News

Tour of A-bombed survivor trees will be held as a part of a project "Hiroshima Experience to think about Peace -Learn, feel and think about peace in Hiroshima-" sponsored by the Chugoku Shimbun and co-sponsored by the City of Hiroshima.
Click here to make an application.
The Chugoku Shimbun and the City of Hiroshima will also offer special exhibition at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, a recital on a piano that survived the A-bomb and Hiroshima Christmas Market.
(For details: Hiroshima Experience to think about Peace (chugoku-np.co.jp)


1st tour: Nov 3 (Fri)
2nd tour: Nov 18 (Sat)
3rd tour: Dec 4 (Mon)
4th tour: Dec 20 (Wed)

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On December 21, 2010, on behalf of its supporting organizations, Green Greetings Project donated 250,000 yen, a part of the contributions offered by these organizations, to the City of Hiroshima to be used for protecting A-bombed trees and for other peace promotion activities.

The City officials thanked the continuous activities of Green Greetings and explained interesting future activities of the City to promote peace.

Saturday, November 13, the fifth tour of A-bombed trees was conducted. Beyond the sandy air, we could feel the sunny autumn sky. Mr. Horiguchi, the tree doctor, guided us this time, too, telling us the situation of each tree at the time of the atomic bombing and its history over the years until today. We enjoyed the two-hour tour, which was very interesting.

We started from JR Nishi-hiroshima Station and visited:

1) the pyramid juniper, standing by Fukushima Nursery School in Fukushima-cho,
2)the camphor trees standing in a row like friends along the street by Kanon Elementary School and a kurogane holly in the school yard,
3)the jujube quietly standing among other trees in the greenbelt of the Peace Boulevard,
4) the plane trees that have taken root in the playground of Tenma Elementary School and a big camphor tree on the sidewalk by the school,
　and finally,
5) the crinum lilies and the famous Chinese parasol tree in Peace Memorial Park. The tour ended a little past noon.

We presented each participant with this year’s poster of Green Greeting and the map of the A-bombed trees. If you were not able to join the tour, please visit the “Map of the A-bombed trees” of this website and enjoy the tour and other tours.

We would like to thank you all for joining our tour!

The tour of A-bombed trees will be conducted this year, too, as follows:

◆Date and hour: 10:00 a.m. to noon, Saturday, November 13, 2010
◆Where we visit: We will visit A-bombed trees in Peace Memorial Park and other places with Mr. Chikara Horiguchi, a tree doctor.
◆How to apply: Call the Peace Promotion Department between Tuesday, November 2 and Friday November 5 at 082-242-7831 or fax to 082-242-7452.
◆Maximum number of participants: 30
Please make reservations soon.

"A-bombed tree map" for general people to make the chance to touch the
a-bombed tree tree readily was completed.

The free map has been made to help people visit the A-bombed trees.
Five-thousand copies will be distributed free of charge as follows:

- Distributed from end of December, 2009 until the 5,000 copies are all handed out.
- Distributed at the following locations:

1)Tourist information offices of the city
- Rest House in Peace Memorial Park
- JR Hiroshima Station (at the Shinkansen gate and at the south gate)
- Kamiyacho Shareo
　Please visit the following website for more details:
　http://www.hcvb.city.hiroshima.jp/navigator/information/annai.html

2)Hiroshima Botanical Garden

3)Chugoku Shimbun
- “Fureai Dokusho-shitsu” on the first floor of the Chugoku Shimbun building
- Chupi Park

This activity is supported by the International Peace Promotion Department of the City of Hiroshima, the Hiroshima Botanical Garden and the supporting organizations of Green Greetings.

On November 27, 2009, Green Greetings Project donated a part of the contributions from the supporting organizations to the City of Hiroshima to be used for protecting A-bombed trees and other peace promotion projects.

The fourth tour of A-bombed trees was conducted on Saturday, November 14, 2009. It was a very fine autumn day. About 30 people participated in this event and visited eight locations to see A-bombed trees, from JR Yokogawa Station to Peace Memorial Park.

Mr. Chikara Horiguchi, a tree doctor, told the participants interesting stories of the trees. He said, for example, trees of the same kind, such as camphor trees, look quite different depending on the environment and conditions these trees have experienced since the atomic bombing.

If you were not able to join the tour, please visit the following website and enjoy the tour. ../map/index.html

Thank you for joining the tour!

