ピースボートおりづるプロジェクト

Survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki visit Peru Shimpo
The Hibakusha call for a world free of nuclear weapons during their visits to many countries.

Hibakusha from Hiroshima and Nagasaki call for a world free of nuclear weapons in Peru
Nine survivors from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 arrived in Peru on Peace Boat, bringing with them a call for a world free of nuclear weapons.

The Hibakusha are suvivors that are admired and respected in the world, and are part of a group of travelers on Peace Boat. Yesterday morning, they started off their visits of Lima and Callao with a stop at the office of the Peru Shimpo daily newspaper.

Tsuboi Susumu, Hirai Shoso, Fukahori Akira, Takahashi Setsuko, Yamanaka Emiko, Suenaga Hiroshi , Nishida Goro, Tasaki Noboru and Sagaguchi Hiroko visited the newspaper and periodicals library of the office, where they studied in detail the pages of the first edition of Peru Shimpo published on July 1, 1950.

They also observed the production of Peru Shimpo during the past 61 years, and stopped to read the new format of the paper.

Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima
Alfredo Kato, president of the board of directors of Peru Shimpo, welcomed the survivors as well as the other participants on Peace Boat. He stated that in 2006, he and his wife Teresa Kato visited the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima.

“My wife was disturbed by the museum, a symbol of Hiroshima, and she didn’t allow me to take photos there,” he reported to the Hibakusha. “But the museum is impressive, because it allows one to understand the suffering of the victims of the atomic bombing,” he added.

Alfred Kato affirmed that having survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki travel the world on Peace Boat as part of a global voyage for a nuclear weapon-free world makes sense. He also pointed out that some U.S. Congress members state that their country should withdraw their military forces from Japan, “because they feel that the Japanese have to assume responsibility for their own security.”

Villa El Salvador
Yesterday afternoon, the Hibakusha had lunch in the Peruvian-Japanese Cultural Centre and afterward paid a visit to Villa El Salvador. Later that night, they returned to the ship to continue on with their voyage.

Their voyage with Peace Boat began on the 23rd of January of 2011, and they will return to Japan on the 18th of April, for a trip totalling 86 days. NGO Peace Boat has carried out the “Global Voyage for a Nuclear-Free World-Hibakusha Project” since 2008.

Thus far, 123 atomic bomb survivors have joined the project with the aim of travelling around the world to launch calls for a world free of nuclear weapons.

Survivor Testimonies [These are word-for-word the profiles, so won’t be translated here.]

Photo captions:
Page 1: Tsuboi Susumu, Hirai Shoso, Fukahori Akira, Takahashi Setsuko, Yamanaka Emiko, Suenaga Hiroshi , Nishida Goro, Tasaki Noboru and Sagaguchi Hiroko, survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, learn in detail about Peru Shimpo.

Page 2:
Hibakusha attentively read the first edition of Peru Shimpo, which was published on July 1, 1950.
Peace Boat travelers with the directors of our newspaper.
In the newspaper and periodicals library of Peru Shimpo, Ricardo Isamu Goya explains in detail the process of creating the newspaper.

Page 3:
Alfredo Kato, president of the board of directors, thanks the Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors for their visit, and explains to them the objectives of Peru Shimpo.
Fukahori Akira (who was exposed to the nuclear bomb at the age of 15) now knows how the newspaper is formatted. Seen here with Alberto Kohatsu, director general of the paper.