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American journalist returns to Hiroshima to report on A-bombed city in 70th anniversary year

by Yumi Kanazaki, Staff Writer

Joseph Copeland, 66, a journalist from Seattle, a city in the U.S. state of Washington, has paid another visit to Hiroshima to interview A-bomb survivors and members of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organizations (Hidankyo, chaired by Sunao Tsuboi). In 1986, Mr. Copeland took part in a project organized by the Hiroshima International Foundation known as the Hibakusha Travel Grant for American Journalists (also referred to as the Akiba Project). His article will be posted on Crosscut.com, the Internet news website where he now works, and on his own website, Hiroshima Stories.

Mr. Copeland was formerly an editor at a newspaper in Seattle. After that company discontinued its newspaper in 2009, he was awarded a Fulbright grant and spent three months in Hiroshima. The next year, he assumed his current position at the Internet news site. He was determined to visit Japan again this year to report on Hiroshima in the 70th anniversary year since the atomic bombing.

Mr. Copeland spoke with Emiko Okada, 78, an A-bomb survivor and a resident of Higashi Ward, who he had previously interviewed six years ago, at the Peace Memorial Museum in Naka Ward. He and Ms. Okada talked about her experience sharing her A-bomb account with others and current conditions involving nuclear arms in the world.

Mr. Copeland asked Ms. Okada if she still holds out hope for U.S. President Barack Obama’s efforts to advance nuclear abolition. She responded by saying, “I believe he would like to visit Hiroshima, even though this visit would not be easy to make. Still, I’m hoping he will come to Hiroshima and reaffirm his determination to help abolish nuclear weapons.”

The interview also covered how Ms. Okada felt when she was invited to other countries and shared her A-bomb experience there. She pointed out, “When I talked to people in Asian countries, I came to realize that their minds stayed closed if I spoke only about my suffering as a result of the atomic bombing. That’s why I started to talk about what Japan did during the war, too. As an A-bomb survivor, I want to stay aware of issues in the world that can harm children and prevent us from building a peaceful world, such as conflict, poverty, and discrimination.”

Concerning current conditions in the United States, Mr. Copeland said, “Many Americans still subscribe to the idea that the atomic bombings were justified, but this has begun to change. I’d like to convey how important it is to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons from this world through the voices of the A-bomb survivors, including Ms. Okada.”

After the interview, Mr. Copeland said, “Ms. Okada is very persuasive because her words are backed up by her eagerness to learn as much as possible about current conditions in the world. I take my hat off to her.”

Keywords

Hibakusha Travel Grant for American Journalists
This project was sponsored by the Hiroshima International Foundation from 1979 to 1988. Over the life of the project, 34 American reporters from local newspaper companies were invited to visit both Hiroshima and Nagasaki to report on the reality of the A-bomb damage and deliver the wish of Hiroshima citizens for a peaceful world to people in the United States. It was also called the “Akiba Project” because Tadatoshi Akiba, the former Hiroshima mayor, proposed the idea while working as an associate professor at Tufts University, an American university.

(Originally published on October 19, 2015)

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