High-School Students for Peace The High School Students Peace Ambassadors have journeyed from Japan to the UN Office in Geneva every year since 1998 to appeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons and the achievement of world peace. In 2001, they launched the 10,000 High School Students Signature Campaign “to eliminate all nuclear weapons and make a peaceful world.” This campaign originated in Nagasaki and has spread to many places in Japan and overseas. Students at the Motomachi High School of Hiroshima City have pursued art projects since 2007 to convey the sufferings of hibakusha. The students base their work on testimonials and experiences described by the hibakusha. High school students collect signatures for the anti-nuclear campaign in the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park. Photograph courtesy of the Organizing Committee of High School Student Peace Envoys. By 2019, a total of 112 students had painted 137 pictures inspired by the testimonials of the hibakusha. For over six months through the creation of art work, these students vicariously experience for themselves what the hibakusha have gone through. Photographs courtesy of Hiroshima City Motomachi High School. College Student Projects Students at Musashi University produced a 42-minute film entitled Voices that Moved the World based partly on information about the hibakusha provided by Nihon Hidankyo. One of the students in the project said, “I am moved by the people who kept sitting [demonstrating] in front of the Ministry of Health and keep struggling for justice. I am overwhelmed and awed by their persistent actions and strong will to correct injustice.” At Showa Women’s University, students pursued a project to convey information about World War II to future generations. They referred to 6,000 pieces of Nihon Hidankyo’s archived materials and interviewed the hibakusha in person. One student observed that the “hibakusha’s anger at the atom bomb may have been personal at first. Through the movement of Nihon Hidankyo their feelings have converged and united.” Mr. Jiro Hamasumi (center), a Hiroshima survivor, and students at the meeting, “Connecting the Survivors’ Voices to the Future,” Musashi University, December 15th, 2018. Photograph courtesy of Nihon Hidankyo. Students of Showa Women’s University listen to the testimony by Mr. Sueichi Kido, a Nagasaki survivor. March 2019. Photograph courtesy of Nihon Hidankyo. Ms. Yoshie Kurihara, a former staff member of Hidankyo, explains activities of the hibakusha to a student of Musashi University, October 2018. Photograph courtesy of Nihon Hidankyo.
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