Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Okinawa - Memories of Peace Walking Together with My Students - August 10, 2026 Reiwa8

Today, I came home from the hospital, took a short nap, and came to read the newspaper in the late afternoon. On the front page was an article about the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. It was then that I became conscious once again that today is August 10, the day after the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

For many years, as a high school teacher, I accompanied my students on school trips to Hiroshima.

The students folded a thousand paper cranes, offered prayers at the Children's Peace Monument, and listened to the stories told by survivors. I myself visited Hiroshima many times together with my students.

At some point, we realized that by making a little more use of the Shinkansen, we could extend our trip to Nagasaki and return within the same school trip. We began taking some groups to Nagasaki as well. There, we were able to see another side of a city that had experienced an atomic bombing, different from Hiroshima. We listened to storytellers and stood before the Peace Statue.

The powerful Peace Statue of Nagasaki is so different from what one sees in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. I remember standing before it and wondering what my students were thinking as they looked at that imposing figure.

Later, when we were allowed to use airplanes for school trips, our destinations expanded even further. One of them was Okinawa.

In Okinawa, visiting a gama was always included in our study program.

A gama is a rocky cave, somewhat like a limestone cave. We entered the dark interior and were told, "This was a hospital," or "This was a dining area." Yet all we could actually see were rocks and darkness.

There, we listened to the stories told by survivors and storytellers.

They were memories of the war unique to Okinawa, different again from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We heard stories of people who never trusted the American soldiers until the very end and died inside the caves.

I also remember a bus guide stopping the bus at a certain hill and telling us, "You can see American life from here." From that hill, we could see an American military base through an opening in the landscape.

It was there that I first became aware of the term "omoiyari yosan," or Japan's "sympathy budget." I was made to think about the fact that Japanese taxpayers help support the presence of the U.S. military in Japan.

There is one incident that I still remember vividly.

One of the students from the baseball club called out, as he normally would, "Stand. Bow," inside the gama. The students all stood up at once, and at that very moment, he hit his head hard against the ceiling of the limestone cave.

Even after all these decades, I still remember that moment clearly.

Of course, our trip to Okinawa was not devoted entirely to peace education. While the students learned about the war in places such as the gama, they could also choose activities unique to Okinawa, such as diving and other sightseeing.

There was the enjoyment of a school trip, alongside the heavy and difficult time spent thinking about war.

Both existed within the same school trip.

Looking back, perhaps that was important too. Okinawa is a beautiful resort destination with a magnificent sea, but it is also a place that carries the memory of a fierce ground battle. Both realities exist in the same place.

I have never been a specialist who has studied war or nuclear weapons academically. Even now, I do not want to pretend that I have the authority to speak simply because I have thought about these matters a little.

But as a teacher, for many years I prepared with my students, studied with them, and traveled with them to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Okinawa.

We listened to the stories of survivors and storytellers, and we stood in those places ourselves.

That much remains in me as a certain and lasting memory.

Today, many of the people who once told their stories have grown old, and passing those memories on to a new generation has become an important challenge. In the future, more of these stories will probably be preserved and shared through videos and recorded footage.

But the time in which we can listen directly, person to person, is limited.

The memories of war are so important, yet perhaps they are also very easy to forget.

Until I opened the newspaper today, I had forgotten that this was a time to think about Nagasaki.

And yet, the moment I saw the front page, scenes from Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Okinawa came back to me one after another - scenes of walking together with my students many decades ago.

When I look around the world, wars are still continuing.

The situation surrounding nuclear weapons is also changing.

I find myself wondering what will become of the world.

I do not have any great answers.

I can only remember the voices of the storytellers whom I once listened to together with my students, and the atmosphere I felt inside those dark caves, and think:

"It is something so important, and yet perhaps it is something so easy to forget."

That is precisely why I believe we must continue to remember and pass these memories on.

By opening the newspaper today, I remembered that once again.

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