NAGASAKI -- Nagasaki is getting more school trips from the Tokyo area. Many schools now stay away from Kyoto because it is very busy and hotels cost more. But this has made a new problem: Nagasaki needs more places for student to listen to talks by atomic bomb survivors.

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"When you go back to Yokohama, tell many people what peace is about and pass the baton. Peace will never spread if we stay quiet," said A-bomb survivor Michiko Yagi, 87, of Nagasaki on the evening of May 12. She was in front of a screen at a cinema inside the major shopping complex Mirai Nagasaki Cocowalk.

She spoke to 136 second-year students from Yokohama Hayato Senior High School in Kanagawa Prefecture. They were in Nagasaki on a school trip.

Yagi told students about her own experience. She was 6 when the U.S. atomic bomb hit Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945. The Nagasaki Foundation for the Promotion of Peace said this was the first survivor talk in a movie theater. Nagasaki Bus Kanko, a local company for school trip bus tours, planned the event.

The company said it almost never got bookings from schools in the Kanto region before. But for fiscal 2026, it already has about 70 to 80 bookings. For fiscal 2027, it has about twice that number.

The Nagasaki Prefecture Tourism Association said many of these schools used to go to Kyoto. But Kyoto is crowded with tourists, and hotel prices are higher because of inflation.

A local hotel group said 23 junior high schools from Tokyo came to Nagasaki in fiscal 2025. They had 3,270 students in total. For fiscal 2026, bookings have already reached 64 schools with 8,414 students.

Most schools that come to Nagasaki study peace. Talks by A-bomb survivors are a main part of this. But there are not many places for large groups, and night talks at hotels can be hard for elderly speakers.

A movie theater costs students a small fee. But it already has air-conditioning, microphones and a big screen. Nagasaki Bus Kanko plans to keep using movie theaters for these talks.

(Japanese original by Akihiro Kawakami, Tokyo City News Department)

Vocabulary

crowded: many people in one place

survivor: a person who lived through a very bad event

bookings: reservations

fiscal 2026: the 2026 business year

inflation: a rise in prices