Before
After
Today
It was 9:30 am Friday, November 25, 2005, 3rd Floor Tokyo Prince Hotel. We were attending the Peace Education Seminar arranged by the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund. Guest Speaker: Mr. Koji Ideda, Hiroshima Survivor, Keynote Speaker. We chatted after his session and I asked to be moved to the JFMF group going to Hiroshima, but that would have created too many complications. Our entourage of 200 American Educators would form 10 groups each destined to the far reaches of Japan. My group was headed to Ohda, Shimane, hope of visiting Hiroshima would have to wait for another time.
Mr. Koji Ikeda
At 8:16:02 am August 6, 1945
Koji Ikeda, must have been around 20 years old, had just picked up his crying and "always hungry" baby. His wife had just gone
into the city, on her morning walk for groceries, she’d be back soon.
It was August 6th, that moment a blast wave shattered his Hiroshima
home. When
he regained consciousness... “Where’s my baby?” “What happened to the
house?” and “How long was I out?” and All that remained was piles of
splinters and chards of wood where once stood his home. “Where is my
baby?” Searching through the broken timber, Koji finally found his baby,
but the hillside was now neighborhood of rubble.
10:40
am. Since I was seated in the first row and since tears were streaming
down my cheeks, I turned around to see if I was the only one
crying. With 200 American educators in the room, not a dry eye in the house.
It
would take me 10 years to finally arrive in Hiroshima but it all
started with Koji Ikeda’s presentation on Peace Education.
In 2015, I finally returned to Japan, this time making sure include Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. The short documentary below opens with my visit to Hiroshima Peace Park, and is followed by my visit to the home of one of Japan's most recognized swordmakers. Gassan family has been making swords for 800 years.
When
I posted my Hiroshima video to YouTube I said: “Every politician in the
world must visit Hiroshima Peace Park before taking office.”
For 77 years it has been believed that the bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki ended the war with Japan. But today, I've seen a different way
of framing the surrender of Japan.
