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Peace Museum in Brazil to Rise from Ashes, Convey Survivor Stories Again
FREI ROGERIO, Brazil — The reconstruction of a peace museum in southern Brazil, established by an association of survivors of the Nagasaki atomic bombing and their descendants, is well underway about a decade after it was destroyed in a fire.
The 'Museu da Paz' (Peace Museum) in the city of Frei Rogerio is seen as a poignant testament to the enduring hopes for peace carried by Japanese immigrants who survived the atomic bombing before making new lives in South America.
The reconstruction of the facility that chronicles the tragedy of the atomic bombing clearly shows how the deep-seated desire for peace among survivors has taken root in Brazil.
The work is a collaborative effort between Japanese-Brazilian immigrants and the local government with a completion target by the end of this year, which coincides with the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The museum was built in 2010 with support from the Brazilian government and an association founded by three atomic bomb survivors and their families living in Frei Rogerio, including the now 96-year-old Wataru Ogawa.
Ogawa's brother-in-law Kazumi Ogawa, who passed away in 2012 at 83, constructed a single-story building for the museum on unused land on the pear farm that he ran. He had moved to Brazil after surviving the bombing of Nagasaki and saw the museum as conveying the belief that 'we must never repeat the misfortune caused by war.'
The group acquired 80 panels from Nagasaki of photographs of children with burn scars from the atomic bomb and other items for display in the 420-square-meter structure. The area around the museum was dubbed 'Peace Bell Park.'
Wataru Ogawa shared his wartime experiences with about 5,000 visitors annually at the museum, with his third son Naoki, 54, serving as his Portuguese interpreter.
In the summer of 1945, Ogawa was a student at the naval engineering school in Otake, Hiroshima Prefecture, where he witnessed the devastation caused by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. At war's end, he returned to his hometown of Nagasaki, which had suffered a similar fate.
Shortly after, his hair began to fall out in clumps.
Elementary and junior high school students would listen intently to Ogawa's emotional account of the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bringing some to tears. He vividly described the procession of bloated bodies floating down the river, and a childhood friend, reduced to little more than a skeleton, saying with his last breath, 'I can't go on anymore.'Following the fire that destroyed the museum in 2016, the local community quickly banded together to start planning the reconstruction. After a series of meetings with Frei Rogerio municipal officials and other parties, Naoki Ogawa and other second-generation Japanese-Brazilians finalized a project plan in 2020.
The plan included financial support from the city and others for rebuilding the museum and constructing an adjoining international exchange facility.
Construction was started in April with the goal of completing and reopening the museum by the end of this year. Efforts are currently underway to gather exhibits for display and to prepare materials with cooperation from local universities.
'At a time when there are ongoing wars [around the world], I hope that this will once again become a place where the plea for peace can be spread,' Wataru Ogawa said.
Naoki Ogawa's oldest son, now 23, was born on Aug. 9 — the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki — and named Hirakazu using the kanji characters for 'peace,' most often read as 'heiwa.' 'It was my destiny to inherit the desire for peace from the atomic bomb survivors,' Hirakazu said.
According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, there were 66 survivors from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings residing in Brazil as of the end of March.
