×

News

Picture book “My Hiroshima” to be donated to 30 hotels and inns in Hiroshima

by Sakiko Masuda, Staff Writer

The picture book entitled "My Hiroshima" will be donated to 30 hotels and Japanese-style inns in Hiroshima. The book, written by Junko Morimoto, 80, an author of children’s books and a resident of Australia, conveys Ms. Morimoto’s experience of the atomic bombing in both Japanese and English. HPS International Volunteers, the NPO based in Nishi Ward that published the picture book, has decided to donate copies of the book by March of next year. The book will be placed in guestrooms and lobbies so that hotel guests, including students on school trips and visitors from inside and outside Japan, will have the chance to read it.

“My Hiroshima,” measuring 23 by 21 centimeters and consisting of 40 pages, was published in 2010. At the time of the atomic bombing, Ms. Morimoto was 13 and was at home in today’s Misasa district in Nishi Ward. Making use of pictures, photos, and words, the author describes what Hiroshima has gone through: a peaceful life before the bombing, the growing impact of war, the devastation wrought by the A-bomb, the post-war period of reconstruction, and present-day Hiroshima.

This past June, HPS donated 40 copies of the book to each of 206 municipal elementary and junior high schools to be used as material for peace education. After the municipal government suggested the book be donated to hotels for the purpose of conveying the consequences of the atomic bombing to the world, HPS decided to take on the task. So far, 30 hotels and inns, including Hotel Sunroute Hiroshima (Naka Ward) and Hiroshima Garden Palace (Higashi Ward), have requested a total of 2,320 copies.

Hiroe Sato, leader of the NPO, commented, “I hope people from inside and outside Japan will read the book and learn about Hiroshima, not just the horror of the atomic bombing, but the efforts for reconstruction.”

A total of 6,000 copies of the book will be donated. HPS hopes to raise 3 million yen by the end of next January to cover this cost. Donations can be made in units of 1,000 yen through postal transfer to the account of HPS International Volunteers: 01330-0-58136. For further information, contact Ms. Sato at 090-7895-5366.

(Originally published on November 19, 2012)

Archives