Hiroshima Bombing survivor to speak at Saint Martin’s University

Hideko Tamura Snider describes her experiences as an 11-year old child

 April 9, 2009

Lacey, Washington—Saint Martin’s Office of Intercultural Initiatives and Department of Political Science will host Hideko Tamura Snider, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb explosion and author of One Sunny Day: A Child’s Memories of Hiroshima. The event will be held in the Norman Worthington Conference Center on Tuesday, April 14 at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free.

Snider was 11 years old when the atomic bomb was dropped, destroying the world as she knew it. She describes the explosion as causing “the sun and the earth to melt together.” She will share her remarkable story of overcoming the trauma from this devastating experience.

Snider eventually came to the United States and earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Wooster University and her master’s degrees in theology and social work from the University of Chicago. She pursued a career as a social worker as well as a private practice psychotherapist. She has lectured at several major universities including Dartmouth, the Universities of Oregon and Oregon State, Loyal University in Chicago and Wake Forest.

“Saint Martin’s is fortunate to have Snider on campus so that today’s students don’t forget the experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” commented John Hopkins, the University’s director of intercultural initiatives.

In addition to Snider’s lecture, Saint Martin’s will display posters from the Hiroshima Peace Museum in its O’Grady Library on Wednesday, April 15. The exhibition is open to the community.

Saint Martin’s University is an independent four-year, Catholic, coeducational university located on a 320-acre wooded campus in Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 18 Benedictine colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s University prepares students for successful lives through its 21 majors and six graduate programs spanning the liberal arts, business, education and engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes 1,250 student from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its main campus, and 650 more to its five extension campuses located at Fort Lewis Army Post, McChord Air Force Base, Olympic College, Centralia College and Tacoma Community College.

For additional information:

John P. Hopkins
Director of Intercultural Initiatives
360-486-8847
jhopkins@stmartin.edu