On 6th January 2013 a group of 12 students travelled with their professor from Soka University of America to Japan and Korea to investigate the role that Hiroshima, nuclear energy and atomic bomb victims can play in creating a peaceful world.
The group visited Seoul and Hiroshima and met with atom bomb survivors and groups in both cities, which provided the group with an opportunity to engage with survivors from different backgrounds and with different perspectives.
While in Hiroshima, the group also visited Peace Park, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, and Hiroshima City University, where Professor Mikyoung Kim gave a lecture on the history of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the post-war politicization of bombings.
On Wednesday 9th January the group visited the ANT-Hiroshima office where Tomoko Watanabe gave a talk about Hiroshima and how the story of the survivors can give hope to other people around the world today who have come through wars or natural disasters, as well as helping to motivate people who want to work towards creating a peaceful world.
The group also had an opportunity to do some site seeing, explore Hiroshima and visit Miyajima before returning to Seoul to complete their studies.
Here is a documentary film the group made about their trip:
The group also made a very informative and interesting resource website about their trip which is well worth checking out:
Hiroshima, The Victims And The Questions Of Peace Learning Cluster
“Visiting both Korea and Japan, we learned various perspectives on the three issues we studied. It was interesting to meet and talk with hibakusha and NGOs working for nuclear power abolition or nuclear disarmament in both countries. We were able to recognize how different the situation was and still is for the Korean and Japanese hibakusha. Also, there were differences even in NGOs working towards the same goal.”
