Experience report
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Tour Title
Report 2：Hiroshima University Study Tour(“Peace” & “Hope”)
Participating organization name, number of people
Hiroshima University 15 people
Tour date
October 28 - 30, 2018
Hoang Nguyen Van
Hiroshima University
Tour overview
International students at Hiroshima University participated in a tour.
They learned about the current state of Fukushima on site through an explanation from Tokyo Electric Power Company, who caused the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident and a converstion with an NPO encouraging revitalization of municipalities.
However, participatns were able to relax at the Egoma (perilla) Harvest Festival in Namie Town. They enjoyed pounding mochi (rice cakes) with the locals and the live musical entertainment as they were enveloped in an atmosphere of harmony.
They interacted with those who gathered and experienced the warmth native to Fukushima. Hearing stories directly from the locals and seeing the vibrancy of the people seemed to help them understand the natural disaster and nuclear accident from the perspective of the residents.
What I felt after actually participating in the tour
We can learn many lessons from Fukushima about the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. It made me realize that as numerous countries are currently thinking about energy, we have to learn about the risks of nuclear energy as energy users. It made me realize that as numerous countries are currently thinking about energy, we have to learn about the risks of nuclear energy as energy users. When we watched the picture story, "Regret" in Namie Town, it helped me understand what the people in the community were feeling, and I nearly cried. We were able to hear real life accounts about lives that couldn't be saved despite trying to save them and the strong desires of the people in the community, and it made me realize that the world should never experience another nuclear disaster.
Hiroshima, which suffered bombing and Fukushima, which a suffered a nuclear accident. The circumstances are completely different, but the important thing is to communicate the facts surrounding them to the next generation. In rethinking nuclear weapons and nuclear power, I realized that in addition to the events that took place, we also have to pass down the stories and feelings of the local people. It is important to communicate these lessons for the future, not as "dark tourism" telling a tragedy, but as "peace tourism" in Hiroshima and "hope tourism" in Fukushima.
