Telling Great-Grandmother’s Hiroshima Story: UNITAR Digital Storytelling Alum Jinto Kanazawa

Initially, Jinto’s impression of AI and how people use it was negative. He saw that much on social media was “AI slop” – lazy content made with AI. But the UNITAR programme changed his mind as he learned how AI could support storytelling in more thoughtful ways.

One session that stood out for him was the session by AI filmmaker Alan Xiao. Jinto knew that people could make images or videos based on text prompts, but he had never realised AI could create such high-quality, cinematic content. It showed him how AI could be used as a creative tool rather than a shortcut.

The UNITAR programme also showed him the power of digital tools. In the session offered in collaboration with Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd., for example, participants used Minecraft Education to recreate buildings in Hiroshima from before the atomic bombing. Jinto found it an effective way to understand how life was back then and was surprised that Minecraft could be used as an educational tool, not just a game.

Another memorable activity was the virtual reality (VR) tour around the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Jinto was already familiar with the displays, photographs and artefacts at the Peace Memorial Museum, but experiencing the history of the atomic bombing through VR felt different. Being placed inside the re-created environment made the events more immediate to him, rather than something observed from a distance.

Normally in the Peace Memorial Museum, we would see pictures and artefacts …. It’s a good way to show what happened but sometimes … people wouldn’t really feel attached to it … since there’s nothing connecting them. When they used VR, we were put in that scenario and we could see … what happened.”