Special class in A-bombed train

August 4, 2015

Class held on 'A-bombed train' to teach Hiroshima children importance of peace

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150804p2a00m0na018000c.html

HIROSHIMA -- Elementary and junior high school children took a special class on peace on Aug. 4 on a streetcar called "hibaku densha" (A-bombed train) that was repaired after suffering damage from the 1945 atomic bombing.

In the classroom set up on the streetcar run by Hiroshima Electric Railway Co., Pak Nam-ju, an 82-year-old South Korean resident of Japan, gave an account of her own experience of the bombing. Pak said, "Looking at present-day Hiroshima, it's impossible to imagine the horrors of 70 years ago. That's why I want to convey my experience. I want you to know that the peace you have now is built on many sacrifices."

On Aug. 6, 1945, when Pak was a first-grade student at a wartime girls' school, she was hit by the atomic bombing about 1.8 kilometers away from ground zero. The train she was on was heavily damaged by the blast and pieces of glass from broken windowpanes got stuck in her head.

Pak started sharing her own experience of the bombing two years ago. She told 26 elementary and junior high school children in the special class, "People who had suffered burns moved their arms up and down like a bird and came down, shouting: 'Hot, hot.'" She then added, "An atomic bomb must never be used again."

The event to hear eyewitness accounts on the "hibaku densha" of the bombing of Hiroshima has been hosted by the Hiroshima Institution for Peace Education (HIPE), a group of school teachers. The latest one was the 27th of its kind.