70 Years after the bombing of &

Messages from Hibakusha For the 2015 NPT Review Conference

NIHON HIDANKYO (Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations)

No More Hibakusha Project-Inheriting Memories of the A-and H-Bomb Sufferers In publishing the English edition of “Messages from Hibakusha”, our special thanks go to all those who helped:

English translation team: Ai Sato, Mari Fukazawa, NET-GTAS (Haruka Shinno, Masaharu Kanda, Akiko Ogawa, Joao Pinto) Native checkers: Philip White, Craig Smith (NET-GTAS) The Wish of the Hibakusha, the Hope of Mankind A World without Nuclear Weapons Now

This year is the 70th anniversary of the We experienced A-bombs at the end of a war dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and that was initiated by the Japanese government. Nagasaki. Hibakusha (A-Bomb survivors) who In order to prove our determination to allow no survived the hell of the atomic bombs formed more Hibakusha, we have been seeking “Nihon Hidankyo” (Japan Confederation of A-and compensation for our sufferings. H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations) in 1956. Our vow was to save not only ourselves but also Atomic bombs / nuclear weapons can't coexist mankind through our experiences. With that alongside mankind. America has a moral solemn intention, we' ve been appealing, “ No obligation as an advanced country which was more Hibakusha!” ever since. the first to use nuclear weapons. Japan has the responsibility as the only country in the history Two atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima and of mankind that has been bombed with atomic Nagasaki in a matter of seconds and weapons in war time. Both countries must work indiscriminately robbed countless people of together. If both of them take the leadership their lives. Watching people walk like ghosts, I towards the abolition of nukes, we can change regained consciousness and touched my face, the world. chest and arms. I realized that my body was also badly injured. It was bleeding and burnt and my The “ No More Hibakusha Project - Inheriting skin was peeling off. The terror of maggots Memories of the A- and H-Bomb Sufferers” was eating my motionless body and the treatment formed by people who share the spirit of No that followed made me scream in agony. “ Kill More Hibakusha in order to continue the work of me!”, I cried. the Hibakusha as a memorial to their lives and deaths. The members have been holding Even if we survived, we suffer from sicknesses Hibakusha storytelling sessions. Many caused by the A- bomb. Hibakusha even Hibakusha shared stories of their A- bomb experienced prejudice and discrimination in our experiences and of their lives filled with anxiety daily lives, from employment to marriage. Our and sufferings. They also talked about their parents, brothers and sisters, friends and mission to live as Hibakusha, while people of all children were killed by atomic bombs. Some ages, especially the younger generation, gave up living and took their own lives. For listened eagerly. Hibakusha, “ to keep on living” is a constant state of suffering. “Messages from Hibakusha” is a collaboration of Hibakusha and the younger generation; Hibakusha believe in the wisdom of human Hibakusha shared their experiences and young beings and our mutual understanding. people wrote them down. Even though it's a Hibakusha have a mission to tell our children, small booklet, it is full of messages of hope from grandchildren and the future generations to Hibakusha and from people who want to carry create a world without nuclear weapons. on our mission. Therefore, we have been appealing, “ No more nuclear wars!”“No more nuclear weapons!” We sincerely hope that our earnest wishes will be received by as many people as possible.

[Structure of this booklet] The booklet is broken into four parts: Hibakusha testimonies and appeals (1~3), and Readers' remarks 1. A-Bomb Experiences 2. Life After the A-Bombs 3. Appeals from the Hibakusha: what Hibakusha want to tell the world and the next generation ◎. Readers' Remarks: what the successors want to tell the world and the next generation

[Introductory Note] Listed at the front of each testimony in the following in order are: place of exposure to A- bomb, type of survivor, distance from the hypocenter, sex, and age at the time of bombing. *Entry survivor: those who were within 2km of the hypocenters within 2 weeks of the bombings.

[Front Page Illustration] Folded Paper Crane is the symbol of the Hibakusha Movement

1 downloading edition 1. A-Bomb Experiences

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, Several days later, I searched for my unknown, M, age 15 mother among the ashes of my house. I was Mobilized to a gas factory as a 3rd grader able to find what seemed like a corpse on of junior high school, I was carrying the site where she was lying. But it didn't coke (smokeless coal) loaded on lorries and look like a human. She was a small oily bringing it to the furnace. I was sitting object, looking like a child manikin burnt against the window of the factory. At that and coated with coal tar. My mother was moment, a very strong light was all around killed as an “object” not as a human. I was us. I thought one of the gas tanks had distraught. exploded. Light came to me first, then sound, the blast, and shattered debris in # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.3km, that order. For a moment, inside the factory M, age 13 was complete silence. Everyone seemed to After a while, I realized that I was alive have almost fainted from the shock. Above because I could faintly hear someone crying, us was blue sky where the ceiling used to “ Help! ” I crawled out from the destroyed be. Wooden posts and board walls had fallen. school building and got outside. There I saw I was in a triangle created between railings the mushroom cloud rising up into the and walls, so I escaped from injury. Then, I gloomy sky. “What is that!?” I asked. But no walked along the beach to an air-raid shelter. one answered. After a while, darkness I saw black smoke and fire rising from the became moonlight, then I found out that not city. There were people bleeding from their only the school building, but nearby houses faces and whose clothes were torn to pieces. were also all destroyed. I had no idea what had happened. Some marks of small hands # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.2km, were left on my shirt. My friend pulled me M, age 16 out of the building, I was told. We stayed My mother was trapped under the there until a little after 9, but no adults collapsed house. I screamed “Mom!”, then, I were around. No teachers either. My heard from under the roof, “ I'm here! ” I friends were calling for help but fire was peeled off the roof shingles and put my face coming, so I left them and ran away. in, but I couldn't go any further because big joists overlapped one another on the # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.4km, concrete bedding. Through the narrowest F, age 2 gap, I saw my mother lying on her back My grandmother was down on bended about 1 meter away. She was bleeding knees, putting her hands together and around her closed eyes. She never opened saying, “ Please forgive me. Please forgive her eyes no matter what I said, and she me, ” in the direction of voices she could didn't even try to turn her head to me. I hear. They were voices of women who lived decided to dig up my mother from another in the neighborhood. There was no way to side, but shortly, a very strong fire storm help them, so the only thing she could do approached to us. Sparks from the fire were was apologize. My mother saw a hand falling on me. I desperately screamed “Mom, pulling my leg. It seemed like a middle-aged I can't. Fire is coming. I can't come any woman who lived next door. Her face and closer from my side.” My mother answered, hands were sticking out, but the rest of her “Then, run away. Hurry up.” Next moment, body was covered by debris. Her eyes she started to chant “the Heart Sutra”. She showed she was in deep pain, and her must have prepared for death. I reluctantly painful look calling for help had a hold on left my mother to die. I ran away hearing my mother. Nevertheless, she hardened her her voice behind me. heart and smacked the hand away from my

