Latest news with #GreenLegacyHiroshima
Montreal Gazette
02-07-2025
- Health
- Montreal Gazette
Letters: 28 Years Later offers lessons in humanity
The poster for the film 28 Years Later features what appear to be hundreds of human skulls stacked in a pyramid. Presumably, these are skulls of those who have fallen to the 'rage virus' first introduced in 28 Days Later in 2002. But this third instalment in the series is about far more than incredibly disturbing sequences of bloody mayhem. Surprisingly, characters like Dr. Kelson, played by Ralph Fiennes, have many poignant lessons to teach us about humanity. Physicians should watch this movie because it shows how to communicate with a patient in a respectable way. Politicians should watch it because it proves that beauty in the world trumps the ugliness of war. And people in general should enjoy it for the perfectly balanced action and horror tempered by genuine moments of affection. Nathan Friedland, Roxboro Sowing the seeds of peace We must be grateful to Allison Hanes for her column about the tragedy of genocide and mass killings and for shedding light on Heidi Berger's work in genocide education. Instead of subscribing to war, let us follow the inspiring example of the Green Legacy Hiroshima organization, which has distributed, worldwide, the seeds and saplings of trees that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. These trees have served as an inspiration for the rebirth of Hiroshima and are considered trees of peace. Montreal and Hiroshima are sister cities, and saplings from a surviving ginkgo biloba tree were planted in Montreal in 2018 in the name of peace. Let us plant trees instead of killing people with bombs. Shloime Perel, Côte-St-Luc Education is key to disease prevention In the 1950s, '60s and '70s, parents had their children vaccinated against serious and highly communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, polio and measles, for their own health and for society at large. Many parents today are ignorant of the harm such diseases cause or are misinformed about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. We need to better educate people about the science and importance of disease prevention and ensure all children are vaccinated against any communicable disease before they enter the school system. We do not want to repeat the tragic past of children dying from preventable diseases. Mary Armstrong, Montreal Call for vigilance in Côte-St-Luc Re: ' Côte-St-Luc mayor proposes measures Montreal could take to help Jewish community feel safer ' (The Gazette, June 10) As a resident of Côte-St-Luc, it was reassuring to read that our mayor, Mitchell Brownstein, urged Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante to take immediate action in response to rising security concerns for the Jewish community. Since Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, there has been a spike in antisemitic incidents. In response to this grave situation, Brownstein proposed several measures Plante could take, including the creation of buffer zones around vulnerable locations. He also appealed to citizens to be vigilant and report anything suspicious. We all have a civic duty to protect our freedom and security. Vivianne M. Silver, Côte-St-Luc Submitting a letter to the editor Letters should be sent by email to letters@ We prioritize letters that respond to, or are inspired by, articles published by The Gazette. If you are responding to a specific article, let us know which one. Letters should be sent uniquely to us. The shorter they are — ideally, fewer than 200 words — the greater the chance of publication. Timing, clarity, factual accuracy and tone are all important, as is whether the writer has something new to add to the conversation. We reserve the right to edit and condense all letters. Care is taken to preserve the core of the writer's argument. Our policy is not to publish anonymous letters, those with pseudonyms or 'open letters' addressed to third parties. Letters are published with the author's full name and city or neighbourhood/borough of residence. Include a phone number and address to help verify identity; these will not be published. We will not indicate to you whether your letter will be published. If it has not been published within 10 days or so, it is not likely to be.
