American college students visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and hear A-bomb survivor’s account
Mar. 19, 2017
by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Staff Writer
On March 18, 23 students from the University of Massachusetts Boston visited the Peace Memorial Park in Naka Ward, Hiroshima to learn more about peace. They gained a deeper understanding of the consequences of the atomic bombing through seeing the personal effects of the victims that are on display at the Peace Memorial Museum and hearing the account of an A-bomb survivor.
At the museum, the students looked at a charred lunchbox left behind by a victim and a model that depicts the devastated city center in the aftermath of the atomic bombing. They also listened to Keiko Ogura, 79, an A-bomb survivor and resident of Naka Ward, recount her experience in English. Ms. Ogura told them about her encounter with a person who was severely burned by the bomb, who asked her for a drink of water.
A guide from the citizens’ group Hiroshima Interpreters for Peace (HIP) provided explanations to the students about the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims and the A-bomb Dome. The group also went to the Children’s Peace Monument, a statue that was modeled after Sadako Sasaki, a girl who died of radiation-induced leukemia ten years after the bombing. Some students made an offering to the monument of the paper cranes that they had brought with them.
Gloribel Rivas, 21, a second-year student, said that she thought the A-bomb damage in Hiroshima was a warning for the nuclear nations, and that it was important for many people, from all over the world, to visit Hiroshima and learn from its experience.
The students arrived in Japan on March 14. They were invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as participants in an exchange program designed to promote awareness and understanding of Japan. They will visit other sites such as Itsukushima Shrine, the World Heritage site located in Hatsukaichi, on March 19.
(Originally published on March 19, 2017)
On March 18, 23 students from the University of Massachusetts Boston visited the Peace Memorial Park in Naka Ward, Hiroshima to learn more about peace. They gained a deeper understanding of the consequences of the atomic bombing through seeing the personal effects of the victims that are on display at the Peace Memorial Museum and hearing the account of an A-bomb survivor.
At the museum, the students looked at a charred lunchbox left behind by a victim and a model that depicts the devastated city center in the aftermath of the atomic bombing. They also listened to Keiko Ogura, 79, an A-bomb survivor and resident of Naka Ward, recount her experience in English. Ms. Ogura told them about her encounter with a person who was severely burned by the bomb, who asked her for a drink of water.
A guide from the citizens’ group Hiroshima Interpreters for Peace (HIP) provided explanations to the students about the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims and the A-bomb Dome. The group also went to the Children’s Peace Monument, a statue that was modeled after Sadako Sasaki, a girl who died of radiation-induced leukemia ten years after the bombing. Some students made an offering to the monument of the paper cranes that they had brought with them.
Gloribel Rivas, 21, a second-year student, said that she thought the A-bomb damage in Hiroshima was a warning for the nuclear nations, and that it was important for many people, from all over the world, to visit Hiroshima and learn from its experience.
The students arrived in Japan on March 14. They were invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as participants in an exchange program designed to promote awareness and understanding of Japan. They will visit other sites such as Itsukushima Shrine, the World Heritage site located in Hatsukaichi, on March 19.
(Originally published on March 19, 2017)