A tour of A-bombed trees will be conducted this year, too, guided by Mr. Chikara Horiguchi, from the north gate of JR Yokogawa Station to Peace Memorial Park, visiting eight locations in three hours.
Date and hour: 9:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Saturday, November 14, 2009

Date and hour: 9:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Saturday, November 14, 2009

■Course:
　Koryuji Temple (camphor tree)
　↓
　Misasa Shrine (camphor tree)
　↓
　Hiroshima Betsuin (Japanese fern palm)
　↓
　Hosenbo Temple (gingko tree)
　↓
　Zenshoji Temple (crape myrtle)
　↓
　Hiroshima Children’s Museum (weeping willow)
　↓
　he river bank near the Hiroshima Youth Center (weeping willow)
　↓
　Peace Memorial Park (Chinese parasol tree)

Maximum number of participants: 30

How to apply: Call the International Peace Promotion Department of the City of Hiroshima at 082-242-7831 by Friday, November 6. Details will be informed later.
- Please tell us your name, address and contact information. In case of a group, the representative’s name, address and contact information.
- Your personal information will be shared with Chugoku Hakuhodo, the organizer of this tour, but it will be used for the purpose of this tour only.

For further information, please call Ms. Imada, Chugoku Hakuhodo, at 082-248-0420.

The second generation aogiri (Chinese parasol tree) offered in 1999 to Shinonome Elementary School attached to Hiroshima University has grown this big.

This is a message we received from Shinonome Elementary School attached to Hiroshima University.

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The students of those days showed the photograph of the aogiri planted at Senda Elementary School and sang the song of aogiri (Aogiri no Uta) at the “all-school morning music assembly.” Some students had even studied about the stories of aogiri.

Sometime after they planted the seedling at this elementary school, the buds were hit and damaged by a soccer ball. The teachers and students discussed what to do and decided to install a fence around the tree. After this, the students came to pay more attention to the tree, and they were able to see the strong vitality of the tree as it grew. Now the tree has grown this big.

As a program of the PTC (Parents, Teachers and Children) activities, the fifth graders of Shinonome Elementary School visit Peace Memorial Park every year. They sing Aogiri no Uta in front of the aogiri in the park and tell the tree that one of its children is at their school.

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The second-generation aogiri sent to Komatsu City Yatano Elementary School in 2005 has grown this big by the school gate.

This second-generation aogiri was sent to this school in 2008.

This second-generation aogiri was sent to this school in 2008.

This is a message we received from Saidera Elementary School about the second-generation aogiri trees.

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Before the students went to Hiroshima from Osaka on a school trip, they studied about Hiroshima and came to know about the second-generation aogiri. Many students were interested in seeing the trees and looking forward to the trip.

After the school trip, we received a second-generation aogiri seedling and told the students about the tree. They were all listening attentively.
“Although it was hit by the atomic bomb, I felt the power of life when I saw the tree growing.”
Many students said so.

“In spring, the aogiri trees have big leaves. In autumn, the leaves turn yellow and fall. In winter, the trees become bare.”
The trees show different faces throughout the year. We are using the trees to teach lower-grade students in science and life environment study classes. The students are surprised to see big leaves and enjoy “finding autumn”.

When students come back from the school trip to Hiroshima, they make presentations on the peace studies, reporting at the school assembly on what they have learned in Hiroshima. At that time, they explain about the second-generation aogiri, showing actual trees.

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The second-generation aogiri seedling was sent to Hiroshima City Mukainada Shinmachi Elementary School in 1997.

This is a message we received from Mukainada Shinmachi Elementary School.

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When the students learned about the A-bombed trees for the first time, before we received a second-generation aogiri seedling, they said,
“The tree suffered so much.”
“How poor the trees were!”

When the students received a seedling, students said,
“This is the second-generation aogiri. We want to look after it.”

The second-generation aogiri tree is growing well. We have learned and will continue to learn a lot from the tree in the peace studies.

***********

The second-generation aogiri seedling sent to Kunitachi-Daisan Elementary School in Tokyo in 2000 has grown this big.

Second-generation aogiri seedlings were sent to Hiroshima City Nakajima Elementary School in 1993 and 2009.

This is the seedling planted on May 12, 2009.

The seedling planted in 1993 has grown this big.

This is a message we received from Nakajima Elementary School about the second-generation aogiri.

***********

When the students learned about the A-bombed trees for the first time, they said,
“I think the aogiri trees are so strong. I think this is because the trees also want to tell people how they suffered on that day, hoping that it will never be repeated.”

After the seedlings came to our school, the children wanted to know how the trees are growing and go there from time to time to see the trees.
Sometimes they tell us, “The trees look fine.”

At Nakajima Elementary School, the students think about what the A-bombed aogiri trees want to tell us and draw pictures of the leaves and make haiku and tanka short poems.

