Hiroshima — On the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the parents of Makan Nasiri, a seven-year-old student who went missing in the Minab school tragedy, met with Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and briefed him on the Minab incident and the consequences of war for children and civilians.

At the invitation of Hiroshima peace groups and with coordination by the Tehran Peace Museum, a group of Iranian war veterans, artists, documentary filmmakers, university professors and cultural activists traveled to Japan to attend events marking the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Makan Nasiri’s family joined the group for the first time this year, an appearance that drew the attention of Japanese media to the family’s account of the Minab tragedy.

During the visit, several Japanese media outlets, including NHK, Asahi and TBS, covered parts of the Makan family’s activities and those of the Iranian delegation and interviewed members of the group.

Also on August 6, the anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, Asahi TV’s Morning Show devoted a report of about 16 minutes to the events in Minab and Lamerd and the stories of families affected by the incidents.

Meeting with the Hiroshima mayor

On August 6, after attending events marking the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing and visiting Hiroshima’s peace memorials, members of the Iranian delegation held an official meeting with Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui.

During the meeting, Makan Nasiri’s mother, speaking on behalf of her family and the Iranian delegation, gave a brief account of the Minab school tragedy and spoke about what motivated her and her husband to travel more than 12,500 kilometers from Iran to Hiroshima.

Emphasizing that her family wants the circumstances surrounding the incident and the fate of their son to be clarified, she said: “I am Makan Nasiri’s mother. My husband and I left our two other children in Minab and traveled this long distance to make the voice of our son and of children who become victims of war heard by people around the world.”

Referring to remarks made by the US president concerning images released from the incident, Makan’s mother also stressed the authenticity of the images, saying: “We do not want what happened to be forgotten. If families and people around the world do not demand answers about the fate of children, there is a danger that such tragedies will be repeated. I am willing to endure the hardship of traveling anywhere in the world to uncover the truth and make the voices of Makan and other children heard by the international public.”

Referring to the historical experience of the people of Hiroshima, she stressed the need to prevent the recurrence of atrocities against civilians in war and said that remembering the victims of Hiroshima should serve as a warning to the world today and as a barrier against the repetition of the suffering endured by children in new wars.

Hiroshima mayor shares family memories of the bombing

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui welcomed Makan’s family and members of the Iranian delegation and expressed his sympathy to the family.

According to members of the Iranian delegation who attended the meeting, the Hiroshima mayor referred during the conversation to the fate of two of his aunts in the atomic bombing of the city and shared part of his family’s experience of the tragedy with those present.

He also thanked Hiroshima’s grassroots and peace groups and the Tehran Peace Museum for helping organize the visit and for continuing people-to-people ties between peace activists in the two countries.

At the end of the meeting, Makan’s mother presented the mayor with a copy of the documentary The Angels of Minab Are Still Here, narrated by Iranian actor Parviz Parastui and subtitled in Japanese. She asked him to watch the documentary and become more familiar with the accounts of families affected by the Minab school tragedy.

Iran-Hiroshima Peace and Friendship Film Festival

During the Iranian delegation’s eight-day stay in Hiroshima and Tokyo, the 12th edition of the Iran-Hiroshima People’s Peace and Friendship Film Festival was also held, featuring a selection of Iranian films and discussions and review sessions.

Among the works screened were Land of Angels, directed by Babak Khajehpasha; Amena’s Golden Blood, directed by Habib Ahmadzadeh; and the documentary “A Report from Lamerd”, directed by Javad Moghuei.

Music from southern Iran for audiences in Hiroshima and Tokyo

Another part of the visit featured musical performances. Mohsen Sharifian and Sadeq Hosseinpour performed in Hiroshima and Tokyo in programs titled “In Memory of the Brave People of the South and Makan.”

The performances sought to use music as a language for dialogue with Japanese audiences and to convey a message of peace and solidarity with civilians and children affected by war.

Before arriving in Japan, the Iranian group also spent three days in Istanbul. During the stopover, the group met with members of Turkey’s Shia community and screened several of the films and documentaries brought along for audiences there.

Members of the Iranian delegation

The other members of the delegation included Meysam Taghipour Moghaddam, a cultural activist and member of the Tehran Peace Museum; Amir Ahmad Taghipour, a teenage volunteer at the museum; Javad Moghuei, researcher and documentary filmmaker; Adel Memarnia, documentary filmmaker; Hooman Memarnia, assistant cameraman; Farah Moghaddam, screenwriter and university lecturer; Zeinab Ahmadzadeh, fiction writer; Mahmoud Bankdarnia, the group’s coordinator and Japanese interpreter; and Abdolreza Ghatran, a war veteran from Khuzestan who served during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War.

According to the organizers, the visit was centered around the Tehran Peace Museum and carried out with the support and cooperation of several cultural and diplomatic institutions and officials, including the Art Center, Iran’s Foreign Ministry, the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Japan, Iran’s Cultural Consulate in Japan, and MOST, a Hiroshima-based grassroots peace group.

For the Tokyo program, which included media events and a film week, the Iranian Embassy and Cultural Consulate in Japan also cooperated with the organizers.

The visit was aimed at participating in events marking the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, expanding people-to-people dialogue on peace, and bringing the stories of families of children affected by war to international audiences.