Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Hiroshima, Japan, this week summoned memories for me as it likely did for anyone who has traveled there. In an article in the Washington Post, Kerry said he thought the President should visit. What he now knows is that words and pictures are no substitute for the power of standing in that place, confronting face-to-face the record preserved in concrete and rebar, artifacts and shadows.
The reports of Kerry’s visit called to mind OREPA’s newsletter from July 2007, published shortly after my daughter Sarah Margaret and I returned from the trip that Utsumi and Denise took us on, along with several others. The link below will take you to the first two pages of that newsletter. Were I to write the article today, I don’t think a word would change.
~ Ralph Hutchison, OREPA coordinator
