Based in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, on the other side of the globe from Japan, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony with Spanish interpretation was held online on August 5, 2022, at 7:45 pm local time.
Approximately 100 people from Spanish-speaking countries such as Chile, Paraguay, and Mexico, and people from all over Japan, participated.
This was the third time for this online event to be held.
The NGO that presides over the event, Fundación Sadako, has been conducting activities in Argentina with the theme of peace, friendship, and environmental conservation.
At the request of schools and organizations, we have held Hiroshima seminars, peace origami crane classes, "Sadako and the Origami Crane" poster exhibition, peace themed film screenings, and other events.
While the pandemic prevented us from visiting schools and other activities, we thought about how we could send a message of peace and how we could wish for the health of people around the world from Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
I am a conference interpreter in Spanish and Japanese.
There are fewer face-to-face international meetings, courtesy calls, or business meetings, and these are now partially online.
I am also a teacher of Japanese and Spanish, and all of my Japanese classes at Buenos Aires City University of Foreign Languages are now online.
Currently, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony is interpreted into English and transmitted live by the City of Hiroshima, but there is no transmission in Spanish.
However, Spanish-speaking people on the other side of the world can also learn about the current situation in Hiroshima by watching the live broadcast online, as long as they take into account the time difference.
The online ceremony was a place to connect people in Spanish, with an Argentinean student of Japanese and a Japanese student of Spanish serving as the moderators, volunteers with an interest in peace helping with reception and other duties, and me providing simultaneous interpretation.
Participants were almost moved to tears by the Peace Declaration, the speeches by guests of honor, and especially the children's Commitment to Peace.
They also watched the offering of flowers with great interest and listened to the explanation about the construction of the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims.
At the social gathering after the ceremony, the participants were moved by former journalist and hibakusha Katsukuni Tanaka's message of friendship from Hiroshima and sang the Hiroshima Peace Song in Spanish.
In addition, a special seminar was given by a teacher of kyogen, a traditional Japanese performing art, and I felt peace in being able to enjoy traditional culture.
Some of the municipalities have joined Mayors for Peace through the efforts of those who participated in past online ceremonies.
The online ceremony is scheduled to be held again in 2023.
To participate, please visit the following social media sites of Fundación Sadako.
