In 1959, just after carrying out the revolution in Cuba, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, its leader, and five other goodwill ambassadors embarked on a tour of more than 10 countries, including the United Arab Republic, India, Japan, Indonesia and Yugoslavia. In addition to conveying the facts of the Cuban revolution to third world countries, they wanted to promote goodwill. Their visit to Japan also included an economic mission. They hoped to boost exports of Cuban sugar to Japan and planned to use the funds to purchase equipment for agriculture and light industry as well as fishing boats and weapons.
The group arrived in Japan on July 15. After a meeting with Trade Minister Hayato Ikeda and other government officials they headed west. After touring automobile and aircraft factories in Nagoya as planned, on July 24 Guevara was told that a flight from Osaka to Hiroshima would take less than an hour. He replied that he wanted to lay flowers at the memorial cenotaph in Hiroshima even if it meant canceling everything else on his agenda.
In response to Guevara’s strong desire to visit Hiroshima, a tour of the port of Kobe and a meeting with a textile manufacturer, which had been scheduled for July 25, were cancelled and Guevara, Capt. Omar Fernandez and the Cuban ambassador to Japan traveled through the night to Hiroshima. The prefectural government, which was informed of the visit on short notice, barely had enough time to prepare flowers for their visit.
Guevara, who is second in command behind Prime Minister Fidel Castro, wanted to see for himself the tragedy of Hiroshima, which was brought about by America, against whose “imperialism” Cuba is struggling, and pray for the souls of the victims, who included countless non-combatants, in the name of the revolutionary government.
The three men first visited the memorial cenotaph along with a prefectural employee who served as their guide and interpreter on the tour. After laying flowers before the cenotaph, Guevara, 31, who stood silent and erect, and Fernandez offered military salutes. In a visit to the Peace Memorial Museum, as he gazed intently at the many photographs and other items from the aftermath of the bombing, Guevara suddenly said to his guide in English, “America did a terrible thing. Aren’t you Japanese angry about the atrocity that was perpetrated on you?”
The guide was stunned by the intensity of Guevara, who had been silent until then. The three visitors then went to the Atomic Bomb Survivors Hospital and saw the human shadow on the steps of the Sumitomo Bank before departing for Osaka by train the following morning. They left Japan on July 27.
In the days just after the revolution, Cuba’s new administration was not yet well established, and Japan’s treatment of the delegation from Cuba, which it regarded as “a mere speck in the Caribbean,” was chilly, but Guevara’s impressions of Hiroshima were vivid. After returning to Cuba, Guevara, who served as chief official of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform and president of the National Bank of Cuba, never failed to mention Hiroshima when he spoke of Japan.
In 1966 Guevara parted with Castro and left Cuba to “liberate Latin America and bring about a revolution.” In his message to the Tri-continental Conference of African, Asian and Latin American Peoples in Havana in April 1967, Guevara, who was then in the jungles of Bolivia, referred to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Guevara was executed later that year on Oct. 9, 1967.