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First-ever Hiroshima Training for United Nations Tour Guides
－Communicating the spirit of Hiroshima to the world－
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Together with Nagasaki City, Hiroshima City set up permanent atomic bomb exhibitions consisting of A-bomb artifacts and photo panels at United Nations facilities in New York, Geneva and Vienna.
Large numbers of government members and international organization leaders from all over the world gather at the UN facilities to play an important role in achieving a peaceful world free of nuclear weapons.
Many tourists from countries throughout the world also visit these facilities.
Tours of the UN facilities are provided for those people, and around 400,000 people from all over the world join the tours each year.
In order to more effectively communicate the reality of the damage from the atomic bombing through those exhibitions set up at the locations that have a great influence on international politics and global public opinion, it is essential that the tour guides and staff in charge of guided tours grasp the reality of the atomic bombing.
For this reason, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum for the first time invited six tour guides and guided tour staff members from three UN facilities to come to Hiroshima, where they participated in the Hiroshima Training for United Nations Tour Guides, to understand the reality of the damage from the atomic bombing.
The training was held for the first time for four days from December 1-4, 2017.
Day 1
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At the start of the training, Mr. Kenji Shiga, the Director of the Museum, gave an overview of the reality of the bombing in a lecture, saying
"Through your guided tours, we want you to communicate to many people what human beings lose when they are hit by a nuclear weapon, what happens when a nuclear weapon is used."
The afternoon session was led by the Hiroshima Peace Volunteer Mr. Kenichi Harada, who took participants on a tour of memorial monuments in Peace Memorial Park that included the inside of the A-Bomb Dome.
Afterwards the participants toured the Museum and gained an understanding of the inhumanity of nuclear weapons by observing the items left behind by those who lost their lives in the bombing.
Day 2
The participants received lectures intensively:
"The Impact of the Atomic Bombing on the Human Body" by Dr. Kenji Kamiya, Vice-President of the Hiroshima University,
"Tracing the Background from the US Atomic Bomb Development to the Dropping of the Bomb,
and Diplomatic Intentions" by Professor Yasuhiro Yamada, Osaka University Graduate
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Listening to a lecture by Director Siga
Observing the inside of the A-bomb Dome
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School,
"International Situation Regarding Nuclear Weapons Regulations and Transitions in International Treaties" by Associate Professor Yasuhito Fukui, Hiroshima City University Hiroshima Peace Institute,
as well as an A-bomb testimony by Mr. Takashi Teramoto, an Atomic Bombing Witness for this Foundation.
Day 3
In the morning, participants were taken on a tour of Miyajima, led by volunteer Ms. Akemi Yagi, where they learned about Hiroshima's history and Japanese traditions and culture.
This was followed by a courtesy visit to Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui.
Mayor Matsui expressed his gratitude to the participants for their work guiding people at the atomic bomb exhibitions, stating
"I hope that this gives you a good understanding of the pain that the atomic bomb inflicted on people, and that you will be able to share the inhumanity of nuclear weapons both from a theoretical and emotional perspective."
After this, the participants visited the Radiation Effects Research Foundation.
They toured the Foundation and listened to a lecture by Mr. Otsura Niwa, the Foundation's Chairman, on surveys and research on the health impacts of atomic bomb radiation, as well as the social impact.
Day 4
On the final day, Professor Robert Jacobs of Hiroshima City University Hiroshima Peace Institute gave a lecture on the way the atomic bombing is understood in America.
The
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Listening to Ms. Kajimoto's testimony
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participants then listened to an A-bomb testimony by Ms. Yoshiko Kajimoto, an Atomic Bombing Witness for this Foundation.
In the afternoon, participants visited the Hiroshima Office of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), where they listened to an explanation by staff there about various activities, including initiatives regarding trees that survived the bombing.
As a final overview of the training, a discussion was held.
The participants shared their opinions on how to make use of the knowledge and experiences they gained through the training in their future work, and
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how to make it useful for the people who participate in tours at UN facilities.
They provided comments on the training, saying
"We were able to change our fundamental awareness and approach to the reality of the bombing," and
"The most memorable part of the training was the A-bomb testimony. The two A-bomb witnesses spoke vividly and in great detail about their horrific experiences during the bombing and their life after that. I really understood the terrible situation at the time."
After the participants went back to their countries, their respective UN facilities contacted us, saying
"We want to set up a tour on the theme of nuclear disarmament,"
"We will include A-bomb drawings in our tour's visual materials," and
"We're planning a new exhibition."
It seems that this training provided an opportunity for the United Nations to reaffirm the need to more strongly communicate the inhumanity of nuclear weapons.
The Hiroshima Training will continue in the future, as an attempt to give the "spirit of Hiroshima" a louder voice on the world stage, as we work to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons and perpetual world peace.
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| (Peace Memorial Museum Outreach Division) |
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