Japanese students moved by reconciliation trip
atomic bombings: Tacoma-area native has students in Japan study trip

Japanese students at a junior high school near Hiroshima are studying and reacting to a Tacoma group’s upcoming trip to Japan seeking forgiveness for the U.S. atomic bombing of their city 64 years ago.

Tacoma-area native Marc Milsten is having students in one of his English classes study an article that appeared in The News Tribune about the trip. He wants the teens to understand the viewpoints of Americans.

Some of the ninth-grade Japanese students said they were moved – even surprised – Americans would travel to Japan for this purpose. Some students also acknowledged their country’s responsibility and one student said Japan should apologize first because it started the war.

The group of 138 ninth-graders at Ohno Higashi Junior High School is studying about peace and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Milsten, 30, is a graduate of Tacoma Baptist High School and Pacific Lutheran University. He has lived in the Hiroshima area and taught English to Japanese students for nearly four years.

Sixteen people – most from the Tacoma area – will travel to Japan later this month to acknowledge and ask forgiveness for the destruction caused by the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The interfaith group will be in Hiroshima on Aug. 6 and Nagasaki on Aug. 9 to attend anniversary ceremonies remembering the attacks. The group calls the trip a “Journey of Repentance.â€