Five young people to be dispatched to Pearl Harbor by Hiroshima City listen to atomic bombing experiences before their visit, hoping to “deepen understanding of each other’s history”
Jul. 29, 2024
by Daisuke Neishi, Staff Writer
On July 28, five young people from Hiroshima Prefecture, who will be sent to Honolulu City in August by the Hiroshima City government as part of the Sister Park Arrangement between the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward and the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Hawaii, the United States, received pre-training at the International Conference Center Hiroshima and the park. They listened to the testimonies of two atomic bomb survivors, who will visit Honolulu with them, and learned about the horror of the atomic bombing and the importance of peace.
Young people aged 17 to 18, high school and university students, listened to the accounts of Teruko Yahata, 87, of Fuchu town in Hiroshima Prefecture, and Mikio Saiki, 92, Naka Ward, both of whom will accompany them. As Ms. Yahata shared her memory of walking people whose skin hung down from their nails in strips like old cleaning rags, and a mother who could not breastfeed her child because her breast was burnt, they listened with a serious look, thinking about that day.
The training program began on July 21. In addition to the atomic bomb testimonies, the group visited the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims and the Peace Bell located in the park, and learned about the Pearl Harbor National Memorial that day. Sae Ota, 18, a first-year student at Hiroshima City University and a resident of Higashihiroshima City, said emphatically, “I want to deepen my understanding of each other’s history, the atomic bombing and the attack on Pearl Harbor, before I visit.”
Five people were selected from among a number of applicants. During their four-night, six-day visit from August 17 to 22, they plan to fold paper cranes with people of the same generation and listen to the story of the Pearl Harbor attack from a surviving family at the National Memorial.
(Originally published on July 29, 2024)
On July 28, five young people from Hiroshima Prefecture, who will be sent to Honolulu City in August by the Hiroshima City government as part of the Sister Park Arrangement between the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward and the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Hawaii, the United States, received pre-training at the International Conference Center Hiroshima and the park. They listened to the testimonies of two atomic bomb survivors, who will visit Honolulu with them, and learned about the horror of the atomic bombing and the importance of peace.
Young people aged 17 to 18, high school and university students, listened to the accounts of Teruko Yahata, 87, of Fuchu town in Hiroshima Prefecture, and Mikio Saiki, 92, Naka Ward, both of whom will accompany them. As Ms. Yahata shared her memory of walking people whose skin hung down from their nails in strips like old cleaning rags, and a mother who could not breastfeed her child because her breast was burnt, they listened with a serious look, thinking about that day.
The training program began on July 21. In addition to the atomic bomb testimonies, the group visited the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims and the Peace Bell located in the park, and learned about the Pearl Harbor National Memorial that day. Sae Ota, 18, a first-year student at Hiroshima City University and a resident of Higashihiroshima City, said emphatically, “I want to deepen my understanding of each other’s history, the atomic bombing and the attack on Pearl Harbor, before I visit.”
Five people were selected from among a number of applicants. During their four-night, six-day visit from August 17 to 22, they plan to fold paper cranes with people of the same generation and listen to the story of the Pearl Harbor attack from a surviving family at the National Memorial.
(Originally published on July 29, 2024)
