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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.
“So, four years ago we were thinking that this was us looking back at a past when atomic weapons were something that happened long ago. And today, I think it’s much more relevant to us as we sit in this room today,” said Jim Gersbach, an Oregon Community Trees board member and spokesman for the state forestry department.
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.
“I believe the best way for me to speak about peace is through the A-bombed trees. A-bombed trees are the symbol of destruction and recovery,” Horiguchi says in a video for Green Legacy Hiroshima, which has been sending seeds and saplings of survivor trees to dozens of countries around the world, including Chile, Ireland and Ethiopia.
