By AKIRA NAKANO/ Staff Writer
August 4, 2025 at 18:05 JST
HIROSHIMA—A peace symposium here featured talks by hibakusha and emphasized the importance of listening to their experiences, particularly as their numbers dwindle 80 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In a keynote speech at the International Symposium for Peace 2025 on Aug. 2, Alexander Kmentt, director of disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation at Austria’s foreign ministry, said hearing the stories of hibakusha firsthand laid the foundation for his commitment to nuclear disarmament.
“Too often, nuclear weapons are discussed by diplomats and security policy experts in sanitized and abstract terms in the international meetings dealing with nuclear weapons,” said Kmentt, who chaired the first meeting of states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2022.
“But understanding nuclear weapons means facing what actually happens when they are used. And this is why the testimonies of hibakusha and also the survivors of nuclear testing are so essential because they are the true experts of nuclear weapons.”
In the panel discussion that followed, Masako Wada, assistant secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo (the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations), which received the Nobel Peace Prize last year, spoke about the scenes of devastation she heard from her mother.
Wada was exposed to the atomic bomb in Nagasaki at the age of 1 year and 10 months. She likened the TPNW, which prohibits the development, possession and use of nuclear weapons, to “a ray of light piercing the darkness” and emphasized the importance of “nurturing it carefully.”
More than 90 countries and regions have signed the U.N. treaty, but Japan is not among them.
The symposium, titled “The Road to Nuclear Weapons Abolition: 80 years since the end of World War II, Shaping the future,” was sponsored by the city of Hiroshima, the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation and The Asahi Shimbun Co.
Yoko Morishita, director of the Matsuyama Ballet Company, whose grandmother and mother were exposed to the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, took the stage for a special talk.
The ballerina recounted how people were surprised when she introduced herself as from Hiroshima during overseas performances, which led her to reflect on what she should convey with her art.
“I hope to deliver love and hope through ballet and help bring society closer to peace,” Morishita said.
A roundtable talk titled “From above and below mushroom clouds” addressed issues of apology and reconciliation surrounding the atomic bombings.
Participants included Ari Beser, whose grandfather was aboard the U.S. bombers that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Kosuzu Harada, who is working to pass on the experiences of her grandfather, who survived both atomic bombings.
The symposium also featured a performance by Mami Hagiwara, whose grandparents were hibakusha, on a piano that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
The piano was originally played by Akiko Kawamoto, who died at the age of 19 after being exposed to the atomic bomb at about 1 km from ground zero. The side of the instrument is scarred by broken glass blown by the blast.
A native of Hiroshima, Hagiwara was the first Japanese pianist to win the Geneva International Music Competition in 2010.
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From left, Alexander Kmentt, Masako Wada, Yuki Miyamoto and Shizuka Kuramitsu attend a panel discussion on the abolition of nuclear weapons during the International Symposium for Peace 2025 in Hiroshima on Aug. 2. (Emiko Arimoto)
