Peace Boat US and Hibakusha Stories, two organizations that frequently work together toward a nuclear-free world, recently welcomed delegates from the United Nations, NGO leaders and civil society organizations working on disarmament issues to a reception in New York that gave attendees a chance to view the extraordinary Hiroshima Panels just days before the [...]
On 18 December 2015, Mr. Yasuaki Yamashita, a hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) from Nagasaki who now lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, met with UN Tour Guides and also with UN interns in New York to share his testimony of the horrors of the nuclear bombing he experienced seventy years ago on 9 [...]
Fifteen in total, the Hiroshima Panels are monumental, folding wood panels completed by Japanese couple Iri and Toshi Maruki over a span of thirty-two years, from 1950-1982. In a classic byobu format, vacillating between photographic realness and abstraction, the panels complicate, challenge, and deepen common perceptions of the nuclear bombing and its aftermath. Six [...]
Compelled by her memories of nuclear destruction, Setsuko Thurlow has become an international advocate for nuclear disarmament. She will be recognized and honored by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation at their 32nd annual Evening For Peace on October 25th at the Four Seasons Biltmore. Thurlow took time to grant Casa Magazine an interview via [...]
Setting foot in Hiroshima in early August for the first time, Robert Croonquist expected to feel sorrow for the massive number of lives lost in the U.S. atomic bombing of the city 70 years ago. Instead, the 67-year-old American could not help rejoicing at seeing the familiar faces of atomic bomb survivors he has [...]
As the 70th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki approaches, several people have been asking me to share my thoughts about those days in 1945, when our world changed forever. The first thing that comes to mind is an image of my four-year-old nephew Eiji — transformed into a charred, blackened and swollen child who [...]
August 6, 1945, started out a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, and Reiko Yamada and her classmates were lining up outside their elementary school, waiting for class to begin. The morning was blisteringly hot, and some of Yamada's friends had fainted under the strong sun. Their teacher told them to take refuge [...]
High school students at the UN International School at Waterside Plaza welcomed two World War II survivors from Japan to their class on Monday to hear their experiences from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The program was brought to the school by the organization Hibakusha Stories, which is a UN-affiliated NGO and [...]
Ms. Setsuko Thurlow Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference NGO Presentation to the Delegates United Nations, New York —1 May 2015Madame President, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and GentlemanOn the cenotaph in the Peace Park in Hiroshima is an inscription that reads, "Rest in peace, the error will not be repeated." Instead of pointing an accusing finger at the [...]
A Race To Keep Stories Alive Seventy years have passed since the United States shocked the world by dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As nuclear powers gather this week to discuss a landmark disarmament treaty, the now-fragile survivors warn this may be their last chance to use [...]
