Dear Sir,

First of all, I would like to thank you for creating an, educational and interactive site.

No one escapes war. Be it an A-Bomb or being a prisoner-of-war, it's all the civilians that suffer all over the world.
Sir Takeharu Terao must have taken a great courage to speak upof this ugly event.
I support his statement -'NEVER AGAIN SUCH A THING.'

Karen Teo Singapore

I have just read through the Terao Memoir.

We had the 56th "August 6th" this year. I can't stop shivering with the cruel and terrible day. We have too much grown accustomed to peace to feel something from the tragedy,but the Terao Memoir taught me many things.

I was born in 1962 and grown in peaceful and rich time without knowing any inconvenience. I am blessed with four children now. I will tell the Memoir to them who will bear the next generation.

Thank you very much for the wonderful record.

Kazue Nagata

Dear Sir,
After reading the stories and letters from the web site I felt the need to express my strong feelings on this topic and how this one historical happening changed my life.

The Hiroshima bombing and WWII has been what has driven me in my both personal and working life goals.
When I was in 10th grade a member of my football team's Grandfather came to give a speech to the entire team. The man was Col. Paul Tibits, the pilot of the plane which drop the A-bomb.

After listening to his speech I wondered what the people of Japan felt about this terrible happening. I enrolled into Japanese language that Spring(88') and continued studying the language and culture into college. I eventually graduated from The Ohio State University majoring in Japanese but not until I went to Japan.

I wanted to see for myself what the people of Japan felt about this and how they view America, so I went to Japan to further study the language and culture.

I did a one year home stay while attending the Osaka International University. During this time I was able to travel to Hiroshima by myself and view the city in my own eyes.
I went to the museum and saw all the terrible pictures of the aftershock. I was so torn at these images. While standing in front of the Genbaku Dome I remember the speech from Mr. Tibits and wondered if he has ever been to Hiroshima since the bombing and what he thought. I also could not believe that America has never apologized to Japan for this terrible happening.
Upon my return from Japan I sent many letters to Mr. Tibits
trying to meet and talk to him. But I have never received a reply.

My goal in life is to try and bring peace between America and Japan... "Bridge the Gap". I know what happen in the past was a very terrible thing, all I can hope is that from what I have learned and the many friendships I now have with Japanese people I can help to bridge the gap.

I have a picture in my office today that I took of the Genbaku Dome and the beautiful pink flowers that surround it. In the corner of this picture I have the Kanji Yume. It truly is my dream to one day see
peace.

Sekai-teki na Heiwa!!!

Respectfully,

Derrin Ritchie

I cried silently in Hiroshima museum I did not know anyone there, I am not a Japanese - I was a tourist from India
But tears still fell down for those people. I think we are all brothers and sisters- why do we kill when we have very little time with us in this kingdom of god ? my condolences to those who died there

pravin

Nice to meet you.

My name is Hideharu Watanabe. I have just come across to your site on my way of browsing web sites with the key word "war" triggered by the recent topics of the Prime Minister's visit to Yasukuni Shrine.

I have first learned the horror of an actual war from Mr. Terao's page. I can't by any means feel the terrible conditions of those days, but the record was too hard to read through and my chest feels so tight.

Until today, I interpreted myself that the war was "an incident in the past." I didn't look through deep into it. I have been totally immersed in my peaceful everyday concerns. I have never heard of the war from my grandparents or from parents. As no information of the war comes into my life in those days, I have never even been aware of war.

The Terao Memoir, however, taught me much on the tragedy of a war when I encountered by accident with it. At the same time, the record urged me not to repeat "such a thing" and, what was important,made me feel strongly to pray for the repose of the war victims' soul who dedicated their lives to future Japan. Here, I thank them from the bottom of my heart.

I will never forget the touching encounter with the page and keep it deep in my heart from now on my future life.

In the end, I appreciate Mr. Terao who ventured to put his hard memories on the record for us.

Thank you very much.

When I was a grade school pupil, I was indulged in reading books and comics on A-bomb. A movie I had seen in my second grade or so triggered me to do so. I don't remember the title of it, however.

Since then, I read many books on Pacific War or other war-related books. I used to watch special TV programs on war experiences aired everyday in summer from NHK (Japan's Public TV.)

My mother wondered why a small kid was so much interested in such kinds of programs and often asked me why.

I was born in Hokkaido Island, now got married and live in Kanagawa prefecture. I had one day visited Otaru City to see an exhibition on A-bomb that displayed actual remnants exposed to the flash. It was the first exhibition in Hokkaido.

The actual remnants were quite different from those taken in pictures. My heart ached keen by seeing them, I didn't know why.

Today, the terror of an A-bomb can be handed down by the living survivors. What is serious is, I think, how it can be understood by people when all of the survivors are aged and died away. Something may happen, I can predict.

Many words such as no good, terrible, never again will not be able to hand down the real horror, sadness, and heartrending sorrow. In a peaceful days like now, the memory of war is fading out. You can easily understand the fact when you watch happy TV programs.

Until recently, many TV stations aired the memories or topics of war when summer came. We see few of them in those days. What it will be in the near future, perfectly forgotten?

Am I wrong or misunderstanding? I firmly believe that we should hand down the facts on the A-bombs and Pacific War in much larger scale.

Manami Hamada

Thank you for such a deep and moving site. I find that any human could even contemplate making such a thing as the atom bomb is horrific.I find that by teaching people about the wrong in the past we can try to help the future.

The site really brought it home to me the amount of suffering brought upon these people. It made me sad and angry. I think that it is such a great privilege to be able to read their accounts and its made me think a lot about things in life.

once again thank you

From Elena Hutchinson 15 England