In late November, we offered exchange students a chance to listen to the story of a survivor of the atomic bomb virtually. This is the second opportunity at Sophia University.

This event is cooperated by the university and Nagasaki prefecture. The prefecture wishes “Let Nagasaki be the last place to experience atomic bombing”. With this hope, they offer some opportunities to convey the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and the nobility of peace.

This time, Ms. MATSUMOTO Mitoe delivered her life history- the situation at the time of the atomic bomb and how was life going on after that in English. She was 3 years old at that time.

Ms. Matsumoto affirmed that “War makes everyone lose whether you win. Never happens a good” based upon the experience. “I was lucky to obtain food in the evacuated place. Though I could not have nutritious food, hence, I was prone to illness before entering the school.” From her story, it is obvious that an atomic bomb and the war exerted a huge bad influence on her childhood.

During the Q&A session, a lot of participants asked many kinds of questions regarding life after the atomic bombing, such as “How long did it take to return to the ordinarily life?” “How did the atomic bomb affect your childhood?” and “What do you think about the drift of world affairs presently?”

Exchange students from all over the world were listening to Ms. Matsumoto’s story seriously. This event was a very precious opportunity for them to listen to her directly because of the population aging of an atomic bomb survivor.