Chinese woman is active as volunteer guide at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
Jun. 7, 2010
by Kana Kobayashi, Staff Writer
Zhu Wen, 26, a Chinese student at Hiroshima University Graduate School, is serving as a volunteer guide at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. While few people from other countries work as a volunteer guide in the park, Ms. Wen speaks three languages: Chinese, English, and Japanese. The park's Outreach Division is anticipating an active role for Ms. Wen, with one official commenting, "She is the kind of person we need. I hope she continues to play an active role as a guide."
Every Monday, she speaks to visitors from other countries in front of the A-bomb Dome. "Nuclear weapons are terrible things. Even many decades after being exposed, people are forced to suffer the bomb's aftereffects," explains Ms. Wen in English or Chinese, using about 50 items to help convey her messages, including photos and drawings. She began working as a guide in mid-March and since then has offered tours to nearly 50 visitors.
Zhu Wen is from Sichuan Province. She arrived in Japan on April 2007 and is studying cross-cultural communication. Last November she offered naval officers from China a tour of Peace Memorial Park, but she had difficulty explaining things well. Afterwards, when she was thinking she wanted to learn more about the atomic bombing, she met a Japanese guide at the restaurant where she was working part-time and decided to become a volunteer guide, too.
In China, some view the atomic bombing as an inexorable result of Japan's aggression in Asia. "It is vital for both China and Japan to face the history of their nations with honesty and build a world free of wars and nuclear weapons," Ms. Wen said. "I believe my activity as a guide can help this effort."
According to Peace Memorial Museum, 223 Japanese nationals are currently registered as guides while there is only one person, another Chinese citizen, registered as a guide with a different nationality.
Tatsuya Sumida, deputy chief of the Outreach Division, said, "I don't know exactly how many people of different nationalities are working as guides without being registered, like Zhu Wen, but there must be very few. Ms. Wen is playing a very active role as an ambassador between Hiroshima and visitors from other countries."
To date, she has guided four Chinese visitors through the park. "When I gave them a tour in Chinese, my mother tongue, they deepened their understanding of the bombing." She added hopefully, "I want to encourage Chinese students in Hiroshima to get involved as guides, too." Zhu Wen will continue her graduate studies here until 2012.
(Originally published on June 6, 2010)
Zhu Wen, 26, a Chinese student at Hiroshima University Graduate School, is serving as a volunteer guide at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. While few people from other countries work as a volunteer guide in the park, Ms. Wen speaks three languages: Chinese, English, and Japanese. The park's Outreach Division is anticipating an active role for Ms. Wen, with one official commenting, "She is the kind of person we need. I hope she continues to play an active role as a guide."
Every Monday, she speaks to visitors from other countries in front of the A-bomb Dome. "Nuclear weapons are terrible things. Even many decades after being exposed, people are forced to suffer the bomb's aftereffects," explains Ms. Wen in English or Chinese, using about 50 items to help convey her messages, including photos and drawings. She began working as a guide in mid-March and since then has offered tours to nearly 50 visitors.
Zhu Wen is from Sichuan Province. She arrived in Japan on April 2007 and is studying cross-cultural communication. Last November she offered naval officers from China a tour of Peace Memorial Park, but she had difficulty explaining things well. Afterwards, when she was thinking she wanted to learn more about the atomic bombing, she met a Japanese guide at the restaurant where she was working part-time and decided to become a volunteer guide, too.
In China, some view the atomic bombing as an inexorable result of Japan's aggression in Asia. "It is vital for both China and Japan to face the history of their nations with honesty and build a world free of wars and nuclear weapons," Ms. Wen said. "I believe my activity as a guide can help this effort."
According to Peace Memorial Museum, 223 Japanese nationals are currently registered as guides while there is only one person, another Chinese citizen, registered as a guide with a different nationality.
Tatsuya Sumida, deputy chief of the Outreach Division, said, "I don't know exactly how many people of different nationalities are working as guides without being registered, like Zhu Wen, but there must be very few. Ms. Wen is playing a very active role as an ambassador between Hiroshima and visitors from other countries."
To date, she has guided four Chinese visitors through the park. "When I gave them a tour in Chinese, my mother tongue, they deepened their understanding of the bombing." She added hopefully, "I want to encourage Chinese students in Hiroshima to get involved as guides, too." Zhu Wen will continue her graduate studies here until 2012.
(Originally published on June 6, 2010)
