This year, 2015, marks the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings and diverse activities are organized by various cities in Catalonia in commemoration.
The travelling exhibition, “Hiroshima-Nagasaki 70 Years from the Atomic Bombing”
Jointly with the Cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the City of Granollers hosted the exhibition earlier this year to mark the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings. This exhibition is a very useful tool to promote a better knowledge about the nuclear attacks on the cities and their consequences. It is also an educational tool to raise awareness about the danger of nuclear weapons, as well as the need to eliminate this threat.
The exhibition is in itinerancy and is being displayed in Lloret de Mar until the end of November. The opening ceremony was held on November 4th, with the participation of the General Consul from Japan in Barcelona, Mr. Hiroyuki Makiuchi. In the coming months, the exhibition will travel to other Catalan cities.
>More information on the exhibition in Lloret de Mar (the City of Granollers website, in Catalan)
Testimonies of two hibakusha at a conference in Sant Cugat del Vallès
The testimony of hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) is also a key way to allow people understand the damage caused by the atomic bombs. In February 2015, Ms. Yoshiko Kajimoto, a hibakusha from Hiroshima, visited Granollers as part of the above-mentioned exhibition. On October 5th, the City of Sant Cugat del Vallès hosted a conference organized by Centre Delàs d’estudis per la Pau (Delàs Peace Studies Center), together with the NGO International Peace Bureau, with the cooperation of the Japanese organization Gensuiko. Mr. Masashi Ieshima and Ms. Kuniko Kimura, survivors of the A-bombing of Hiroshima, delivered their testimony. During the conference, Mayor Josep Mayoral of Granollers, a Vice President of Mayors for Peace, stated the importance of spreading the message of the hibakusha and other testimonies of wars.
The commemoration of the atomic bombings held at the XXI Barcelona Manga Fair
From October 29th to November 1st was the 20th Barcelona Manga Fair, one of the biggest Manga fairs in Europe. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Fair hosted an exhibition called “Nuclear mangas”, that showed different manga related to the bombings. Together with the exhibition, the following diverse activities were organized: Ms. Sadae Kasaoka, an A-bomb survivor from Hiroshima, delivered her testimony in two open conferences that raised great interest from the public and the media; Mayor Josep Mayoral of Granollers, on behalf of Mayors for Peace, and Mr. Jordi Armadans from the NGO Fundipau (member of ICAN) joined a roundtable discussion titled “For a world without nuclear weapons.”