On July 31, this Foundation, the City of Hiroshima, and the Asahi Shimbun co-hosted 2021 international peace symposium on the topic of The Road to Nuclear Weapons Abolition: A New World Illuminated by a Treaty of Hope. In order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19, participants were not invited to the venue, and instead a free live webcast was provided from the International Conference Center Hiroshima. 　In the first part, Ms. Izumi Nakamitsu, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs whose efforts led to the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), gave the keynote speech titled "How will the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will change the world?" Ms. Nakamitsu praised the achievements of the hibakusha, saying, "The hibakusha played a very important role in the establishment of the TPNW. The establishment of the treaty is the result of the tireless efforts of the hibakusha." She said "we must redouble our efforts to achieve the UN's highest disarmament priority, the total elimination of nuclear weapons."
　In the panel discussion that followed, Ms. Nakamitsu, Ms. Rose Gottemoeller, who was in charge of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation as Under Secretary of State in the Obama administration, Mr. Hiroshi Nakanishi, a professor at the Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University, and Ms. Natsuki Yasuda, a photojournalist, discussed how to promote nuclear disarmament from now on and the future role of the A-bombed cities.
　In the second part, Mr. Akira Takarada, an actor who starred in the first Japanese monster movie "Godzilla" inspired by the Bikini hydrogen bomb test, Mr. Yuta Takahashi, a Keio University student from Hiroshima Prefecture and co-chair of KAKUWAKA Hiroshima, a group of young voters who want to know about nuclear policy, and Ms. Suzuka Nakamura, a researcher for Parliamentary Watch who promotes the TPNW and a student at Sophia University from Nagasaki Prefecture, gave a special talk titled "Connecting War Experiences to the Future".
　At the beginning of the special talk, Mr. Takarada spoke about his own horrific war experience after the war ended in Harbin in the former Manchuria, where he was shot by a Soviet soldier and underwent an operation to remove the bullet without anesthesia, and stressed the importance of peace. Mr. Takahashi and Ms. Nakamura, who established “KNOW NUKES TOKYO” as a place for the younger generation to think about nuclear abolition, also spoke about their activities and thoughts, and Mr. Takarada sent cheers to them, saying, "The road may be rough, but actions will eventually blossom into a big movement."