Report by Erika Kokor
Participants of the Choose Hope Symposium began with a tour of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, led by a Soka Gakkai International member who had first met David Krieger in Santa Barbara over two decades ago. The visit was deeply moving, as we learned not only about the Japanese victims but also the Korean, Chinese, and other international communities who became hibakusha on August 6, 1945. We saw the shrine of paper cranes built by students in memory of Sadako Sasaki, the commemorative trees and graves, and the skeletal remains of a building near the hypocenter. Most striking were the eternal flames that still burn—an urgent reminder that nuclear weapons continue to exist in our world today.  Participants presented a floral tribute at the Cenotaph for the Victims of the Atomic Bomb.

Afterward, participants explored the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The exhibits—art, clothing, and personal belongings of those who fell victim to the bombing—conveyed the human toll of the bombings, connecting us with hibakusha in a devastating way. Testimonies and stories revealed suffering that lasted not just in the moment but for days, months, and years after the blast. For many, the experience reaffirmed a commitment to abolition and the pursuit of a peaceful world. As physicist I.I. Rabi once said, “When you drop a bomb, it falls on both the just and the unjust.”

The tricycle and helmet of 3 year old Shinichi Tetsutani, who was killed in the bombing of Hiroshima

Annie Jacobsen, Nemanja Hughes, and Ivana Hughes in front of the Genbaku Dome

Choose Hope presented a floral tribute at the Hiroshima Victims Memorial Cenotaph

The Genbaku Dome, remains of a building near the hypocenter of the atomic bombing

Exhibit about Sadako Sasaki in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

Exhibit on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

Ivana Hughes, Kate Jang, Erica Kokor, and Valerya Zherebtsova in front of the Children's Peace Memorial to commemorate Sadako Sasaki and the thousands of other children who became victims of the atomic bombings