2 downloading edition leg. Ever after, my mother sometimes square at the base of Waseda Shrine and remembered those women's faces, faces of there were stone stairs there too. Both the women who she could not help. She often square and the stairs were filled with said to me. “I became a devil. That moment, evacuees after the bombing. Students from I was a devil.” The thought tormented my a girl's school come for labor services were mother for almost 70 years. there in a line, but I couldn't tell if they were girls or boys. When their parents # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7km, came to search for their children, they F, age 5 could not distinguish them by their faces so My mother was barely conscious and they checked the name tags on their clothes. couldn't get any treatment. We put her on My mother tried to pump water from a my grandfather' s two- wheeled cart and nearby well, but the water run out by the escaped uptown to Furuta Town where my time she came back to the house. She gave mother's parents lived. I don't remember water to those girl students on the way, what time it was exactly, but the site I saw because they were begging her “ please, on the way there is still stuck in my eyes. I water please” . She never told this story. I cannot forget it. suppose that it is because she was What I saw there was a line of people desperately struggling to make our living, exposed to the A-bomb around the epicenter and it might have been taboo to talk about and trying to get out of the city. Exposed to something like this. It wasn't until she was the blast and the heat rays, they seemed to in her late 70's that she finally talked about be covered by ashes, their hair stood on end, those girl students and how she had and burnt skin of their arms or bodies hung scooped water with her hands and given down like rags. As a child, I first thought them a suck of water one by one. Even then, their clothes were torn and hanging down, she couldn't talk anymore and cried as she but my grandmother told me later it was remembered those girls' faces at the end of burnt skin. On the other hand, some people her fingertips when she tried to give them were almost naked or bare foot. Their water. I never asked her about it again. clothes must have been blown away or burnt off. I heard that the blast blew away # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5km, even shoes around the epicenter. Covered F, age 7 with dust and ashes, and indistinguishable The scene that I saw on the way home is as men or women, those people were branded on my memory. I cannot forget it, walking slowly and weakly, without saying a even though 68 years has passed. I saw word. The scene was like “ghosts on parade” those people, one whose eyeball was out of in hell. its socket, one whose skin was burnt and hanging down from the arm, one who was # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.6km, burnt black, and another whose bowels F, age 9 were hanging out. Then I saw a fallen girl I saw people swarming out of buildings of about my age. Our eyes met. She destroyed by the blast. Their faces were all seemed not to be able to speak, so she covered in blood, and their clothes were appealed to me with her eyes: “Help me.” I torn to pieces. There was no fire around me. still regret that I could not help her, that I Many Korean people lived around a public could not give her a cup of water. Even bath and they start to walk, uttering “Aigo, now I remember vividly her eyes pleading Aigo” (a Korean word to express frustration, for help. annoyance, tiredness— comparable to “ oh my” in English). I decided to follow them # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.3km, hoping that things would be alright. M, age 13 A mother was running with her headless # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.5km, baby in her arms. I saw the scene like a F, age 4 vision from hell when I was 13 years old. My house was located next to a small

3 downloading edition # Hiroshima, entry survivor, M, age 19 # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7km, The railway sleepers were smoldering in F, age 20 the station. As we were walking in the dark In my family my brother's wife was killed to the city, a burnt smell pervaded the air. outright. At the time she was in the An empty streetcar was burned black. We detached part of our house. From there she advanced in file to Aioibashi (Aioi Bridge), was thrown into the main part, then our destination. When it gradually dawned, crushed under the two-story house and died. we saw that there was nothing remaining of The house burned down and none of her the houses, except wreckage of buildings of bones remained. ferroconcrete or stone. We were My eldest brother, who served in the overwhelmed by the grotesque sight and prefecture office, went to work by bicycle a smell of bodies burnt black. We continued little late. When he was on his way to the to advance and saw swarms of burnt people. office the Atomic-bomb was dropped. He Tiles of roofs had become so fragile that fell down and hurt his leg. they crumbled at the touch. Bodies were On September 16, when I returned to turned into white bones. Only their skulls Shikoku, our place of refuge, I was were still damp. There were burnt and astonished to hear that my eldest brother swollen bodies floating on the surface of had died on August 23. Though he was not Ohtagawa (Ohta River) and Motoyasugawa burnt, but only hurt his left leg, he bled (Motoyasu River). I was appalled at the from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears and sight. It was like a scene from hell. from all over until he died. The doctor of Shikoku didn't know about atomic bombs, # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7km, but I believe my brother died from illness F, age 5 caused by atomic-bomb radiation. When we came to the Nishi-ohashi, many people who had somehow managed to make # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.4km, it there crowded into the river to quench F, age 2 their unbearable thirst, as if the river was a We spent 3 days and nights in a field. crowded beach in summer. Standing on the Around us were bodies scattered here and bridge, we saw some people floating in the there. They were infested with flies; black river. They might have been already dead bodies covered with flies. and floating downstream. I have heard that flies also swarmed around injured people and laid their eggs in # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7km, the wounds. Crawling maggots were so F, age 5 painful that the injured picked them out As my mother worked near ground-zero, with the end of a stick. But one after she was exposed to heat rays from head to another they died. foot. Even though she was heavily burnt, she came back home by herself. Many # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5km, people who went with her were lost. They F, age 16 could not bear the heat and pain, so they The medical department of the army jumped into the river and were lost. But my began to treat the injured people. We heard mother came back. The road to our home voices saying “Help me!”, “Give me water!” was blocked by broken buildings and a lot We dabbed Mercurochrome, rivanol (name of debris. My mother was burnt all over, of a disinfectant) and butter on their burns. her mouth was parched, but she passed A mother whose whole body was burnt through this road which would have been except the arches of her feet desperately hard even for uninjured people to traverse. came to have a doctor treat her baby. I At last she made it home. As soon as she looked at the baby which she was carrying heard from my grandfather that I was safe, on her back and said involuntarily “It doesn't she fell down unconscious. I think she have a head. ” Immediately the mother would have kept on looking as long as she fainted and died. Why did I say that? I still could until she knew that I was safe. have feelings of remorse towards her.

4 downloading edition # Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12 neck and died the following year of an There was a woman who was a member of illness caused by radiation from the atomic a women's volunteer group who had injuries bomb. to half of her face. She said “Give me some water, please.” I gave her water, saying, # Hiroshima, entry survivor, M, age 11 “Here you are.” As soon as she had drunk About 10 or 11 o'clock, people who were the water, she fell flat on her face. Now, I burnt and stripped of their skin fled to our think that I should have asked her name elementary school. We, sixth grade pupils, and where she lived. But at the time I helped to care for the people lodged in the myself didn't know how the members of my school. We removed maggots from them family were, so I could not be thinking with tweezers, but the next day they died. about strangers. I was not concerned about The corpses were gathered and burnt in the the people lying around. I was numbed by playground. Ashes were divided into the worry. number of corpses. I will never forget the voices saying, # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5km, “Water,”“Water.” I should have given them F, age 16 water, but we were stopped from giving On August 9, I went through the city to water to soldiers. Koi to get my younger sister. There were heads, arms and bodies with their bowels # Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 2.2km, hanging out here and there in the city. M, age 20 There also was a dead man holding a strap A boy in 5th or 6th year of elementary of a tram. As I passed the city, I was school slept next to me. His brother, a 1st exposed to radiation from the atom bomb or 2nd year secondary school student, was not only directly but also secondarily. with him. The head of the was The treatment at the army was done for split open and we could see his white brain. high- ranking soldiers first of all and for Even in the night, he roared to his brother, people who could survive. When the “ Where is father? Where is mother? ” broadcast of the Emperor's announcement Someone sleeping near him shouted at him, of Japan' s surrender was heard, I was “Don't be noisy!” His older brother was at attending the captain. It was very hard to his wits end. Soon I fell asleep. When I change the bandage on his wound. It was woke up, the boy was dead. He was a really hardened by pus. Taking off it, his stuck pitiable boy. flesh also came off. # Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12 # Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 4.0km, Shinkozen Elementary School was a M, age 9 shelter for injured people. Fifteen people in On summer vacation, from August 7 of a row were laid in 4 rows in the same 1945, I and my younger sister, who was a direction. The school was filled with them first year elementary school pupil, were from the first to the third floor. As the staying at our relative's house about 4km treatment given there was only to irrigate from ground zero. wounds with water boiled once in a drum After the atom bomb was dropped on can and there were neither medicines nor Nagasaki on August 9, my aunt, cousin and applications, they were dying one after I went to my house to search for my father another. Dead people were carried on and brothers. My grandmother died stretchers to the playground and piled in a crushed under the house. My mother and quadrilateral shape, then gasoline was youngest sister were also killed on the spot. poured over them and they were burned. I My elder brother, a fourth year secondary had seen many black burnt bodies, so I felt school student, died at the place where he nothing about them. But bodies burned was mobilized and my elder sister came thus were moving. I could not bear the back home from mobilization and died. My sight. It was the sight of hell. It always lies father was burnt on the backside of his under my consciousness and sometime it

