NAGASAKI -- "Impacts may be small, but not powerless":

This is the motto of the signature drive by Japan high school student "peace ambassadors" calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Four of them were in Oslo for a visiting lecture at a local high school among other activities, including attending the Dec. 10 ceremony to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, commonly called Nihon Hidankyo.

Every year, the student ambassadors deliver signatures for nuclear abolition to the United Nations. The four in Oslo this time were 17-year-old Yuka Ohara from Nagasaki Prefectural Nagasaki Nishi High School, Natsuki Kai from Hiroshima Municipal Motomachi Senior High School, also 17, 16-year-old Rin Tsuda from Nagasaki Prefectural Nagasaki Higashi High School and Haruna Shimazu of Kyushu Gakuin high school in the city of Kumamoto, also 16. All four are second-year students.

At the Nagasaki Municipal Shiroyama Elementary School that Ohara attended, located about 500 meters west of the atomic bomb's hypocenter, at least 1,400 children, teachers, and other related individuals lost their lives in the World War II attack on the city. Ohara is a third-generation "hibakusha" survivor, as her paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother were in a district about 4 km south of the hypocenter as young children when the blast occurred.

As soon as she entered high school, Ohara began to participate in the signature drive. This year, she was selected as one of the 23 high school student peace ambassadors in the program's 27th year; the first student ambassadors arrived at the United Nations' European headquarters in Geneva in the summer of 1998 to hand-deliver signatures.

Before the program's trip to Geneva this August, Ohara for the first time asked her grandparents about their experiences in the bombing. As they were less than a year old at the time, they had no direct memory, but she also spoke with a younger sister of her great-grandmother who was 6 at the time. The relative opened up for the first time about her experiences, telling Ohara things such as, "After the atomic bomb was dropped, people suffered from various symptoms caused by radiation. We were sprayed with disinfectant and were not treated like human beings," and, "There were also orphans with nothing to wear, nothing to eat and no place to live, and some had lost their entire families. I was just a kid, but I felt 'this is terrible.'"

Ohara also met with 88-year-old Chiyoko Iwanaga, the leader of a group of hibakusha fighting for official recognition from the government and currently lack benefits due to their distance from the hypocenter at the time of the bombing in Nagasaki. When speaking with young diplomats from various countries in Geneva, she said, "There are people who are still suffering without being recognized."

Regarding Hidankyo's awarding of the prize, Ohara said, "I was very happy because I've seen up close how 'hibakusha' continue to raise their voices for the abolition of nuclear weapons," adding, "I want people to know that if nuclear weapons are used, people will suffer for the rest of their lives."

(Japanese original by Arina Ogata, Nagasaki Bureau)