Otago Daily Times
19-06-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Living symbols of peace
A gingko bilboa tree grown from a seed from a "hibaku tree" - a tree that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Several such trees have been raised by Dunedin Botanic Garden and will be planted in Dunedin as well as distributed to different centres. In 2017, the Rotary Club of Dunedin Central approached the Dunedin Botanic Garden to be a partner in a Green Legacy Hiroshima, Ceremonial Peace Trees project. The garden was asked to grow 25 ginkgo biloba trees for planting around Dunedin and Otago. Green Legacy Hiroshima was established to safeguard and spread the seeds and saplings of Hiroshima's ''hibaku trees'' — trees that survived the atomic blasts of August 6, 1945. This is a global volunteer campaign. Seeds and saplings from the A-bomb survivor trees are growing in 40 countries. Green Legacy sends seeds only to institutional partners, such as universities and botanical gardens that can commit to the long-term care of the trees. Seeds were collected by Hiroshima Botanical Garden from below the parent tree at Tsuruhane Shrine in November 2016. The female tree, inside the temple grounds, is 1810m from the hypocentre of the blast. Having recovered, it is now 18m tall with a trunk circumference of 2.67m, and is producing plenty of seed. In 2017, the Botanic Garden received 30 seeds. These were sown in deep pots with a combination of seed-raising mix and perlite and kept in the glasshouse on a heated mist bench. By late October, 25 seeds had germinated. Each year since, the trees have been potted up and grown on and 23 trees were ready for planting in 2024. One tree was planted in the Market Reserve and others have been given to the Truby King Reserve, the Oamaru Botanic Garden and the Christchurch Botanic Garden. The Dunedin Botanic Garden has planted a grove of the trees in the arboretum area near the northern cemetery. These trees will provide a living symbol of peace. — Alice-Lloyd Fitt
BBC News
18-06-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Seeds from Hiroshima ‘survivor trees' growing at Keele University
Seeds from two trees that survived the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima at the end of World War Two are being grown at a Staffordshire seeds were collected from an oriental plane tree in the grounds of the Tenma Elementary School, which was destroyed by the bombing, and a 200-year-old ginkgo tree growing in Shukkeien Garden. Both trees were situated less than a mile from the bomb site on 6 August 1945 and miraculously survived the will now be cared for by experts at Keele University until they become tall and sturdy enough to be planted in the ground. The university says it is part of an international project to promote peace and hope. The seeds were sent to Keele through the Green Legacy Hiroshima initiative, which aims to distribute seeds and saplings from 'survivor trees' Sarah Taylor, a lecturer in ecology at Keele, said: "It is a great honour to have the opportunity to nurture seeds from trees that survived the Hiroshima bombing."Now that we have the seeds, we can begin quite a long painstaking process of propagation and nurturing. The seeds will be sown onto compost and kept in heated plant propagators until signs of germination appear." She added: "The seedlings will need to be nurtured for several years before they are large enough to plant on the university campus, where we hope they will be a source of reflection and inspiration for a long time."Although they are tiny right now, they are still very powerful symbols of peace and hope and have so much history connected to them. It's going to be exciting to see the first green shoots rise from the earth."Keele is the 19th UK partner of the Green Legacy Hiroshima initiative. The project was brought to the attention of the University's arboretum committee by Franco Castro Escobar, following his postgraduate research trip to Hiroshima in the summer of Escobar said: "Keele has a special connection with Japan through the collection of cherry trees that we have on our campus, and this project will build on that relationship." Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
The Mainichi
09-06-2025
- General
- The Mainichi
A-bomb trees carrying on aging survivors' legacy as silent witnesses
HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) -- Looking at the leafy weeping willow standing on the banks of a serene river in Hiroshima, one would never guess it endured the blast of the U.S. atomic attack on the city almost 80 years ago in the closing days of World War II. At around 370 meters from the explosion on Aug. 6, 1945, the willow is recognized by the city government as the closest surviving tree to the hypocenter. Like many other trees, it was reduced to little more than a charred stump or bare roots at the time but demonstrated a remarkable will for life by regrowing. As atomic bomb survivors age and fewer are able to share their experiences, increasing attention has turned to these surviving trees as silent witnesses. For some, the trees may also offer a more approachable way to engage with Hiroshima's painful past. "When people talk about the atomic bombing, it often comes across as very harsh and raw -- it's a powerful and direct subject. Sometimes those stories are necessary, too. But when we use trees as a kind of buffer in the conversation, the message comes across more gently and softly," said Chikara Horiguchi, the 80-year-old