During the week of the anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, "The Widening War Tour" seeks to make the connections between the peace and justice movements and to build a network of activists striving to end war and the roots of war.

Sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, speakers include Ms. Yuko Nakamura, a Hiroshima survivor and Secretary General of Kanagawa Atomic Bomb Sufferers Association/National Council member of Hidankyo; and, Bal Pinguel, Coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee Peacebuilding & Demilitarization Program.

About Ms. Yuko Nakamura

Birth Date: March 22, 1932
Ms. Nakamura was born in Hiroshima.

READ HER STATEMENT: My Bombing Experience

She was bombed at age of thirteen in the second grade of girl's high school in Hiroshima. Around the time, the students were mobilized to work in munitions factories. On the morning of the day, she was inside the factory building. The blast blew through the factory and she was knocked down to the floor. Her uniform was red, stained with blood from her nose that was bleeding from the bomb blast. On that day, the first-grade students of her high school had been mobilized to help dismantle buildings in the city center. Those 12-year-old girls, 220 in total, all perished by the end of the day, suffering from burns, without receiving any care or being able to see their families before dying.

Ms. Nakamura had two surgical operations around her 30th birthday, facing the threat of dying and leaving behind her children.

She had lived in several areas in the country because of transfer of her husband, where she joined local Hibakusha groups and worked with them.

Since she became Secretary General of the Association in 1997, Ms. Nakamura has been dedicated to work for Hibakusha in Kanagawa Prefecture, next to Tokyo.

She joined Hidankyo delegation for the 2005 NPT Review Conference held in the United Nations, New York. As Hidankyo held A-bomb exhibit at the Lobby of the UN Buildings during the period of the Conference, she spoke her experience and desire for the abolition of nuclear weapons not only to visitors but also to people in colleges, junior high schools and events local peace groups had.

Ms. Nakamura lives with her husband in Hiratsuka-City, Kanagawa. She has a son and a daughter, and three grandchildren.

The tour will stop in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Florence, MA.