international humanitarian law experts, diplomats, NGOs, and others), and the session enabled us toshare the need for efforts to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons with a large number of people.
(Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division)

An intern visiting Peace Memorial Park

When each intern goes back to their respective country, they are involved in activities aiming for the abolition of nuclear weapons based on what they learned in
Hiroshima, including giving talks and providing peaceeducation for young people. Through this internship program, the secretariat hopes that the desire of Hiroshima
to create a peaceful world without nuclear weapons willbe spread throughout the world.
(Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division)

Mayors for Peace Children’s Art
Competition “Peaceful Towns”
In 2018, Mayors for Peace held the first children’s art
competition under the theme of “Peaceful Towns”, forchildren aged 6 to 15 from all member cities. The aim of
the contest was to further enhance peace education inmember cities.
By having the children think about peaceful towns
by participating in the contest, and expressing their message in their pictures, the aim is to foster the children’sawareness of peace. Through this peace education project, we hope that member cities will use this as an opportunity to start up their own projects. It was
implemented as a new activity, and 469 pictures were

Mayors for Peace Secretary
General’s attendance to ICRC
Regional Conference on
International Humanitarian
Law in Asia-Pacific
On September 26, 2018, the Chairperson of thisFoundation (and Secretary-General of Mayors for
Peace) Yasuyoshi Komizo attended the Regional
4they learned about the truth of the atomic bombing bylistening to an atomic bomb testimony. The group also
held discussions with local university students, thus
deepening their understanding of peace from various
perspectives.
Kyungpook National University (South Korea)
On January 9, a total of twenty-one participants (20students and 1 teacher) from Kyungpook National
University, College of Humanities conducted peacestudies in Hiroshima City for the first time since theHiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study Course was certified
at that university in 2018.
The group visited the Peace Memorial Museum andPeace Memorial Park, and listened to atomic bomb testimony by Kaneji Ota, learning about the truth of theatomic bombing.

The grand prize: Ms. Anastasia Skobeltsyna in
Krasnodar, Russia (9 years old)
“The Flying Angel over the city encourages and raises
the soul.”sent in from 29 cities in 14 countries all over the world.
From a very strong lineup of works, the judges selected one work to receive the grand prize award, twoworks to receive second prize and others, for 8 awarded
works in total. The work that won the grand prize award
has been adopted as the design for the clear plastic folder distributed by Mayors for Peace, and will be used invarious places.
(Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division)

Suppor t f or Univ er sities
of fering the HiroshimaNagasaki Peace Study Course
Guided by a peace volunteer in Peace Memorial ParkThe cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are asking colleges and universities around the world to establish andpromote Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study Courses designed to analyze and disseminate A-bomb lessons andthe message of the survivors as a common social and intellectual asset for humankind, so that it can be communicated to the future generations.
This Foundation provided program support when the
two universities below conducted peace studies in
Hiroshima from November 2018 to January 2019.

(Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division)

Attendance at Obama
Foundation’s Asia-Pacific Regional
Leaders Design Workshop
For three days from January 4-6, 2019, an employee
from this Foundation’s Peace and International
Solidarity Promotion Division attended the Obama
Foundation’s Asia-Pacific Regional Leaders Design
Workshop held in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
This workshop was held for young leaders from various fields in the Asia-Pacific region, with the aims ofraising the participants’ motivation as
leaders and building a
network between
them. The 21 participants, active in a variety of fields such ase d u c a t i o n a n d I T,
came from 16 countries and regions including Indonesia andthe Marshall Islands,
and held discussions
on things like theskills required to further revitalize and ex- Former US President Obama at thepand their respective farewell reception

DePaul University (United States)
From November 30 to December 9, a total of 18 participants (16 students and 2 teachers) from DePaul
University, which offers the course, participated in peacestudies in Hiroshima City and Nagasaki City. This was
the seventh time that this university has visited
Hiroshima.
In Hiroshima, the group visited the Peace Memorial
Museum and Peace Memorial Park, and in Nagasaki
toured places such as Oka Masaharu Memorial Nagasaki
Peace Museum and Urakami Cathedral. In both cities,