master gardener of so-called atomic-bombed trees in Hiroshima. Horiguchi, a native of Miyazaki Prefecture in southwestern Japan, became Hiroshima Prefecture's first certified arborist in 1992. While he initially hoped to work with private gardens, he realized that overseeing greenery in the city is itself an act of advocating for peace. Currently, around 160 trees standing within 2 kilometers of ground zero are registered by the Hiroshima city government as remaining "survivors" of the blast, based on the testimonies of residents and on-site investigations. Demonstrating the impact of the weapons of mass destruction, a study conducted more than a decade ago found that the vast majority of single-trunk trees leant toward the hypocenter due to slower growth on the more exposed side. In some cases, the trees have served as a beacon of hope for people who experienced the tragedy. Chinese parasol trees, now taking root in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, became symbolic of survival following the testimony of Suzuko Numata, who lost her left leg in the wake of the blast and her fiance in the war. Numata, who died in 2011 at the age of 87, had devoted herself to telling visitors of how the tree had given her the will to continue living after seeing it bud again following the bombing. At that time, it was located in the courtyard of the Hiroshima post and telecommunications bureau where she worked. The "aogiri" tree, as the species is named in Japanese, was transplanted to the memorial park in 1973 from its original location 1.3 km away from the hypocenter, and became the catalyst for distributing seeds and saplings throughout the city and abroad. Efforts to spread the trees' message of peace beyond Japan have continued for over a decade under a global volunteer initiative called Green Legacy Hiroshima, which is backed by entities including a U.N. training arm in support of sustainable development goals. "I think no other living thing can convey some of the spirit of the hibaku-jumoku," said Nassrine Azimi, a co-founder of the initiative who formerly served as the first director of the Hiroshima office of U.N. Institute for Training and Research, referring to the Japanese word meaning "atomic-bombed trees." "You send a seed, you put it in a package, off it goes, and then six months later we get photos from the world," she said during a recent interview in Hiroshima. Green Legacy Hiroshima has delivered seeds of such trees to around 140 locations in over 40 countries while working with partners around the world, including an anti-nuclear weapons group in Oregon launched by Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor Hideko Tamura-Snider. The 91-year-old recalled the challenges when trying to get the seed-planting project started in the northwestern U.S. state of Oregon, where she lives, noting during an online interview that "nobody was interested" at first. Thanks to her perseverance, however, there are now over 55 second-generation atomic-bombed trees planted in Oregon -- reportedly the densest population outside Japan. Tamura-Snider was just 11 years old on the day of the atomic bombing, which took the life of her mother. She moved to the United States after high school where she earned various degrees and served as a clinical social worker. Drawn into advocating peace and nuclear non-proliferation, she founded One Sunny Day Initiatives in 2007 as part of efforts to serve as a bridge between Japanese and Americans, who fought a bitter war after Japan's surprise assault on Pearl Harbor in 1941, resulting in the world's first nuclear attack. "Americans carry wounds from Pearl Harbor, and Japanese carry wounds from everything, from the war...I wanted the Americans and the Japanese to get to know each other in such a way, not as a visitor from a foreign country, but a human being," said Tamura-Snider, who has also spoken at universities and events in the United States about her wartime experience. Collaborating with Green Legacy Hiroshima since 2017 to plant seeds of peace, she said her love for trees goes back to childhood, when her grandfather, who headed a multinational corporation, had a "huge, huge garden that was like a paradise in spring." To mark the 80th anniversary of the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki this year, Green Legacy Hiroshima spearheaded a planting of two saplings from Hiroshima at the U.N. headquarters in New York in May, with plans to also conduct a similar planting at the former Japanese internment camp in Manzanar in California in September. "Until recently, most of Hiroshima's efforts have been verbal or human-centered, and I think it's very nice to bring a new dimension," said Azimi. Drawing renewed attention to the surviving greenery, the Hiroshima city government has launched a new project this year to use pruned branches of atomic-bombed trees to make products that convey peace, accepting proposals from interested individuals and organizations. Beyond caring for atomic-bombed trees in Hiroshima and educating visitors to the city through tours, Horiguchi has traveled across the world, including the U.N. office at Geneva, to advocate for peace through their enduring legacy. "Every country has its own unique relationship between trees and people, but I get the sense that there's always some emotional closeness. I believe that connection is universal," said Horiguchi. "I hope people can feel, through trees, that peace is important, and that nuclear weapons are wrong." (By Donican Lam)
