In September 2015, Green Legacy Hiroshima co-founder Tomoko Watanabe traveled to Oberlin bringing seeds and saplings from Hiroshima A-bomb survivor trees and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Oberlin College and the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association. After the 11:30am signing on September 8, Ms. Watanabe walked outside of Cox Hall with President Krislov and Gavin Tritt. She presented a potted tree to symbolize the seeds growing in the greenhouse that would later be moved outside once they matured into saplings.
Other activities during her trip included the following:
Firelands Association for the Visual Arts (FAVA) hosted an art exhibition and related origami and peace comic workshops (opening ceremony on Tuesday, September 8 at 3:30 pm).
The Oberlin Public Library hosted a film screening and story times that focus on Hiroshima after the bomb and the powerful children’s story of Sadako and her 1,000 paper cranes (Tuesday, September 8 at 2:30 pm).
On Thursday, September 10 at 7 pm, First Church in Oberlin was the site of a panel discussion with Ms. Watanabe and Clifton Truman Daniel, the grandson of President Harry Truman.
Ms. Watanabe also engaged with Oberlin high school students during a day of classroom visits and with school students and home-school students at FAVA events.
Ms. Watanabe spent Friday, September 11 with Oberlin College students and engaged in conversations around peace building and the variances between Japanese and American millennial perspectives toward peace. This included classroom visits and a lunch roundtable with students hosted by Oberlin Shansi.