The students held an exhibition in Tokyo to showcase the activities of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Nihon Hidankyo group of atomic bomb survivors.

The exhibit was part of a school festival held Saturday and Sunday at Showa Women’s University in Setagaya Ward. It included about 50 items selected from documents related to the Nihon Hidankyo.

Testimonies from family members of atomic bomb victims included detailed descriptions of the survivors’ changing health after their exposure. Family members also expressed hope that the government would compensate the survivors, or hibakusha, and stressed that another nuclear war must be prevented.

Reports of survivors attending international conferences and meetings with representatives from various countries were also shown. These included letters sent to leaders in the US and other countries. The exhibitions bear witness to the many years of effort that Nihon Hidankyo spent to send its message of nuclear abolition to the world.

The documents on display were provided by a group that aims to preserve the memory of hibakusha with the slogan “no more hibakusha”. Group member Kurihara Yoshie said the students carefully studied the documents and exhibited them. She said their efforts helped publish records of hibakusha’s activities that had not attracted much attention.

One of the students, Otsuka Miria, said she wants people to know that they can pass on the history of hibakusha through documents, especially since it is becoming increasingly difficult to hear directly from hibakusha.