The USF Center for Asia Pacific Studies welcomes our Kiriyama Fellow James Stone Lunde to give a talk on Pedro Arrupe’s experience surviving the atomic bomb. Pedro Arrupe SJ was a Spanish member of the Society of Jesus stationed in Hiroshima when the Americans dropped their first atomic bomb on the city. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Arrupe converted his mission into a makeshift clinic in order to help Japanese civilians injured by the blast. Upon his return to Spain, Arrupe compiled his experiences into a memoir entitled Yo viví la bomba atómica. In this book, Arrupe outlines the history of Japan, describes the Jesuit mission in Japan, then details his activities in Imperial Japan prior to the outbreak of the Pacific War, and then his experiences surviving and providing succor after the atomic strike. This talk covers the history of the Jesuit mission in Japan from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, and introduces Arrupe's remarkable memoir of humanitarian and spiritual work in the midst of apocalyptic war.

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