The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Spreading the message of peace

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 07, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Spreading the message of peace

Staff Reporter

Hiroshima Peace Day observed at Bal Bhavan

Students from Japan participate in the event
Children from Bornfree Art School present ballet

— Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

AGAINST WAR: A photo exhibition on Hiroshima Peace Day organised by Bornfree Art School at Bal Bhavan in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Bangalore: Morishta Kazuko was born in 1944, the year before the bombings of Hiroshima. She was part of the delegation which was in Bangalore to observe Hiroshima Peace Day at Bal Bhavan in Cubbon Park to mark the 63rd anniversary of the catastrophic bombing of the Japanese town during the Second World War.

At the event organised by Bornfree Art School, along with Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, she said, “My name is Kozuko, which means peace. My father gave me this name because he was a strong believer of peace. Every year I visit Hiroshima to place flowers on the graves of the dead. My father would say every day before dinner that war is a terrible thing. He also used to say how lucky he was to have survived because all his friends were killed in the bombings.”

She said that on this day everyone in Japan makes white origami cranes and flies them.

She was among the 10 students from six universities across Japan who were here to be part of the event and spread the message of peace.

Performing at the event were children from Bornfree Art School who presented a ballet, “Shiroi Hana”, meaning the white flower. Also present were students from St. Joseph’s Indian High School and Bishop Cottons Women’s Christian College.

Ayako Okutsu and Tatsunori Shinozuka, two of the Japanese students who were here, presented the salient features of Article 9, which formally renounces war as a right of sovereignty.

Mioi Nakayamaa, a Japanese national staying in Bangalore for a decade, surprised everyone by speaking in fluent Kannada. She asked everyone to ensure that another Hiroshima does not take place anywhere in the world. The other Japanese students presented a ballet on “Hibakushi”, as nuclear war victims are called in Japanese.

There was a video conference with the survivors of the Hiroshima bombings, and it was heart-rending to hear them narrate their experiences.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News Update

Stories in this Section