President Obama Invitation Project <Part 3>

Translating messages to the president

In this issue we offer a progress report on our project to invite President Obama to visit Hiroshima.

Another step has been taken toward realizing this dream. In cooperation with high school students in Hawaii and New York, and volunteers in and around Hiroshima, 335 letters from our readers have now been translated into English.

We asked the volunteers why they had agreed to help and how they felt after completing their work. Answers included: "We are helping to build a bridge between the U.S. President and the people of Hiroshima" and "The hope of the children in Hiroshima made me wish for the success of the project, too." It appears that the hopes and wishes found in the letters were passed on to many in Japan and abroad through the translation work.

We believe these hopes and wishes held by the letter-writers are empowering our project toward realization.

In Japan, 20 volunteers from the Hiroshima area, elementary school students to adults, helped translate the letters to President Obama into English. Overseas, the students of Punahou School in Hawaii, which President Obama himself attended as a youth, and Stuyvesant High School in New York provided help with translation, too. (Seira Furukawa, 15, and Takeshi Suyama, 16)

In Hawaii: A bridge between the U.S. president and Hiroshima

Students translate Japanese letters into English at Punahou School. Seventy-four students at Punahou School who are studying Japanese were involved in translating 100 letters into English. Hiromi Peterson, 60, a Japanese teacher at the school who is originally from Hiroshima, called on student volunteers to support the project. "The students studying here at the school Mr. Obama attended when he was young are a bridge between Hiroshima and the president," she thought. And so she invited the students to take part to help convey the voices of Hiroshima citizens to the White House. One of the students, Elise Timtim, 17, worked on a letter written by a junior school student. She said she was moved by the letter's direct plea--"Please come to Hiroshima"--and felt it was her duty to share the Japanese student's appeal with the president.

In New York: Moved by voices from the real world

A student at Stuyvesant High School translates a letter into English At Stuyvesant High School in New York, 30 students, including some graduates, were each in charge of translating a letter. According to Chie Helinski, 48, who teaches Japanese at the school, since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which occurred not far from the school, students have expressed the opinion that their nation should retaliate when threatened. Moreover, some students have regarded the dropping of the atomic bombs as justified in ending World War II. To counter such attitudes, Ms. Helinski felt that the translation work would help the students hear the voices of people they wouldn't find in textbooks and they could discuss peace from a different perspective. One of the students, Jenny Wang, 17, translated a letter written by a junior high school student. Two years ago, Jenny attended the Peace Memorial Ceremony in Hiroshima and listened to a survivor relate the story of losing his family to the atomic bomb. This experience moved her to do something for peace. "The letter was written for an important purpose," she told us, "so I did my best to translate the writer's thoughts accurately."

In Hiroshima: Choosing words carefully

John Tennant (right) and Hiroki Nishimoto (center) share their impressions of the project. (Photo by Takeshi Suyama, 16) In Japan, we asked 20 volunteers to translate about 200 letters. Hiroki Nishimoto, a 17-year-old high school student, translated about 10 letters on weekends. "I tried hard to find suitable words and expressions to communicate the writers' feelings clearly," he said. "I didn't just translate the sentences literally." Hiroki added that he was impressed with the strong hope that students of his generation hold for making the world a more peaceful place. John Tennant, 42, an English teacher from Canada who carried out the final check of the translated letters, remarked, "The letters made me think back on my visit to Peace Memorial Museum. There might be some political obstacles to realizing the project, but I hope that President Obama will visit Hiroshima, too."

Obama pledges to move toward a "nuclear-free world"

We looked at past remarks President Barack Obama has made in regard to abolishing nuclear weapons and achieving peace.

In his inaugural address held in January, in front of an audience of some 200 million people, he spoke forcefully about nuclear disarmament, saying, "With old friends and former foes, we'll work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat." He also stressed that "America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace."

Before assuming the presidency, Mr. Obama pledged to pursue a world free of nuclear weapons. In the Democratic presidential debate, he expressed his will to tackle nuclear disarmament. He stated his intentions to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which prohibits all nuclear tests involving explosions, and move forward with negotiations with Russia to reduce nuclear stockpiles. He also declared that he would stop the development of new types of nuclear warheads.

No sitting American president has ever visited Hiroshima. We hope strongly that President Obama will come to Hiroshima to grasp the devastation done by the atomic bomb and return to the United States, the world's nuclear superpower, to convey this understanding to American citizens. (Nao Tatsugawa, 17)

News of the project appears in 18 newspapers

The news of our effort to invite President Obama to Hiroshima was distributed by Kyodo News, based in Tokyo, to media outlets in Japan and overseas.

A total of 18 newspapers in Japan, including Japanese newspapers in Nagasaki and Okinawa, as well as English newspapers such as the Daily Yomiuri and the Japan Times, ran articles on our project.

Overseas, too, the media picked up this news with Agence France-Presse (AFP) and United Press International (UPI) distributing the story internationally.

They noted that over 300 people wrote letters to the president asking him to come to Hiroshima to learn about the devastation of the city. (Minako Iwata, 15)