Remembering Southeast Asians in Hiroshima
NHK WORLD-JAPAN Indonesian language reporter Aji Rokhadi retraces the stories of Southeast Asian youths who had been sent to study in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb fell. He speaks with a Malaysian-born scholar who does research on the lives of those students, and meets a Japanese former school teacher who continues to honor their memory. (This program was broadcast on February 8, 2023.)
Malaysian-native Nurhaizal Azam Arif is an associate professor in a university in Hiroshima. He has been researching on Southeast Asian students who were in Hiroshima in 1945.
The Southeast Asian youths who were in Hiroshima when the bomb fell were called the "Special Foreign Students from Southeast Asia."
Aji visited the grave of an atomic bomb victim from Malaysia with Azam. Azam, who himself first came to Japan as a student, was particularly moved by the stories of the young victims.
A former elementary school teacher, Hayakawa Yukio, created an illustrated story with his students about a young Southeast Asian man who died in Kyoto Prefecture.