Visiting Peace Memorial Museum5activities. They also shared ideas about what is necessary to exercise their leadership in the Asia-Pacific region in the future. They then made their grouppresentations in front of former US President Obamaand held a discussion.
This Foundation’s employee exchanged opinionswith the young leaders from the Asia-Pacific region on
the issues that they each want to resolve. Our employee
also introduced the Mayors for Peace initiatives andasked for understanding and support for future activities.
(Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division)

Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic
Bomb Exhibition in Hungary,France and Belgium
Hiroshima City and Nagasaki City jointly hold theHiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Exhibition overseas,
to communicate the reality of the damage from thebombing and foster international support for the abolition of nuclear weapons. In 2018, the HiroshimaNagasaki Atomic Bomb Exhibition was held in
Budapest, capital city of Hungary, Caen City in France,
and Ypres City in Belgium. The exhibition includes objects of those who lost their lives in the bombing such as
the burned drink bottle of a junior high school student
who died while working as a mobilized student, andtwenty other actual articles including Sadako Sasaki’s
paper cranes. There are also thirty panels explaining theactual damage from the bombing in Hiroshima andNagasaki, and more.
At the Hospital in the Rock Nuclear Bunker Museumin Budapest City, following on from the exhibition in
the first half of 2017, the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic
Bomb Exhibition was held again from December 20,
2017 until August 31, 2018. Approximately 113,200 residents and tourist visited the exhibition.
The exhibition was held in Caen Memorial Museum
in the city of Caen from September 20 to October 31,
2018. There were around 10,000 visitors to the exhibition. On September 19 at the opening ceremony, there
were speeches by Mr. Kenji Shiga, the Director of theHiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, and others. The
speeches were followed by a testimony by Atomic
Bomb Witness Ms. Yoshiko Kajimoto, who used slides
with maps and pictures in her presentation. She also
gave her atomic bomb testimony at two other locations
in France.

Partial renewal of permanent
exhibits at Schmoe House
Around seventy years ago, American peace activist
Floyd Schmoe came to Hiroshima with volunteers from
America and Japan, and built “Houses for Hiroshima”
for people who had lost their homes in the atomic bombing.
“Schmoe House”, built as a community center, is the
only House for Hiroshima still standing. Renovated as
an exhibition facility, it was opened in 2012 as a branchof the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
Schmoe House underwent a partial renewal of its exhibits, and was reopened on February 22, 2019, with additional artifacts and collections that have been donatedor consigned to the facility, including clear color photographs taken by Floyd Schmoe and materials donated by
the former residents of Houses for Hiroshima.

Interior of the model house in Eba Town
(donated by Tomiko Schmoe, consigned by Schmoe ni Manabu
Kai (Association to Learn from Schmoe)

Renewed content:(1) 22 additional photographs
・Clear color photographs taken by Floyd Schmoe (fullview of Eba Village, houses under construction, amodel house, apartment and guest house in Ushita
Town, etc)
・Photographs donated by former residents
・Photographs of houses built in Nagasaki(2) Update of explanatory panels
Additional explanations for full view of Eba Village,
model house, apartment and guest house in Ushita
Town, etc)
(3) 5 additional exhibits
1 envelope addressed to Schmoe House (replica), 4 construction drawings (replicas)(Peace Memorial Museum Curatorial Division)

Ms. Kajimoto giving her atomic bomb testimony in the city ofCannes in France

In Ypres City, which was subjected to full-scale useof chemical weapons for the first time in history during
World War I, the Atomic Bomb Exhibition was heldfrom November 9 to December 2, 2018 in Ypres
Museum, at the same time as they marked 100 years
since the end of World War I. At the opening ceremonyon November 9, there were speeches by Ypres Mayor
Jan Durnez, Mr. Hajime Hayashi, the Japanese
Ambassador to Belgium, Mr. Kenji Shiga, and others.
6Ms. Sadae Kasaoka gave her atomic bomb testimony
four times in locations in Belgium. University students
and residents listened intently to her talk, and asked many questions about the effects of radiation and the situation after the bombing.
By viewing the exhibition and listening to the atomic
bomb testimony, visitors strengthened their desire forthe abolition of nuclear weapons and the preciousness ofpeace.
(Peace Memorial Museum Outreach Division)

