Hiroshima victims remembered 80 years onーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS
NHK World’s Yoshikawa Duichi is at Peace Memorial Park and continues our coverage of the anniversary. Duichi, many people remain here in this park hours after the ceremony ended. Um, when I came here early this morning, I saw a few people praying and some of them almost sounded like they were trying to have conversations with their lost loved ones. And it just reminded me that for them the atomic bombing is not a thing of the past. And with me now is Morota Ayaka from our Hiroshima Bureau. She covers stories about atomic bomb survivors also known as hibaksha in Japanese. Uh so Aayaka what does this day mean to the people of Hiroshima and the Hibian and what is there anything that adds to it now that this is the 80y year anniversary August 6 has always been an important occasion for the city I’ve been covering this day for six years now and every year people start coming to near the hyper center early in the morning it was the same today and you can still see a long line of visitors in front of the senotap. Now, many students have even come back from their summer breaks to pay tribute to the victims. As for the hibakia, they have been fighting for the abolition of nuclear weapons for 80 years. One 94 year old hibakia told us nothing has changed. The situation is actually getting worse. the world is still doing stupid things and I don’t know what to do. So there’s a feeling of this frustration. Um you know has last year’s Nobel Peace Prize did that change that at all? Uh it was awarded to the group of uh 2014 survivors called Nihongo in recognition of its efforts for abolishing nuclear weapons. Yes, the hibakia welcome that as rare bit of as a rare bit of good news. The award helped draw attention to their work. 14 visitors have been coming to the the peace memory museum every day and the hibakia are traveling the world to deliver their testimonies. They say it’s important to work harder than ever now that they have the world’s attention. At the same time, it seems that nuclear weapon states are becoming increasingly dependent on deterrence. Some have openly threatened to use their weapons. These developments don’t have the hibakia feeling optimistic. Well, thank you very much for explaining all that. We will be hearing from you a little later. Well, now as uh mentioned earlier, the number of victims who have died has grown to 349,246 and they include people who are foreign students. Uh their history isn’t as well known, but I looked into it and found that their actions in the bombing’s aftermath left a lasting impact. I also met one man spreading their stories and showing why it still matters all these decades later. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum has been welcoming a growing number of visitors, a record more than 2 million last fiscal year. A third come from overseas and many of them are being drawn to this exhibit. It’s titled Away from Home. It shows non-Japanese victims of the atomic bombing, including Malaysian Abdul Rajak, who was enrolled at a local university. I didn’t know that there was uh foreign students in the Hiroshima at the time. Yeah, he must be devastated to be far away from his home and with far away from his family too. Razak and seven other foreign students were exposed to the blast and radiation. Razak survived, but two died before they could return home to Southeast Asia. Japan’s now defanked Imperial military occupied multiple countries in the region during World War II. Tokyo selected bright minds from there as part of a program to nurture future leaders. Razak was among the more than 200 brought to Japan to study. Kuriharameo was 19 years old at the time of the bombing. She spent a week sleeping outside along with Razak and other students in his university’s schoolyard in the aftermath. She was searching for her missing father when she first came across Razak and the other students. This video depicts Kurihara’s experience, including one night when one of the students played a violin that somehow survived the bombing. One person sharing stories about that time, Nuruisal Azam Arif. He teaches at a local university and was an overseas student himself from Malaysia. He says he was surprised to learn that there were foreign student victims. I couldn’t imagine how they, you know, endure the hardship uh that they encountered during the atomic bomb. You know, they don’t know where to go. They know they don’t have their family here. Azam is holding a seminar for Malaysians in Hiroshima to learn about what the students went through. He wants the participants to know that there were foreign victims and to pass that knowledge on to future generations. We do not only remember the tragedy of a war. We celebrate the miracles of human connections. In a world still wounded by conflicts, this friendship born from calamity are not just memories. Their message that even in our darkest hour, humanity can choose lights. Peace have no boundaries. Even though we are different in terms of med, our faith, our religion regardless of where they came from. Everyone suffered under the mushroom cloud. The indiscriminate nature of nuclear weapons, a threat still with us today. Associate Professor Azam that we just saw in the video joins me now to discuss the foreign student victims. So uh Dr. Azam, what motivated you to research the students even though it is not your main field of expertise? Uh yes. Uh my main role as a lecturer is in international business actually. But uh in uh 2020 uh first time joined the memorial service uh for Dick Ysu. Uh he was one of the Malaysian students who died uh during the bombing. That moment was a turning point for me. Uh I was uh deeply removed to see how uh people in Hiroshima uh continue to honor him. uh his memory every year uh quietly and sincerely. Uh it made me realize uh that while the story is remembered here, very few Malaysians uh knows that some students from their own country were here in Hiroshima and became the victims of the bombing. uh since then uh I’ve been actively uh involved in uncovering and sharing the the stories uh not just a war victim but as a part of forgotten history uh that uh that should be known by many uh this has become more than a side project for me it’s a personal missions to bridge the memory between Malaysia and Japan and turn contribute to the peace educations I think from uh participant perspective especially uh as we commemorate uh 80 years since the bombing. I believe uh their story deserve to be heard not only in Japan but across Southeast Asia. Well, you sort of touched on this in the video that we saw but tell us once again why do we or should we learn about those students after all these decades later? Yeah, this is because uh it still speaks to the world now. Uh even now you can see wars still continue in Gaza, in Ukraine and in many places around the world. And uh the threat of nuclear weapons being used is perhaps greater than uh ever since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I think uh that’s why remembering what happened here and not just about the past but I think it’s about preventing another tragedy to be occurred. uh through the lives of these uh students and through the words of survivor like Kurihara uh we know how one atomic bomb destroyed the life of peoples indiscriminately uh young and old local and foreigners uh students and also soldiers uh these students uh came from uh came to Japan to study and to build bridges but uh war turned their dreams into ashes. Uh we must not let this happen again. Uh learning their history uh will remind us that peace is really fragile and what we must protect is with knowledge, empathy and courage. Well, thank you very much for all of your insight, Dr. Adam. Well, the fact that the bombing had foreign victims speaks to the bigger issue here. Nuclear weapons are a threat to the entire world and that’s why Hibaka want them gone for good anywhere and everywhere. So, Ayaka is here again. So, some of the rhetoric on the world stage does seem to suggest the threat of nuclear weapons uh is still there. And then what do you think needs to be done for people to truly comprehend that it it is totally wrong to use them? I think more people need to hear the experiences of the once you understand what they went through, you’ll realize just how horrifying these weapons are. Many people think this is a problem of the past. They think there’s no way we would ever use this nuclear weapons again. Another issue that needs to be considered is the value of nuclear deterrence in the nuclear umbrella. Some experts question whether such a defense strategy is actually protecting the world at all. They say nuclear weapons only so distrust and deepen division between countries. I think it’s important to remind people that as long as nuclear weapons exist, there will always be the possibility of treasury. Well, thank you, Aka, for sharing all of your insight. Thank you so much. And now, despite the challenge of getting people across the world to care about this issue, it’s worth pointing out here a change that I have noticed. Uh I myself lived and reported here in the city Hiroshima for four years earlier in my career. And similar to what the museum is recording, I see a lot of foreign visitors here these days and even today. New faces mean new opportunities to share an important message.
The people of Japan are marking 80 years since an atomic bomb devastated Hiroshima, killing thousands. NHK World’s Yoshikawa Ryuichi was there Wednesday and spoke to local reporters and advocates about how they’re observing the day. #japan #hiroshima #ww2 #nuclear
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