HIROSHIMA, Japan (Dispatches) — As Hiroshima marked the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city, the parents of seven-year-old Iranian schoolboy Makan Nasiri, missing after the terrorist U.S.-Israeli bombing of a school in Minab, travelled to Japan to share their account with Hiroshima’s mayor and seek international attention for the fate of children affected by war.
The family joined an Iranian delegation invited by Hiroshima peace groups and coordinated with the Tehran Peace Museum. The eight-day visit brought together war veterans, artists, filmmakers, academics and cultural activists for commemorative events in Hiroshima and Tokyo.
Japanese media outlets, including NHK, Asahi and TBS, covered parts of the delegation’s program and interviewed members of the group. On August 6, the Asahi network’s Morning Show broadcast a report of about 16 minutes focusing on accounts from Minab and Lamerd, attacked brutally during the 40-day war.
The delegation later met Kazumi Matsui, mayor of Hiroshima, in an official meeting following participation in anniversary ceremonies and visits to the city’s peace memorials.
Makan’s mother described the family’s journey of more than 12,500 kilometers from Iran to Hiroshima as an attempt to bring her son’s story, and the experiences of other children 
affected by war, to an international audience.
“We do not want what happened to be forgotten,” she said. She called for greater public attention to the fate of children in conflicts and said she was prepared to travel wherever necessary to seek clarification about her son’s fate.
Drawing a connection between Hiroshima’s history and contemporary conflicts, she urged the international community to treat remembrance of the city’s victims as a warning against further attacks on civilians.
Matsui expressed sympathy for the family and welcomed the Iranian delegation. According to members of the delegation present at the meeting, the mayor also spoke about two relatives who died in the 1945 atomic bombing and shared part of his family’s experience of the disaster.
The meeting concluded with Makan’s mother presenting Matsui with a Japanese-subtitled documentary, The Angels of Minab Are Still Here, narrated by Iranian actor Parviz Parastui.
The visit also included the 12th Iran-Hiroshima Friendship and Peace Film Festival, featuring Iranian films and documentaries, as well as discussions with audiences. Among the works presented were Land of Angels, Amina’s Golden Blood and A Report from Lamerd.
Iranian musicians Mohsen Sharifian and Sadegh Hosseinpour also performed in Hiroshima and Tokyo in programs dedicated to the people of southern Iran and Makan, using music as a means of communicating messages of peace and solidarity with civilians and children affected by war.
Organizers said the visit, centered on the Tehran Peace Museum and supported by Iranian cultural and diplomatic institutions and Hiroshima-based peace activists, sought to expand people-to-people dialogue on peace while bringing the testimony of families affected by war to audiences in Japan and beyond.