Ms Keiko Ogura, Director of the “Hiroshima Interpreters for Peace” (HIP)
Ms Keiko Ogura was born in 1937 in Hiroshima. On August 6, 1945, when Keiko was 8 years old, she was exposed to the atomic bomb 2.4km away from the hypocenter. In 1962, she got married to Mr. Kaoru Ogura, who was the director of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum as well as a secretary general of Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation. He was engaged in the promotion of A-bomb exhibitions outside Japan. After her husband’s death in 1979, she began working for Hiroshima herself and deepened international exchanges with writers and journalists and became an interpreting coordinator for peace-movement visitors from abroad. In 1984, she established Hiroshima Interpreters for Peace and published Hiroshima Handbook and Hiroshima Peace Park Guide. Since April 2011, she became an official A-bomb survivor of Hiroshima Peace Cultural Foundation, delivering her experience in English for foreigners. She received the Hiroshima Peace Center Foundation’s 25th Kiyoshi Tanimoto Peace prize in 2013.　 In May 2023, at the G7 Hiroshima Summit, she recently shared her story with world leaders attending the G7 Summit (including the heads of state of the invited countries and Ukrainian President Zelensky). In May 2024, she received an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from the University of Idaho.
During these times of the Russian invasion to Ukraine, she had the opportunity to meet with President of the European Council Charles Michel, who visited Hiroshima, and delivered her A-bomb experience to him.
“Through the suffering and loss of so many lives in Hiroshima, we can recognize the unique strength that lies in remembering peace. I sincerely hope that all world leaders will get to share on this strength and take even just one new step on the road toward abolishing nuclear weapons.”
In the wake of the tragic event of the Russian invasion to Ukraine, her words are once again attracting attention from around the world.
Since 1990, when she started a planning company with global-minded proposals and designs for governments and corporations, she has supported numerous visitors from abroad and international peace conferences. Also, as an A-bomb survivor herself, she often appears in the worldwide media.
References: