Cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Col. Andrian Nikolayev visited Hiroshima on October 31. Tereshkova, whose radio call sign was chaika (seagull), flew aboard Vostok 6, while Nikolayev, whose call signal was sokol (falcon) went into space on Vostok 3. The couple paid their respects at the memorial cenotaph, visited the Atomic Bomb Survivors Hospital, and enjoyed the fall weather during an outing to Miyajima. Their busy schedule included a Japanese-style wedding ceremony in the evening followed by a reception sponsored by the Committee for the Establishment of a Hiroshima-Soviet Association and the prefectural headquarters of the Socialist Party of Japan.
Weather was poor on the day of their visit and it rained off and on throughout the morning. The board member of the local Socialist Party who greeted them upon their arrival fretted that the weather would throw their schedule off. Nikolayev, a short man with a penetrating gaze, was dressed in his military uniform, while Tereshkova was lightly dressed in a stylish outfit. As they disembarked from their plane, the crowd that had gathered on the roof of the airport building and in the lobby greeted them with applause. The cosmonauts, who have traveled throughout most of the world as goodwill ambassadors, are accustomed to being in the spotlight and they raised their arms in response to the crowd’s welcome.
Yoshiko Tamori, a third-year student at Hiroshima Girls Commercial High School and a member of the Orizuru no Kai Club (Paper Crane Club), and three other girls welcomed the cosmonauts in Japanese and then said, “Mir, druzhba” (peace, friendship) as they put garlands of paper cranes around their necks. At a press conference Tereshkova spoke first followed by Nikolayev. At the end they smiled and said, “Arigato (thank you).”
At Peace Memorial Park the pair was mobbed by a crowd of about 3,000 people, some who had been waiting in hopes of catching a glimpse of the cosmonauts and others in tour groups that happened to be in the park at the time. Young women were heard saying, “Ms. Tereshkova is so pretty.” Escorted by police officers, the pair headed for the memorial cenotaph where they laid flowers and prayed for the souls of the dead. They also had a difficult time making their way to the Peace Memorial Museum but seemed quite pleased by the big welcome and smiled to the crowd.
Once they entered the museum, however, their expressions became solemn as they gazed intently at photographs and a panorama of the city at the time of the bombing and photographs of victims with keloid scars. The couple was scheduled to spend 50 minutes in the museum, but because their plane had arrived 30 minutes late, the visit was cut to 30 minutes and they seemed disappointed.
At the Atomic Bomb Survivors Hospital, Tereshkova asked Fumio Shigeto, director of the facility, what sort of treatments were used for A-bomb-related diseases. She frowned when Shigeto replied that because there are no good treatment methods available, the survivors of the bombing live with uncertainty as they have no idea when they will develop A-bomb-related diseases. Tereshkova told Shigeto she hoped the hospital’s valiant efforts would be successful. Afterwards the pair greeted patients who had been waiting for them in the lobby, saying they would work to ensure that such a terrible thing never happens again and urging the patients to get well soon. The cosmonauts gave fruit to a 59-year-old man who greeted them on behalf of the hospital’s in-patients. As he shook hands with the cosmonauts, the man was clearly thrilled and said how pleased he was to have had the opportunity to meet them.
At Miyajima as well, Tereshkova and Nikolayev were hugely popular. They arrived by boat just before 3 p.m. and beamed when given a large rice scoop, a famous product of Miyajima, by Mayor Taro Nagai.
The couple nodded as they listened with great interest to their guide’s explanation of the vermilion shrine and its large torii gate. While taking a break in a lounge at the shrine, the couple happily received a souvenir in the shape of the torii from a shrine attendant clad in a red hakama pleated skirt. Tereshkova seemed quite taken with Miyajima and said she’d like to come back again with her daughter Elena and spend more time there.
The couple left Miyajima just after 4 p.m. after visiting the Treasure Hall and Senjokaku, the “Pavilion of 1,000 Mats.”