Students at Ehime University translate A-bomb stories into English, meet with relatives of victims
Aug. 10, 2010
by Junpei Fujimura, Staff Writer
On August 6, 16 sophomores at Ehime University's Faculty of Law and Letters displayed banners with English translations of a series of newspaper articles in front of the A-bomb Dome in Hiroshima. The series "Record of Hiroshima: Photographs of the Dead Speak" was published by the Chugoku Shimbun between 1998 and 2000. The students planned this project in the hope that the background behind individual victims who perished in the atomic bombing will be conveyed to visitors from abroad. They also met with relatives of the victims.
Junko Abe, 65, a part-time instructor who teaches international relations, found the series of articles on the Internet and called on the students to translate them into English. Out of 2,369 people covered in the series, they translated articles on about 200 people, including those who lived near the hypocenter or were working as mobilized students. Attached on the two banners, 1.1 by 5 meters, were the victims' photos and descriptions in English of how they died.
Relatives of former residents of the neighborhood near the hypocenter joined the students. Hideko Matsumoto, 80, now lives in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture. She lost her mother and five siblings. She related her experience, saying, "I lost my neighborhood and my family. I was so sad and angry that I couldn't come near this place."
The students will continue translating articles about other victims until this autumn and will send all the translations to U.S. President Barack Obama. Toko Nakamura, 19, is determined to "digest the feelings of the victims and survivors, and make English versions that will move the readers."
(Originally published on August 7, 2010)
On August 6, 16 sophomores at Ehime University's Faculty of Law and Letters displayed banners with English translations of a series of newspaper articles in front of the A-bomb Dome in Hiroshima. The series "Record of Hiroshima: Photographs of the Dead Speak" was published by the Chugoku Shimbun between 1998 and 2000. The students planned this project in the hope that the background behind individual victims who perished in the atomic bombing will be conveyed to visitors from abroad. They also met with relatives of the victims.
Junko Abe, 65, a part-time instructor who teaches international relations, found the series of articles on the Internet and called on the students to translate them into English. Out of 2,369 people covered in the series, they translated articles on about 200 people, including those who lived near the hypocenter or were working as mobilized students. Attached on the two banners, 1.1 by 5 meters, were the victims' photos and descriptions in English of how they died.
Relatives of former residents of the neighborhood near the hypocenter joined the students. Hideko Matsumoto, 80, now lives in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture. She lost her mother and five siblings. She related her experience, saying, "I lost my neighborhood and my family. I was so sad and angry that I couldn't come near this place."
The students will continue translating articles about other victims until this autumn and will send all the translations to U.S. President Barack Obama. Toko Nakamura, 19, is determined to "digest the feelings of the victims and survivors, and make English versions that will move the readers."
(Originally published on August 7, 2010)
