August 6 amid the pandemic: Six Japanese and American guides in their 20s make strenuous efforts to offer Peace Park tour
Aug. 4, 2020
by Kyoko Niiyama, Staff Writer
A fee-charging walking tour of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park for sightseers and others has been established. The tour begins at Rest House, an A-bombed building in Naka Ward, Hiroshima, which reopened on July 1. Six youth in their 20s, including an American, are spreading the message of the A-bombed city of Hiroshima in Japanese and English while serving as the guides of the tour.
Mary Popeo, 28, an American and a resident of Nishi ward, held a CG photograph in which the homes and streets of the former Nakajima district are restored, and said in English to the tour’s participants that people had lived their daily lives where they were standing at that moment.
Peace Culture Village (PCV), a nonprofit organization located in Miyoshi city, organized the tour, which takes about one hour and twenty minutes. The participants visit nine locations during the tour, including the A-bomb Dome. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, there have not been many participants on the tour as of yet. Ms. Popeo hopes she will soon work in earnest as a guide.
Ms. Popeo is from Boston on the east coast of the United States. She was shocked at the damage wrought by the atomic bombing of Nagasaki when she visited Nagasaki Prefecture eight years ago because of her interests in crypto-Christians. She stayed in Hiroshima as well, and came to have strong feelings for the A-bombed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Invited by Steven Leeper, former chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation and a founder of PCV, Ms. Popeo moved to Hiroshima in 2016. She once wondered if she, who came from the nation that used the atomic bombs, has the right to serve as a guide of the tour. She said A-bomb survivors gave her a push, asking her to convey their feelings.
Haruki Yamaguchi, 27, a resident of Higashi ward, is a third-generation A-bomb survivor. Though her great-grandmother and grandfather experienced the atomic bombing, she has not heard about their A-bomb experiences. When she traveled abroad as a college student and said she was from Hiroshima, she was asked about the damage inflicted by the atomic bombing. She said, “I felt frustrated with myself, because I could not talk about the feelings of my family members who experienced the atomic bombing.”
She encountered PCV last summer, which promotes international exchanges and programs for peace studies. She has joined the staff of the tour while working as a nursery school teacher.
At the end of the tour, all the participants write about what they want to cherish, and put it up on the wall inside Rest House. Ms. Yamaguchi said, “I hope the participants themselves will be messengers of peace.” The English tour is held at 11 a.m. and the Japanese tour at 2 p.m. every day. The tour costs 3,000 yen for those aged 12 and over, and 2,000 yen for those aged 11 and under. (The tour is free of charge for children under 6). For further information, please call the tourist information desk at Rest House: 082-247-6738.
(Originally published on July 26, 2020)
“We will convey A-bomb survivors’ feelings”
A fee-charging walking tour of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park for sightseers and others has been established. The tour begins at Rest House, an A-bombed building in Naka Ward, Hiroshima, which reopened on July 1. Six youth in their 20s, including an American, are spreading the message of the A-bombed city of Hiroshima in Japanese and English while serving as the guides of the tour.
Mary Popeo, 28, an American and a resident of Nishi ward, held a CG photograph in which the homes and streets of the former Nakajima district are restored, and said in English to the tour’s participants that people had lived their daily lives where they were standing at that moment.
Peace Culture Village (PCV), a nonprofit organization located in Miyoshi city, organized the tour, which takes about one hour and twenty minutes. The participants visit nine locations during the tour, including the A-bomb Dome. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, there have not been many participants on the tour as of yet. Ms. Popeo hopes she will soon work in earnest as a guide.
Ms. Popeo is from Boston on the east coast of the United States. She was shocked at the damage wrought by the atomic bombing of Nagasaki when she visited Nagasaki Prefecture eight years ago because of her interests in crypto-Christians. She stayed in Hiroshima as well, and came to have strong feelings for the A-bombed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Invited by Steven Leeper, former chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation and a founder of PCV, Ms. Popeo moved to Hiroshima in 2016. She once wondered if she, who came from the nation that used the atomic bombs, has the right to serve as a guide of the tour. She said A-bomb survivors gave her a push, asking her to convey their feelings.
Haruki Yamaguchi, 27, a resident of Higashi ward, is a third-generation A-bomb survivor. Though her great-grandmother and grandfather experienced the atomic bombing, she has not heard about their A-bomb experiences. When she traveled abroad as a college student and said she was from Hiroshima, she was asked about the damage inflicted by the atomic bombing. She said, “I felt frustrated with myself, because I could not talk about the feelings of my family members who experienced the atomic bombing.”
She encountered PCV last summer, which promotes international exchanges and programs for peace studies. She has joined the staff of the tour while working as a nursery school teacher.
At the end of the tour, all the participants write about what they want to cherish, and put it up on the wall inside Rest House. Ms. Yamaguchi said, “I hope the participants themselves will be messengers of peace.” The English tour is held at 11 a.m. and the Japanese tour at 2 p.m. every day. The tour costs 3,000 yen for those aged 12 and over, and 2,000 yen for those aged 11 and under. (The tour is free of charge for children under 6). For further information, please call the tourist information desk at Rest House: 082-247-6738.
(Originally published on July 26, 2020)