tension and urgency as they listened, knowing that there
will be fewer opportunities in the future to listen directly
to the hibakusha speak and that one day those opportunities will disappear. After the talk, they actively asked
questions.
Based on this project, we will continue to work towards improving the displays at the UN facilities on thedamage from the atomic bombing, enhancing the tour
commentary at each facility on the damage from thebombing and the abolition of nuclear weapons, andstrengthening the message of the spirit of Hiroshima
throughout the global community. We would also like toenhance and expand our cooperative relationship with
the United Nations and think about implementing joint
projects for events at United Nations facilities.
(Peace Memorial Museum Outreach Division)

Hiroshima training of United
Nations tour guides−Communicating the spirit of Hiroshima to the world−
The City of Hiroshima holds permanent exhibitions
jointly with the Nagasaki City at United Nations facilities in New York, Geneva and Vienna. The exhibitions
are made up of atomic bomb artifacts and photo panels,
and many visitors from around the world, including national leaders, view the exhibitions every day.
In order to effectively communicate the reality of thedamage from the bombing through the exhibitions, it isessential that guides and employees leading guided tours
share information on the truth of the bombing.
Therefore, from 2017 the Hiroshima Peace Memorial
Museum started the training program for United Nations
tour guides, where tour guides from the three UN facilities are invited to Hiroshima, so that they can gain anunderstanding of the reality of the atomic bombing. This
time the training was held for 5 days from December
1-5, 2018, with six guides participating. It was the second time it has been held.
For the training this time, the program used for the
first training in 2017 was significantly revised, with astronger focus placed on experiences that the participants could only have in Hiroshima, and the acquisitionof knowledge and skills through exchange activities
with atomic bomb witnesses and Hiroshima Peace
Volunteers. The content of the program included lectures
as well as a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial
Museum, a tour of the Cenotaph and the remains ofbombed structures, listening to an atomic bomb testimony, exchange sessions with volunteers and a tour of thecity.
Participants said that there was a lot of practical content, and they could learn things that were directly related to their own work as tour guides. Many participantsalso said that the part of the program that left the greatest impression on them was the atomic bombing testimony. The participants seemed to have a sense of

A-bomb Legacy Successors
dispatch projectAt the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the
Atomic Bomb Victims, the A-bomb Legacy Successors
Dispatch Project was started in April 2018. The aim of
the project is to pass down the experience of the A-bomb
survivors (hibakusha) and their desire for peace to thenext generation. In this project, A-bomb Legacy
Successors, who have learned about the A-bomb experience directly from hibakusha, and A-Bomb Testimonial
Recital Volunteers, who read out A-bomb testimonials
and poetry written by hibakusha, are dispatchedthroughout Japan and overseas. Those who are dispatched give talks to communicate the A-bomb experience or hold recitals of A-bomb testimonials at peace
study sessions and other events organized by the organizations that apply.
There has been a major response to this project. In
2018, 306 people were dispatched (270 for A-bomb testimonial talks, and 36 for A-bomb testimonial recitals),
and through this activity the A-bomb experience has
been communicated to approximately 50,000 young
children and school students.
From October 22-27, 2018, A-bomb testimonial recitals were held in the port town Le Havre in theNormandy region in northern France, and from
November 3-7 A-bomb testimonial recitals and A-bomb
testimonial talks were held in the two cities ofManchester and Coventry in England.
The A-bomb testimonial recital volunteers held therecitals this time, having been invited to a symposium
organized by Le Havre University for young students
mainly majoring in social sciences and economics.
At the end of World War II in German-occupied
Normandy, the largest land operation in history (theInvasion of Normandy) took place. At that time, the major air raids by the Allied Forces against German troops
completely destroyed the towns where people were living. It is because Normandy has this history of war disaster and recovery that the students there have an
extremely high level of interest in peace and humanrights. They were involved in the recital from the planning stage and actively participated in the recital of abomb poetry and the question and answer session.
In Manchester and Coventry, three recitals and talks

Listening to atomic bombing testimony

7

by A-bomb testimonial messengers were held for elementary school students, university students participating in anti-nuclear weapons campaigns, and others.
There were some challenges in preparing the venues forthe events, but the recital volunteers and messengers
made use of their experience of such activities in Japan,
and worked hard to communicate the ‘Spirit ofHiroshima’ to the people of England.
There were also courtesy visits made to government
heads in Manchester City, Oldham region nearby, andCoventry City, and discussions were held with people
involved in governmental peace-related activities fromboth cities. The mayor of Manchester expressed a strong
wish to work together with the city residents and achieve
diversity.

