Join us for a week-long program presented by the Japanese Studies Association of Australia at the University of Sydney and the Chau Chak Wing Museum, enabling an opportunity to reflect on the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of the Asia Pacific War in World War Two.
Program subject to change.
Film presentations
Nelson Meers Foundation Auditorium
12 noon
Video screening of Storm Over Nagasaki (1946) with English translation on screen, 20 mins. (Courtesy by the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum) No registrations required.
3 PM
Video screening of Takeo Toshima’s burnt school uniform with English subtitles, 20 mins. No registrations required.
Opening of talks commemorating the 80th anniversary of the bombings
Nelson Meers Foundation Auditorium
10 am - 10:05 am
Opening the 80th commemoration
10:05 am - 11 am
Lecture and demonstration of Noh by Kanji Shimizu and members of the Noh performing group, Tessenkai.
11:15 am - 12 pm
Roman Rosenbaum explores the history of atom bomb representation in Japanese manga. With special attention to the global phenomenon of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece.
12 pm - 1 pm
Lunch break
1 - 2 pm
Ryoko Nakayama, Ryoko Nakayama, Jiji Press, an informal talk of her grandmother, Sachiko Hayashi (1929-2011), poet, hibakusha with public reading of her well-cited poem ‘The Sky over Hiroshima’. Followed by discussion.
2 - 3 pm
Public Reading of Okori Jizo (Angry Jizo) by TokikoTsuchiya, Representative of the Association for Preservation of Literary Materials of Hiroshima, with subtitles in English.
3 - 3:30 pm
Gem Romuld on ICAN and The Japan Confederation of A- and H- Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), winners of Australia and Japan Nobel Prize for Peace in 2017 and 2024.
6 - 8 pm
Performance at Seymour Centre
Premiere to Australia, the Modern Noh Performance, Holy Mother of Nagasaki by Kanji Shimizu
Peace and Reconciliation: Intergenerational Impact of the Asia Pacific War symposium
Nelson Meers Foundation Auditorium, in person and online
Registrations essential, register here
10 am - 10:05 am
Opening Judith Keene (Chair)
10:05 am - 10:45 am
Sandakan and Reconciliation - Keynote speaker, Emeritus Professor ANU John Braithwaite.
John Braithwaite is a distinguished criminologist with an interest in the role of restorative justice, which is a community-based approach to justice that aims to repair the harm done to victims, offenders and communities. He has been involved with researching and with other groups and victims affected by the Sandakan Death Marches, four of whom are here with us today and have generously agreed to speak about their experiences.
John’s father Dick Braithwaite was one of the six survivors of 2,434 Allied Prisoners of War who were forced to march without water, food and medicine. The Imperial Japanese army also lost 8,500 soldiers.
10:45 am - 11:15 am
Cynthia Ong, Sabah, whose 7 family members were killed by the Japanese Army. Cynthia is the founder of LEAP (Land, Empowerment, Animals, People) an organization to facilitate sustainability in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.
11:15 am - 11:45 am
Richard Moxham, the son of the late William Moxham, one of the survivors of the Sandakan Death Marches.
11:45 am - 12:15 pm
Yoshio Baba, cousin of the grandson, the late Sadaoki Furui, of Lieutenant Masao Baba, the Japanese Commander of the Sandakan to Renau marches.
12:15 pm - 1:00 pm
Lunch
1:00 pm - 1:45 pm
Sandakan reconciliation, an informal talk around the display of Sandakan memorial images with John Braithwaite and the other survivors and members of the second generation
1:45 pm - 2 pm
Yasuko Claremont on ‘Spreading reconciliation beyond Sandakan’ through Hanaoka monogatari (1951) plus Remembering Hanaoka (2025), a joint woodcut print by young artists.
2 pm - 2:30 pm
Ryoko Nakayama on the story behind her grandmother’s poem, ‘The Sky over Hiroshima’.
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Allan Marett on his English Noh, Oppenheimer (2015) A discussion on ‘Whereabouts are the once-militarist girls now?’
3:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Tomoko Aoyama on ‘Girls, Bombs, and Takarazuka’.
4 pm - 4:30 pm
Barbara Hartley on ‘Was I ever a once-military girl? Komashaku Kimi’s escapades in wartime Japan
Concluding discussion with all attendees until 5 pm
Nelson Meers Foundation Auditorium
Program
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
On poetry of Hiroshima: Sankichi Tôge’s seminal Atomic Bomb Poems and Public Reading of Hiroshima no ko (Children of Hiroshima) by Tokiko Tsuchiya.
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Video display of the moving image of the burnt school uniform worn by Takeo Toshima, age 14, with English explanation.
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Level 2, Study Room 3
The moving image of Hanaoka monogatari (1951) with English translation plus Remembering Hanaoka (2025) and discussion
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Level 3, Nelson Meers Foundation Auditorium
Round discussion on peace and reconciliation in our time and beyond.
Reading and Origami Workshop
Nelson Meers Foundation Auditorium
1:00pm
Public Reading of Children of Hiroshima by Tokiko Tsuchiya and discussion.
Folding origami cranes and writing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Reading and Origami Workshop
Nelson Meers Foundation Auditorium
1.00pm
Public Reading of Okori Jizo (Angry Jizo) by Tokiko Tsuchiya and discussion.
Folding origami cranes and writing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Emeritus Professor ANU John Braithwaite is a distinguished criminologist with an interest in the role of restorative justice, which is a community-based approach to justice that aims to repair the harm done to victims, offenders and communities. He has been involved with researching and with other groups and victims affected by the Sandakan Death Marches, four of whom are here with us today and have generously agreed to speak about their experiences.
John’s father Dick Braithwaite was one of the six survivors of 2,434 Allied Prisoners of War who were forced to march without water, food and medicine. The Imperial Japanese army also lost 8,500 soldiers.
Ms Ryoko Nakayama, hibaku sansei, Tokyo, Jiji News journalist and actor. Her grandmother, the late Sachiko Hayashi, hibakusha was a well-known poet with ‘The Sky over Hiroshima’.
Gem Romuld, Australian Director at ICAN.
Allan Marett, Adelaide, Emeritus USYD Professor of musicology, a playwright of English Noh play, Oppenheimer, premiered in 2015 at the Conservatorium of Music, Sydney. Now shown in Tokyo, 2025.
Yoshio Baba, cousin of the late Sadaoki Furui, the grandson of Lieutenant General Yoshio Baba, the Commander of the Sandakan Marches.
Richard Moxham, Canberra, son of the late William Moxham, one of only six Australian survivors of the Sandakan Death Marches.
Cynthia Ong, a Sabahan, a founder of LEAP – ecological conservation in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, and one of the descendants whose family members were murdered by the imperial Japanese army.
Header image: A joint memorial stone, 2023. Image by courtesy of Noriko Murata
