Initiative For Peace
Meeting Hiroshima survivors and listening to their testimony
LO 6 Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
LO 7 Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions
On the 11th of September a few IFP students joined middle school students on a trip to visit Peace Boat. The Peace Boat is a (Japan-based) international NGO that is currently on a “Global Voyage for a Nuclear-Free world: Peace Boat Hibakusha Project”. Hibakusha is the Japanese word for atomic bomb survivors and since 2016 over 160 Hibakusha have travelled around the world with peace boat giving personal testimonies and calling for nuclear-free world. the theme of their current voyage is: “From Banning to Abolishing Nuclear Weapons with thee Power of Civil Society” following the monumental step made by the UN in 2017 to adopt the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and ICAN (a larger group peace boat is part of) was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their efforts in the advent of this treaty. Nuclear weapons have now been declared illegal thanks to the efforts of civil society. However, Nuclear weapon states are not willing to give up their weapons ad even countries who don’t have their own nuclear weapons sometimes rely heavily upon them. This means it is incredibly important for Peace Boat to continue their efforts to make sure the treaty comes into legal force and nuclear weapons are abolished. Their mission is to spread the word about the devastating impacts of Nuclear weapons to make sure the mistakes of the past are never repeated.
We met two survivors of Hiroshima, Ms, Tsukamoto Michiko and M. Sora Tamiko, and a Youth coordinator – Ms, Ando Mako. We heard from Ms. Sora Tamiko, who still lives in Hiroshima. She was exposed to the bomb when she was three years old in her home which was 1.4 km away from the hypocenter she took cover with her mother in a air-raid shelter in their yard which ultimately saved their lives. Although she was very young when the bomb went off she tells us the stories that have drastically affected her family. I found her testimony incredibly emotional especially as she spoke about walking past dying people which she knew she couldn’t help because there were simply too many.
I found her talk extremely enlightening, to hear a first hand experience of the atomic bomb was a privilege but what was most surprising to me was the way she spoke about everything her and her family had been through. Ms. Sora was incredibly open and honest, allowing us to ask multiple personal questions about the lasting impacts on her health and her everyday life, the difficulties her family went through and the stigma around speaking about the bomb. She allowed herself to get emotional at times, especially when talking about having to leave people behind or the deaths or her family but what was incredibly fascinating to me was her lack of anger or blame. She even started the talk apologising for Japan’s actions in Singapore during World war 2 When she was ask if she felt any anger about the bombings she said that she didn’t because she knew that Japan also committed atrocities during the war and that they were not the only victims. Ms Sora said therefore in that sense she felt it was wrong to blame the others.
Ms. Sora also trusted us to pass around sculptures she had made to reflect how helpless she felt after the events. The sculpture is of the open palm of a hand which symbolises how all she could do after the bomb was pray. The stones were taken from the debris from the bomb at Motaysasu River which is also represent with blue colour around the hand and the sand is from the Ninoshima island where lots of survivors of the atomic bomb escaped to at the time.
At the end we were asked to write down some of emotions after listening to the testimonies. I wrote that I felt incredibly grateful to Ms. Sora Tamiko for sharing such a difficult story with us. But I also felt a sense of hope despite the tragic events I had just heard about because of how Ms. Sora spoke about her experiences with no blame or anger but really just trying to convey the important message that we can never allow something like the Hiroshima disaster to happen again.
Ms Sora finished by telling us that if her story had made the events even a little bit clearer to us she would be incredibly grateful and that she would continue to do what she can in every little way to promote peace related activities and hopefully create a better world for us all.
I think her closing remarks embody the mission of Peace boat – educating and inspiring others to leave people hopeful. The purpose of this isn’t to make listeners feel bad or wallow in the past, instead this is about educating and inspiring young people to create a more peaceful future for the world.
Listening to a survivors story was incredibly inspiring and powerful and I am so thankful to have had such an amazing opportunity.
Both Ms. Sora and the other Hibakusha Ms. Tsukamoto took photos with us at the end and were incredibly friendly and happy to meet us despite the language barrier.