Hideko Tamura Snider was a 10-year-old girl in Hiroshima, Japan, when the United States detonated an atomic bomb over the city on Aug. 6, 1945, during World War II.
On Wednesday, she described the horrors of that day as the guest of honor in a ceremony marking the culmination of a four-year-long campaign in Oregon to plant saplings grown from the seeds of trees that also survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
An Oregon official involved in the campaign told the audience that recognition of the continued threat of nuclear weapons is especially relevant today, with Russian President Vladimir Putin making veiled threats to use them in his war against Ukraine.
In Hiroshima, arborist Chikara Horiguchi started growing saplings from the seeds in 1995. A total of 170 trees in Hiroshima that survived the bomb are reportedly still living.
A total of 51 trees were planted around this Pacific Northwest state, the densest concentration of Hiroshima peace trees anywhere outside Japan, Gersbach said. Most are ginkgo trees along with a few persimmons — both known for their hardiness.
At the ceremony in Oregon, Tamura Snider, who emigrated to the United States decades ago and lives in Medford, went outside to one of the peace trees, a ginkgo, on the forestry department grounds, with dozens of other people. She bowed before the tree and watered it with a ladle. Others queued up to also water it.
An estimated 140,000 people, including those with radiation-related injuries and illnesses, died through Dec. 31, 1945, from the Hiroshima bombing, representing 40% of Hiroshima’s population of 350,000 before the attack.
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