Contributions from people overseas who are sharing the message of Hiroshima

(18)Peace concert to oppose nuclear arms by Shizuka Kandori

On August 5th, the "Hiroshima & Nagasaki Peace Concert" was organized in Melbourne, Australia by a group called Japanese for Peace (JfP).

JfP was established in 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the bombing. The mission of the group, as descendants of the only country in the world to have experienced nuclear weapons, is to convey the horror of the atomic bombings and promote a more peaceful world. The group began with ten members and now has double that original number.

(Above) : The peace concert where music from many countries was performed. (August 5th)
(Below) : About 800 people marched through the city.

Shizuka Kandori

Born in Hiroshima. After graduating from university, she moved to Australia in 1998. While teaching Japanese at junior high schools and high schools in Melbourne, she shares "the message of Hiroshima" as the grandchild of A-bomb survivors.

The concert was held in conjunction with "Hiroshima Day" in which anti-nuclear groups and peace groups appeal for the abolishment of nuclear weapons.

On the day, about 800 participants marched through the city center bearing signs that read "No More Hiroshima, No More Nagasaki". At the gathering before this demonstration, I gave a speech representing the grandchildren of survivors of Hiroshima.

In my speech, I told the listeners that many of my family members and friends were impacted by the bomb, either killed outright or afflicted in ways that persisted even to the present. And I spoke of the need to pass on this experience to future generations in order to uphold the promise inscribed on the Memorial Cenotaph in Hiroshima: "We shall not repeat the evil."

After my speech, I spoke with an Australian man, 85 years old, who had been sent to Japan with the Allied Forces after the war ended and was in Hiroshima in 1946. During that time, he was working on a radar system to monitor the former Soviet army's activity and he said he still keeps photos from those days. I was touched that he attended our gathering, especially in light of the fact that Japan had once been his enemy.

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The peace concert began at 3:00 in the afternoon with 300 people in the audience. The performances were very moving, with a range of music that included the Japanese shamisen, Japanese drums, Indian percussion, and Tibetan bells. And, as we had decided to donate the profits of the concert to an NGO supporting the people of Darfur in the Sudan, we extended a special invitation to a woman from Darfur who sang with some African children.

Between the performances, messages from atomic bomb survivors were shared and information about nuclear weapons was conveyed. We pledged to pass on a world without war to our children.

I feel pleased we could deliver the message that nuclear weapons must be abolished and that people all over the world should learn to deepen their understanding of one another and live together in a spirit of cooperation rather than conflict.

Click to view the concert
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0tXxk_fng8