Waizu Club International Organizes Hiroshima Peace Study Tour for Non-Japanese Residents; Participants Learn from Atomic Bomb Survivor about Victims’ Experiences

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:29 JST, December 5, 2025

Waizu Club International (WCI), an organization for non-Japanese people living in Japan, operated by The Yomiuri Shimbun’s Osaka head office, held a special tour for members to learn about peace in Hiroshima on Nov. 22, part of activities to mark the passage of 80 years since the atomic bombing of the city.

15 WCI members from 11 countries participated in the Hiroshima Peace Study Tour, during which they learned about the lives of atomic bomb victims and the importance of passing down their stories to posterity.

The participants got aboard Hiroshima Electric Railway Co.’s “Hibaku Densha” (A-bomb tram), which is still in service despite having been struck by the atomic bomb blast. On the tram, Miyako Oguni, a storyteller who relates people’s experiences from the atomic bombing, told them about her activities to pass down to future generations what hibakusha atomic bomb survivors went through and their desire for peace.

At The Yomiuri Shimbun’s regional headquarters in Hiroshima, participants listened to Jiro Kamiya, the newspaper’s Hiroshima bureau chief, who explained to them the newspaper’s work on special reports as part of “Aug. 6 coverage” — Aug. 6 being the day when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 — including surveys of hibakusha and related series of stories.

Hibakusha Keiko Ogura, 88, who has spoken about her A-bomb experiences not only in Japan but also abroad, told the participants that if there are 10 hibakusha, there are 10 different stories, and that their trauma, which they cannot express in words, will never appear in data or documents. That is why she has continued to talk about the atomic bombing, she said.

Ogura also told participants that learning about history is necessary, but that imagination and empathy are more important. Now that she had passed the baton to the participants, who are very capable, she told them, it is their turn to pass it along to others.

The participating WCI members and others also looked down on atomic bombing-related sites from the observation deck of the Hiroshima Orizuru Tower, such as the nearby Atomic Bomb Dome. They also toured one of those sites, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, where they viewed the Cenotaph for the Victims of the Atomic Bomb and other monuments.

“If children from all over the world come to Hiroshima and listen to what hibakusha have to say, then the world will change for the better,” said participant Jill Friemark, 51. “You must see with your own eyes, and you must feel and think on your own, which should be the point of origin for using your imagination.”