Peace Message from Hiroshima

    By Kwon Ji-hye, Student Editor

    CNU Press andBroadcastingCenter’s Special Coverage Team visited Hiroshima known as theInternationalCity of Peace and Culture from August 1 to 7 in order to inspect howHiroshimaCity succeeds to give a message of peace across the world. Chonnam Tribune will report the findings of this overseas coverage in “Feature” article in this and next issues. Now, we look intoHiroshimaCity . –Ed. 

       Sixty-two years ago, Hiroshima suffered the world's first atomic bombing on August 6^th, 1945. “That summer, the roar of a B-29 breaks the morning calm and a parachute opens in the blue sky. Then suddenly, a flash, an enormous blast - silence - hell on the Earth.” That was a description of an A-bomb exploding. The city became a red sea of fire and everything burned away to nothing. The rivers filled with corpses and those who survived were so badly wounded in body and spirit that they could not even shed a tear. Burns rendered eyes, noses, and mouths unrecognizable. Countless shards of glass pierced arms and legs. Within the year 140,000 had died. Many who escaped death initially wound up suffering from leukemia, thyroid cancer, and a vast array of other afflictions.

    Nevertheless, the message born from that agony has become a beam of light now shining the way for humanity. To prevent a repetition of such a tragedy, Hiroshima has sought ever since to covey the facts of the bombing to the world. The city has engaged in a wide variety of efforts for peace and now seeks to build the 21st century of peace and humanity free from nuclear weapons. For this, Hiroshima holds the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony every August 6^th. During the ceremony this year Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba delivered the Peace Declaration directed toward the world. As long as the need persists, Hiroshima 's mayor will continue to issue these declarations calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons from the face of the earth. This is part of Hiroshima's effort to build a world of genuine and lasting world peace where no population will ever again experience the cruel devastation suffered by Hiroshima and Nagasaki .

    Hiroshima has a lot of memorial facilities connected to the atomic bomb and peace initiatives such as theHiroshimaPeaceMemorialMuseum and the Peace Memorial Park . The members of the Special Coverage Team visited these places in order to realize the cruelty of the A-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the danger of nuclear weapons. In the Peace Memorial Park , there are many monuments, including A-Bomb Dome, Peace Bell, Children’sPeaceMonument , Peace Memorial museum and Monument in Memory of the Korean Victims of the A-bomb. As a symbol of Hiroshima 's pledge to abolish nuclear weapons and seek lasting world peace, the A-bomb Dome was registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List on December 5, 1996. Brightly colored paper cranes are tided to the Children’sPeaceMonument . These cranes are known as a symbol of peace and they are folded as a wish for peace in many countries around the world.

    ThePeaceMemorialMuseum ’s main building has recorded testimonies of atomic bomb survivors injured in the blast’s heat rays and the messages of peace. In thePeaceMemorialMuseum we met the first foreign chief director Steven Lloyd Leeper. He said, “I think I was appointed as the chief director of this museum due to the global peace movement despite  my being a foreigner. It is the focus of my work for me to inform people all over the world especially, Americans. I have a plan to open a Peace Memorial Exhibition in the Several weeks ago I participated in meetings at the 4th Jeju Peace Forum in . I hope to meet some Korean NGO members again and collaborate with them.” 

    According to Koichiro Maeda, director of this Museum, this museum was established to inform and commemorate why the cruel devastation happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. In this museum there are many articles and exhibitions. Maeda said, “We exhibit articles filled with each victim’s sorrow, not special or giant things. So I think each article is important. I hope people regard all of the articles as valuable ones.” After interviewing the director, the team members took a look around this museum. As Maeda said there were a lot of valuable articles and especially many personal articles of the deceased such as clothes and goods. Looking around this museum we felt sorrow of the victims and realized the danger of A-bomb and the need to abolish nuclear weapons in the world.

    Besides this museum there is also the Hiroshima Peace Institute (HPI) at Hiroshima City University (HCU). The HPI is participating in a variety of research activities related to peace. We asked Motofumi Asai, president of the HPI how HCU students are educated about the first world’s A-bomb disaster. He said, “most students had little knowledge about Hiroshima A-bombing. But some students are currently trying to study by themselves through various club activities like symposiums. The HPI also offers the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study Course.”  Though the A-bombing is not the only tragic Japanese historical event, we little know about this event. The world including us should know this history exactly and have an effort to prevent the same tragedy.

     On August 6^th’s Hiroshima Day, we participated in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony. Many Japanese and foreigners from various countries attended this ceremony. They cherished the memory of deceased persons by the A-bomb and desired peace in the world through Praying Time. At night, the Hiroshima Day Lantern Floating Ceremony was held at the Milton Keynes Peace Pagoda. As a symbol of peace and abolishment of all nuclear weapons, this ceremony is in memory of not only those who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki but also all victims of war. Each lantern is a symbol of a personal commitment to create peace in this world and hopes for the future. The diverse colorful and bright river floating lanterns were so beautiful.

     As mentioned above,HiroshimaCity makes a great effort for achieving the goal of a world free from nuclear weapons. Now we know what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6^th and 9^th, 1945. At that time, many Koreans died and the survivors from the devastation are suffering from atomic diseases. In the next issue we will deal with the Korean victims in Hiroshima .