August 2, 2002 We met Dr. Hida at Nagoya station and went to Tsu-city in Mie prefecture together. And then, we visited Mr. Shimaoka who takes care of "Hibakusha no kai( a group of atomic bomb victims)". Mr. Shimaoka had stomach and liver cancer operations. When we arrived at the station, he was already there to pick us up. We arrived at Mr. Shimaoka's house. Dr. Hida and Mr. Shimaoka said "as members of 'Hibakusya no kai', we want to make sure the American government takes responsibility for its actions in the future" August 3 We attended the Japan Congress Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs convention. Dr.Hidaﾕs speech was scheduled at the end of the convention. There was a possibility of time running out before Dr. Hidaﾕs turn to speak. Two girls from Ritsumeikan gave a speech, and talked about how their generation is not educated on the dangers of Atomic bombs. Over the years, the participants have gotten old and frustrated with the lack of any real developments, always the same speeches, people are losig interest, we have to find some way to get young people involved. I realized that we need to do something to attract young people to watch this movie. Mr. Hidaﾕs turn came. ﾒTo unite the victims from across the globe begins with knowing actual conditions of low dose contamination.ﾓ Later, we spoke with Joseph Gerson from American friends Service Committee. Dr. Hida was planning to have an Atomic bomb exhibition at the UN but it was postponed. The UN refused to let Dr. Hida have the exhibition because the imagery was too brutal. So, Dr. Hida asked Joseph if there were any places and American groups that he could jointly have the exhibition. Joseph suggested the lobby of the Kenbridge public library. Dr. Hida also asked how he thought of Japanese victims investigating the USﾕs responsibility. Joseph said ﾒWe support it.ﾓ Dr. Hida was worried if it harmed their activity in the US which I thought was a really ﾔJapanese way of thinking.ﾕ Anyway, it is a fact that no one has ever officially blamed the US for their responsibility during the last 57 years. August 4 Right before the Peace walk started, heavy rain began to fall. In the lobby of the hotel, people came one after another to speak with Dr. Hida. Dr. Hida left to have a drink with a leader of Hiroshima hidan-kyo (Hiroshima victims of bombs association) in the evening. August 5 Dr. Hida gave me a call in the morning. He wanted to go to Miyajima island. We took a ferry from Ushima harbor to Miyajima island. It was a sunny and hot day. In the boiling weather, we decided to climb up Mt. Miyajima. We walked up a long hill to the gate of a cable car. Dr. Hida didnﾕt look tired at all which amazed me. We saw Hiroshima and Ninoshima island very clearly from an observatory deck. Ninoshima is the island where the tens of thousand of dead bodies were shipped. But now we see very peaceful view under the bright sun. We left Miyajima island,and went back to the congress. We filmed Dr. Maruya and Dr. Hida while they were talking. Dr. Maruya has been working on an issue of residents from Korea and the victims. We felt strong will from the way Dr. Maruya speaks. We would get a poem book called ﾒHiroshima ni tsunagaru Shiteki henreki (a journey to Hiroshima)ﾓ which would be published on August 6th. There was a story of him being arrested in 1951 because he wrote a poem against the war. We left the congress and moved to the Hiroshima station. We caught the last bullet train to Tokyo. We arrived at Tokyo station 45mins later. Good night Iwata san and Kawasaki san.

September 18 We arrived in Baghdad. It took 13 hours from Narita to Amsterdam, 4 hours for transit and 5 hours to Amman, Jordan from Amsterdam. We took a nap and drove for 11 hours. My team members are Makiko Iwata(camera), Taku Morisumi(photo journarist) and myself.There are a lot of people walking at a park near our hotel. Baghdad was a lot different than what I imagined. September 19 We went to the ministry of information office to apply for permission to film the movie. Journalists from all over the world were waiting to get permission just like us. We were told to go to a press center. All journalists have to go through this. However, they charged us $150/day and TV coverage is for $750/day! We tried to get some discount by telling them that we were freelance, but that scared guides from the ministry of information. Because they make a living on bribe from journalists, so they don't want to guide poor journalists. There is no equipment in this press center. There is no telephone, no fax, no copy machine, only an old sofa in the press center. We were going to use an AP's phone, but it was broken... Finally we found a guide for a half day, so we left there to go to a hospital. A childhood leukemia ward of the hospital had better facilities than 4 years ago, but there was still not enough medication. September 20 We had to wait for a long time in the press center because we didnﾕt have a guide. There were not enough guides for journalists. The guide we finally found was a small middle aged man called Abbass. First thing he asked us was ﾒhow much can you pay?ﾓ Actually, he asked this question 3 or 4 times a day, like this ﾒwell, I hope you still remember that I have small children and a family to support.ﾓ Moreover, he has diabetes and that made us even harder to do our job. He told us he had to take a nap everyday because of his disease. We just had to do whatever he said. If he quit being our guide, we didnﾕt know when we could get another. However, it turned out a good thing for us too. We realized that it was too hot (40digrees) to go outside during the daytime. We went to an area mosque. The guide told us not to take pictures of this or that. September 20 We took a HIV test which is compulsory for all foreigners who plan to stay more than 10days. Our visa allows us to stay up to 10days. So we have to apply for visa extension. This was very complicated and took a whole day. We went the press center boss to get permission to go to Basra. They gave us permission pretty quick since we already had a guide so we were able to leave on the 21st. But we still had to wait till tomorrow at noon to receive our visa. September 21 Finally we left Baghdad to Basra. It took 5 days just to get to Basra. September 22 We met Mustafa, who has been fighting leukemia, and his father. A doctor of the pediatric ward asked them if we could film them. After they accepted, we learned that their village is 100km from Basra. We will travel back and forth between Basra and their village as of tomorrow.

October 14 I left Narita with Maki(camera), Kawasaki san(sound) and Dr. Hida. It took 8 hours to Seattle, compare to Iraq, 8hour trip was nothing. We met Risa, a grand daughter of Dr. Hida, and rented a small Mazda van. We didn't know that it was a beginning of a long drive... October 15 We left our hotel to the main town of Richland in the morning. It was about 560km, a 4hour drive. Speed limit of the highway is 70miles/hour. About the half way through, we were stopped by a police officer. He said we were driving 18miles/hour faster than the speed limit. We didnﾕt know why but he just let us go. Later, we told this to Tom and he was surprised that they didnﾕt give us a speeding ticket. We arrived in Richland and met Tom at a hotel. We were renewing old friendship in a Vietnamese restaurant at the corner of a supermarket. October 17 Dr. Hida met Laura, Tomﾕs mother. Dr. Hida asked her ﾒI heard that Oppenehimer and Enrico Fermi had a plan to kill five hundred thousand people by spreading radio active substance on farms. Do you think they knew what radioactivity would do to a human body?ﾓ Laura said ﾒOff course they knew.ﾓ A small plane was circling over to spread fertilizers on huge farms. October 20 Apple harvest season is nearly over and winter is coming soon. Tom's brother Terry owns a 1500 acre farm. He drives around from this farm to that farm to check the irrigation system. There are always two dogs on the back of his truck. I think "farming in US is driving"... To me, what Hanford is, is still a mystery.