In this documentary film, atomic bomb survivor Tomiko Morimoto West shares her story of triumph in the face of tragedy.  

We will watch the 20 minute film together, then have a discussion with filmmakers, Michael Dwyer & Chuck Gomez.  

As we approach Hiroshima and Nagasaki days in 2025, the world is closer to using nuclear weapons than we have been since August 1945. Multiple nuclear armed nations are facing off, and too many have forgotten the horror these weapons inflict when used, and the possible global devastation of their aftermath. Let's listen to those who suffered but survived to bring us the warning we clearly still need to hear.  

Tomiko Morimoto West watched from her schoolyard as a low-flying B-29 dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing her mother and other members of her family. Tomiko, then thirteen, searched the devastated city for the body of her grandfather to avoid the injustice of a mass burial, cremating him under mountain tree branches. She married an American GI, became a professor at Vassar College, and at age 91 has only one wish: that world leaders work together for global peace.

Michael Dwyer studied film and art at SUNY Purchase and Tufts University. By day, he works as a graphic designer, but his true passion lies in socially engaged art. Alongside his friend Robert Todd, he produced three short films—Watch, Rising Tide, and Mom and Pop—which have been showcased at film festivals worldwide, including Slamdance. Dwyer's recent work, Appreciation: The Tomiko Morimoto West Story, was featured in ten film festivals in 2023-24, winning multiple awards, including Best Short Documentary at the Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival. He also served as a consulting producer on Silent Witness for Kunhardt Films, which won a News and Documentary Emmy Award in 2024.

Chuck Gomez is an award-winning cinematographer, educator, and founder of Roots & Renewal Cine, a creative studio dedicated to telling transformative stories rooted in sustainability, heritage, and human resilience. With two decades of experience behind the lens, Chuck has crafted visual work across documentary, narrative, and branded content—always capturing raw emotional truth with striking visual composition.

About NHPA’s bi-weekly Zoom Peace & Justice Conversation Series: 2020’s upheavals brought us to a new moment of reckoning and possibility. How do we want to live in the world? What do we value? How can we make the changes we’ve been yearning for? NH Peace Action has been engaged in working for change for decades. We’d like to bring you into these conversations about issues and options for the future.  There is no charge to attend, but your contributions in any amount are greatly appreciated.