KobE walking event associated with the Grave of the Fireflies to mark 23 years

122
2
KobE walking event associated with the Grave of the Fireflies to mark 23 years

KOBE - The annual walking event which visits places associated with the Grave of the Fireflies, a novel dealing with U.S. air raids on Kobe in 1945, will mark its 23rd year in 2022.

Atsushi Tsujikawa, 62, former director of the Amagasaki municipal archives of area studies now integrated into the Amagasaki City Museum of History in Hyogo Prefecture, and others formed an executive committee in 1998 with the hope that children would learn about the war. The walking event was launched in 1999 and more than 2,200 people have visited places associated with the novel by Akiyuki Nosaka.

With the 77th anniversary of World War II approaching, the committee's membership is beginning to get up in years, with its about 10 members now in their 60 s and 70 s and intend to continue to promote peace as long as they are able.

The event has been held almost every August with two routes. One is the Mikage course in Kobe's Higashinada Ward, walking through Ishiyagawa Park, which includes the Mikage Kokaido hall that appeared in the novel and its 1988 film adaptation, and a monument. Then there is the Nishinomiya course which takes visitors to another monument, Niteko Pond, Nishinomiya Kaisei Hospital and other places in the city of Nishinomiya. It was at Niteko Pond that the brother and sister characters of the book, who lost their mother in a U.S. bombing raid, saw the fireflies of the title.

The committee has decided not to hold the event in the summer and is considering holding it in October. Most of the event's participants were seniors born around the time of the air raids, which was originally intended to teach children about peace. Many of them tried to recall their own experiences and contextualize them in the broader past by visiting the settings of novels and other places.

Committee Chairperson Tsujikawa told the Mainichi Shimbun: Without forgetting the basic educational aim, we would like to continue our style of conveying understanding by walking around these sites and engaging in peace studies.