NO More Nagasaki, NO More Hiroshima

From the Teaching of Buddha - DHAMMAPADA
Hatreds never cease by hatreds in this world. By love alone they cease. This is an ancient Law. (5)

Only a few weeks after the bombing of Nagasaki, Senator Fulbright initiated a program of exchange to promote peace and understanding of the people of the world. Since the inception of the Fulbright program, 275,000 people have directly participated in this ideal. As an offshoot of the Fulbright Scholarship program, the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund gives teachers from the United States an opportunity through the Peace Education Session to learn first hand from survivors of the atom bomb, (HIBAKSHU), about forgiveness and the ideal that love alone can conquer the hatreds of this world. Susumu Ishitani, a survivor of Hiroshima began his story with an apology. Imagine if you can, witnessing the complete destruction of everything you know and love in the blink of an eye and then moving forward through this rubble and reaching out to humanity by asking forgiveness.
The experience of annihilation did not end for Ishitani on August 6th 1946. He and the other survivors lived through the feeling of guilt for having survived while so many others died as well as through recrimination and fear. Survivors were believed to be contagious, which made it difficult to find mates, friends and jobs. If the Hibakshas had children, they lived with the fear that they would pass on the genetic destruction caused by the radiation. Even if they survived the initial blast, many faced a slower death through cancer. By 1950, only 53 % of the people who had experienced the explosion first hand were still alive.
Susumu Ishitani believes that in order to create peace someone must take the initiative and that is why he begins his story with an apology. He believes that people are people wherever we go and that we must learn from the past to make the world a more peaceful place. Susumu and others like him are helping to promote peace by telling their stories. Tomoko Yanagi – a child of a survivor, told us of peace education efforts throughout Japan and the world. You can access these efforts at the websites listed to the right. One of these efforts is a Children’s Peace Summit held on August 6th where two children are selected to deliver to their own Commitment to Peace.