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Hiroshima University sends reinforcing bars taken from building that survived atomic bombing to Cambridge University

(by Kana Kobayashi, Staff Writer)

Hiroshima University has sent three reinforcing bars used in a building that survived the atomic bombing to Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. These bars came from a former electrical substation, located in Minami Ward, which was dismantled in February of last year. The bars will be used when students at the British university learn about the terrible damage caused by the bomb.

The bars are 50 centimeters long and between 2.2 and 0.8 centimeters in diameter. When the building was dismantled, Rebun Kayo, 40, a researcher at Hiroshima University, took them from the wall of the building, which is believed to have been damaged by the bomb’s heat rays. The bars were sent off on March 26 to Cambridge University along with 40 pieces of pottery made by A-bomb survivors and Japanese and international students of Hiroshima University. Also sent were 15 works of calligraphy, in which words such as peace and love are written in Japanese with a brush. They will be displayed at the British university in the near future.

Since 2010, Hiroshima University has sent fragments of bricks from the former Hiroshima Commercial Exhibition Hall (now the A-bomb Dome) to 51 universities in 19 countries and regions. Mr. Kayo said, “I want young people of the United Kingdom, which is a nuclear power, to learn about the wishes and experiences of atomic bomb survivors and share their hopes for the abolition of nuclear weapons.”

(Originally published on April 3, 2019)

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