Living with Hiroshima

In Bluffton, Ohio in September, 1998

Joan asked me to tell my A-bomb experience on the first night I stayed with her. So I told her my story, making it short, since it was after the dinner, and I was going to give a talk for her peace education class the following day. Then she pleaded in tears, “My dear students are only third graders. So please teach them something about Japanese culture or songs for children.” While I was thinking in bed through the night, I realized what I should do in the class.”

I observed the first class she taught. A chosen girl started reading. Each of the students was doing different things, which made me wonder. Some were sitting at computers, some lying on the floor, and some playing with word cards.

The second class started. I was introduced to them as Keiko Murakami. Then I introduced myself, saying, “In many Asian countries family names come before individual names. I am Murakami Keiko. I took out and spread the one-thousand paper cranes which I was entrusted with by a nursery school my grandson attends. The children were excited and said, “Were they really made by children?” When I said, “I’m going to teach a Japanese song,” there was applause. I sang a song, which was easy, translating into English, “Spring has come. Spring has come. Where is it now?” And the students joined in with me.

Suddenly Joan made a sign with her eyes, saying, “Keiko, start now.”

I started to talk about my brief Atomic bomb experience, saying, “Please listen to my story in Hiroshima.” The lively class fell silent, which only made me feel almost scared.

Afterwards one child came up to me, holding my hand, another mopping tears, another covering his face with his hands, and so on. Small as they were, the children seemed to have appreciated my story in their own ways.

In the afternoon, I observed a lecture on how to conduct peace education at a nearby university. Those who took the lecture were all concerned with education. The lecturer said that when children were suggested to draw a picture imagining a peaceful country, they drew animals. She also suggested to have children discuss in the class who to invite to your table. According to her, education aiming at nurturing characteristics should be promoted, so that one can say, “Your skin has the same color as my horse, and I love it.” However, I saw some discriminatory view here.

We took a drive on a freeway outside of town. Two hours’ ride took us to the birthplace of Wilbur Wright (1867-1912), one of the Wright brothers who invented the airplane. Cornfields, with corn already harvested, extended as far as the eye could see. Only birds were moving. Once upon a time an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the U. S. Those who live here think that they have nothing to do with it.

(The children love paper cranes.)