Tokyo Metropolitan University announced on July 20 that its Hidenori Watanave Laboratory will organize the U.S-Japan Youth Summit for Digital War Archives in New York and Boston in September this year -- when President Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima -- in collaboration with Japanese and U.S. supporting organizations. The event is aimed at helping high school students broaden their perspective to the world and encouraging them to examine the relationship between human beings and nuclear weapons.

"The Hiroshima and Nagasaki Archives," memory communities which put together materials on atomic bombing, will be utilized during the conference. High school students, citizens and hibakusha, or atomic-bombing survivors, will sit at a table, deepen their knowledge of atomic bombing and the history of the Pacific War (1941-1945), and hold discussions on these matters, using these digital tools, which will arouse people's interest and help participants understand these issues, as core materials for the debate. The event is designed to help participants, particularly young people, deepen their understanding of the damage caused by atomic bombing through this process and thereby encourage them to contribute to global peace.

(Photo: http://prw.kyodonews.jp/prwfile/release/M102495/201607122408/_prw_OI1fl_1gM992wV.jpg)

Overview: Conference Date & Venue

Sep.16, Private Workshop in New York

- Stuyvesant High School

Sep.18, Private Workshop in Boston

- Science Center, Harvard University

Sep.19, Public Workshop in Boston

- Boston Public Library

Support:

This event is supported by the Consulate-General of Japan in Boston.

Students will be asked to use their smart phones and tablets to learn about a desire for global peace through the "Hiroshima and Nagasaki Archives." As they develop their historical knowledge about the Pacific War, the atomic bombings, and a global vision of peace, students will learn the skills to directly contribute to the "Memory Community" of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Archives.

By the end of the conference, students will collaborate to create a plan using digital archives for peace studies. They will also have learned digital mapping skills they need to create their own memory communities, digital archives for peace, or other innovative digital humanities projects they may envision.

Tokyo Metropolitan University is currently conducting a crowdfunding campaign in order to secure the necessary funds to bring students from Japan to the United States. It believes in the power of technology in realizing communities of peace. Through firsthand accounts, the conference and digital archives will encourage global reflection on the history and legacy of nuclear weapons and create a new transnational community of youth who will have a broader understanding of the dangers of atomic warfare.

About the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Archives

The Hiroshima and Nagasaki Archives are memory communities that have been created through the new technology of digital mapping.

(Photo: http://prw.kyodonews.jp/prwfile/release/M102495/201607122408/_prw_OI2fl_iKb6ierw.jpg)

"The Nagasaki Archive" was born in July 2010 (the 65th year after the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan) when we, as third-generation descendants of the original atomic bomb survivors, decided to send a message to the rest of the world through digital mapping technologies developed at the Hidenori Watanave Laboratory at Tokyo Metropolitan University. Upon its release, the Nagasaki Archive received over 200,000 page views in a single day, garnering media coverage from around the world.

Starting with "the Hiroshima Archive" the following year, in 2011, and later including the Battle of Okinawa and the Great East Japan Earthquake, the Hidenori Watanave Laboratory created new digital mapping archives one after the other that informed the world about the nature of war and disaster.

Disaster Digital Archives Series

- The Hiroshima Archive

- The Nagasaki Archive

- The East Japan Earthquake Archive

- Recording the Last Movements of Tsunami Disaster Victims

Awards & Honors:

- 5th Peace Prize, Peace Studies Association of Japan, 2015

- Grand Prix, Journalism Innovation Awards 2014 and 2015

- Jury Recommended Works, Japan Media Arts Festival 2010, 2011 and 2015

- Honorary Mention, Prix Ars Electronica 2013

- Grand Prize of Entertainment Division, Asia Digital Art Award 2011

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/tmu-gz1080615.php

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/tmu-jmp041216.php

Project Team and Budget

Participating schools

- Hiroshima Jogakuin High School (Hiroshima, Japan)

- Kwassui High School (Nagasaki, Japan)

- Junior and Senior High School of Kogakuin University (Tokyo, Japan)

- Stuyvesant High School (New York, U.S.)

- Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School (Boston, U.S.)

- Boston Latin Academy (Boston, U.S.)

- Noble and Greenough School (Boston, U.S.)

- Tokyo Metropolitan University (Tokyo, Japan)

Workshop host / co-sponsors

- Hidenori Watanave, Associate Professor, Tokyo Metropolitan University, and Visiting Scholar, Harvard University

- JREX (Japanese Resource Exchange)

- JB Line, Inc. (Japanese Bostonians Support Line)

- Peace Resource Center, Wilmington College

- Hiroshima Jogakuin High School

- Kwassui High School

- Junior and Senior High School of Kogakuin University

- Stuyvesant High School

Partners / collaborators

- Intellectual Resources Initiative

- Sadako Legacy

- 9/11 Tribute Center

- Gaia Initiative

- Massachusetts Peace Action

- Kuniko Yamada McVey, Harvard-Yenching Library

- Yumi Tanaka, New York Peace Film Festival

- Shuji Kitahara, Harvard Medical School

- William Johnston, Wesleyan University

- Levi McLaughlin, North Carolina State University

- Steven Braun, Northeastern University Libraries

- Kathleen Sullivan, Hibakusya Stories

- Susan Strickler & Mitchie Takeuchi, Not Just A Survivor Film LLC

- Miyuki Sohara, Film Orizuru 2015

PR strategy

- Hiroko Sato, Pitch Room, LLC

Crowdfunding team

- Hidenori Watanave

- Tomoyuki Torisu, 3rd-Generation Descendant of A-bomb Survivors

- Ryo Osera, 3rd-Generation Descendant of A-bomb Survivors

- Fumioki Okayama, 3rd-Generation Descendant of A-bomb Survivors

- Kenya Tamura, Volunteer student from Tokyo Metropolitan University

- Shinnosuke Komiya, Volunteer student from Tokyo Metropolitan University

- Shiori Kimura, Volunteer student from Tokyo Metropolitan University