5 downloading edition comes to mind: their ragged hair, male and their teacher. I have heard that for some female indistinguishable. I thought there is time after, at the sound of windows and no God, but only the Devil in this world. doors rattling in the wind, my mother would jump out of bed thinking, “ Hisashi ( my # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.3km, brother's name) has come back”. I suppose F, age 5 that the way her son died was always on her The state of August 9 has been branded in mind. Losing two of her children like that my mind like a vivid picture scroll, must have been very painful for my mother. especially the bloody shapes of my father and young sister. The Japanese mattress on # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.3km, which I lay in colic at the moment of the M, age 13 A-bomb was torn in two and hung from the When I am asked “What do you remember willow in the corner of our garden. A-bomb about the atomic bomb? ” , I answer, “ I victims lying in agony on the mats in the remember maggots, flies and smell.” At the schoolyard of a Buddhist monks' school; time, I wondered why there were so many victims walking in a ditch; bodies of parent flies. They didn't come from just anywhere; and child with maggots crawling over them they came from human bodies alive or dead. in the playground of an elementary school; the smell of burnt bodies in a playground of # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7km, an elementary school everyday evening; the F, age 5 operation without anesthesia on my younger I tended my mother. In the over 30℃ sister's head to remove pieces of glass 3 heat of August, a bad smell pervaded the air. weeks after the bombing: these memories The smell of burnt fish is quite strong, isn't are even now in my mind. it. But I think only their families can bear the smell of people who were burned from # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5km, head to foot. I lose my appetite just F, age 7 remembering it. It took me several years to My cousin who was A-bombed at a place forget the smell. 500 meters from ground zero came to our home for help. She was burnt from her # Hiroshima, entry survivor, M, age 15 back to her hips and a stick penetrated her In Shimonoseki, I had experienced air foot from arch to instep. I could not raids twice and been surrounded by fires. recognize her, though I was very fond of her. Though I had accustomed myself to air I wiped her body fluids with a boiled towel raids, and seen the ruins of fires and many and removed maggots from her wounds. I dead people, the sight of bombed Hiroshima nursed her hard but a few days later she in August was more terrible. It looked like died in my arms. She was 14 years old. the whole city had been flattened. Another cousin also came to our home for help. He was 10 years old. He did not # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.6km, receive severe injuries but was suffering F, age 9 from diarrhea. At the end of August, he After the fires went out, we could see suddenly bled from his ears and nose, then straight to the Hiroshima Station. Many spat a mass of blood from his mouth and unidentified people burnt black and swollen died. It was the effect of radiation. were floating, stirred by tides on or in the Honkawa River. # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.3km, F, age 1 # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.4km, My elder sister died on August 26, burnt F, age 2 by the strong flash. My elder brother, a In the meantime, for public hygiene the first year secondary school student, had bodies were loaded one after another into been mobilized to work from early morning trucks and carried away, then gasoline was on a road near ground zero. He was killed poured on them and they were burned. My by the bomb with all his classmates and mother said that large fields were filled

6 downloading edition with the smell of burning bodies, and she my face. I'm done for. You are the eldest could not forget the stench. There were daughter. I realize I have brought great heaps of ashes all over the place. As time hardship upon you, but I ask you to take went by, winds blew and rain fell. The care of your mother, sister and brother.” heaps gradually became flat, so that we Those were his last words. His hair fell out could not know how many people had died. in bunches one after another and purple We could not know who was who. No doubt spots broke out on his face. He took a sip there were people searching, but it was of rice gruel and a bit of grated apple which impossible to find them. Each one must my mother had managed to scrounge, then have had loved ones, but the dead were he passed away. deprived of the opportunity to die a human death. My mother said that she was # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5km, distressed at the thought of it. F, age 16 On the morning of August 6, my mother # Hiroshima, entry survivor, M, age 11 was to go to evacuate houses for the war. We went to the Hiroshima Daiichi She was not in good health, so she asked Secondary School to look for my elder the woman next door to go for her, while brother, but we could not find him. After she herself rested at home. Though our that my mother looked for him for about a house didn't burn, the areas of the other week on her own. At last, she found an side of Miyuki-bashi (Miyuki Bridge) burnt. aluminum lunch box on which his name was The woman next door came back heavily carved beside the swimming pool. I think burnt from the work. Her baby couldn't that he died before eating the lunch my recognize his mother because of her burnt mother made with rice that she had face, so he cried and would not suck her managed to scrounge from our neighbors. breast. Then his mother turned her face away from him and gave him her breast. # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.5km, My mother saw the scene and regretted F, age 4 what she had done. For the rest of her life On September 11, my father died. I have she kept saying, “I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” heard from my mother that his whole body looked like it was covered with cobwebs # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.1km, and its color was turned to purple. He died F, age 13 after suffering for about 3 days. I I escaped death, because I was absent remember the atmosphere as I looked at my from school, but all my classmates were father from behind a sliding paper door. killed. Though I was told, “Come here,” I didn't go. Though I made it to the school somehow, I I think I was afraid of his groans. My could not do anything for my friends. mother told us that it was so hard to get I cannot say that I was happy to be alive wood to cremate him. We six, my mother, because of my absence. It has been my younger brothers, younger sisters and I, trauma. saw off the smoke from my father's When I went to the house of my best cremation on the river bank. friend, I could not enter the house and hold her hands. # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5km, I have felt nothing but regret. F, age 16 In April 1946, my father was sick in bed. Looking at my father' s bloody stool and vomit, a doctor from the neighboring village said, “It might be typhoid fever, an infection.” He said that our diarrhea also might be caused by typhoid fever. On the morning of April 19, my father looked in the mirror and said, “The shadow of death is already upon