***********

The second-generation aogiri sent to Fukami Elementary School in Oita Prefecture in 2005 has grown this big.

This is a message we received from Fikami Elementary School.

***********

The homeroom teacher of the first graders heard that the second-generation aogiri seedlings are given to the schools that visit Hiroshima on their school trips and contacted the person in charge and asked for a seedling. The teacher said, “We named the tree ‘Inochi no Aogiri’ (Aogiri for Life). With the first-grade students, we wanted to grow this tree.”

The students had a different homeroom teacher, but the ten students took good care of this tree.

The tree has also looked after the children coming to school and going home. It has grown over five meters now.

The teacher who was the students’ homeroom teacher when they were first graders once again became their homeroom teacher when they became fourth graders. The PTA of the fourth graders conducted a “Half Coming-of-Age Cerebration” and buried a time capsule by the aogiri tree that had looked after the children. The students and their parents pledged that they will meet again under this tree 10 years from now.

***********

The homeroom teacher and the students who are fifth graders now took this photograph under the aogiri tree.

A second-generation aogiri seedling was sent to Notre Dame Elementary School in Kyoto Prefecture in 2002.

The fifth graders study about peace as a part of the “integrated study.” The following is the students’ newsletter about what they learned. They wrote about the tree and their visit to Hiroshima.

The second-generation aogiri has grown this big.

This is a message we received from Notre Dame Elementary School.

***********

From the school year of 2002, the fifth graders study about peace as a part of the “integrated study.”
In 2002, the fifth graders visited Hiroshima and listened to people there. At that time, they learned about aogiri and were interested in this tree. The following year, they decided to plant aogiri at school.

After they visited Hiroshima and studied about peace in 2002, they planted the seedling in the “Green and Water Plaza” (now called “Forest for Prayer”) and named the tree “Genki,” meaning “Vitality and Hope.”

They tried the kind of food eaten during the wartime, such as potato gruel, suiton (a simple soup with dumplings), dried whitebait with radish leaves, and roast barley flour called hattaiko, in order to imagine how people lived in those days.

We named the second-generation tree and took good care of the tree. However, as it almost died, we asked for another seedling to be sent the following year and planted it.
Today, both aogiri trees are fine and have grown this big. They are becoming taller than the second story of the school building.

A part of the contributions given to Green Greeting Project was donated to the City of Hiroshima yesterday, on Wednesday, November 19, 2008, to be used for preserving A-bombed trees. We hope that the trees will continue to be healthy and keep growing.

A tour of A-bombed trees was conducted this year again, on Saturday, November 14. The tree tour has been conducted annually, and this was the third time. Nearly 40 people participated. We hope that many people will come to know about these trees.
We would like to thank Mr. Horiguchi for his insightful explanation.
We would also like to thank the participants of this year.

A tour of A-bombed trees will be conducted this year, too, guided by Mr. Chikara Horiguchi.
The course of this year is titled, “Browsing the Town!”

We will start from the north side of the east building of Peace Memorial Hall and visit eight A-bombed trees at Kinryuji Temple and other locations in three hours.

Date and hour: 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Saturday, November 15, 2008

Meeting place and time: 9:45 a.m. in front of the aogiri tree on the north side of the east building of Peace Memorial Hall

Maximum number of participants: 30

Please call Mr. Shimizu the International Peace Promotion Department of the City of Hiroshima at 082-242-7831 and tell us your name and contact information. The personal information (address, name, telephone number, content of your application) will be only used for the purpose of the tree tour and be kept confidential.
We look forward to your participation. 　

Green Greeting Project hopes that many more people understand the A-bombed trees that survived and have strived so hard to live.

In this fourth year, we will sell original stamps to inform many people of these A-bombed trees.

Today, 200 sheets of the original stamps are sold at the temporary desk set up in front of Hiroshima Naka Post Office. Many people are coming by after attending the memorial ceremony. Please come to our desk!

The stamp sheets will be sold at different post offices in and around Hiroshima City.
The details are described below.

The original stamps of A-bombed trees, made by Green Greetings 2008, go on sale today from 8:00 a.m. at Hiroshima Naka Post Office. From tomorrow (August 7), the stamps will be sold at all the post offices in the Higashi, Naka, Nishi, Minami wards and in Naka-machi, Fuchu-cho, Akigun (except for branch post offices) until Friday, October 31, 2008.

Total number of sheets sold: 1,000

Price: 1,200 yen per sheet (1 sheet has ten 80-yen stamps)
※They will be sold by sheet.

