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Peace project in Hiroshima pursues creative ways to send out messages to the world

by Miho Kuwajima and Yumi Kanazaki, Staff Writers

This year, with the establishment of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a project to consider peace in fresh ways was just launched. The first peace event of the “Hiroshima Nagasaki ZERO Project” was held in the A-bombed city of Hiroshima on October 29. This event included discussions involving young people about nuclear and environmental issues as well as art workshops that made use of various methods and techniques. More than 200 people took part in the event, spending the day expressing strong messages for peace.

The main site for the event was the Myoukeiin Temple in Naka Ward, Hiroshima. Cannon Hersey, 40, the head of an American non-profit organization called “1Future,” which organized the project event, created an original design for T-shirts using a silk screen technique that he has been exploring. The young participants printed the images of the A-bomb Dome and A-bombed trees on blank T-shirts, and after the printing was completed, they happily took the T-shirts home with them.

Motoharu Sano, 61, a musician who also writes song lyrics, taught 12 young people in their teens and twenties, from in and out of Hiroshima Prefecture, how to express their thoughts and feelings through poetry. They improvised poems that were inspired by such prompts as “a better future” and read their poems aloud. Mr. Sano told them, “I hope that you’ll never allow yourself to be overwhelmed by any sadness you experience in the future and that you can overcome your hardships by using the power of words.”

In a discussion held prior to the art session, William Perry, 90, the former U.S. secretary of defense who has spoken widely about the importance of a “nuclear-free world,” joined the discussion through a video link from the United States. Mr. Perry, who has firsthand knowledge of the terror of the arms race between the United States and the former Soviet Union, stressed that he had vowed to do everything possible to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used during the lives of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He also said that there is a growing number of people, in both Japan and the United States, who don’t understand the dangers involving nuclear arms and that they should learn more about the reality of these weapons. Toshiko Tanaka, 79, an A-bomb survivor who lives in Higashi Ward and was a participant in the discussion, voiced her agreement with Mr. Perry’s message.

Fifteen junior writers from the Chugoku Shimbun took part in the discussions and workshops. Mr. Hersey said that people of various generations and backgrounds were able to deepen their ways of thinking through their discussions, and that he was able to demonstrate new ways of sending out peace messages to the world from Hiroshima. He expressed satisfaction with the response to the project.

(Originally published on October 30, 2017)

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