Conveying Hiroshima through international conferences

Proposals for seeing, hearing, and feeling Hiroshima's experience

We suggest that private guides be provided to visitors to Peace Memorial Park and Peace Memorial Museum. In advance of their visit, the participants would request a guide and discuss a course suitable for their interests and preferences.

In anything, people have different interests and preferences. When you take a tour with a large group, in some cases you can hear the guide well, but in other cases you can't. It also may be the case that you'd like to ask questions, but you don't have the opportunity.

The person in charge of Hiroshima guides could steer the prospective visitors to websites related to Peace Memorial Park and Peace Memorial Museum prior to their visit. By studying the websites, visitors could indicate what places are of particular interest to them and what course they would prefer taking.

In this way, visitors could see the sights of Hiroshima in an efficient way, even if they don't have a lot of time, and the experience could be meaningful to them. (Shiori Kusuo, 17)

The participants of international conferences might bring the history textbooks they use at school and share how the atomic bombings are explained in their books and what they learn about the bombings in their schools.

They present the information found in the textbooks in detail, including the photos. Through discussion of the various points of view with regard to the damage sustained by the atomic bombs, the reconstruction of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the ashes, and Japan's wartime aggression, the differences in the perception of history based on country and region can be drawn out. After the discussion, the participants then visit Peace Memorial Museum and Peace Memorial Park to see the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims and other points of interest in the park, and share their impressions.

Through this activity, the participants would come to see that the textbooks they use daily in school help shape the differences in their ways of thinking. In this respect, they could grasp the consequences of Hiroshima not only emotionally, but intellectually, too. By seeing beyond their differences in viewpoint, they could come together to share the same hope for the abolition of nuclear weapons. (Sachiko Kitayama, 13)

Another idea is to create a virtual experience of what happened in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 through the use of computer animation.

In Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims, survivors' accounts from all over the city can be read. We suggest making animations of these survivors'accounts to show the bomb's flash and blast and the spreading fire from the survivors' point of view on that day. The animation would show people fleeing and seeking water and dying at the rivers. Through computer animations, people could understand the consequences of the bombing in a more realistic way.

Such animations might also include some shocking scenes, such as people who have been severely burned, but showing people what actually happened in Hiroshima, as accurately as possible, would encourage them to feel that nuclear weapons should not be permitted to coexist with human beings. (Reika Konno, 15)

How about the idea of engaging with these issues through the use of the whole body, not simply with the eyes? Two suggestions might be the use of dance and art.

Dancing can be done with enjoyment. Even if a language barrier exists, the participants can communicate through the use of their bodies. Divided into small groups, they could create dances to express certain themes, such as "dropping the atomic bomb" or "achieving peace." At the same time, the participants could also show traditional dances from their countries or regions.

In terms of art, the participants might come together to create a picture of the earth using their hands and fingers. They would work together with paint to form the countries and the bodies of water. This sort of project could promote lively communication among the participants and perhaps also contribute to a greater awareness of caring for the earth. By using their hands, rather than brushes, the participants could feel a more direct connection to creating the work. (Miyu Sakata,14)

We also think it would be helpful if there was a hotel which provides a connection to the atomic bombing for visitors.

The hotel would take the form of a traditional Japanese house from the pre-war period so guests could feel the life and atmosphere of that time. In the lobby would be a sofa and a desk and, in winter, a kotatsu (a low, covered table with a heat source underneath) would be brought out for visitors to relax. A-bomb survivors could visit the hotel freely and the guests could hear their accounts of the bombing and talk to them about their families, friends, and lives. In this way, the guests could see how the war deprived the survivors of precious parts of their lives.

When I was in elementary school, I often listened to my grandmother talk about her experience of the bombing at home. I remember that her story was easy for me to grasp and I understood her feelings well. When a survivor gives a more formal talk, the communication goes only one way and I feel some distance between the survivor and myself. But if you can speak with a survivor in a small group, you can connect to them more deeply. (Minako Iwata, 16)