On August 6th 2010, the 65th anniversary of the atom bombing of Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War, the pupils of Nagatsuka Junior High School prepared and delivered their own “Hiroshima Peace Declaration“.
Here is their message:
What kind of image does the city of Hiroshima give to people of the world? Most of them may say “exciting”, “lively”, “peaceful”, or “happy”. However, it was not so in the past.
65 years ago, an unbelievable thing happened in Hiroshima. At that time, people in Hiroshima had no hopes and dreams. All they saw were dead people and destroyed buildings. The bad dreams at that time are still in people’s mind.
8:15 in the morning, on August 6th, 1945. On that day, the American warplane “B29” dropped a single atomic bomb onto Hiroshima. In a few seconds, the city of Hiroshima was burned out. Hiroshima was covered with a sea of fire and everything had gone. Beautiful rivers turned to graves. People alive were so badly damaged, heart and body, that they couldn’t get to their feet. They were full of anger and sorrow.
However, in that difficult situation, a lot of people struggled to live for us. They tried to get over the sorrows of losing their family and pains caused by the atomic bomb. They have had a strong will to live for the day. We must not forget that we are now here thanks to their efforts.
Look. Hiroshima is now a peaceful and safe city to live in. People are full of dreams, hopes and smiles. We promise to thank for people who struggled to live for us, and make the most of our life everyday.
“Learn from yesterday and live for today.” We must not forget the tragedy on that day in Hiroshima. What can we do for that? We can study this tragedy and communicate it to the future generation.
This may be a small step. We cannot save the past, but we can save the future. We will not look away from the reality. We should not treat this as a thing in the past. And we swear we will continue to appeal for the value and importance of peace to the people of the world.
