News/Articles
LETTER OF COMMENDATION 
by Sergio Duarte
High Representative for Disarmament Affairs United Nations
"We are here this evening for a very special event. We are here to recognize an enlightened initiative called Hibakusha Stories, to educate young students of New York City about both the tragic effects of nuclear weapons and the opportunities that exist for building a world free of such weapons—opportunities that provide a basis for hope for a better future, a safer world for ourselves and for future generations."...
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THE BEGINNINGS OF HIBAKUSHA STORIES
Youth Arts New York had the opportunity to bring Hibakusha to area schools in October, 2008. Dr. Elisabeth Iler, co-director of CUNY’s Gateway Institute for Pre-College Education said of the program we presented in October:
“It was one of the most moving and impressive activities I have seen in our Gateway schools, ever... The students were rapt in their attention to the visitors' stories and asked superb, probing and thoughtful questions. The visitors were visibly moved by the experience as well ... I will never forget it. I think it really did change lives, which is what education should be about!"...
THE "SORROW OF SURVIVAL"
by Ellie Spielberg @ New York Teacher
Hibakusha. It’s a Chinese word adopted by the Japanese that means a person affected by a bomb, expressing not the luck of escape but the great sorrow of survival. No word better describes the survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 at the end of World War II, explained retired UFT member Robert Croonquist...
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HIBAKUSHA IN NY - TWO TEENS CONNECT
On Mother’s Day this year, my Quaker Meeting invited a group of about ten Hibakusha, literally ‘those who survived’ to give a presentation about their experience. They were in New York as part of an international demonstration to support peaceful resolutions to global conflicts, and to end nuclear proliferation. They had come from Japan, parts of the US and Brazil...
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TWO MILLION YOUTH CALL FOR
NUCLEAR WEAPON-FREE WORLD
On May 11, a petition of 2,276,167 signatures from youth calling for the adoption of a Nuclear Weapons Convention which would comprehensively ban nuclear weapons was presented to Ambassador Leslie B. Gatan, adviser to the president of the ongoing Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, and UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Sergio Duarte at the New York Culture Center of the SGI-USA Buddhist association. The signatures, collected between January and March 2010 by youth members of Soka Gakkai in Japan, were presented by Youth Peace Committee leader Kenji Shiratsuchi who stated: "Each of these signatures embodies the heartfelt commitment and effort of a young person. We urge you to start debate on a Nuclear Weapons Convention at the earliest opportunity."...
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NEWS: HIROSHIMA SURVIVORS BRING
THEIR STORIES TO BROOKLYN
by Mary Frost @ Brooklyn Daily Eagle
They walk among us: a group of people who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. In Japan, the aging atomic bomb survivors are called the Hibakusha. Now these survivors tell their stories about one of the most significant events in human history to all who will listen, in order to help people understand the reality of nuclear war....
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NEWS: HIBAKUSHA STORIES FEATURED IN A NEWS STORY ON TOKYO BROADCASTING SYSTEM
Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) sent a news crew into the classrooms this last week to tape a segment on Hibakusha Stories. As you might expect, it's all in Japanese...
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NEWS: NUKE SURVIVORS SHARE STORIES
WITH LOCAL STUDENTS
by Diego Cupolo @ BUSHWICKBK.com
"On Aug. 6, 1945 Hiroshima, Japan became the first city to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon, instantly killing up to 80,000 people. Though the blast is many decades in the past, its carnage still lingers within the dwindling few who survived one of humanity’s darkest days. Tuesday afternoon, a small group of survivors visited the Bushwick Campus High School to share their terrifying stories with about one hundred 10th-grade students"...
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New York Learns from Atomic Bomb Survivors
Join us May 11, 2010, as survivors of Hiroshima share their harrowing experiences as well as their unwavering commitement to achieving a world without nuclear weapons. A petition signed by more than 2 million people calling for the adoption of an international treaty banning nuclear weapons (Nuclear Weapons Convention) will be presented.
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PICTURES FROM RECENT HIBAKUSHA STORIES EVENTS
Hibakusha Stories Meet & Greet, Gramercy Park, NY, April 19, 2010
Cherry Blossom Viewing and Dedication, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, NY, April 24, 2010
YOUTH REJECT NUCLEAR WEAPONS,
SGI SURVEY SHOWS
From January to March 2010, youth members of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) in six countries conducted surveys of their peers' attitudes toward nuclear weapons and their abolition in advance of the upcoming NPT Review Conference.
A total of 4,362 interview surveys were conducted of people from their teens through 30s in Japan, Korea, the Philippines, New Zealand, the USA and the UK.
