Hiroshima Through the Lens of Mental Health

During June, 2024 the Oleander Initiative hosted a six day program for five mental health professionals and academics from the United Kingdom.

The participants explored the lessons of Hiroshima through topics such trauma recovery, the role of empathy in resilience and the process of reconciliation.

The UK participants engaged in foundational Oleander activities such as

UK participants at Hiroshima Peace Park and Peace Memorial Museum

Hibakusha testimonial by Kiyomi Kohno

Lectures on Hiroshima peace culture by Professors Bo Jacobs and Ron Klein

At the Oleander Initiative, we pride ourselves in creating learning environments that benefit the local Hiroshima community as much as our participants. Our goal is to generate a symmetrical flow of cultural exchange at every program.

Among the highlights of the UK Complexity of Peace program were:

Exchanging Memories of World War Two

UK participant Alan Fowles exchanged memories of World War II with Horie Soh, a hibakusha. Both men were 5 years old during the war and participated in a rich exchange of remembered trauma, shared experience and healing. Please click HERE to read a blog post about this remarkable meeting.

Zine Making Workshop

UK participant Hel Spander and Jill Anderson of the University of Leicester implemented a zine making workshop with local Hiroshima Peace activists.  Zines are small, informal, DIY publications constructed by participants using a variety of materials (paper, magazine clippings, markers for example).

The process of making zines generates new avenues to express traumatic experiences which may be hard to capture with words or verbal communications.

The Zine making format was used for the first time at the Oleander Initiative as a debriefing tool that produced many deep, heartfelt insights about Hiroshima’s culture of peace. Following additional guidance from our UK participants, we hope to use this innovative tool to enrich future programs. Thank you Hel and Jill!

Paper Crane Recycling Organization (Hagukumi no Sato)

The Oleander Initiative prides itself on constantly finding new lenses to view Hiroshima’s culture of peace. At the UK program, we worked with Hagukumi no Sato, a Hiroshima non-profit organization.

Every year, Hiroshima receives approximately 10 million paper cranes with messages of peace from around the world. Hagukumi no Sato works with individuals with intellectual disabilities in Hiroshima to meticulously unfold these cranes, process and recycle the cranes into new peace themed objects such as business cards.

Oleander participants first shared presentations of their daily lives in the United Kingdom

and then worked with Hagukumi no Sato members to recycle paper cranes

All of us at the Oleander Initiative would like to thank our UK mental health professionals for revealing a side of Hiroshima peace culture that we had not encountered before.

We look forward to the impact they will make on their communities!