7 days ago
Grandchildren linked by fate to speak at peace symposium
Kosuzu Harada, left, and Ari Beser at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on June 20 (Jun Ueda)
Although the family histories of Kosuzu Harada and Ari Beser are bound by war, their unexpected friendship of 10-plus years is the result of a desire for peace.
Harada's grandfather survived both atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She first met Beser in 2013 when the American visual artist visited to see her mother.
'When contacted, my family felt bewildered,' Harada recalled. 'We wondered what he wanted to hear.'
Beser's grandfather, it turns out, was aboard both the B-29s that dropped the atomic bombs on the two Japanese cities.
Decades later, his grandson was interviewing 'hibakusha' atomic bomb survivors.
'SORRY' IS NOT ENOUGH
Harada and Beser will speak at the International Symposium for Peace 2025, which will be held in Hiroshima on Aug. 2. It is titled, 'The Road to Nuclear Weapons Abolition: 80 years since the end of World War II, Shaping the future.'
Harada and Beser exchanged their thoughts when they met in Hiroshima in June.
Harada's grandfather, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, was a shipbuilding engineer at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s Nagasaki shipyard.
Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip when the city was leveled by the atomic bombing on Aug. 6, 1945. He returned to Nagasaki, only to fall victim to the second atomic bombing three days later.
Harada, who was born in Nagasaki in 1974, said she learned that her grandfather was a double atomic bomb survivor when she was 6.
She was told that Yamaguchi did not speak about his experiences for decades after the war due to opposition from his family members who were concerned about discrimination and prejudice against hibakusha.
Yamaguchi began publicly recounting what he endured during the war at age 90, only three years before his death in 2010.
Beser, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1988, said he does not remember much about his grandfather Jacob Beser, who died when he was 4.
An elementary school teacher told students that Beser's grandfather was a hero that ended World War II.
It would not be until he came to Japan and spoke with hibakusha that he became aware of a reality more complex than his prior thoughts about the United States simply ending the war that Japan started.
Beser said he believes it is his responsibility to hibakusha to convey their experiences to people in the United States and elsewhere by visually documenting them and through other means.
He said saying 'I am sorry' to hibakusha is light or weak, and the mission he has taken upon himself is more important than making apologies that would offer nothing toward reducing nuclear weapons.
Harada said she holds an expectation for the U.S. president to formally apologize for the atomic bombings as a family member of a two-time atomic bomb survivor.
She has likewise said she is ready to candidly apologize to people in other parts of Asia, who were victimized by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, if they ask her to do so.
Harada has never asked Beser for an apology. She said she will not, and should not, force an apology.
'I must continue to hold dialogue with Ari, facing him eye to eye,' she said.
PATHS TOWARD RECONCILIATION
A book co-authored by the two, titled ''Kinokogumo' no Ue to Shita no Monogatari: Magotachi no Katto to Kiseki' ('Tales above and below 'mushroom clouds': conflict and trajectories of grandchildren'), came out this month from Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc.
Harada hopes readers will understand that once a war begins, families on both sides of the conflict will face its unending consequences.
Beser wrote about his grandfather and father in detail for the first time. He said readers would be surprised to learn what occurred to the family of a U.S. soldier after the atomic bombings.
At the symposium, Harada and Ari are scheduled to participate in a session titled 'From above and below mushroom clouds,' where participants will discuss the reality of nuclear weapons and reconciliation from Japanese and U.S. perspectives.
The two other participants will be Jiro Hamasumi, secretary-general of the Japan Federation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), which received the Nobel Peace Prize last year, and Nonoka Koga, who will conduct doctoral research at Michigan State University from this autumn.
Hamasumi was exposed to radiation from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima while in his mother's womb.
Alexander Kmentt, director of disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation at Austria's foreign ministry, will deliver a keynote speech.
Kmentt will participate in a panel discussion on the abolition of nuclear weapons with Masako Wada, assistant secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo and a hibakusha from Nagasaki; Yuki Miyamoto, a professor of religious studies at DePaul University; and Shizuka Kuramitsu, a research assistant at the Arms Control Association in the United States.
The symposium is sponsored by the city of Hiroshima, the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation and The Asahi Shimbun Co.
It will be held at the International Conference Center Hiroshima, located in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, from 1 to 5 p.m.
Admission is free and entry will cap at 450 people who will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis. No prior application is required and simultaneous interpretation will be provided.
