On August 5, the Hiroshima Youth Peace Meeting was held at the Hiroshima City Hall Auditorium with the main purpose of learning about peace.
　The event was attended by 154 participants from 13 organizations, including a peace delegation of mainly junior high school students from various cities in Japan, who were sent to the Peace Memorial Ceremony, and 27 members of Junior and Senior High School Students Peace Club. The Peace Club is a volunteer organization run by this Foundation, and the club members are committed to promoting peace through events such as this one, having learned about the reality of the atomic bombing in depth.
　The Meeting consists of (1) peace study on the reality of the atomic bombings and (2) peace study in small group discussions.
　In (1), Peace Club members gave an overview of the damage inflicted by the atomic bombing, followed by a lecture by Sadae Kasaoka, an A-bomb survivor. The participants from each city were very active and asked more than 20 questions. Some of the questions related to daily life at the time and Ms. Kasaoka's life after the bombing, such as "How did you get clothes in those days when supplies were scarce?" and "If the bombing had not happened, what kind of job did you want to get?" Participants were able to understand the bombing in greater depth and detail.
　In (2), the participants from each city were firstly divided into groups so that they could be separated from each other. Then, Peace Club members assigned to each group acted as coordinators, and the groups held active discussions on the themes of peace and nuclear weapons. At the end of the session, the participants made presentations on what they had discussed.
　Participation in this Meeting enables personal exchanges between visitors to Hiroshima and hibakusha as well as junior high and high school students in Hiroshima. In addition, we expect to receive feedback from the students who have been dispatched to Hiroshima by presenting the results of their activities after returning to their respective municipalities. We hope to further enhance the program in the next fiscal year and beyond.