Seventy organizations, including companies and civic groups that conduct international exchange and cooperation activities in Hiroshima City and surrounding
areas, held 38 varied events on themes such as intercultural understanding, the global environment, multicultural coexistence, and Japanese cultural experiences. A
total of 12,800 people came to the events.
At the opening ceremony, there was a calligraphy
performance by students from the Calligraphy
Department in the Faculty of Letters at Yasuda Women’s
University. They powerfully wrote the catch copy of thisyear’s International Festival, ‘Let’s open doors to theworld’, and there was great applause from the visitors
for the completed piece of work.
Talk show: Sergio Echigo talks about nikkeijin(people of Japanese ancestry) and soccer
The outspoken and humorous soccer commentator,
Sergio Echigo, was invited as guest speaker. He talked
about the nikkei community in Brazil, the differences inculture and lifestyle between Japan and Brazil, and international exchange through sports, among other things.
The audience often laughed at his humorous comments, and listened intently until the end as told stories
that they normally would not hear. There were comments from the audience such as “I learned about cultural exchange through sports, the importance of making
an international contribution, and Brazilian culture”, and“I felt Sergio’s deep affection for Japan”.

Together with children from an elementary school that held an Abomb testimonial talk and recital (Manchester)

Explanations of international exchange and cooperation activities
At the activity explanation section for civic groups
and others, 21 organizations set up booths, where they
explained their respective international exchange andcooperation activities. Apart from civic groups, there
were also booths set up by public bodies, NGOs, university students, companies and more, where visitors could
hear about the current situation in countries receiving
support, try on national costumes, try drawing water bythemselves, and other fun exchange activities. There
was also an international exchange and cooperation report session by youth and university students and a foreign language discussion session.

Calls for locations for dispatches in 2019 started
from January 21, 2019. Details of the content of the dispatch activities are posted on the homepage of theHiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic
Bomb Victims. Overseas dispatches are sent to aroundone country each year, coordinating with the locations
requesting dispatches.
(Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims)

International Festival 2018

−Let’s open doors to the world,
let’s meet friends from all over the world−

On November 18, 2018, the International Festival washeld for the 19th time, at International Conference Center
Hiroshima, the Peace Boulevard green belt, and othervenues.

Overseas and Japanese culture introductionand experience
In terms of overseas culture experience, there weresections on designing Scottish quilts, tying Celtic knots,
Chinese paper cutouts, and Chinese-style braided cords.
For Japanese cultural experiences, there were sections
on trying on kimonos, tea ceremony, flower arrangement, calligraphy, and more. Foreign and Japanese visitors showed great interest in other cultures.
World cuisine and folk art bazaar
At the Peace Boulevard green belt on the south sideof International Conference Center Hiroshima, there wasan area called ‘Hiroshima International Village – Food
Stalls of the World’, where 18 organizations were selling various foods from around the world. At theInternational Cooperation Bazaar venue, twelve organizations were selling folk art and other articles from various countries.
There were many other sections, including the 50

