NHK WORLD-JAPAN Indonesian language reporter Aji Rokhadi retraces the stories of Southeast Asian youths who had been sent to study in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb fell. He speaks with a Malaysian-born scholar who does research on the lives of those students, and meets a Japanese former school teacher who continues to honor their memory.
NHK WORLD-JAPAN Indonesian language reporter Aji Rokhadi retraces the stories of Southeast Asian youths who had been sent to study in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb fell. He speaks with two Indonesian siblings whose father was a survivor of the tragedy and a Japanese woman who spent time with him after the bombing.
Machi and Theresa are a lesbian couple living in Kyoto Prefecture. They were officially wed in Theresa's native US, but as their union isn't legally recognized in Japan, the two aren't family under the law. Thanks to donor insemination, Theresa became a mother, but Machi cannot officially be the child's parent. We follow the couple's efforts to overcome obstacles in their pursuit for marriage equality.
More than 4 months have passed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. In May, Anastasia Monakova, a Russian-language reporter for NHK WORLD-JAPAN, visited an anti-war-themed exhibition held in Tokyo. On display were works by 7 artists from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Japan. What are their perspectives as they continue to create their works and communicate through them?
The many people who provided support in the Tohoku region after the devastating 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake included a refugee from Myanmar. And today, people who did not experience the quake directly are searching for what they can do to help and are trying to dispatch updates on the stricken areas in a new way. The program reports on 3 people who continue to provide care and support.
"17 Syllables Unite the World: Haiku in the Pandemic," broadcast in January, featured haiku poems written in various languages on the theme of "Life." In this sequel, Mayuzumi Madoka, a leading haiku poet, discusses the appeal and potential of haiku with a researcher on Japanese literature who writes haiku in Russian.
The power of the tiny 17-syllable poems called haiku resonates worldwide. In 2021, an effort was made to share thoughts via haiku in many languages, with the theme of "Life." What kind of thoughts do people express in the midst of conflicts, disasters and the COVID-19 epidemic? The organizer, poet Mayuzumi Madoka, presents a selection of the more than 1,000 haiku submitted from 36 countries.