7 downloading edition 2. Life After the A-Bombs

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7km, resulted in me wasting away to skin and F, Age 5 bone. I was absent from school for 4 months It was one or two years later that a young and the doctor gave up on me. At one point, man who was one of my relatives who had I was wandering between life and death. come to find us in the burned-out ruins However, I miraculously recovered. That passed away due to the effects of residual surprised the doctor and my family. It is radiation. He had looked for us only 4 or 5 still unclear what the cause was and what days after the bombing in every nook and brought me back to life. cranny of the city from the tip of eastern Hiroshima, across the city central to the # Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12 west. It was clear that his death was caused Although I felt listless, I tried to think by the Atomic Bomb radiation. A carthorse that it came from my mental weakness. But he took with him in his search for us also what really bothered me was that when I died a while later. I remember being was injured, it would not heal properly. disconsolate about the two unnecessary Even a mosquito bite became infected. deaths as a little girl since it felt as though they died in place of us. Since then, I have # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.4km, always lived with a fear of death that was F, age 2 happening everywhere. It could just happen In my adolescent years, I would often to us at any time. experience the so-called bura bura disease which is an unexplained strong fatigue # Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 16 similar to seasickness and anemia, and I would have a bloody nose or some kind commonly seen among Hibakusha, the of bleeding almost every day until 1950. Atomic Bomb victims. My father would But my hair that had fallen out began to angrily say to me in my tired state, “ Pull grow back. In 1991, I was diagnosed with yourself together! ” On the contrary, when gall bladder cancer and had it taken out. my father was out of the house, my mother Since then, it has not become metastatic would come to me and tell me that she was yet. I have had spinal problems, and I suffer sorry over and over again. My father would from backache and sore knees, so the also reprimand my mother for taking the doctor puts me in traction. What's found children along with her to her parents' even now is uric blood every time I get a home in Hiroshima that day which resulted check-up. in us being exposed to the Atomic Bombing. He said she did it without any regard for # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7km, the family she had married into. F, age 5 It was 4 years after being exposed to the # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5km, Atomic Bomb when I was in 4th grade in an F, age 7 elementary school that I got an unknown My second daughter developed a cancer disease. I felt listless, lost my appetite and in 2010. It was hard when she asked me became bedridden. Besides, I was living in a why she had to suffer from cancer. I was rural area with only one clinic owned by an stung with remorse. In the following year, elderly doctor so I was not able to receive my daughter passed away. adequate treatment. The cause was presumed to be related to the Atomic Bomb. # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.0km, As my condition got worse, I could not eat M, age 3 anything at all and even threw up the Two years after my father died from medicine that was my only hope and pancreas cancer, I was also diagnosed with

8 downloading edition rectum cancer. Then, I was convinced that despite fearing the worst, I was blessed it was attributed to the exposure to Atomic with the birth of a healthy baby. Bomb. I have always lived with the fear of the Atomic Bomb affecting not only myself # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7km, but my children and my grandchildren. The F, age 20 Atomic Bomb never ends for us, Hibakusha, I kept to myself the fact that I am a the survivors. It always remains within our Hibakusha, a Atomic Bomb victim, for a body, damaging our cells to develop another very long time. Even when I got married, I disease which will come in 10 years. never mentioned it nor even where I was from. So, I had no intention of getting an # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.3km, Atomic Bomb Survivors' Certificate and the F, age 1 insurance until my mother suggested it to Miss would have been my me before she passed away in 1951. The own age and I grew up worrying about what doctors did not know how to treat Atomic if I came down with leukemia like Sadako. Bomb-sicknesses. My mother had severe Even after marriage, I was distressed and bleeding from the mouth, gums, nose and always doubted if I would really be able to eyes when she passed away. give birth to a healthy baby. At the age of I also had three miscarriages. I tried hard 40, I developed breast cancer and was to convince myself that it was just because saddened that it had finally happened to me I was doing the laundry and cleaning the as I was always hoping to live until my bath tub in the cold weather. I never had a children were in high school and be alive baby. Looking back, having a baby was when they turned 20 years old. Fortunately, perhaps not for me because I had wandered early detection of the cancer saved my life through the burned-out ruins of the town of and I am still alive today. Hiroshima that day. I could never have been genuinely happy anyway. # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, unknown, F, age 10 # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.3km, It was not until 1960 when I gave a birth F, age 5 to my child that I first came to consider Every August weekly magazines feature myself to be a Hibakusha, an Atomic Bomb stories on Hibakusha, the Atomic Bomb victim, because I had constant bleeding for survivors. The stories are about who they the whole year. The doctors in Tokyo who are, where they lived and how they died. were not well-acquainted with radiation My family and I always read these stories sickness did an operation on me. Not only with a pounding heart to see if they were did it not work, but it has prevented me about anyone we knew. Even the times from ever falling pregnant again. I became when none of our acquaintance were listed, thin and I suffer from anemia. I was a we still had a heavy heart and suffered from mental and a physical wreck when I had to an acute fear of when death would come to raise my child. us. Every year when August comes, the pain of the memory is the last thing I want to # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7km, recall and I never feel like being in F, age 5 Hiroshima. When I found out that I was pregnant, I was so upset because I had heard a news # Nagasaki, unknown, F, age 1 report of a female Hibakusha having a baby At the time of marriage, I could not bring with a disability, A-Bomb . I myself to tell my husband that I was worried myself into a severe hyperemesis exposed to the Atomic Bomb. I did not hold where I was not able to eat and intake the the survivor's insurance certificate. It was adequate nutrition a pregnant woman needs. nerve wrecking for me going through my In such a condition, I was not physically baby's delivery without the insurance and I able to have a normal delivery. I had to never felt at ease while raising my child. wear an oxygen mask. Fortunately though, But when my child was in Grade 3, I

9 downloading edition decided to confide in my family. After that, I approaches that memory mentally and received the insurance. physically wears me out. At one point, the internal medicine department did not to # Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 3.0km, know what to do with me as there was no F, age 13 mental care they could provide at the time. I've had a number of death threatening The doctor told me “go back home.” experiences because of atomic Bomb illnesses. I am not sure if it was one of the # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.5km, after-effects, but I had overlapping warts on F, age 4 my fingers and the kids in my village picked When my mother was almost 80, she on me, calling me “Demon.” moved up to Tokyo and found a nursing home to live in on her own. There, she # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5km, began writing notes on her story of that day F, age 7 and of the depression she suffered from Being a Hibakusha, I was discriminated later. Not only did she refuse injections in against in my job hunting. When I decided the nursing home but she also refused to to marry someone whom I truly loved, his eat, saying that she wanted to die. So I took father was really against our marriage her back to my home. She had long suffered because they did not want Hibakusha' s from medically unexplained chest pains but blood in their family and we were not given the pain and the depression may have been permission to marry. At the time, it was caused by the fact she sealed off many of said that one in four of all Hibakusha the unbearably painful experiences she thought of taking their own lives. My father endured at the time of the Atomic Bombing. who also had thought the same said he could not kill himself when he watched us # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5km, children sleeping. F, age 16 I do not know how many times I thought # Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 3.0km, of taking my own life and I would have F, age 13 ended it if it had not been for my family. After marriage I gave birth to healthy Before my father passed away, he asked me children and they have kept my spirits up. to take care of my younger sister and My daughter, however, had her brother, and I have stayed alive just engagement broken off because she was the because of that promise. And because I am daughter of a Hibakusha. As her parent, still alive, I want to tell my story of that that was the most agonizing feeling of my day, how people died, and how much they life. She has now 3 dogs and treats them as wanted to live. I will be 85 years old in 3 if they were her childlen but I still feel her months, but I want to keep telling the story pain at the back of my mind. until my last breath. If you really understand the facts of war, you know why # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, war can never be justified. unknown, F, age 10 The black rain that fell in the late # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7km, afternoon of the day the Atomic Bomb was F, age 5 dropped was highly radioactive. It made me Although I went through quite a hardship fall sick and I was short of physical strength that could not be told easily, given those compared to my peers. Seeing the horrific who died in the blink of an eye and suffered site as a child, I later became neurotic and to death from after-effects, I feel like what I it did not heal even after the age of 20. That experienced is insignificant. Instead, I have image of the mushroom cloud has been lived day by day with a gratitude for being burnt into my memory like the endless loop kept alive from the hellish situation. I also of a film. The fierce red of that cloud is the feel strongly that I should live for my color that burnt the entire city and over 200 mother whose life was ended at the age of thousand people. Every year when summer 31.

