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Setsuko Thurlow named Peace Ambassador by city

by Hisashi Kawate, Staff Writer

Setsuko Thurlow, who recounts her experience of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in English, has been named a Hiroshima Peace Ambassador. Mayor Kazumi Matsui presented a letter of appointment to the 82-year-old resident of Toronto Canada at city hall on November 19. “Nuclear weapons are a universal problem,” she said. “I will work to get everyone to take an interest in it.”

The city appoints natives of Hiroshima and others connected with the city as Peace Ambassadors to convey Hiroshima’s desire for the abolition of nuclear weapons to people overseas. Ms. Thurlow is the fifth person to be named a Peace Ambassador following Miho Cibot, 64, a resident of France.

A native of Hiroshima’s Minami Ward, Ms. Thurlow was 13 and working as a mobilized student at the Imperial Japanese Army’s Second General Headquarters in Futaba no Sato (now part of Higashi Ward) when the A-bomb was dropped. She began her peace activities in the United States, where she studied after graduating from college in Japan. Upon marrying she moved to Canada. She has tirelessly recounted her A-bomb experiences in Europe, North America and Japan.

(Originally published on November 20, 2014)

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