Agreement on Enhanced Collaboration
Group from Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation Visits China
|
For seven days from November 28 to December 4, 2013, a group from Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation visited China.
Since 1988, this Foundation has continued with peace exchange activities through mutual visits with the Chinese People's Association for Peace and Disarmament (CPAPD), which is a national peace organization in China that is registered as a United Nations NGO.
This time marked the 12th visit. The group of five, headed by Mr. Gen Kikkawa, a director of this Foundation and president of Hiroshima Peace Institute at Hiroshima City University, visited Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing.
The group arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on November 28, where they were met by people from CPAPD.
In Shanghai, they spoke with Shao Huixiang, deputy director of the Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office, and asked that Shanghai join Mayors for Peace.
At Shanghai International Studies University, Ms. Noriko Ueda and Ms. Setsuko Morita, atomic bomb witnesses for this Foundation, spoke about their atomic bomb experiences.
The students listening commented that they now have a deeper understanding of the damage from the atomic bomb.
Some also asked questions about Hiroshima's recovery and about the research conducted at the Hiroshima Peace Institute.
On November 30, the group arrived in Nanjing City, where they toured the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, and spoke with Cai Xisheng, deputy inspector of the People's Government of Jiangsu Province, asking for the city's support to recruit cities in Jiangsu Province to Mayors for Peace.
Inspector Cai stated that he would help in the distribution of materials and other activities, and that he would like to use the opportunity of this visit to deepen friendship.
From the night of December 1, the group stayed in Beijing.
At the atomic bombing testimony given at Beijing Foreign Studies University, students expressed their concern that atomic bombing testimonies would be lost now that almost 70 years have passed since the bomb was dropped.
Some also said that they would like to think about what they can do to help the people of Japan and China communicate to each other their wish for peace and friendship.
In the discussion with Zhu Rui, Chief Secretary of CPAPD, and others from the organization, participants spoke about enhancing collaboration, and agreed to examine a framework for international youth exchange activities, as well as continuing to pursue civic exchange and enhance mutual understanding, and making efforts to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons.
The group then toured the Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and paid a courtesy visit to He Jun, the deputy chairperson of CPAPD who has visited Hiroshima in the past as the head of a CPAPD delegation.
This was the final activity in the group's China visit.
This visit marked the first time in 11 years (since 2002) that a group visited Shanghai and Nanjing, and they were able to make requests that the cities join Mayors for Peace.
In the midst of concerns over relations between Japan and China, this visit provided an opportunity to appreciate once again the significance of civic-level exchange activities.
|
|
Head of delegation Mr. Kikkawa (4th from left) and the group developed a deeper
friendship with Deputy Chairperson He Jun (6th from left) and others involved in
CPAPD
|
|
|
| (Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division) |
|
|
|
