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2025 August 27 - September 2 TOP3 [PEACE]

Media must remember its basics of ‘not taking up pens or cameras, not turning on rotary presses for war’

Akahata ‘current’ column (excerpts)

Near Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park stands a monument which is designed in the shape of the letter “P,” representing the initials of peace, press, and pen. The monument marks the spot where newspaper workers, mobilized as members of the National Volunteer Corps, died in the U.S. atomic bombing on August 6, 1945 while working on building demolition.

The Chugoku Shimbun Employees Union erected the monument in August 1985. Engraved on the back of the monument are the names of 133 people from seven newspapers and news agencies who were killed in that bombing.

The A-bomb completely destroyed the Chugoku Shimbun building, claiming the lives of 114 employees, one-third of the company’s workforce. At a broadcasting station, the predecessor to currently NHK Hiroshima, an announcer was blown away by the A-bomb blast and heat rays as he was about to read enemy aircraft information. Of the 260 workers at the broadcaster, 34 died within that day.

Today, local media professionals hold an annual memorial service in front of the monument on August 6 every year, renewing their pledge: “We shall never take up pens, cameras, or turn on rotary presses for war.”

Many media outlets typically focus their war-related coverage around this time of the year. However, in recent years, the volume of such coverage has drastically decreased, in particular, on major commercial TV stations. Awareness among the media, including newspapers, regarding Japan’s responsibility for its past war of aggression and colonial rule appears low. They also seem to be reluctant to directly criticize the present government’s push for massive military expansion. Moreover, there is hardly any reporting on concerned citizens or antiwar groups opposing this arms buildup.

The media must remember their basics of “not taking up pens or cameras, not turning on rotary presses for war.”