Hiroshima Peace Memorial Exhibit opens

By David Ugarte

Monday, March 9, 2009

As a part of the Hiroshima Nagasaki 101 exhibit campaign, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Exhibit opened Sunday at the Nunemaker Center. The exhibit includes posters showing pictures, charts and information about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as a documentary about the bombings, victims and survivors.

Katherine Logan, administration associate for the University of Kansas, served as the group leader for the Peace with Justice team, which set up the exhibit. Logan said the exhibit would focus on the bombings, the personal human tragedy and more generally about nuclear proliferation.

photo

Photo by Jerry Wang

Takashi Kinoshita, Japanese exchanged student (middle), teaches Hilary Ferguson, Lawrence freshman, and Kevin Fincher, Birmingham, Ala., junior, how to make a paper crane. The paper cranes were donated to Hiroshima.

What: The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Exhibit

When: March 8 to 15

Where:The Nunemaker Center, 1506 Engel Road, is open 4 to 10 p.m. Sundays, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and is closed on Saturdays.

March 29 to April 29 the exhibit will be in the Lawrence Public Library.

The exhibit would make people think about the real impact of nuclear weapons and why they are not a good idea, Logan said.

“I think it’s a good opportunity to bring people together who are interested in peace and nuclear proliferation to talk about it,” Logan said. “I am very happy to be working on it.”

Attendees of the exhibit can make paper cranes, using instructions provided. Logan said she hoped to collect 1000 paper cranes for the exhibit. Near the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Japan, 10 million paper cranes are donated each year to The Children’s Peace Monument that stands in Peace Park.

Nobuyuki Tsuchiya, Fukui Prefecture, Japan, graduate student, helped set up and organize the exhibit and assisted in translating for the Japanese speakers. Tsuchiya said the event was meant to teach a historical lesson and to help remind students of the results of using atomic bombs so they would never be used again.

“The wars and battles in the world never vanish,” Tsuchiya said.

Ecumenical Christian Ministries and the KU Honors Program student council is hosting the event, with support from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Japan.

Lauren Tullis, Carl Junction, Mo., junior, is involved in ECM and said she came to the opening of the exhibit to support it.

“I think that it’s really powerful,” Tullis said. “I wish more people would see it. I think it could have a very big impact on people.”

For the first day of the exhibit, Sachiko Masuoka, a survivor of the bombing in Hiroshima, spoke at the exhibit. Accompanying Masuoka was Yuki Miyamoto, an assistant professor of religious studies at DePaul University and daughter of an atomic bomb survivor.

“My goal would be for us to think about this issue more seriously. It is very relevant to our lives, yet it has not been treated so,” Miyamoto said. “Ms. Masuoka would like to say the abolishment of war in general; the city’s goal would be the abolishment of nuclear weaponry.”

Miyamoto helps translate for Masuoka whenever they speak at exhibits. Miyamoto said together they had spoken at several exhibits since the summer of 2007.

“I believe in us creating our own future,” Miyamoto said. “And the youth in the United States is my hope.”

Miyamoto said she felt fortunate to get to know Masuoka and touring with her was an inspiring and humbling experience.

“It is amazing to see her willingness to talk about her experiences, though she is very humble,” Miyamoto said.

— — Edited by Sam Speer

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