News

by Minami Yamashita, Staff Writer

On May 5, 1964, Hiromu Morishita, 94, a resident of Hiroshima City’s Saeki Ward, visited the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, in the United States, as a 33-year-old teacher at Hatsukaichi High School. One of the members of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki World Peace Pilgrimage delegation, Mr. Morishita participated in a meeting with Harry S. Truman, the U.S. president at the time of the atomic bombings who was then living in his hometown of Independence.

Mr. Truman, who was 79 at the time, appeared on the stage of the auditorium. Eleven years had passed since he had left office as president. Takuo Matsumoto (former principal of Hiroshima Jogakuin University), an A-bomb survivor who led the delegation, had a conversation with the former president as a representative of A-bomb survivors. Mr. Morishita, who looked on as the two shook hands, recalled that time and said, “I wanted to ask him whether he had considered the existence of ordinary citizens before making the decision to drop the atomic bombs.”

Nineteen years before the pilgrimage, when he was a third-year student at Hiroshima First Middle School (present-day Kokutaiji High School), Mr. Morishita had been exposed to the thermal rays from the atomic bombing while engaged in building-demolition work in the city. The burns he suffered had left keloid scars on his face. His mother, who was at their home at the time, was killed in the atomic bombing.

For sake of young lives

After the war, Mr. Morishita became a school instructor, teaching calligraphy at a high school, and would sometimes talk about his A-bombing experiences to his students. He became interested in the Peace Pilgrimage, in which A-bomb survivors would travel the world to share their experiences and thoughts, at a briefing session for participants in the first pilgrimage in 1962. Mr. Morishita said, “When I heard they were going to do a second pilgrimage, I leapt at the chance.”

The Peace Pilgrimage was first proposed by the American peace activist Barbara Reynolds, a resident of Hiroshima at the time who died in 1990 at the age of 74. The Peace Pilgrimage’s statement of purpose included the idea of “igniting a flame of peace among people around the world.” The second pilgrimage of around 40 participants included housewives, physicians, religious leaders, and 25 A-bomb survivors selected through a public recruitment process. Starting in April 1964, the delegation visited 150 cities in eight countries over the course of 75 days.

The birth of Mr. Morishita’s oldest daughter the previous year provided the impetus for him to take action to prevent a repeat of the tragedy that could take the lives of even children. Taking time off from teaching, he gave his A-bombing testimony at schools and gatherings in the United States, the first country the pilgrimage delegation visited, while staying in the homes of supporters. He said, “I was delighted that everyone listened intently to my story.”

“They were necessary”

Accepting the pilgrimage delegation’s request for a meeting, Mr. Truman smiled as he took the stage, saying he was glad to meet them. However, according to a local newspaper, even in that first meeting with A-bomb survivors, he repeated the familiar justification that the atomic bombings were meant to bring a quick end to the war and “were necessary.” The meeting lasted five minutes. No apology was offered.

With the A-bomb survivors letting out a collective sigh, Mr. Morishita said he “was stunned.” That night, trembling with frustration, he scribbled with a pen in his notebook the words, “Didn’t he think about the fact that there were so many young lives?”

Meanwhile, on June 5, Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who had led the effort to develop the atomic bombs, also met with some of the pilgrimage delegates, including Naomi Shono, an A-bomb survivor and physicist. According to film footage of the testimony provided by Yoko Teichler, an interpreter accompanying the group who died in 2019, which is kept at the World Friendship Center (WFC; a non-profit organization located in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward), Mr. Oppenheimer “apologized profusely, saying again and again how sorry he was.”

The pilgrimage delegates also gave testimonies of their A-bombing experiences in the Soviet Union which, like the United States, possessed nuclear weapons, as well as in East and West Germany, before returning to Japan on July 4. The following year, Barbara Reynolds established the WFC organization in Hiroshima as a place where visitors to the city from around the world could listen to A-bomb survivors’ testimonies and share their thoughts on peace. Mr. Morishita was active in the organization’s activities.

(Originally published on April 11, 2025)