Asked whether the presence of nuclear weapons contributes to global peace and stability, 59.6% of respondents, including those from the nuclear states, said no...
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IMAGINE PEACE, BY YOKO ONO
Yoko Ono writes: We should focus on healing the world we have destroyed, by asking our healing power to come out. Our intent of healing will start to show it’s power by just asking for it. When all of us ask the world to be healed, it will be...
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NEWS: HIBAKUSHA STORIES FILM FESTIVAL
Hibakusha Stories and the Maysles Institute & Cinema are pround to present the Hibakusha Stories Film Festival, debuting on Mother's Day, May 9, 2010. We will be presenting Docs on Nukes — Nuclear Narratives through the art of film, featuring Witness to Hiroshima by Kathy Sloane. Also on the bill is Atomic Mom by M.T. Silvia.
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NEWS: CAFE CONCERT FOR PEACE
Saxophonist and composer Sam Sadigursky presents a collaboration with Hibakusha Stories, which passes the legacy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to a new generation, and empowers them with tools to build a world free of nuclear weapons. Several of the survivors of the bombings will tell their stories as part of a month-long visit to NYC, followed by a set of music by Sadigursky, who has been called "a multi-reed player extraordinaire" by New York Magazine, and whose latest release on New Amsterdam Records was described by Ben Ratliff of the New York Times as "personal, not particularly restricted by ideas of musical genre, quite complex and resolutely unshowy" and "something of genius...an engaging, richly textured work to be reckoned with, a modern masterpiece of the profoundest authenticity." by All About Jazz...
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IS START REALLY A BEGINNING?
by Lawrence S. Wittner @ History News Network
"Does the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), signed by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Prague on April 8, really provide a beginning toward a nuclear-free world? That's what Obama implied in a statement two weeks earlier. Speaking to reporters at the White House, he described the treaty as an historic step toward "a world without nuclear weapons."...
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STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA ON THE RELEASE OF NUCLEAR POSTURE REVIEW
by Office of Press Secretary @ The White House
"One year ago yesterday in Prague, I outlined a comprehensive agenda to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and to pursue the peace and security of a world without them. I look forward to advancing this agenda in Prague this week when I sign the new START Treaty with President Medvedev, committing the United States and Russia to substantial reductions in our nuclear arsenals.
"Today, my Administration is taking a significant step forward by fulfilling another pledge that I made in Prague—to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy and focus on reducing the nuclear dangers of the 21st century, while sustaining a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent for the United States and our allies and partners as long as nuclear weapons exist"...
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AFTER ATOM BOMBS’ SHOCK,
THE REAL HORRORS BEGAN UNFOLDING
by Dwight Garner @ The New York Times
When Tsutomu Yamaguchi [see article below] died two weeks ago, at 93, he was eulogized as a star-crossed rarity: a man who lived through two atomic blasts, at Hiroshima and then at Nagasaki. He was a man with very good luck, or very bad luck. It’s hard to decide. But Mr. Yamaguchi wasn’t alone. He was one of as many as 165 people who are believed to have survived Hiroshima only to wind up in Nagasaki when that bomb fell three days later. The stories of these double survivors make up part of Charles Pellegrino’s sober and authoritative new book, “The Last Train From Hiroshima"..."
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TSUTOMU YAMAGUCHI, SURVIVOR OF 2 ATOMIC BLASTS,
DIES AT 93
by Mark McDonald @ The New York Times
"Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only official survivor of both atomic blasts to hit Japan in World War II, died Monday in Nagasaki, Japan. He was 93.... At a lecture he gave in Nagasaki last June, Mr. Yamaguchi said he had written to President Obama about banning nuclear arms. And he was recently visited by the American film director James Cameron [Avatar director] to discuss a film project on atomic bombs, Ms. Yamasaki said."
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A FLASH OF MEMORY
by Issey Miyake
In April, President Obama pledged to seek peace and security in a world without nuclear weapons. He called for not simply a reduction, but elimination. His words awakened something buried deeply within me, something about which I have until now been reluctant to discuss...
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OBAMA'S PRAGUE SPEECH
Last May when a group of Hibakusha visited New York City Schools, they asked us, “What do Americans think of President Obama’s Prague speech? ” We were embarrassed to disappoint them with the news that the vast majority of Americans had no idea what the Prague speech was...
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THE GREAT ATOMIC FILM COVER-UP
by Greg Mitchell @ The Huffington Post
"In the weeks following the atomic attacks on Japan 64 years ago, and then for decades afterward, the United States engaged in airtight suppression of all film shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombings. This included footage shot by U.S. military crews and Japanese newsreel teams. In addition, for many years, many newspaper photographs were seized or prohibited"...
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