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Students from the U.S. visit Hiroshima to learn about A-bomb reality

by Junji Akechi, Staff Writer

Twelve students from the University of Indianapolis in the U.S. state of Indiana visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on March 8 to learn about the reality of the atomic bombing. The students will reflect on the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and the preciousness of peace by touring Peace Memorial Museum and listening to the account of an A-bomb survivor.

On the first day of their visit, the students walked through Peace Memorial Park and its vicinity with a Peace Volunteer guide from the museum. For about an hour and a half, they stopped at locations like the hypocenter marker, the Children’s Peace Monument, and an A-bombed Aogiri (Chinese parasol) tree. They also listened to a description of what the area had been like before the bombing, with homes and shops that stood side by side.

Fidaa Abuasu, 26, a student of international relations, is from Gaza, located in the autonomous area of the Palestinians. She has experienced the conflict in her homeland firsthand and said, “I would like to learn what happened in Hiroshima and work to help people suffering from conflict.”

The visit by the students is part of the “Hiroshima/Nagasaki course” promoted by the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at universities in Japan and overseas. After returning to the United States, the students will report on their visit to Japan to local residents and junior high and high school students, and hold a poster exhibit at their university to convey the damage done by the atomic bombings.

(Originally published on March 9, 2015)

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