[Report] Hiroshima Field Trip for UC Students

From May 17th to May 20th, Professor Paul Midford and two administrative staff members from the Faculty of International Studies led a field trip to Hiroshima with 14 students studying at our faculty from various campuses of the University of California (UC). The group arrived by Shinkansen in the early afternoon of the 17th and almost immediately set off on a tour of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, where they saw various memorials to the victims of the atomic bombing, including those for all victims, for children, and for Koreans. Undoubtedly the most meaningful part of the trip came after that when the students heard a lecture by a Hibakusha about her horrific suffering from experiencing the first atomic bomb dropped on a city and the long-term after effects. The students were visibly moved by the presentation and asked many questions. That evening some students were able to enjoy Hiroshima-yaki at Okonomi-mura Village.

The next day the group boarded a bus just before 7 am and traveled to Tadanoumi Port, where they boarded a ferry for a short ride to Okunoshima Island, also known as Rabbit Island and poison gas island. This island was used by the Japanese Imperial Army to manufacture chemical weapons, including some that were sent and used in China. The group visited what is probably the world’s only museum entirely focused on the development and use of chemical weapons. Later the group walked around the island to visit the ruins of the chemical weapons factories and storage facilities on the island, as well as some earlier Meiji-era artillery fortifications. The group also enjoyed seeing many rabbits that were introduced to the island in the 1960s as part of the island’s redevelopment as a tourist spot.

On the third day (Sunday the 19th), the group walked to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and spent several hours studying the horrific effects of the atomic bombing on human bodies and the city of Hiroshima. The museum also included exhibitions on Hiroshima’s pre-1945 role in Japan’s imperial expansion in East Asia and efforts to abolish all nuclear weapons globally. In the afternoon the group heard a lecture about nuclear weapons testing since the end of World War II, and the global fallout from this testing, and how this makes everyone in some sense a hibakusha.  After the lecture, the group walked to Fukuromachi (袋町）Elementary School which partially has been converted into a museum that preserves messages written on school walls by Hiroshima residents desperately searching for loved ones with whom they had lost contact as a result of the atomic bombing. Finally, the group walked to Hiroshima castle to learn about the pre-modern history of Hiroshima and the castle in modern times.

On the final day (Monday the 20th) of the field trip, the group traveled by train and ferry to Miyajima Island to view the famous floating torii gate at Itsukushima Shinto Shrine. The island was also a good place to enjoy oysters and anago. The group arrived back in Yokohama by early evening. The feedback from the students was very positive, both in terms of what they learned and how they enjoyed the trip.

Paul Midford (Professor, Department of Global and Transcultural Studies, Faculty of International Studies)