Eight twenty-something year old FAU students shared their most memorable experiences about the day Pearl Harbor was bombed.

Last Sunday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. in the University Theatre, FAU put on With Their Voices Raised, a play written by FAU student Kate Morris. The play had four men and women on stage sitting on stools, dressed in all black, telling stories as if they were Pearl Harbor survivors. The play reflects on Japan’s attack on the U.S. in Oahu, Hawaii in 1941 and Japanese survivors from the U.S.’s atomic bombing attack on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.

The first five rows in the theatre were reserved for U.S. veterans. The American flag hung on one side of the stage and the Japanese flag on the other.

Each actor portrayed a nurse or active duty officer both from America and Japan telling their life journey from the day of the attack and the lifelong effect after. One actress played the role of a nurse. She explained the large amount of wounded people injured all at once and how she didn’t have enough medical supplies. She was forced to rinse and reuse bloody gauze on patients, causing rashes on her hands.

Behind the actors, graphic and gruesome pictures of the bombed homes and injured civilians were displayed on the overhead projector.

The play explained that radiation from the atomic bomb that hit Japan caused birth defects from the female survivors that gave birth later on in life.

Although the actors brought these characters to life through their monologues, the play seemed a bit confusing to the audience, since each actor had multiple roles to play.

The play ended around 8:20 p.m. in a roar of clapping hands, a standing ovation, and whistles from the audience. About 60-100 people saw the play. The audience group was mostly 25 and older.

Morris said this play was trying to convey the message of peace from both perspectives, cultural understanding from Americans and Japanese, and the triumph through both attacks and having a more peaceful future.

“Having the pictures with their speaking part made it personal,” said Rosemary Avery, a nursing major. “It gave it a more human element. I was very educated about the bombing in Japan and the after effect of the bombing had on the people physically.”

At the end, there was a ten minute break when Morris, Dr. Liehr, and Dr. Ryutaro Takahashi, who are researchers from the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, sat on stage asking the audience questions about their overall thoughts on the play and ways it can be improved.

There will be another performance of With Their Voices Raised on Dec. 6, 2012 at the Morikami Museum and Japanese garden in Delray Beach at 7 p.m.

[Ed.note: A previous version of this story didn’t call the play by its proper name in the last line. That has since been corrected.]