A tour of A-bombed trees was conducted on Saturday, October 27.
We would like to thank Mr. Horiguchi for his valuable explanation and the participants for joining the tour.

The following is a photograph of this tour. The tree is a kurogane holly at Hiroshima Castle.

We will conduct a tour of A-bombed trees this year too, guided by Mr. Chikara Horiguchi, a tour doctor.

This year, we will walk along the “historical route” of Hiroshima.
We will start from JR Hiroshima Station and visit 10 A-bombed trees at Hiroshima Castle and other places in three hours.

Day and hour: 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Saturday, October 27
Meeting place and time: 9:45 a.m. at the north exit of Hiroshima Station

Please call Mr. Shimizu the International Peace Promotion Department of the City of Hiroshima at 082-242-7831 and tell us your name and contact information. The personal information (address, name, telephone number, content of your application) will be only used for the purpose of the tree tour and be kept confidential.

We look forward to your participation.

Maximum number of participants: 30
We look forward to your participation.

Green Greetings Project hopes that many people will know about the A-bombed trees that survived and strive hard to live.

This is the third year of the project. We will continue disseminating the information of the A-bombed trees.

Mr. Horiguchi, the tree doctor, treated the camphor tree located at the parking lot of the Motomachi apartments in order to restore its strength.

As more than 60 years have passed since the atomic bombing, the City of Hiroshima is examining the A-bombed trees. If the trees are weak with rotting scars and hardened ground, the city treat them under the guidance of the tree doctor so that the trees are revitalized.

On August 6, 1945, the military facilities in Motomachi were destroyed, leaving some ferroconcrete structures and brick buildings. The trees around here were all burned, and most of them died. Under the situation, the camphor tree survived in the scorched ground and has continued to live.

The tree, however, is located in a parking lot, and the ground is covered with asphalt right up to this tree. The asphalt surface has cracks, and the tree is slanting toward the east. On the ground on the east side of the trunk, there are stenches, indicating that fallen leaves and other garbage have been repeatedly burned here.

This time, the surface ground around the tree was removed to check the conditions of the roots. Then, compost, charcoal powder and perlite were put in the soil.

Camphor trees live longest among Japanese trees. The camphor tree became invigorated after the treatment. We hope the tree will keep watching over us. Let us make more efforts to take care of the A-bombed trees and the natural environment of Hiroshima.

Today, Green Greetings Project donated a part of the contributions from the supporting organizations to the City of Hiroshima to be used for protecting A-bombed trees. We thought once again what we can do to protect the A-bombed trees, which are living witnesses of the atomic bombing.

We apologize that we have not been able to update our blog for some time. We would like to continue writing about the trees.

Today, we conducted a tour of A-bombed trees.
We would like to thank Mr. Horiguchi for his precious guiding. We would also like to thank the people who participated in this tour.

The photograph was taken in front of the aogiri tree.
Aogiri has nuts, and the nuts can be eaten.
The nuts were once used as an alternative to coffee beans.

Today, we heard very interesting stories that we didn’t know.
We would like to write about the tour of A-bombed trees, hoping that those who have not joined the tour can enjoy reading.

As information was already given to those who have applied for the tree tour, we will hold a tour of A-bombed trees on Thursday October 19, 2006.

We would like to apologize that the tour has been postponed due to rain.

The weather forecast says it will be fine tomorrow.
We are looking forward to seeing you.

We will write about tomorrow’s tour in the blog.
If you cannot join us, please visit the blog.

See you tomorrow.

The tour of A-bombed tree scheduled tomorrow will be postponed as the chance of rain will be 70%. If it rains, it is difficult to walk and we cannot observe the trees very well. Therefore we decided to postpone the tour.

We apologize to those who have signed up for the tour.
We will reschedule the date and conduct the tour sometime soon.
We will let you know the revised schedule as soon as the date is fixed.

Thank you!

Hello.

We would like to invite you to the tour of A-bombed trees, guided by Mr. Chikara Horiguchi, a tree doctor, from 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 5.
Mr. Horiguchi will explain the conditions of each tree and various episodes.

The tour will start from the aogiri on the north side of Peace Memorial Museum and visit 11 locations of the A-bombed trees in the central part of Hiroshima in two hours.

Date: Thursday, October 5

Meeting time: 0:45 p.m.

Meeting place: In front of Peace Memorial Museum

Contact: info@green-greetings.com

Gifts will be presented to the participants.

We look forward to your participation.

Good evening.
I would like to write about the A-bombed wisterias, which were the most impressive trees for me. They are at Senda Elementary School.

