Watch Now: The Vow from Hiroshima: Film, Advocacy, and Nuclear Disarmament

Setsuko Thurlow was just 13 years old when she survived the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Many of her friends perished in the attack, and their deaths shaped her future. She pledged that no one else should have to suffer their fate. Ever since, she has fought for peace and a nuclear-free world. A Hibakusha, as survivors of the atomic bombings are known in Japan, Thurlow is an advocate for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the organization leading the charge to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

For her advocacy, she was honored with the chance to give the acceptance speech for the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of ICAN. Now, Thurlow’s life and work are the subject of a critically acclaimed film, The Vow from Hiroshima. This documentary follows Thurlow through her decades of activism up to 2017, when she finally achieves one of her dreams: a treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

Join Perry World House and the Center for East Asian Studies to discuss The Vow from Hiroshima with its producer, Mitchie Takeuchi; its director, Susan Strickler; and The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ President and CEO, Rachel Bronson. This conversation will be moderated by Frederick Dickinson, Director of the Center for East Asian Studies and Professor of Japanese History at the University of Pennsylvania