Lord, help us to remove the needles of pain and hate from our hearts; help us to forgive, respect and love in a way that our differences help us grow together and build a community that reflects the past.
Moved by the words of Takashi Nagai, a Japanese Catholic who survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, our student group composed this intercessory prayer for a solemn occasion: the Mass for Peace at Nagasaki’s Urakami Cathedral on August 9, the 80th anniversary of the bombing.
We had written the prayer during an afternoon of impactful dialogue that has stayed with me. Even after experiencing various peacebuilding trainings and cultural exchanges around the world, I was amazed by the depth of active listening and speaking from the heart that emerged. The prayer our group composed was emblematic of a larger Pilgrimage of Peace to Hiroshima and Nagasaki to reflect on the anniversary of the atomic bombings — a journey grounded in collective remembrance, humanizing encounters and commitment to a just peace.
My fellow students and I accompanied church and university leaders from the United States. We were part of a larger Notre Dame contingent that included University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C.; Mary Gallagher, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School; and Rev. Austin Collins, C.S.C., the University’s vice president for mission engagement and church affairs.
As visitors during the Jubilee Year of Hope, our primary aim was to engage on a spiritual level with the legacy of the atomic bombings through prayer. Every day, we had opportunities to remember the those who died in the atomic bombings as well as the survivors — known as hibakusha — in formal religious settings, including Mass at Hiroshima’s World Peace Memorial Cathedral or the interfaith prayer gathering at Nagasaki’s hypocenter memorial. The scorching heat and humidity of summer in southwest Japan made the stories of hibakusha begging for water and throwing themselves into the river all the more vivid.
Perhaps the most memorable moment was at 11:02 a.m. on August 9 — the exact time the bomb dropped on Nagasaki — when everyone around me at the Atomic Bomb Museum stood up for a collective moment of silence. I also cherished the informal opportunities for prayer, such as climbing the hill of the Jesuit Novitiate on our final morning in Hiroshima to sing Japanese hymns and Taizé chants, accompanied by an orchestra of buzzing cicadas.
By facilitating relationships between different generations, countries and disciplines, this pilgrimage served as a counterweight to silos — not just storage spaces for weapons of mass destruction, but also those of isolation and desolation. Father Mukadi, a Congolese Jesuit priest, taught me about the Japanese concept of aidagara (間柄), emphasizing social connections over individualism. At the same time, Shino, a student at Sophia University, reflected on the kizuna (絆), or tight-knit bonds, that our group formed during our week together.
I was also amazed by the serendipitous encounters that arose during such a momentous occasion. After Mass at Oura Cathedral, the oldest Christian church in Japan, we met Mr. Kojiro Moriuchi, a descendant of one of the “hidden Christians” who kept their faith despite centuries of persecution. As the child of an atomic bomb survivor, Mr. Moriuchi initiated the restoration effort of Urakami Cathedral’s bell — which had been damaged by the bombing — and thanked us for our interest and support.
In both cities, I was able to visit the memorials to the tens of thousands of Korean hibakusha and meet with two now-elderly Korean women who continue to speak out about their experience through advocacy and poetry. At the commemoration service for Korean victims of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, I befriended a group of Japanese and Korean volunteers who perform seemingly ordinary acts of remembrance by sweeping the memorial every day. Ultimately, speaking with these grandmothers helped me grasp the human impact of the bombs beyond ethno-national boundaries.
Perhaps the most important takeaway from this pilgrimage was the realization that faith-based peacebuilders must act to address the injustice that persists from nuclear weapons and violent conflicts. I found Professor Hirokazu Miyazaki’s call to repair the ruptured relationships between nuclear and non-nuclear states, and between people and the land, to be particularly resonant.
One powerful example of this was in Professor Myrriah Gómez’s remarks about the impact of nuclear testing on “downwinders” in New Mexico. She apologized on behalf of the U.S. and made an offering of sacred dirt from El Sanctuario de Chimayo. I was also inspired by the Pax Jubilee 2025 Declaration. It calls for a peaceful Asia-Pacific region without nuclear weapons while committing to "honestly acknowledging past wrongdoings among nations — including colonialism, unjust wars and illegal occupations — as a foundation for healing and reconciliation."
Archbishop Nakamura of Nagasaki delivered a heartfelt homily at Urakami Cathedral, standing next to a crucifix and a Marian statue damaged by the bombing. The archbishop sang the following words:
“Jesus and Mary who survived the bombing, please tell us:
Will true peace come to this town that I love?
That depends…that depends on how you live your life.”
I returned to campus filled with gratitude and a renewed sense of purpose. I am grateful to the Keough School’s Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies for making this trip possible and especially to Professor Jerry Powers for the invitation to participate in such a transformative journey. And I am determined to put my hands, mind and eyes to use in my research, pedagogy and peacebuilding practice.
Inspired by the moral imagination generated at the intersection of spirituality, policymaking and peacebuilding, I carry with me not just fond memories and new friendships but also a deepened sense of responsibility to bear witness to and build bridges between the bleeding pieces of our fractured world, from Gaza and Ukraine to Washington D.C. and South Bend.
Paul Kyumin Lee is a Ph.D. student at the University of Notre Dame studying peace studies and sociology. He is primarily interested in the intergenerational transmission of trauma and kinship from conflict.
Originally published by at keough.nd.edu on August 20, 2025.