The Never Again Campaign (NAC) is a volunteer people-to-people program of Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Its goal is to spread the message of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bomb survivors and promote international understanding through sharing Japanese culture.
The primary purpose of the NAC is to have Japanese volunteers—in a factual, non-partisan way—spread the message of the A-bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki:
“Never again Pearl Harbor!
Never again Hiroshima!
Never again Nagasaki!
Never again war!”
The second purpose of the NAC is to share Japanese culture in order to promote international understanding. NAC is strictly nonpolitical, supporting no political party, candidate or policy except the abolition of war as a way of solving conflicts.
In 1982, at age 25, Yoko Kitaura began the process of showing films and speaking about Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors to audiences in the United States. Over three years, as her one-woman mission grew, she addressed roughly 17,000 people. Inspired by the effectiveness of her activities, her host family, Marion and Don Lathrop, who are affiliated with the Peace and World Order Studies concentration at Berkshire Community College, joined her in forming the NAC.
During the summer of 1985, having first located several host families in the United States, the trio traveled around Japan interviewing 90 applicants for the campaign. By the summer of 1986, seven volunteers had been trained at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had interviewed about 20 A-bomb survivors each, and had refined their knowledge of many aspects of Japanese culture.
A productive year in the United States by each volunteer confirmed the belief that NAC should continue as a totally volunteer organization, as long as there are volunteers in Japan willing to commit up to a year of their lives for this cause, as well as hosts in the United States and Canada willing to give them an opportunity.
By 2008, 52 NAC volunteers had reached more than 363,480 people, with more than 11,565 presentations in 38 states and the District of Columbia, and 11 countries, including Japan and Canada.
Visit their website, http://www.berkshirecc.edu/NeverAgainCampaign
The Never Again Campaign
c/o Prof. Donald Lathrop
Berkshire Community College
1350 West Street
Pittsfield, MA 01201-5786
(413) 236-4618
Email: dlathrop@berkshirecc.edu
Weekends and evenings: Don or Marion Lathrop (518) 781-4681
