Since fiscal 2012, the Hiroshima city government has been training "memory keepers" — individuals who learn and pass on the testimonies of hibakusha, or atomic bombing survivors, along with their hopes for peace, to future generations on their behalf.
As of April 1 this year, nearly 80 years after the end of World War II, only 29 hibakusha remained willing and able to publicly share their experiences, with an average age of 87.6. Meanwhile, the number of city-trained memory keepers has grown to about 240. They now play an active role in sharing these stories at schools across the country, including in Hiroshima.
In February, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum hosted a lecture to revisit the experience of Masahiro Kunishige, who was exposed to radiation at a location about 2 kilometers from the epicenter of the nuclear explosion in the western city on Aug. 6, 1945, when he was 14 years old. He sustained burns to his face and left arm. Kunishige passed away in 2022 at the age of 91.
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