With the spread of COVID-19 throughout the world, there are restrictions on travel between different countries. Even under such circumstances, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is communicating atomic bombing testimonials to people overseas using an online conference system. The aim of this initiative is to communicate what happened in Hiroshima to large numbers of people in Japan and overseas, and thus develop a global consensus for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
　Due to the fact that countries in Europe and America were in lockdown, meetings scheduled to be held overseas had to be cancelled, and this included some atomic bombing testimonial talks. However, from April to June, online talks were held four times for participants in the nuclear superpower America.
　A woman from Oregon, who listened to the talk by the hibakusha Ms. Keiko Ogura together with her children, said "Thanks to the talk by Ms. Ogura, I was able to start talking about war, peace and nuclear weapons with my children." She expressed her gratitude that she was able to connect online with Ms. Ogura, who lives in Hiroshima, during the situation where it is not allowed to go outside because of the pandemic.
　This program has been underway since 2010, but there was an initiative that was tried for the first time this year. Usually, the person giving the testimonial talk comes to the museum and gives the talk using the Internet connection and equipment in the conference room. However, because there was a request to stay at home to prevent the spread of the COVID-19, the hibakusha who were to give talks were not able to come to the museum. Therefore, it was decided at short notice that the talk would be given by an A-bomb Legacy Successor who was able to use the online conference system from her home. In the online course organized by the Hawaiian non-profit Pacific Historic Parks (PHP), a talk was given by Ms. Naoko Okimoto, an A-bomb Legacy Successor who has taken on the A-bomb testimonial of hibakusha Mr. Mutsuhiko Segoshi (deceased). There were around one hundred participants in the talk session from all over America.
　The museum will continue to use the Internet and other technologies to communicate the reality of the bombing in Japan and overseas, during and after the pandemic.