×

News

Students from Tinian, island where A-bomb plane took off, visit Hiroshima

by Kohei Okata, Staff Writer

Two students from Tinian Junior/Senior High School on the island of Tinian, a U.S. dominion in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean, paid a visit to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum on August 22. The American bomber which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, dubbed Enola Gay, took off from Tinian. Students from Koryo High School, a sister school located in Asaminami Ward, Hiroshima, guided them in English. The students from Tinian learned about the devastation caused by the atomic bombing and shared their wishes for peace.

Pamela Barcinas, 16, and Joseph Lizama, 15, are both second-year high school students. They listened to their guides in front of a panoramic model which depicts the destruction left by the blast around the hypocenter, in the heart of the city. Ms. Barcinas said the fact that the plane which dropped the atomic bomb took off from her island is a sad part of Tinian history. She also expressed hope of making efforts to promote peace by working together with young people of Hiroshima.

The two students are visiting Japan as part of a peace exchange program sponsored by the Japan Youth Memorial Association, an NPO based in Tokyo which performs recoveries of the remains of dead soldiers. They arrived in Japan on August 20 with three junior high and high school students from Saipan. They will visit the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and return home on August 25.

(Originally published on August 23, 2013)

Archives