Taking part in a public reading of a play about survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has convinced American exchange student Brian Berry he must promote nuclear disarmament in his home country.</PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='250' ALIGN='RIGHT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='News photo' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2006/nn20060727f4a.jpg' WIDTH='250' HEIGHT='188'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B> Brian Berry –

, an American student who spent the last year at Tokyo's Waseda University, rehearses Saturday for the Japanese-language recitation play "The Day the Dragonflies Were Gone" with fellow performers from China, Japan, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Sweden and Ukraine. AKEMI NAKAMURA PHOTO

On Saturday, the student from California State University Sacramento, who has just finished a year of studying Japanese culture and history at Waseda University, was part of a group reading the Japanese play "The Day the Dragonflies Were Gone" in Tokyo. He read with seven others -- a combination of amateurs and professionals from Japan, China, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Sweden and Ukraine.