Let’s build on the first step taken by Obama in Hiroshima
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Hiroshima and Nagasaki marked the 71st anniversaries of their atomic bombings this month - Hiroshima last Saturday and Nagasaki today.
This inhuman tragedy should never take place again. It is important to convey the reality of the bombings to as many world leaders as possible, and increase the momentum for nuclear disarmament.
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui referred to US President Barack Obama’s remark on nuclear weapons, in which he said that “we must have the courage to escape the logic of fear, and pursue a world without them”.
Matsui has high regard for the passion Obama showed in his speech. “It is proof that Hiroshima’s resolve to never tolerate the ‘absolute evil’ has reached [the president],” Matsui said.
Visitors to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum have increased by 40 per cent, compared to the same period last year, after the museum began exhibiting four origami cranes made by Obama. The US president's historic visit to the bombed city also became an opportunity for Japanese people to think anew about the atomic bombs and peace.
Obama’s visit to Hiroshima should not be his last. We need to continue working to urge leaders of nuclear nations to connect directly with the memories of the catastrophes by going to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
While negotiations on nuclear disarmament are stalled, such efforts will be the first step on the long journey to achieving the ultimate goal of the total abolition of nuclear weapons.
The evaluation of the atomic bombings is steadily changing, even in the United States.
According to a poll, the ratio of people who justify the bombings on the grounds that they brought an early end to World War II declined from 85 per cent at the end of the war to 56 per cent last year.
This spring, a documentary film called “Paper Lanterns” was made in the United States. The film depicts Shigeaki Mori, a 79-year-old historian who discovered that 12 US prisoners of war were killed in the atomic bombing, and his interaction with the families of the prisoners, including those who visited Hiroshima last year.
There is a scene in the film in which Mori and the families take part in a ceremony of floating lanterns on the water to pray for the deceased, which quietly conveys a message of peace. Mori, who himself was exposed to radiation in Hiroshima, shared an embrace with Obama at the event in May.
It is also important to pass on the experience of the atomic bombings, which is fading with the passage of time.
The Hiroshima municipal government began a lecture project last fiscal year, in which people who had interviewed “hibakusha” hand down their stories to younger generations.
From fiscal 2018, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum will focus on exhibiting artefacts such as diaries and personal belongings of the victims.
The aim of this change is to utilise the power of real objects as much as possible, which cannot be conveyed through models and mannequins depicting victims.
This year’s Soichi Oya nonfiction award was given to Keiko Horikawa’s “Genbaku Kuyoto”, a story that depicts a memorial mound that houses the remains of about 70,000 atomic bomb victims, as well as a woman who looked after the tower for a long time.
The work of accurately recording the precious experiences of atomic-bomb victims and conveying them to the world is a mission Japanese people should never forget.
