Look at the dedication etched into the cornerstone. It speaks of community, of growth, and of Hiroshima’s enduring spirit. This is the entrance to Hiroshima City Ozu Junior High School. It’s more than just a school. It’s a place where young minds blossom.
Hiroshima City Ozu Junior High School stands in Minami Ward. It is a public junior high school. The area around the school has many small factories. Route 2 runs east to west nearby. Car dealerships and restaurants line this road. The Fuchu-Ota River flows to the east. The JR Sanyo Main Line and Sanyo Shinkansen run a little to the north.
The school has a rich history. It started as Hiroshima City Daiichi Junior High School Aosaki Branch School in April 1948. It was located in a corner of the Japan Steel Works Hiroshima Plant. This was in present-day Urakoshi 3-chome, Minami Ward. In April 1949, the school’s name changed to Aosaki Junior High School. Aosaki Junior High School closed in April 1958. It merged with Ozu Junior High School.
In 2008, the third-year students created something amazing. They made a giant collage for their graduation project. It was a copy of Taro Okamoto’s A-bomb mural, Myth of Tomorrow. This project was the high point of three years of peace studies. The students wanted to find ways to promote peace. One hundred forty-three students made the collage. They showed it at a special assembly on March 11, 2008. The students shared what they learned with their parents.
The collage was large. It was 2.7 meters high and 15 meters long. That’s half the size of the original mural. The students used 56 large sheets of paper. They pasted small pieces of colored paper onto them. They used 16 different colors of paper.
The students expressed their feelings about peace in class. They recited poetry and sang in chorus. The idea for the collage came from these efforts. Most students wanted to base their design on Myth of Tomorrow. It took four months to put the collage together.
Kazuki Teranishi was a member of the assembly committee. He worked on the collage from the start. He said the finished collage was more powerful than he expected. He learned that people can create great power when they work together. The collage was also on display at the graduation ceremony on March 12, 2008.
Hiroshima City Ozu Junior High School continues to educate students. It strives to instill values of peace, community, and collaboration. As you leave, remember the power of working together. Consider how you can contribute to a more peaceful world.