Atomic bomb survivors to speak about peace
They will speak at 4:30 p.m. in the Nicholson Library on the Linfield University campus. Admission is free.
The survivors are coming “to tell their stories to promote peace and to hopefully eliminate such a horrific weapon from being used in the future,” said Joann Sims of McMinnville.
She and her husband, Larry, traveled to Hiroshima in 2011 and became volunteer directors of the World Friendship Center, a Japanese peace organization. WFC. They now are co-chairs of the American Committee for World Friendship Center.
The Hiroshima survivors will be accompanied by two members of the WFC during a visit to Linfield over the weekend. They also will make presentations Monday.
The speakers are:
* Tamiyuki Okahara, who was born in Hiroshima in 1939. He has been participating in WFC’s English conversation class since 2006. In 2018, he began testifying based on his father’s accounts of the atomic bombing.
* Horie Soh, born in Hiroshima in 1940. His father, a former Japanese Navy officer, was exposed to the A-bomb in an office near the hypocenter and died six days later. Soh has traveled around the world to share his testimony about the bombing.
* Osawa Yuko, who moved to Hiroshima in the 1980s. She serves on Hiroshima City’s Library Review Committee and hopes to create a literary museum that can globally share Hiroshima’s stories, especially atomic bomb literature.
* Mariko Sunawaki, a nurse who married a Hiroshima native whose father survived the atomic bombing. She participates in English conversation classes at WFC and was a volunteer guide at Peace Park.
In addition to speaking to the public on Monday, the visitors will attend Linfield’s homecoming football game on Saturday and visit the First Baptist and First Presbyterian churches Sunday to share their stories, Sims said.
For more information, call Linfield, at 503-883-2200.
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