Japanese children hold paper laterns before start of memorial parade to mark 67 years since bombing of Hiroshima by the US under President Truman

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Comment by Tony Nuspl on December 12, 2013 at 2:40pm

Review of the event that took place in Chapman Hall, T.U. campus, 4th Dec 2013, provided by a board member of Citizens Action for Safe Energy (CASE), in Tulsa: <quoting>

At the December 4 event, "Hibakusha Stories", sponsored by the History Club at Tulsa University, a quietly spoken eyewitness account and a plea for peace brought together East and West and decades of history.

The audience was intensely involved for over two hours in hearing a personal experience of the atomic bomb dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima, Japan, in August, 1945, and in sharing concerns over the nuclear power plant disaster at Fukushima, Japan, ongoing since March 2011.

Stories recounted by Toshiko Tanaka, a Japanese Hibakusha (survivor of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima) were the core of the program.

Toshiko Tanaka spoke in Japanese; one paragraph at a time was expertly translated into English by an animated young woman. The Japanese speaker told details of the day when, on her way to school at age six, she was burnt by the heat and radiation from the bomb, which instantly killed 80,000 people. She told of immediate and long-term effects on her family and schoolmates, and continuing effects on her own health. It took her many years to become able to speak of the horrible experience of the bomb and for a long time she relied on her art (enamel work) to send "subliminal" messages about peace. But now, at age 75, she has traveled widely (visiting over 50 countries) to speak for peace.

Before speaking at TU she had learned about the work of Carrie Dickerson and Citizens Action for Safe Energy in stopping Black Fox nuke plant in the Tulsa area, and she expressed delight at being in a place that had stopped a nuclear power plant.

The thrust of the December 4 program was a plea for abolition of nuclear weapons, which now number 17,300 (known) worldwide.

Eventually nuclear power plants, especially those at Fukushima, were discussed. Their radiation output, as well as radiation from other disasters like Chernobyl and from nuclear bomb testing, threatens the entire planet and makes Hibakusha of us all. In this part of the program Dr. Kathleen Sullivan, who came with the sponsoring Youth Arts program from New York, contributed a great deal of knowledge about nuclear power and the dire situation at Fukushima. Websites to which she referred the audience included Fairewinds.org.

There were several questions and comments from the audience, and many discussions continued after the program ended.

I had brought a few articles --on Hiroshima, Fukushima and radiation-- as handouts (not nearly enough as it turned out).

A large, effective 'Hiroshima and Nagasaki' poster exhibit provided by Eastern Oklahoma Pax Christi (peace group) filled the adjoining hallway in Chapman Hall and drew a lot of attention. (The exhibit included a poster about uranium munitions, a present-day radioactive weapon.) John Kennington, organizer of the poster exhibit, also set up his camera and made a video of the Hibakusha event. Those who missed the presentation at Tulsa University should be able to see the video on YouTube.

The Wed, Dec. 4 Tulsa World had an article on page two about the "Hibakusha Stories".

Also see: http://publicradiotulsa.org/post/hiroshima-survivors-share-their-stories-tulsa-students