The Hiroshima-Nagasaki
Peace Study Course

広島・長崎講座

American University students will join with Japanese and other Asian students from Ritsumeikan University to undertake an intensive study of the human and material consequences of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the history of Japanese wartime aggression, and the subsequent history of Japanese nuclear politics and nuclear culture, with particular emphasis on Japanese and international efforts to control and eliminate nuclear weapons. The Ritsumeikan group will be led by Professor Atsushi Fujioka, who has graciously and generously made all the arrangements for our stay in Japan. In Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, participants will meet and study with survivors of the atomic bombings, Japanese experts on nuclear history and current nuclear issues, Asian victims of Japanese wartime brutality, international peace activists, city officials, and other students. They will visit museums, temples, shrines, and other important historical sites in all three cities. They will also participate in commemorative events in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Attendance at all events and sessions is required. Students will be expected to keep and submit a daily journal in which they record their day to day reactions to their experiences and discoveries as they travel in Japan. Upon returning to the United States, students will write a paper (10 pages for undergraduates and 15pages for graduate students) describing and analyzing how their attitudes toward nuclear history and nuclear weapons have changed as a result of the assigned readings and the study abroad tour in Japan. For this paper, students are expected to specifically reference the readings, lectures, museums, student presentations, and group discussions. Graduate students will also write two critical book reviews. Unless other arrangements are made, journals and papers must be submitted by the end of September 2002. Grades will be based on the quality of student’s participation in lectures, discussions, and other group activities while in Japan (34%) and on the quality of students’ journals (33%) and papers (33%). For graduate student grades, the journals will count for 25%, the long paper for 25%, and the book reviews for 16%.

Laura Hein and Mark Selden, eds., Living With the Bomb: American and Japanese Cultural Conflict in the Nuclear Age Jhon Hersey, Hiroshima
Masuji Ibuse, Black Rain
Takashi Nagai, The Bells of Nagasaki

Kai Bird and Lawrence Lifschultz, eds., Hiroshima’s Shadow
Robert Jay Lifton, Death in Life