On September 4, 2025, we hosted a powerful Disarm Kōrero event titled The Day the Sun Fell – Hiroshima and Nagasaki 80 Years On. This gathering was an opportunity to reflect on the enduring legacy of the atomic bombings and why the voices of hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) remain vital for global peace and disarmament today. We were privileged to hear from two learned speakers:
Dr Susan Bouterey is Associate Professor of Japanese and Coordinator of the Japanese Programme at the University of Canterbury. She holds a PhD from Tokyo University, and her research focuses on modern and contemporary Japanese literature, Okinawan novelists especially works by post-war women writers and atomic bomb narratives. She is also an accomplished translator, well known for her work on the writings of atomic bomb survivor Bun Hashizume, which were published in the 2019 book The Day the Sun Fell.
Olivia Shimasaki holds a Master’s degree in Anthropology, and works for the University of Canterbury and The Peace Foundation. Since 2016, Olivia has travelled around Aotearoa and to Japan to research nuclear weapons narratives through interviews with nuclear test veterans and Hibakusha. Many of these stories are accesible on her digital archive SpeakUp4Peace. In 2022, she was a fellow at the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna, Austria. Starting in January of 2025, she also serves as a member of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC).
Both of our speakers discussed their encounters with survivors, the emotional weight of these testimonies, and the urgency of keeping these stories alive—especially as the world faces new nuclear threats.
We also acknowledged Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese hibakusha organisation that received the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for its decades of tireless advocacy to abolish nuclear weapons. Their work underscores the global importance of these survivor voices as a moral compass for humanity.
If you missed the event, you can watch the recorded presentations above. We encourage you to take the time to listen, reflect, and share these powerful messages.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for this important kōrero, and stay tuned for the next one.
