Tomoko Watanabe of ANT Hiroshima

Japan Times – Article
“Sharing Hiroshima’s legacy in the age of COVID-19”

“How can we raise global consciousness of nuclear war? That is our mission as citizens of Hiroshima.”

Client: Japan Times, providing the latest news and features from Japan including business, politics, culture, entertainment, and more.

Project Description: Write a piece detailing Hiroshima’s efforts to share information about the A-bombing under the limits of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Quote

“How can we raise global consciousness of nuclear war? That is our mission as citizens of Hiroshima.”

The Inside Scoop

I saw the need for a timely piece intersecting the global COVID-19 pandemic and the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. So I pitched JT, and they gave me the go-ahead.

The thing is — my initial concept for this story was that the Corona situation would be gumming up the works for a lot of these organizations. However, it soon became clear that the pandemic had very little impact on the strategies and activities of most Hiroshima peace groups.

Not that they weren’t engaging with Japan’s endless deluge of pre-Corona foreign tourists. (Oh, how they were.) It’s just that outreach initiatives formed a large part of their programs already. So there wasn’t much changing of gears to be done.

My Favorite Part

Discussing global peace education with leaders of Hiroshima’s peace movement.

See the results:
Sharing Hiroshima’s legacy in the age of COVID-19