2021年　ゼミ合宿・スタディーツアー補助

スタディーツアー概要；

1^st day – The same day we arrived in Nagasaki, we went straight to the Nagasaki Peace Park, and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, where we were welcomed and guided by a volunteer tour guide, who also happened to be a direct descendent from a Nagasaki nuclear bomb victim. Nagasaki was her home and she was personally affected by the events, so she could explain to us the details about the park, the museum and the Atomic Bomb Day with very personal details and unique outlook. In the end of the day, we had our very first meeting.

2^nd day – We had a city tour with Mr. Yasujiro Tanaka, a Nagasaki A-Bomb survivor. He guided us through the city and its main interest points, explaining the main characteristics from the city, and how it was and still is affected by the Atomic Bomb. Later in the day, we had free time to explore the city.

3^rd day – In our last night in the city, we went to the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims. There, we had a guided tour through the place, and a lecture with Keiko Nakamura. After, we had the chance to meet the students from Nagasaki University, discuss with them and learn about their own projects regarding Peace Studies. Later in the day, we went to the Masaharu Oka Memorial Nagasaki Peace Museum, where we could also learn about the human rights violations and war crimes committed by Japan in the II World War and II Sino-Japanese War. We also went to the former Fukuoka Prisoner of War Camp No. 2 in Koyagi Island, where there is a memorial for the Prisoners of War that suffered and lost their life there.

4rd Day – Travel to Hiroshima by bullet train.

5^th Day – We visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Peace Memorial Park by ourselves. After, we had a special lecture with the A-bomb survivors Koko Kondo and Keiko Ogura. At night, we reviewed the learnings of the day, and discussed our findings.

6^th Day – We headed to the Okunoshima Island, where 5 different poison gases used to be fabricated by the Japanese Army. We had a guided tour in the island and in the Poison Gas Museum by Mr. Masayuki Yamauchi. He told us about the consequences of these actions for the land, the Island former workers, and the targeted victims of this weapons. The results of the Island dark history remains until today.

7^th Day – Dissolution Day. I headed with Koko Kondo to the Shukkeien Garden where A-Bomb victims headed after the bombing, looking for safety. After, we went to her former church, where a remaining cross from the bombing still remains. After that, I took the train back to Yokohama.

今回の参加で得たこと；

In my very first impression, it was already obvious to me that both Nagasaki and Hiroshima are permeated with the consequences of war. Despite both cities being, today, highly developed, from the buildings to the locals, everything is a remembrance of the horrors of war, and the consequences of it permeates people’s everyday life in a lot of different ways.

It was very clear from the experiences we got in this trip, that reconstruction is a very different concept from reparation.

From the A-Bomb victims and their descendants to the poison gas workers, they are all still suffering from the consequences of events that happened more than 75 years ago.  Despite having different stories and playing very different roles in the events that preceded the A-Bomb, all of them share the same goal and have the same desire in their hearts: peace.

These desire and deep understanding of the horrors of the war are imbued in the speech of every one of the people we met.

I could also learn in dept the details of how the nuclear bomb worked and the human and environmental consequences of what happened on the 6^th and 9^th of August of 1945, meeting many people that in different ways fight for peace and stand up against war.

Although there is a common knowledge of the Atomic Bombs being incredibly destructive, there is still a lack of knowledge from the average people outside Japan on how deadly and devastating the nuclear power actually is, and how their consequences remain in space and time. In the other hand, there are a lack of knowledge in the Japanese side regarding the atrocities committed by the Japanese army during the war, and how even Japanese citizens still suffer from it. With that being said, the compensation and reparation are key factors to be able to construct a better future. For that, it is necessary for Japan to also recognize and take responsibilities for their actions during the war. 

The atrocities that happened in the II World War are all interconnected, and there are no hopes of reparation without remembering the past, and dealing with the consequences of the past actions.