Calligraphy performance8

Cities-50 Traces photo exhibition organized by
Hiroshima City’s sister city Hanover, which showedphotos of the tracks left in asphalt in fifty cities aroundthe world; a presentation session by exchange students;
the ‘Earth Forum’, where people of all ages could enjoy
intercultural experiences; a section where visitors could
learn about Hiroshima’s sister and friendship cities
while doing craftwork; an outdoor stage with performances of dances and music from all over the world; asection where visitors could donate foreign currency
coins to support children in developing nations; as well
as a quiz rally where visitors could receive a present by
answering quiz questions at various event venues. Eachvenue was bustling with people, and visitors deepened
their understanding of international exchange and cooperation.
Many residents and international students participated in this event as volunteer staff, and enjoyed the event
together as they were working.
The Japanese and foreign people who participatedspent the day experiencing the cultures of the world.
(International Relations & Cooperate Division)In 1983, which marked the 15th year of these exchange activities, it was decided that Hiroshima andHanover would become sister cities. On May 27, a signing ceremony was held in Hanover City, attended by
Hiroshima Mayor Takeshi Araki and Hanover Mayor
Schmalstieg.
In Hiroshima City, the Hiroshima-Hannover Society
was formed in February 1979, and it was decided to set
up the secretariat for the organization within theInternational Youth Association Hiroshima. Prior to this,in December 1978 a friendship society had been established in Hanover City, with its secretariat in the
Hanover City Youth Bureau. Since then, youth exchange
activities were led by these two secretariats.
In 2005, based on a proposal put forward by the
Mayor of Hiroshima at the time, Tadatoshi Akiba, andToshihiko Hayashi, the International Youth Conference
for Peace in the Future (IYCPF) was established.
Hiroshima City and Hanover City called on their respective sister cities to participate in this conference where
young people gather together and look for ways thatyoung people can conduct peace activities. Hiroshima
City and other cities then took it in turn to hold this conference. To date, Hiroshima City and Hanover City havetaken the lead and the conference has been held without
interruption every year.
The mutual visits between Hiroshima City andHanover City did lose momentum at one point in time.
However, I was invited to a memorial service in
Hanover City in February 2011 for Toshihiko Hayashi,
who had passed away the year before, and there I promised to revive youth exchange activities. The activitiesof the voluntary Hiroshima-Hannover Society had been
on hold, so in April 2011, when the International Youth
Association Hiroshima became a general incorporated
association, I became the representative director, and at
the same time established the Hiroshima-HannoverPartnership Society, also a general incorporated association. In order to expand the activities of the Society,from not only youth exchange activities but also culturalactivities and exchange with the business world, I appointed as directors Mr. Sōkei Ueda (grand master of the
Ueda Sōko-ryu tea ceremony), Mr. Masao Mukuda(president and representative director of Hiroshima
Electric Railway Co., Ltd), Mr. Hiroshi Tsuboi (chairman of the Hiroshima Shinkin Bank), and the late Mr.
Hiroyuki Watanabe (president of Dreambed Co., Ltd.).
After the inaugural meeting in December 2012, we started activities.
The visits to Hanover were re-started in April 2014.

Youth exchange activities with
Hanover City, Germanyth～for the 50 anniversary of youth exchange activity～(September 2018)

by Dr. Kouki Inai
Chairperson, HiroshimaHannover Partnership Society
The origin of youth exchange activities with Hanover
City, Germany, goes back to 1968. In that year, the lateToshihiko Hayashi (passed away October 2010), who
was the secretary-general of International Youth
Association Hiroshima, led the first youth group fromJapan to visit Germany under the cultural agreement established between the German and Japanese governments. The group visited Hanover City, and this was thestart of exchange activities between the two cities. The
Mayor of Hanover at that time, Herbert Schmalstieg,
proposed that rather than exchange activities at the national level, more effort should be devoted to developing exchange activities at the municipal level, and thismarked the beginning of youth exchange between
Hiroshima City and Hanover City.
In 1970, a delegation of 22 young people was sent
for the first time from Hiroshima City to Hanover City.
In 1971, 25 young people participated, and in 1972 adelegation of 32 young people visited Hanover City together with the Mayor of Hiroshima at the time, Setsuo
Yamada. From 1973, delegations from Hanover City
started visiting Hiroshima City. In 1978, which marked
ten years since exchange activities started, the mayor of
Hanover sent 3,000 mametsuge holly trees as a gift toHiroshima, and as a result the sunken flowerbed garden“Hannover Garden” was made next to what was then thesite of Hiroshima Municipal Stadium.

