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Exhibition of 28 memoirs of wartime citizen corps opens in Hiroshima

by Sakiko Masuda, Staff Writer

A special exhibition entitled "Memories That Must Not Be Lost: Volunteer Citizen Corps and Building Demolition" opened on April 1 at Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims located in Peace Memorial Park. The exhibition, which will run until the end of this year, features a collection of memories involving a volunteer citizen corps consisting of community members and local company workers in Hiroshima, which was exposed to the atomic bombing while engaged in the work of dismantling buildings to create firebreaks.

The Memorial Hall is displaying 28 memoirs written by surviving members of the corps or family members of corps participants who have already passed away. The memoirs can be read on computer screens at the venue.

One man, who was 25 years old at the time of the bombing and had planned to hold his wedding ceremony that day, described that his fiancée experienced the bombing while heading for the building demolition work, and died a few days later. Another man explained that he survived the bombing because he missed a train to go to his work site. He revealed his innermost feelings of not wanting his dead colleagues to know that he is still alive.

Yukiko Mori, 12, a resident of Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo who will be a first-year junior high school student this spring, read the memoirs closely and commented, "I now see the horror of the atomic bombing. I hope this kind of tragedy will never happen again."

In conjunction with the exhibition at Peace Memorial Hall, Peace Memorial Museum, which is located in the same memorial park, is also planning to hold a special exhibition on the volunteer citizen corps starting this summer.

(Originally published on April 2, 2010)

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