Summer is the Season for Peace

In Japan, summer is the season to remember the war and its victims, and to pray or act for peace. The reason is that more than 300,000 people died as a result of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the war ended at last in August of 1945.

However, 62 years have past since then, and the survivors are dwindling. Nationalism is gaining power, and conservative leaders, once again, want to make Japan a country with an armed force. TV shows or newspaper articles about war and peace are very few.

Even so, there are activities and gatherings for peace during the summer, and many people join them. One of them is the Anti-Nuclear Weapons World Gathering. Every year it is held in Tokyo and in Hiroshima. Groups, labor unions, and communities raise money to send their members to the gathering, but of course, not everyone can join. However, as a way to join the activity and express their thoughts, they walk. The walk starts in many places in Japan: for example, Rebun Island in Hokkaido on March 6th, Kochi on May 21st, and Okinawa on June 4th. They all walk to Hiroshima through every prefecture, Some people walk all the way to Hiroshima, but usually people join one day or half a day and pass their messages or flags to the next walkers.

The motto of the walk is:

No more Hiroshima,
No more Nagasaki!
Let's make a world without nuclear weapons;
Let's keep Japan's pacifist constitution!
Join us. Let's walk together!

The 2007 peace walk in Nagano started on June 29th. (The people who walked through Niigata prefecture arrived at in the north of Nagano prefecture on that day.) They walked through many cities and towns and relayed to the people of Gunma and Yamanashi prefectures.

On August 6th Hiroshima City will hold a ceremony to memorialize and pray. The city has a museum about atomic bombs and their damaging effects. Why don't you visit it? Although it may be difficult to participate in the ceremony, its important that we be aware of, and learn from, these events.