Delegation visiting Hanover (2014)

9

The delegation included 14 youth representatives, 5 traditional Japanese musical instrument performers, 4Hiroshima Electric Railway employees, and 3 employees of a bakery Andersen Co., Ltd., for a total of 31 participants. In Hanover City, the group made a courtesy
visit to the mayor, attended a memorial service at the
war memorial Aegidienkirche, and more. The young
members participated in homestays, and there was a performance of western music at the city hall, and they visited Uestra Company, which operates the streetcars andbuses. In October 2015 a group of 12 people from
Hanover came to Hiroshima, where they made a courtesy visit to the Hiroshima Mayor, visited the Cenotaph
for the A-Bomb Victims, and attended a party which was
an exchange event with the Hiroshima-HannoverPartnership Society. There was another visit to Hanover
City in 2016 by 22 people. In 2018, marking the 50th
year since the start of exchange activities, there were
mutual visits, one to Hanover City by a group from
Hiroshima City in April (34 people including 17 young
people), and one to Hiroshima City by a group from
Hanover City in August (9 people). Both cities heldcommemorative tree-planting (at Hiroshima-Hain (forest) in Hanover City and Hannover Garden in HiroshimaCity), thus adding a new page to our history of exchange
activities.
In the future, I hope that we can continue to cherish
these exchange activities, with the belief that the exchange of a diversity of people, including young people,
will lead to mutual understanding and will become astep towards the achievement of world peace.

are the most evil weapons in human history, and their
abolition is the wish of all humankind. I believe that it is
the responsibility of us living now to continue to work
to ensure that Japan maintains its three non-nuclear principles, and that nuclear weapons are abolished and eternal peace is achieved, so that what happened toHiroshima and Nagasaki never happens again.
Each year, when August gets closer, I remember thescenes on that day when the bomb was dropped.
However, on the other hand, the thing that we fear themost is that memories of the bombing will fade. In actual fact, my memories of the details of that time fade witheach passing year, and more and more I find myself trying to recall what happened at the time.
Damage from the bombing
In 1945 I was 5 years old, and there were four in myfamily: my parents, my 3-year-old brother and I. Our
house was 900m from the hypocenter. On the morningof Monday, August 6, the weather was fine. I walked out
the front door behind my mother to go to kindergarten,
and at that moment there was a flash of light and a blast,and for a few seconds or minutes I fell unconscious.
When I came to at the sound of my mother calling me,
the house had collapsed, and the whole family had fallen into the air raid shelter that had been dug under thehouse. We called out to each other in the dark, held eachother’s hands, and came up to ground level. Looking
around, I saw that the whole house had collapsed and it
was impossible to know where the road was.
We fled to Tenma River, which was 30m from ourhouse, walking over houses that had collapsed on top of
one another. We finally reached the gangi (stairs leading
to the dock), but there was nowhere to step as it was fullof people who were charred black. There were people
with long nails were sticking out of their eyes, their faces covered in blood. On land, collapsed buildings hadcaught fire, and the fires were spreading, so we went
down to the river. On the way down I was surprised
when a black hand that was severely burned grabbed myleg, and a low, groaning voice said “give me water, giveme water.” The person’s skin had completely peeledaway and he was covered in blood. My leg slipped out

Profile[Kouki Inai]
Graduated from School of Medicine, Hiroshima University in 1974.
Professor in the School of Medicine, Hiroshima University from 19902012. Head of the School of Medicine from 2002-2006. Specializes inhuman pathology.
Joined the International Youth Association Hiroshima in 1963. From
2011, representative director of the Association, which had become ageneral incorporated association. From 2012, Chairperson of the general incorporated association Hiroshima-Hannover Partnership Society.