10 downloading edition # Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 2.2km, approve. They hoped that it will be of help M, age 20 to other Hibakusha. My third son who works for a research I was bitterly shocked myself and by the institute was told not to take a job involving thoughts of my sister's sorrow, and the pain radioactive materials due to his low white my parents suffered. I was reluctant to talk blood cell count. It was discovered in a about my experience and remained silent. check- up that he did not meet the However, in 1980, I set up a Hibakusha's prescribed standard of the Industrial Safety Association in my area. When one of the and Health Law. When I heard about it, I members who was 4 years older than me felt discouraged. Some years later, I heard passed away at the age of 68 from cancer, that my grandchild in junior high school had she said to me “ There is nothing more the same problem and was advised by the frustrating” . On behalf of my sister and track club teacher to have a complete many of those who died due to the Atomic physiacal examination. Then, I shed tears of Bomb, I will keep on raising my voice to frustration. I just have to pray that my abolish nuclear weapons and to call on our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will government to make amends. never be affected by nor suffer from any physical problems caused by the Atomic Bomb.

# Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12 Eleven out of 30 of my classmates at the same elementary school died in their fifties and sixties due to various causes such as stomach cancer, aplastic anemia, chronic myelodysplastic syndrome, multiple functions incompetence, and tuberculosis. Two of them took their own lives. Although their deaths may not be related to the Atomic Bomb and that link may just be in my imagination, I cannot help but think that it is all connected with the Atomic Bomb as I have seen many of friends pass away one after another.

# Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 3.6km, F, age 3 Fortunately, my family and I were not affected by the Atomic Bomb, and I did not worry much until March 1964 when my younger sister developed a malignant cancer and passed away within three months of the discovery. She was exposed to the Atomic Bomb when she was 8 months old and she died at the age of 19. It happened all too suddenly for my sister who had a lot ahead of her after graduating from college. Her death was obviously brought on by the Atomic Bomb. The University hospital in which my sister was hospitalized asked us for permission to conduct an autopsy. After thinking about it, my parents came to the conclusion that they should

11 downloading edition 3. Appeals from the Hibakusha: what Hibakusha want to tell the world and the next generation

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7km, MORE NAGASAKIs and NO MORE F, age 20 HIBAKUSHAs” come true. The US President Never start a war, it is nothing more than Barack Obama made a speech to the world murder. If you do not kill your opponent, in which he said that he will pursue “a world you will be killed. That is why I am without nuclear weapons. ” But nuclear absolutely against war. In movies or in weapons still exist. Japan must legalize the animations, war is depicted as something three antinuclear principles and leave the ‘cool’ or ‘exciting’ but it is nothing like that. Nuclear Umbrella. It is just homicide. What I would like the next generations to know is only this. They # Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12 should never start a war. Moreover, we live “ The first bombs were dropped by in the Atomic Age, in an atomic war America, so we should fire one back at the everything will be consumed by flames in a Americans”. Such a spiral of hatred must be flash. I am lucky to be alive. If another war stopped. My ultimate wish is to get rid of all breaks out, it might not turn out the same. the Atomic Bombs. You have only one precious life which you were given by your parents. Please do not # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7km, waste it. F, age 5 There are a hundred different stories of a # Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12 hundred different bomb victims. The fact There is a theory which justifies the use of is, there are many who experienced the Atomic Bomb. It explains that by dropping Atomic Bombings but only a few are willing the Atomic Bombs, many Japanese lives to speak up and talk about what they saw. were saved. Thanks to the Atomic Bombs Many people refuse to talk about it even to the war ended earlier than expected and so, their own families because it is too painful the dropping of the bomb was the right to even think about it. And some victims thing to do. And that is what makes us feel have passed away without ever telling shame. anybody about their experiences. 69 years have passed and some people still hide their # Hiroshima, unknown, M, age 4 identity as bomb victims. Those who found The two Atomic Bombs that were dropped the courage to tell people about their on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took the lives of experiences -including myself- can't tell all a few hundred thousand people in a flash. their stories because there are many Even though we know it was in the midst of theories about the risks to human health a great war, it is still an inhuman act and it after exposure to radiation. Many people should never be forgiven. These bombs have been forced to live under the fear that burnt down everything that was standing, the after effects might affect their own destroyed the lives of many people and children and grandchildren as well. killed many other people. 69 years has passed but the surviving victims of the # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.1km, bombings are still suffering from after F, age 13 effects caused by radiation. Dispose of all atomic weapons immediately. My message is “Please, get rid of all the That was the reason President Obama was nuclear weapons in the world” because I awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The believe that is the only way to make the Japanese government' s attitude at the vision of “ NO MORE HIROSHIMAs, NO gives me a feeling of

12 downloading edition righteous indignation. Foreign peace stop my tears from flowing down my cheeks activists also feel disappointment. On top of when I try to talk about war. I don't want that, I feel the same about the Japanese my daughter and grandsons to have to news media which does not cover enough of endure such sorrow. these stories of the Atomic Bombings. Mankind cannot coexist with nuclear power. # Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 3.6km, All people must be more aware of the risk of F, age 10 radiation. My message is “Please maintain the peace constitution and do not start a war.” # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, To the government of America: “ There is unknown, M, age 15 no way, that can act as a Anything that is related to nuclear deterrent. To reduce the number of the technology, whether it is a weapon or a nuclear weapons is not good enough. They power plant must be banned. Accidents will must all be disposed of.” To the government occur, and yet Japan still sells its of Japan: “Do not blindly follow the ways of technology even to foreign countries. the American government. Be proud as the Something terrible will happen and the only Atomic Bombing victim nation in the price will be unbearably huge. world and act as a leader of the peaceful We the Atomic Bomb victims have world. ” pledged “Let all the souls of the people who have died here in Hiroshima and in # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.3km, Nagasaki rest in peace; for we shall not F, age 5 repeat this evil.” Those lives were sacrificed It is needless to say war is a foolish act. for the establishment of Article 9 of the With the wisdom of mankind, I hope we can Constitution of Japan. Protect the core end this nuclear war era. The peace values of today's Japan, Article 9 of the constitution must be protected, as it is Constitution and we will live. We should not precious to mankind. die for the Constitution, but live because of I want to leave these two messages: it. Accuse those responsible for bombing and protest against the inhumanity of the # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, Atomic Bombing. But also accept the fact unknown, F, age 10 that we too are the guilty culprits in the Recently there are many nuclear power course of this history. There is no such plants and nuclear weapons spread widely thing as good excuses. Have the courage to throughout the world. And radioactive abandon war and dispose of nuclear waste still has not been disposed of. Atomic weapons. Bombs are weapons. Nuclear power plants are for energy production. The two are used # Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12 for different purposes but both are equally A new generation of politicians who don't dangerous. All nuclear power plants could know war are moving to change Article 9 of become nuclear weapons. There is no the Constitution of Japan, saying it is peaceful way of using nuclear power. necessary to become free of post- war politics. That terrifies us very much. Almost # Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 4.0km, 70 years has passed since the war ended M, age 9 and no one in Japan's Self-Defense Forces War is sorrowful. I have had so much has died in combat in that period. This is trouble, looking for a job, and getting thanks to Article 9 of the Constitution. married because of the fact that I lost both Now, how many times has America gone to of my parents in the bombing. Long ago, war since the end of WW Ⅱ. These wars when my older brother and I were sleeping have not all been justified. Considering side by side at our aunt's house, I asked my those facts, I want to pass this peace on to brother “ Why do we have to go through this younger generations and maintain the much of pain and suffering? ” I still can't present system.

