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American students learn about Hiroshima through recitation of A-bomb poems

by Junji Akechi, Staff Writer

A group of ten students and professors from the University of Indianapolis, who are visiting Hiroshima to learn about the damage caused by the atomic bombing, listened to a presentation of A-bomb poems at the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims on May 13.

Recitation volunteers read out four poems translated into English, which were written by elementary school students about their experience of the bombing. The American students listened closely, their faces responding to the sad accounts of children losing a father and a sister to the bombing.

Andrea Petro, 19, said that the sorrow conveyed by the A-bomb poems resonated with her personally because her father passed away suddenly when she was 11. The American students also read out a poem that they themselves had composed on the theme of "Hiroshima," imbued with their wishes for peace.

The group arrived in Hiroshima on May 11. Among other experiences, they have visited Peace Memorial Museum and listened to the accounts of A-bomb survivors.

(Originally published on May 14, 2010)

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