66Leadership HUA HIROSHIMA Harding Univerisity in Australasia occured most fall semesters and allowed students to visit numerous countries on the Asian and Astralian continents. HUA was known to be one of the most adventurous abroad programs to go on. It offered opportunities such as skydiving, whitewater rafting, snowboarding, skiing and bungee jumping. Rich Brown, a professor and chair of the marketing department, was chosen to go on the 2023 HUA trip. “It’s just phenomenal,” Brown said. “New Zealand is just so extraordinarily beautiful. Australia is so big and the people are very nice. Going to Asia is a real cross-cultural experience.” Fall 2023, the HUA group visited Hiroshima, Japan after a trip to Kyoto, Japan. They went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum which highlighted the tragedies that the atomic bomb caused. There were memorials for peace, counters of when the last nuclear bomb was detonated and a clock that will self-destruct if a nuclear war begins again. There was a section displaying the history of nuclear bombs and what has been created since the one dropped on Hiroshima. “I was grateful to go to Hiroshima because while our generations weren’t alive during the atomic bombing we have been affected by the consequences of this decision,” Sophomore Kame Bishop said. “The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum conveys the message of ‘No more Hiroshimas.’ I think this message is important for us to see.” For one student, sophomore Max DeLoach, the memorial museum was especially interesting and meaningful. DeLoach was a history major and the ability to experience such history was one of his main reasons for choosing HUA. “It was a very emotional experience,” DeLoach said. “I didn’t really know what to expect. There were first person testimonies about what they saw, there were journal entries kept by little girls of their experiences during and following the blast. [HUA] showed me new areas of history to delve into. Particularly in Hiroshima, the information was made very accessible. The way that it was documented and how they handled the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum was brilliant. It really helps people to be more interconnected with the history there.” Across from the courtyard at the memorial, there was a building still standing after getting directly hit by the explosion. “It was one of the most awe-inspriing thing to see,” DeLoach said. “You would feel emotions from reading things in the museum, but you actually look at this building and recogize that there were human people in that building, it unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.” Brown made a point to discuss the war and what to expect to see so that no one was unprepared. Brown felt the museum was an important experience to have as students who will be potentially the decision-makers in the coming years. “The day at Hiroshima was not so pleasant as it was important,” Brown said. “Some things you remember because they were a lot of fun and some things you remember because of the way they made you feel. I don’t think anyone who went on that trip will forget that they were there.” Written by Randi Tubbs Harding University in Australiasia visits Hiroshima, Japan. Gate to the Shrine | The Itsukushina Jinja shrine stands in Hiroshima, Japan. The symbolic gate was visited by the 2023 HUA group during their visit to the Hiroshima Peace memorial Museum. Photo courtesy of Kame Bishop
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