Memoir of the A-bombing“My atomic bomb testimony”

by Kaneji Ota
Atomic Bombing Witness forthis Foundation
Introduction
Seventy-three years have passed since the atomic
bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. That bomb instantaneously took away the lives of tens of thousands of people with its heat wave and blast, and by the end of thatyear, around 140,000 people had lost their lives. The
hibakusha (survivors) have suffered the after-effects
from the radiation up to the present. Nuclear weapons“People who had fled from the fires gathering at
the steps of a pier for water”
Drawn by Yuna Matsuda and Kaneji Ota

10my father, and by around March or April 1946 we hadbuilt a black house out of the burnt wood. However rightnear our house, people who looked like soldiers cremated black corpses that they carried there on stretchers,
day and night; there were so many corpses there I lost
count. Words cannot express the smell that came fromthat place; it was an awful scene.

of his grasp. I asked my father if we should give himwater, but my father told me that we should not, because
if you give water to people with burns all over theirbody they will die.
When we got down to the river it was just after hightide, and the water came up to my neck. Burned, blackened wood came floating from upstream, so my father
picked one piece of wood and stood it up on the riverbank. He then got a mattress that came floating down
and put it on top of the wood. We then hid under themattress and protected ourselves from the burning
flames and the summer heat.

Thoughts about the bomb
I really want to yell out in a loud voice that the atomic bomb is inhumane and a mistake.
I believe that the most important thing is to continue
to tell the next generation about the bombing, so thatmemories do not fade, and with the hope that the storiesof the suffering inflicted by the bombing will continue
to be passed down forever. If we do that, I am certainthat we will definitely achieve eternal world peace oneday.

The suffering of the victims
When the tide receded and we could cross the river,
we decided to go to the small house that my father had
previously built in the mountains in Koi so that wewould have somewhere to go “in case anything happened”. We walked along the Tenma River, Fukushima
River, Yamate River and others, weaving our way
through all the floating corpses.
Our house in the mountains had not collapsed, butwindow panes were broken and there were shards ofglass all over the vegetables and sweet potato leaves inthe surrounding vegetable patches. While we were in
our house in the mountains, we were eating those vegetables, but we gradually got weaker and weaker, and finally there was nothing to eat. My father and I went to
the town together, bought some food provisions andcame back, but they did not last for very long.
The heat wave had left my mother with burns mainly
at the front of her upper body, and she was enduring thepain. I also remember that whenever she combed herhair, huge amounts of her hair would come out and beleft in the comb, and she was crying as she looked atherself in the mirror. After that, my father, then myyounger brother, then I, all had our hair falling out, andthe whole family became completely bald. We picked
the dokudami (medicinal herb) that we had planted in
the area around our house, rubbed it in our fingers, thenapplied it to our wounds, or drank it as tea. But it did nothave any effect. Eventually our wounds were festeringwith maggots, and when I think about my parents removing each maggot one by one with chopsticks, I really have so many sad memories.
As time passed we became weaker and weaker, andaround November or December, my father, brother and I
went to my aunt’s house in Takehara, and my motherwent to another aunt’s house in Mihara. They looked after us for about three months. There were hospitals in
Takehara and Mihara, we had enough food to eat, andour aunt’s family looked after us very well. I am so
grateful, because I am alive today thanks to my aunts.
After that, I was reunited with my mother at
Hiroshima Station, and I remember being so happy. The
whole family returned to our house in the mountains,
and we finally got better. Looking towards the center ofthe city from the mountains, there were burnt ruins as
far as we could see, with some places just barely standing, including A-Bomb Dome, Honkawa National
School, and Aioi Bridge, which was the target of thebombing.
Every day, my father and I desperately collectedwood from the burnt ruins of our house, so that we could
build a new house in the same place in the city. I helped

Profile[Kaneji Ota]
Born in 1939. Experienced the bombing at home 900m from the hypocenter at the age of 5, as a kindergarten student.
Involved in activities as an atomic bomb witness from 2015. Appeals
for the abolition of nuclear weapons and the achievement of eternal
world peace by communicating the truth of the atomic bombing.

 Memoir of the A-bombing“A life saved, becoming a bridge
to peace”

