Lycée Albert I pupils meet Hiroshima survivor

Noriko Sakashita, Hiroshima survivor, shares her story with a class of final-year pupils at Lycée Albert I ©Government Communication Department/Michael Alesi

On 7 November, a final-year history and geography lesson at Lycée Albert I was devoted to a meeting with Noriko Sakashita who, at the age of two, survived the Hiroshima bombing on 6 August 1945. The meeting was organised under the aegis of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

Before her extremely attentive young audience, the Hibakusha (the word for a victim of a nuclear attack in Japanese) shared her remarkable and moving testimony. When her home, which was more than a kilometre from the point of impact, exploded, Noriko, a witness to history, was seriously injured by the force of the blast. She was then exposed to “black rain”, full of radioactive dust and ash, while being evacuated.

Ms Sakashita, a rare survivor of the nuclear disaster, shares her story around the world in a bid to promote the creation of international links between organisations working for peace, human rights and environmental protection, reminding people that hope in our world lies with young people.

Mme Noriko Sakashita et les élèves du Lycée Albert 1er