13 downloading edition # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.0km, actually happened as much as I can. The M, age 3 future of this world depends on the My fear is that one-day all the people of thoughts and the actions of young people. the world will forget the tragedy of war and The sufferings, we the Atomic Bomb victims the lessons taught by war. And we will do have experienced is not a story of the the wrong things all over again. Especially distant past. It will be close to us as long as in Japan, some people are trying to change nuclear weapons exist. And it could very the present constitution. I worry that our well happen to the next generation. I say, country might become a nation that gets “ We do not want any more Atomic Bomb involved in war again. We cannot give our victims” To speak of my experiences is to children “a country, which starts war” And prevent the world from making the same now, I feel the fear of war more than ever. mistakes. Peace, does not come to us just by itself. All of us, together, have to stand up and # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7km, protect it. F, age 5 For more than a half century, the Atomic # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.5km, Bomb victims along with people wishing for F, age 4 peace of the world, have continued to tell I testified about the Atomic Bombing in people inside of and outside of Japan not to Washington DC and was questioned, “How “make more bomb victims” and to “create a can you manage to testify in front of your world without war and without nuclear adversary, don't you feel a great anger?” weapons”. Now that I have lived to the age I answered, “ I do not stand here with of 78, it is not so hard to guess that my wish anger, nor with hatred. I cannot testify and to see a world without nuclear weapons will protest against nuclear weapons with not come to be. It is time I pass on my feelings like that. ” However, my answer wishes to the next generations. I wish all wasn't delivered, to the audience because the young people will learn from history the interpreter could not stop crying. I do that you cannot sit and wait for peace to not feel anger. Maybe that's because I was come. You need to make efforts to acquire too young at the time, but I also think it peace. From that lesson, I want them to may be because my mother has taken the look for and to find the way for “the world to sin of those feelings to the next world. prioritize peace and life most of all” and to That's why, I say to the world “Don't let the avoid being involved in wars. I believe, that mothers of the world cry”. “peace will happen through communication between different people” . So for the # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.6km, younger generations, I want them to F, age 9 communicate with lots of people in their All we can do is to let others know how own fields all over the world and exchange terrifying the Atomic Bombs are, in the culture because the closer you become with hope that one day, peace will come, and strangers, the farther away war will be. there will be no more war. There aren' t many people who can tell personal stories of # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.2km, that time anymore, and even when we do, M, age 16 many people just walk passed us. We all I want you to take over, and be the leader have to do what each of us can do, since of Atomic Bomb victims and nuclear there are those, who have lost their lives accident victims, and tell the world that and their dreams. everyone needs to think of the disposal of nuclear waste problem as it is their own # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5km, problem. We say, “Today, you are a listener, F, age 7 tomorrow you will be the story teller” . If The Atomic Bomb victims are aging day you cannot ask your listener to tell the next by day. I want to tell the younger person to spread the story of what they generations the true history of what have heard, you cannot change the tide of

14 downloading edition public opinion and dispose of nuclear Atomic Bombs, but we must also make “that” weapons. country admit that they have responsibility for that war. We cannot change the recent # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5km, movement to revise the constitution so that F, age 7 the country can start a war again. The After the war, the Japanese government Atomic Bomb victims are not clinging to the covered up the effects of the Atomic Bombs. past damage. If we don' t make the While we are working for the bomb government admit their fault, in future victims, the Tohoku Earthquake occurred in there will be more bomb victims. These are 2011. Once again, the government did not the messages that I want to pass down to reveal the true damage caused by the the next generations. damage to the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants. After all, the government has not # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.2km, changed from that time. M, age 1 2.3 million soldiers, and 3.1 million if you # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.4km, include civilians, have lost their lives. I F, age 2 want to make it apparent to everyone that Stories of Atomic Bomb victims are not the country went into an unwinnable war. just about the hardships that they have Couldn't we have saved half of the losses if been through. You should be aware that we we had ended the war, a year earlier? Over too are, in fact, facing the same problem 100 thousand people also lost their lives in and that we live in the same era, as we air-raids in Tokyo and in Okinawa. It is hard listen to the stories. Wouldn't that be the to tell who and what is responsible for that. least we can do for those who died? I have pledged at my mother' s gravestone “ To # Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12 make a world without nuclear weapons, and It isn't possible to understand and explain to think of it as my own problem”. I will do the absurdity of war, just by listening to the the same for the people who are suffering experiences of victims or just by talking from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant about it. You first need to learn the accident, and think of the problem as my historical background and then start own as well. building up on that knowledge what you hear from others. The fact that your # Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.3km, understanding of war is logical can be the M, age 13 core of your anger, and it also can make The government of Japan has stated, “ In your peace activities last longer. an emergency situation which is a threat to the entire nation such as war, all citizens will be required to make contributions to the nation, either with their lives, bodies, or positions. As those sacrifices are public sacrifices, all citizens have to equally endure the hardships”. That statement still exists and it has not been over turned. The bomb victims are telling the nation to apologize to those killed. If they do, the government cannot start another war. The average age of the Atomic Bomb victims is now over 80, so we hope to hand over the baton of life and pass on.

# Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 3.0km, M, age 13 Not only for the damage caused by the

15 downloading edition Readers' Remarks: what the successors want to tell the world and the next generation

Sections one through three in this booklet are voices from Atomic Bomb survivors, Hibakusha, and these words were listened to and transcribed by young people hoping to hand down the messages of the Hibakusha to posterity. In this section, the sentiments and resolution of those who worked together with the Hibakusha in this project are introduced.

Note: People from all walks of life, including students, joined this program. As for the comments given by students, their school year at the time they listened to the Hibakusha's testimonies is indicated in brackets following their comments.

