Alfredo Llanos
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“I wanted to see with my own eyes the place where the plutonium that made the bomb that was dropped on my city was made,” Moriguchi said.
Even though he was just a teenager during the time of the bombing, while at the Hanford Site, Moriguchi couldn’t help but remember some of the things from Nagasaki.
“I heard many explanations here, of what the process working here was like,” Moriguchi said. “But, I’m left with a sense of what cruel things human beings do.”
Moriguchi even visited Richland High School, and he didn’t like what he saw there.
“The mushroom cloud is painted on the floor,” Moriguchi observed. “Everybody walks on it, walks over it, and if we think of all the people who died and were killed underneath that mushroom cloud, stepping on that emblem painted on the floor is really stepping on human beings.”
Despite not agreeing with one of Richland High School’s emblems, Moriguchi was very impressed and thankful to the school, especially with Principal Tim Praino.
The Nagasaki-Hanford Bridge Project hopes to create a symbolic bridge between Nagasaki and Richland. As part of a week-long project, The Hanford tour is just one of the multiple stops in the area. Yuki Miyamoto, a DePaul University professor and one of the head project leaders, believes that it is important for people to understand both sides of the parties involved in the WWII bombing.
“Bringing a Nagasaki survivor, and the survivor is learning about this culture and history while he is also talking about his experiences,” Miyamoto said. “He is creating this bridge and friendship between down winders.”
This project is funded by Consequence Of Radiation Exposure, a Washington non-profit organization, and by the City of Nagasaki.
Miyamoto is a second-generation hibakusha, meaning she had at least one parent affected by the atomic bomb.
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