The twisted trunks have painful scars from the heat rays, but the wisterias are trying their best to live and looking after the children.

With regard to the A-bombed gingko tree at Koi Elementary School Ms. Shikai wrote about, we received the following message from the Peace Promotion Department of the City of Hiroshima.

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Thank you for giving us the information of the A-bombed tree.。
In order to maintain the precious A-bombed trees that have revived from the A-bomb ashes and that are witnesses of the atomic bombing, the City of Hiroshima has started in 1993 to register the A-bombed trees within about two kilometers from the hypocenter. Today, we have registered about 160 trees at 55 locations in the “list of A-bombed buildings and others,” based on the City’s guidelines to officially record the A-bombed buildings in Hiroshima.

One of the criteria of the trees to be registered is that they are located within “about two kilometers” from the hypocenter. The buildings in this area were all destroyed and burned. So were the trees. The trees that survived the disaster of the atomic bombing and those which sprouted again from the stumps of the burned trees have been registered as A-bombed trees.

Another criterion is that the trees to be registered must be planted at public places. Temples and shrines are considered as public places, but the trees in private people’s gardens do not satisfy this criterion. This criterion was included so that anyone can visit the trees, feel the power of life from the trees that survived the atomic bombing and think about peace.

As the gingko tree is located away from the hypocenter, we are sorry to say that it cannot be included in the City’s list of the A-bombed trees, but we would like the tree to be taken good care of so that the tree will help people think about peace.

For further details, please contact the Peace Promotion Department of the City of Hiroshima at 082-242-7831.　

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Green Greetings Project is introducing the A-bombed trees in the list of the Peace Promotion Department of the City of Hiroshima. There are many other A-bombed trees that are not registered by the city. We would like many people to know about these trees, too, so we will write about them in our blog.

We welcome any information on A-bombed trees.

Thank you.

We would like to introduce the following information given by Ms. Chinami Shikai, who is a teacher at Taipei Japanese School.

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I am a teacher at Koi Elementary School in the Nishi Ward of Hiroshima, but I am temporarily teaching at Taipei Japanese School in the Republic of China. Since seven years ago, I started peace activities with children at Koi Elementary School. We invited people from the local community to tell us about their experience of the atomic bombing.

There was a big gingko tree in front of a warehouse of the gymnasium. The playground was redeveloped after the war, and so the area is now outside the school ground. The gingko tree shed many leaves in autumn and watched over the children.

On the right side of the gingko tree, there were many A-bombed cherry trees. Every year, the blossoms gave us encouragement. The cherry trees were also transplanted to other locations when the playground was redeveloped.

At the south end of the school, there were two large bead trees that also survived the atomic bombing. Many survivors told us that they were exposed to the atomic bomb under the bead trees. They were students of this school, and on that morning, they were practicing flag signals. Because it was a hot summer day, their teacher told them to go under the shade of the trees, when the bomb exploded.

Koi Elementary School became a temporary rescue station, and many people were buried in the school ground. We hear that the school was full of injured people and dead people everywhere, including toilets, corridors, the gym and classrooms.

We must not forget the gingko tree, which survived the atomic bombing and has tried hard to live, so I wrote this email. I hope Hiroshima will continue to be a sanctuary to which people send their wish for peace from all over the world.

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Ms. Shikai, thank you very much for your precious information. In the future, when we may not be able to have many opportunities to listen to A-bomb survivors, we must be the ones to carry on their testimonies to the future generations so that they will not be forgotten.

We have forwarded Ms. Shikai’ s information to the Peace Promotion Department. When we hear from them, we will write about it in this blog.
Green Greetings welcomes your information on A-bombed trees.

The trees that survived the atomic bombing have lived strongly over the years.
We must not forget what happened in the past.
We want many people to know about these trees.
There may be information not known to many people.

If you know some information, please write to info@green-greetings.com.

We will write about your information in our blog.

Last year was the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima.
In that year, we took up the theme of A-bombed trees.

They were exposed to the blast but sprouted again. These trees that have survived until today have given us hope and encouragement.

“We want many people to understand the A-bombed trees in Hiroshima.”
With this hope, Green Greetings Project was launched.

We have decided to continue the project this year too.

There are unknown A-bombed trees in Hiroshima. From last year to this year, eight trees were newly registered as A-bombed trees. At the same time, some A-bombed trees have died.

We would like to keep these A-bombed trees, their stories and their vitalities to our future generations.

Through this blog, Green Greetings would like to receive information from our readers and want the information to be widely known. We also would like to write about how the A-bombed trees are today.