■ Among the Hibakusha who the Atomic Bomb and the war partner' s parents. I thought have struggled with their pains continued for such a long time this is terrible. However, the ever since the end of the war, after the end of the war. I parents of the partner would only a few are brave enough to strongly hope that our have also thought about the talk about what they generation should try to life of a future grandchild. experienced on that day. How understand their experiences What is truly terrible is not the can I satisfy them with my and pass the stories on to other parents' reaction who were reaction to their stories while people so as not to forget their just being honest as human living my ordinary everyday “heart”. (3rd year high school beings, but the war itself life? “ Maybe you can' t student) which eventually dropped understand the situation. It's Atomic Bombs on Japan. (2nd totally beyond imagination. ” ■ Although there are many year high school student) That's probably true. Even so, high school students who are I am determined to accept interested in peace and social ■ No matter how much we everything I heard from them, issues, not many of them have grieve over this tragedy that and pass it down to our the initiative to take part in an already happened, the hurt and generation. The time actual event like this. What we loss will never come back. This remaining for the Hibakusha is need to do right now is to think is why we must have power to limited, but they are trying to about how we can motivate imagine what war is and learn convey things that are hard to those young, people, especially from the past in order to keep understand. Let me receive junior and senior high school conveying our thoughts about the baton from Hibakusha. So, I students, to think together peace to the rest of the world. shall take it. (2nd year high about peace. (2nd high school “War should be gone from our school student) student) world forever no matter what happens.” Here I would like to ■ I was able to listen to the ■ What's left most in my heart pledge that Iwill do my best to stories of an Atomic Bomb is the truth that the pain and make the wishes of the survivor: not only the story of discrimination brought by Hibakusha come true. Let' s how she couldn't confess that Atomic Bomb never ends. I feel keep the strong messages of she is a Hibakusha to her very sad because wars are still the Hibakusha engraved in our husband and his family, but waged even though many hearts, and be determined to also the story of how she felt people are strongly against stop war. Listen to the voices guilty when her daughter got war. I truly wish that more and unheard. Cover the invisible sick and then asked her if she more people would pray for pain with our tears, and hold was one of the survivors. peace. (3rd year high school them tight. (2nd year high) It was my first time to hear student) school student) the stories of Hibakushas' experiences , and although I ■ When I asked “What was the ■ Amid ongoing controversy was really shocked by the most difficult experience of over a proposal to amend truth that the Atomic Bombs being a Hibakusha?” I was told Article 9 of Japan' s destroyed the most bright, that because their daughter is Constitution and Osaka City promising time of their lives, a second- generation of Mayor Hashimoto' s negative and by the stories that Hibakusha, her marriage comment about the so-called described how the impact of proposal was declined by her “comfort women” issue, war is

16 downloading edition no longer a thing in the past in ■ While one of the Hibakusha ■ While my father was away Japanese minds. It is necessary never told one of her children fighting in the war, his wife that those who are building the that they were both Hibakusha, and their children died in the future listen to the stories of she confided it to her daughter Atomic Bombing. My father the aging Hibakushas' who was born after the war. I remarried after the war and I experiences, and pass them thought this reflected the am a child of that marriage. I down to the younger mother's kindness. She did not have a memory from my generation. This need is not want to make her Hibakusha elementary school days of limited to only the stories of child worry. I think we also hearing stories about the the Atomic Bomb, but the same need to listen to what the Atomic Bombs when we all principle should be applied to mother told her daughter born went to school on August 9th all other things which must not after the war. As a child and during the summer vacation. be forgotten, such as the sister of Atomic Bomb victims, Later, when I visited my family experiences of the air raids and that daughter really cared graves, I realized that my half the Fukushima nuclear about the mothers and the brothers at the time of the explosion incident. (2nd year children who suffered from the Atomic Bombing were so young, high school student) Fukushima nuclear explosion. only three and five years old. We should record as many This made me feel that I should ■ “ Where there are one testimonies of Hibakusha as live my life fully for them. And hundred Hibakusha, there will possible in order to help all of today, after hearing the be one hundred stories to tell.” the surviving Hibakusha. Hibakushas' stories I, again, I felt exactly the same way strongly feel how horrible are after hearing the stories of ■ A nine-year old boy walked both war and the Atomic many Hibakushas' experiences. around the city of Nagasaki Bombs. I am determined to I should never feel that' s after the blast of the Atomic study with other people and enough, I don't need to hear Bomb and discovered that take part in the “ No More any more. I should listen to as everyone in his family was Hibakusha” campaign. many stories as possible. And dead. This is really hard to in that way, form my own imagine. And what waited for ■ When the Hibakusha tell us views about war. ( 3rd year him next was the harsh reality about that day, the day of the high school student) of ostracism and being sent Atomic Bombs, they tell us from one relative' s place to about what they saw, what ■ One of the survivor's strong another. “How could all these they smelled, and what their hope that there will be “ no things happen to me?” These hellish experiences were like. I more wars” is genuine. I really words are now deep in my think that when they tell us feel that we in Japan, which is heart. I feel the cruelty their stories, filled with painful the only nation that has been a brought by the Atomic Bomb. flashbacks and experiences victim of Atomic Bombs, In spite of his sufferings, that they don' t want to recall - should know everything about boy was eager to look forward stories they don't want to tell what actually happened before to the future and live his life even to their own families - we we try to take action for peace fully. Not only did he graduate must humbly listen. I realize to the world. (a high school from high school while working how brave they are for telling student) at a part-time job, but he also their stories, which are not tried to study at an open confined to a moment or a day, ■ One of the Hibakusha said, university. but rather they are stories of “ This year, 2015, is very A middle-aged member of the their 68-year history of living important because it marks the group who listened to the with discrimination. 70th year since the Atomic Hibakusha's stories said, “I was Bombings. I really feel that we really moved by that young ■ The first time that I heard a have never again have such a boy's positive attitude in the Hibakusha's personal testimony significant moment in the midst of his first reaction what and his reasoning for proactively future.” This surprised me and had happened towards his own talking about such a horrific it made me think. What does life. He was determined to experience, I felt especially the 70th Anniversary year always be cheerful no matter how sincere he was. It could mean for all of the surviving what happens, and to cherish have been me. There were kind Hibakusha? We need to take his relationships with other underclassmen in the girls' this very seriously. people. ” It really is an high school and I must speak important message. out for their sake. I want to

17 downloading edition discover ways to convey ■ I once again thought that necessary for us to study the thoughts like these. our country's culture has not history of war and the Atomic changed from that day to this Bombings, and make sure that ■ The fact that the whereabouts day. The circumstances of such mistakes are never made of the Hibakusha' elder sister Hiroshima, Nagasaki and again. For that end, I believe and mother are unknown to Fukushima are not being it's important for us to have this day moved my heart. The correctly reported on. the courage to raise our voices story of how he dug through and take a stand, never the burnt remains of his house ■ The words “ youth these allowing what must not be but found nothing had not been days” have been used allowed, while bearing the mentioned until a question was negatively for a long time but I thoughts of those who have asked. I realized that much of was able to feel hopeful that experienced war in mind. what he felt on that day, there is something only we can August 9, heading home from do about this issue. “Because ■ Every student today is Tachibanawan, where he had we're alive.” I want to keep on thinking of getting connected been mobilized, to Matsuyama, living while remembering this. to the next generation. It where he lived, was left unsaid. (2nd year university student) would be nice if we could come “It is not something good, it is up with a role for those quite a harsh bitter memory so ■ This was the first time I students. (3rd year university I came to want to try to forget heard the stories of the student) about it. I began to think of Hibakusha first- hand, and I disappearing without talking became embarrassed by my ■ With the personal experiences with anyone. When seeing my own ignorance. As a Japanese, of each Hibakusha being carefree 5-year-old grandchild, and as a future mother, I want distinct, I not only wanted to who reminds me of my sister, I to study so that, from now on, I know more, I fully realized we thought that these children can pass on accurate must know more. As much as will never know anything information. we try to imagine the tragedy about it if Idon't talk. Ihave to When, during teaching of that day, I'm sure that the talk.” But it wasn't just the practice, I noticed a student reality was in fact even worse. contents of the narration. It selecting “ The atomic bomb (4th year university student) was his expressions and the brought an end to the war, it tone of his voice that made me was inevitable” , option to a ■ In a debate held after a feel the Hibakusha' s question I sensed impending school trip to Hiroshima, I was everlasting “pain” and “wishes danger. I realized that someone shocked to find that those in for the future.” who had participated in this favor of and against the war event and heard the Hibakusha were evenly split. I felt that it ■ The fact that Hibakusha testimonials first-hand would is necessary for us to study talk about their experiences not have thought that way, so I ways of stirring up the because this issue, rather than learned how important these imagination and better being part of the past, is an opportunities are. ( 4th year conveying the message of issue that persists today and university student) peace. On the other hand, I concerns even our future was began to think that even those most impressive. I was strongly ■ A Hibakusha's words “life's without personal experience convinced that we, the young baton pass” were impressive. could participate in narrations generation who are carrying Indeed, I realized how that include the attackers and the future on our shoulders necessary it is for us to take the victims or that connect to have to think about this more that baton and, turning current wars. earnestly. towards the world, take action. ■ First of all I want to learn ■ How can we convey to this ■ Upon hearing that we have more about the Atomic generation, one that is only to find a way to carry on the Bombings, and having done familiar with the contemporary collaboration with people in that, I want to play an active lifestyle that war is not foreign countries and promote part in ant-war activities. I something of the past? I fully action by youth on this issue, I would like to keep on working realized that this is something decided to try new ways of on events such as recitals, we must reflect on further and successfully conducting peace work, vigils for peace further. activities from now on. I and concerts. ( 4th year strongly thought that it' s university student)