by Yasuko Kondo
Atomic Bombing Witness forthis Foundation
Motivation for peace activities
I started getting involved in the Hiroshima Peace
Volunteer activities from 2001. Specifically, I work as avolunteer tour guide in the Peace Memorial Museum
and Peace Memorial Park at least twice a month. WhenI act as a guide, people always say to me “You’re sowell.” I think that I am well because I experienced theatomic bombing 73 years ago. This is because I strongly
feel that I never want the next generation to have thesame experience.
From 2015, I have been talking about my A-bomb
experience to students who come to Peace Memorial
Park as part of their peace studies. I feel encouraged
when I receive letters from people thanking me.
August 6, 1945
On that day, the sky was perfectly clear from themorning, and it was scorching hot. I was four years old,and at 8am that morning I was playing with my friends
in the stream next to the food supply station in what wasthen known as Furuta-machi, Hiroshima City (3.5km
from the hypocenter), which is where I was evacuated.
At 8:15am, there was a flash! And a boom! I felt an
11unbelievable ray of light, and dropped down onto theriver bank.
My mother immediately rushed out from the supply
station carrying my younger sister, and we ran to the airraid shelter. On the way there, my sister starting behaving strangely. Her eyes rolled, and her mouth wasmoving as though she was chewing something. Therewas something in her mouth. My mother put her hand in
my sister’s mouth, and pulled out four pieces of glass
one after the other. I’ll never forget my sister’s mouthand my mother’s hand covered in bright red blood.
The residents of Furuta-machi were out doing building demolition work near the hypocenter, but aroundmidday, they all came back in a group, everyone completely blackened, naked, rags hanging off their bodies,
their arms held forward.
My cousin (7), who had gone to school, came backin the evening carried on someone’s delivery bicycle. He
looked like an old rag, completely different from the boy
who had left in such high spirits early that morning. He
died fifteen days later, on August 21. I can only imagine
how hot it must have been for him. Every year on
August 6 I put my hands together in prayer for him at
his grave.
One of the people in the group that came shufflingback to escape the disaster sat down next to the jizo
(guardian deity of children) stone statue in front of myevacuation house. He had nothing on, and was sitting
there hiding his body with a paper bag. It seemed likethe jizo statue had divided into two statues. When I approached he said “Young girl, give me some water”, but
as a 4-year-old child there was nothing I could do.

home on August 8.
Even on the third day after the bombing, there wassmoke rising up from the burned remains. Around us
was complete burned devastation. Our large house wasburned down with only the garden rocks from the big
pond and the stone steps to the storehouse remaining.
There was also one Japanese lantern plant with red berries that survived.
To my mother’s family home
We went from our home to my grandparent’s houseon my mother’s side in Kure, via the naval academy on
Etajima Island. We started living there from around
August 12. For about one month, I had a continuous
high fever and diarrhea. In the end I was producing
bloody and black stools, and my intestines came out
from my anus. I will never forget the pain I felt when
my mother applied a steaming hot towel to my intestine
to push it back in. My little sister was nine months old
and had just started to crawl, and because of her bloodystools when she crawled she left a path of blood.
I developed rashes on my head. Since there was no
medicine, cooking oil mixed with baby powder was
rubbed onto my head, and until around December of thatyear my head was completely white. We heard thatboiled Dokudami plant is good for rashes, so I drank
Dokudami tea. People at that time were saying that a
new kind of bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, andthat hibakusha were saved by flushing out the poison using the Dokudami plant.
Appealing for the abolition of nuclear weapons
The reason I am alive now is because of the warm
support of the people around me at that time, and I am
grateful to them. In this life that was saved, I wonder
how many more years I have left. I will work as a peacevolunteer, talk about my atomic bomb experience andappeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons as long as I
have the energy to do so.

Back to my home, 800m from the hypocenter
The next morning, my mother, sister and I left tocheck our house, which was 800m from the hypocenter.
However, it was very difficult to get to the area near the
hypocenter. We walked around, and finally reached ourProfile[Yasuko Kondo]
Born 1940. Was aged 4, at an evacuation site 3.5km from the hypocenter, when the atomic bomb hit. Three days after the bombing, walked
home with mother and younger sister. Home was in the city, 800m
from the hypocenter. Will never forget walking over the rubble inwooden clogs.
Involved in activities as a Hiroshima peace volunteer since 2001.
Active as an atomic bomb witness since 2015.

Information

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[URL] http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/hpcf/paper/“Family walking over the rubble”
Drawn by: Kyoka Shintaku and Yasuko Kondo〔Request〕Please inform us if you change your mailing address.
HIROSHIMA PEACE CULTURE FOUNDATION
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730-0811, JAPAN
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