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Junior Writers Reporting

Indian students visit Hiroshima, learn about A-bombing and meet with junior writers

by Yuji Yamamoto, Staff Writer

Six Indian junior high and senior high school students from Bangalore, a city in southern India, paid a visit to the A-bombed city of Hiroshima to learn about peace and engage in a cultural exchange. The students shared their thoughts on peace with a group of junior writers from the Chugoku Shimbun, young people of the same generation. They also offered a large paper crane to the Children’s Peace Monument in Naka Ward, praying together for a world without nuclear weapons.

The students from India, ranging in age from 14 to 16, are boys and girls from the Anthony Claret School, an integrated junior high and senior high school. Their first visit to Japan came at the invitation of the India Chai Club Hiroshima, a citizens’ group in Higashihiroshima that seeks to promote friendship between India and Hiroshima. The exchange event with seven junior writers took place at the Chugoku Shimbun headquarters, located in Naka Ward. The students observed the work being done to edit the newspaper, and became acquainted with the junior writers.

Takeshi Iwata, 17, a third-year high school student and junior writer, who visited the school in India last year when he took part in a study tour organized by the India Chai Club, outlined the junior writers’ activities in English. Showing slides of “Peace Seeds,” their one-page feature article, and the report they did on the A-bomb anniversary of August 6, he explained their efforts, saying, “We are persistently conveying the message that peace in the world is very important.”

When the Indian students and junior writers exchanged views in English, they discussed not only casual topics like clothing and homes, but peace issues as well. One female student told about the conflict that still goes on in India’s Kashmir region, along the border with Pakistan, and said she wants to make her society, her home, and her own state of mind as peaceful as possible. One junior writer added, “It’s vital to foster friendship with one another in order to create a peaceful world.”

The young people then together drank chai, a popular beverage in India. An Indian teacher who was accompanying the students made the drink for them. Finally, they wrote messages of peace on a large paper crane and offered it to the Children’s Peace Monument.

Ann Teresa, 16, a first-year high school student, said that she learned how people in Hiroshima have overcome the hardships of the atomic bombing, and that she hopes to develop a program like the junior writers after returning home in order to promote peace. Miki Meguro, 13, a second-year junior high school student, said, “We communicated with each other using gestures and body language, but I want to improve my English so I can share the history of Hiroshima with others in the future.”

The Indian students stayed in Hiroshima for six days. They toured the Peace Memorial Park and also took part in an exchange with students of Hiroshima Nagisa Junior High School/Senior High School, located in Saeki Ward.

(Originally published on September 5, 2016)

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