18 downloading edition ■ I am now interested in and starting nuclear plants will nuclear accidents. I would say hearing testimonies from end up leading to a second that the Japanese politicians' many more people. I also want Hiroshima or Nagasaki in my culture of unaccountability has to look into issues mentioned opinion. (High-school student) invited corruption to the during the talk, like the political sphere by keeping spread of nuclear weapons and ■ Figuring out how to leave politics away from the general war-victim compensation from behind for future generations public. now on. (3rd year university the voices of those who cannot student) speak is an issue that I felt needs to be addressed, and it is ■ You cannot convey the something that I will think cruelty and inhumanity of the about from now on. (2nd year Atomic Bomb in a few words, university student) so I would like to increase the opportunities for people to ■ The current government, on actually hear the stories from pretexts like aiding developing the Hibakusha themselves, as countries, stimulating the well as to join them in taking Japanese economy, or even responsible action as citizens preventing global warming is to make sure that the same eagerly pushing for the sale of tragic acts are not committed nuclear power plants. However, ever again. it seems that they are not interested in - or are even ■ Every story they tell feels actively avoiding - learning new, and in the knowledge they about the suffering and impart you can feel the warmth sadness of the Atomic Bomb of mankind accumulating. By victims. They condescendingly the end of the talks Iwanted to tell us to endure the sacrifices know more. and accept the risks because it is for the sake of the country's ■ I wondered why the Japanese growth, For example, in the government repeats the same case of Fukushima, no one mistakes. Nothing but sadness takes responsibility for it. It is remains when wars take place, the same whether it's war or

◎ Groups that heard the Testimonies of Atomic Bomb Survivors

· Tokyo High School Students in a Peace Seminar Network · Co-op Mirai – Endomame – of the Saitama region · Co-op Mirai – the Urawa Peace Club of the Saitama region · Co-op Mirai – Pyonfa of the Saitama region · Co-op Mirai – Reporters' Interview Club · Co-op Mirai UNICEF Peace Committee of the Saitama Region · JCCU Cooperative Private Preparatory School · Co-op Aichi Interview Reporters of the Voices of the Hibakusha · Chiba Prefecture Executive Committee of Interview Reporters of the Hibakusha's Experience · Executive Committee of Interview Reporters of Hibakusha's Experience (Saitama region) · Peace Activity Promotion Committee in the Association of Labor Unions of Consumers' Cooperatives · Network to talk about and pass on the stories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki · No More Hibakusha Project-Inheriting Memories of the A-and H-Bomb Sufferers

19 downloading edition Representative of National Government of Nuclear Weapon State

April 2015

Dear Sir/Madam,

The Japan Confederation of A- and H- Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) is the national organization of the Hibakusha, who directly experienced and somehow managed to survive the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. military 70 years ago on August 6 and 9, 1945.

What we witnessed on these days were horrific sights beyond all imagination. All living creatures were killed or maimed by the enormous and unprecedented destructive power of the bombs. They burned buildings and houses to the ground, turning Hiroshima and Nagasaki into cities of death. Spread out before us was a completely scorched land, full of dead bodies and injured people writhing in pain. Its misery can only be described as “hell.” Invisible radiation from the bombs continues to afflict the survivors and undermine their health.

These A- bomb survivors witnessed firsthand the true nature of nuclear weapons and understand on a physical level that they are “weapons of extermination.” Nuclear weapons are “weapons of the devil” that strip people of everything human. They cannot coexist with human beings. They must not be used for any reason whatsoever. We must not allow them to be used. The next use of atomic bombs will mean the extinction of the human race. As long as nuclear weapons exist in the world, human beings will always be haunted by the threat of nuclear war and will be in danger of extinction.

For the last 70 years since those two days, we have consistently and fervently appealed to the world, “Prevent nuclear war, abolish nuclear weapons,”“No more Hibakusha,” and “Hiroshima and Nagasaki should never be repeated anywhere on earth.”

In April 2010, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross made an appeal to strengthen diplomacy toward the reduction and ultimate destruction of nuclear weapons through a focus on the inhumane nature of these weapons. The 2010 NPT Review Conference expressed in its final document “deep concern at the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons.” The first Preparatory Committee for the 2015 NPT Review Conference released the Joint Statement on the Humanitarian Nature of Nuclear Disarmament, and urged that an international conference be held on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons. We have seen five Joint Statements and three international conferences between then and now, as we stand here today for the 2015 NPT Review Conference. We are encouraged by the fact that a majority of nations and regions are now doing their best to realize “a world without nuclear weapons.”

We hereby make the following requests to the heads and representatives of all Nuclear Weapons States: -- Urgently implement the “unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the elimination of nuclear arsenals,” which you agreed upon at the 2000 NPT Review Conference and reaffirmed again in 2010. -- Take a bold step forward toward the abolition of nuclear weapons by shifting to national security measures based on mutual trust and not on nuclear deterrence. We ask you to consider starting negotiations for a legal framework and take a brave and bold first step toward the swift abolition of nuclear weapons. -- Please come and see the A-bomb exhibition “A Message to the World from Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” to be held by Nihon Hidankyo at the Main Gallery in the Visitors' Lobby of the U.N. Building. And please listen to the accounts and appeals of the ailing Hibakusha, who have risked their lives to travel to New York. It is our hope for all to learn from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo)

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NIHON HIDANKYO (Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations) Gable Bldg. #902, 1-3-5 Shiba-Daimon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0012 JAPAN TEL ＋81 3 3438 1897 FAX ＋81 3 3431 2113 E-mail [email protected] Web site http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hidankyo/nihon/

No More Hibakusha Project-Inheriting Memories of the A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Plaza-F, 6th Floor, 15 Rokuban-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0085 JAPAN TEL/FAX ＋81 3 5216 7757 E-mail [email protected] Web site http://kiokuisan.com

April 2015

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