Tour Hiroshima’s Peace Spots With the “Peace Puzzle” Digital Stamp RallyHiroshima for Global Peace

Tour Hiroshima’s Peace Spots With the “Peace Puzzle” Digital Stamp Rally

#peacetimes

Since FY2021, the City of Hiroshima has designated November as the “Month for a Culture of Peace,” aiming to foster a sense of peace among the citizens, intensively implementing various initiatives where people can share their feelings on peace, such as exchanges through artistic, cultural, and sports activities.

The Peace Puzzle is a popular event held during the Month for a Culture of Peace. In this digital stamp rally, participants will visit Peace Spots, places and historical sites related to peace scattered throughout the City of Hiroshima. Itineraries are available for each theme, and visitors can collect stamps at the Peace Spots while touring Hiroshima by bicycle or on foot and win special prizes depending on the number of stamps collected.

The group behind the development of the Peace Puzzle is the Hiroshima 「」 – 3^rd Generation Exhibition: Succeeding to History, a volunteer organization that conducts various peace activities under the motto, “Finding ways for this generation, which does not know war, to pass on the legacy of Hiroshima to the next generation”

Their representative, Kubota Ryoko, is a third-generation atomic bomb survivor born in Hiroshima and living in Tokyo. When she happened to be involved in teaching the dialect for the recitation play, The Face of Jizo, she realized that she knew so little about Hiroshima, that she wasn’t acting on the things she knew, and that she wanted to do something about it. These thoughts led her to start Hiroshima 「」 – 3^rd Generation Exhibition: Succeeding to History.

Kubota Ryoko, the representative of the Hiroshima 「」 – 3^rd Generation Exhibition: Succeeding to History

There are a total of five Peace Puzzle courses available during the Month for a Culture of Peace, including the “Children’s Traces Route” conceived by the non-profit organization Peace Culture Village; the “Memories of Rivers and the Sea Route” designed by sokoiko! cycling tours (mint Co., Ltd.); and the “Letters to the Future Route” co-developed with the Hello! Hiroshima Project. There are also peace education tools available for students on school trips, incorporating the Peace Puzzle and worksheets.

Educational tools for students on school trips, designed to catch the interest of its target audience through manga and other means

The Art and Town’s Perspective Route, a guided tour conceived by volunteers from Hiroshima Jogakuin High School, was held on November 23^rd, 2023 (Thursday/national holiday). We gathered at the starting point, under the atomic-bombed weeping willow at the east end of Tsurumi Bridge, and toured six spots.

On the day of the tour, we were divided into two teams: Kubota’s team and a team led by Yamashima Shizuku, a student from Hiroshima Jogakuin High School who was also involved in the route’s development. Upon arriving at each Peace Spot, stories and quizzes about the spot will appear on the stamp rally screen. Correctly answering the questions will earn the participant a stamp. On this tour, we started from the atomic-bombed willow tree, then proceeded to the Tamonin Temple Bell Tower, Sanyo Buntoku-den Hall, the atomic-bombed camphor tree, the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, and finally, the Hijiyama Military Cemetery.

The tour started on the weeping pillow registered as an atomic-bombed tree. We toured the Peace Spots while listening to Kubota and Yamashima.

Upon visiting the Peace Spot, participants will be asked to take a quiz. Correctly answering them earns a stamp.

An art navigator guided us on the way to the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art and told us about the museum’s history and collection. The participants were all surprised to learn that the slit in the circular roof of the approach plaza actually points to the hypocenter and that the floor stones were all made of atomic-bombed stones. The commentary on the peace-related works was also incredibly informative.

Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, reopened and renovated in March 2023

Creating a place of learning through art—from Hiroshima to the world, and from the world to Hiroshima. This local yet international program takes a good look at Hiroshima, connecting the present to the future.

“We asked the locals to tell us about the time of the atomic bombing and planned the route while making sure their stories were visible. What are those words engraved on the bell of the Tamonin Temple Bell Tower? Where are the traces of the atomic bomb damage on the camphor tree? We designed the quiz so that participants could find the answers to these questions by actually looking and searching for them, encouraging them to take action by themselves,” says Yamashima, who devised the course.

Yamashima Shizuku, a third-year at Hiroshima Jogakuin High School. She became involved in the route’s development after applying for the English translation contest for the Peace Puzzle.

The tour’s participants came from various backgrounds, including those from inside and outside the prefecture, in all kinds of groups, such as parents, children, and friends. “Although children receive peace education at school, some lessons are only possible by visiting the Peace Spots and experiencing the lessons firsthand. It’s nice having a fun and accessible stamp rally,” says a father, smiling after participating in the event with his son.

Also, a group of participants from Tokyo and Kobe said, “We visited Hiroshima on a school trip once but were passive about peace education. We joined this event because we felt that the younger generation must actively relearn about peace as the people who experienced the war are growing older, and the number of people to pass these memories on is declining. Wars and conflicts still persist worldwide. We believe everyone should consider peace as a personal matter.”

The tour participants. Some of them are from Tokyo.

“The Peace Puzzle’s motif is ‘knowing what you don’t know.’ Hiroshima is dotted with many small peace spots aside from the Atomic Bomb Dome and Peace Memorial Park. Although many who visit Hiroshima are interested in learning peace, some are unsure where to go. We hope these out-of-prefecture visitors will utilize these routes to learn more about peace and Hiroshima’s history. Naturally, we are also happy if the residents join in as well,” says Kubota.

The itineraries will continue to be available online but will only be linked to the digital stamp rally during the Month for a Culture of Peace. We encourage you to utilize them in all sorts of scenarios and tour the town while sharing your thoughts and feelings on peace.