I haven’t experienced war, so I can talk about the atomic bombing with the same viewpoint as young people, which I think is significant.

I learned about this program when I found an article about the first Successor recruitment in the newspaper four years ago.
At that time, I had started to work in Osaka from the previous year. The training sessions of the program were held on weekdays when I was working, so it was difficult to join them. I talked about it to a friend in Hokkaido with whom I had produced exhibitions about the atomic bomb in my college days. She applied for the program and participated from Chitose, Hokkaido to be one of the first Successors.
She told me about the Successors’ second recruitment. I applied for it because I had just quit my job at that time.

When I was a college student in Hokkaido, a group of six or seven of us went to the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima. One of the displays struck me, and I started to have an interest in the A-bomb issues.

It was the school uniform of a girl who died in the A-bombing. The uniform was so small. I was shocked that 14-year- old girls in those days were so small, and one such small girl had disappeared. I had studied history, so I had some knowledge about the A-bombing. However, there was a big gap between the image I vaguely had toward the A-bomb destruction and the impact I received from the uniform just in front of me. So, I thought that we must share what happened in the A-bombing.

I knew the facts, such as how many people died in that year, historical background, scientific effects of radiation and so on. Such information in textbooks was not linked well with our real world in my mind. I was born and grew up in Osaka and had no hibakusha survivors around me, which was quite different from Hiroshima. When I saw the girl’s uniform, I realized that she was an ordinary girl who could have been close to me, and the past and the present were connected in myself.

Yes, there are some hibakusha in Hokkaido, too. Sapporo has the “No More Hibakusha Kaikan,” an A-bomb museum built by citizens. When I was a college student, I often visited there to hear survivors’ stories and did panel exhibitions in the municipal hall with friends.

After I graduated from college, I came back to Osaka. I couldn’t be involved in any project at that time, but I always remembered the words of the hibakusha in Hokkaido; “I am happy that young people like you have an interest in this issue” and “You are my hope.” I thought that just hearing their experiences was not enough, and that I had to do something. Then, I heard about the second recruitment of the A-bomb Legacy Successors and I applied for it without hesitation.

In the Hiroshima Project, when we have a request, we go to elementary, junior and senior high schools, colleges and so on and give a presentation. Personally, I also would like to talk to people in their 20- and 30s, closer to my age.

Yes, I am thinking how I should tell the story to move their feelings. I think that it is important to start by talking about why I, who am not a survivor, joined this program, not by starting with the war or survivor’s stories.