Let Hibakusha’s Voice Heard Around the WorldTANAKA Terumi
Co-Chairperson, Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (NihonHidankyo)
I was 13 years old when I suffered the atomic bombing. I was a first grader in middle school.
Since then, I have lived to be 91 years old today. As an A-bomb survivor, Hibakusha, I
witnessed with my own eyes the catastrophic effects of the atomic bombing. I remember allthat I saw at that moment, and I have been working as an eye-witness for denouncing
nuclear weapons, saying that they are kind of weapons humans cannot coexist with.
However, people who belong to my generation are dying out while nuclear weapons are stillthriving.
We are very glad that we have achieved the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
To be honest, we wanted a treaty that goes further that dictates the elimination of all
nuclear weapons. Nevertheless the TPNW has established that these weapons are clearly
illegal, we were really pleased. We were happy to see that our efforts bore fruit. However,to think it over, we must admit that nuclear weapons are still out there despite all ourendeavors. As these weapons could be used again so long as they exist, the risk of them
being used remains despite that the ban treaty is there. We are therefore convinced that weneed to establish a treaty stipulating their complete abolition to totally remove the crisis ofhumanity.
I now wish to tell you my experience as a Hibakusha to make you understand what kind ofweapons they actually have been, and why humans should never accept them.
When the bomb fell, I was about 1 kilometer from the hypocenter. The bomb exploded in
the air over Urakami area in Nagasaki. Due to thick clouds, the pilot was unable to visually
identify the planned target. He dropped the bomb on Urakami, a location he could barely
spot from the sky as part of Nagasaki City.
Even one nuclear bomb has a huge destructive power. So it takes one single plane to carryand drop it to destroy a city. On our side, we had been trained to what to do when a planeflies in, but we had not at all been prepared for an air-bombing conducted by a single plane.
In fact, Nagasaki City had gone through a large-scale bombing on August 1st. On that day,oabout 60 bombers flew in, but they all targeted at industrial zones and succeeded in
destroying them. We however were far from envisaging an air-bombing conducted by one
plane carrying one single bomb.
I, too, had never imagined that there would be an air-attack, because the air-raid alert,
issued earlier in that morning, was eased to a simple alarm alert. I thought that the alarm
would be cleared soon. But then I heard the roaring sound of a bomber flying in when I wasreading a book on the second floor of my house. I was thinking that the bomber would just
fly over the city as it was the only aircraft in the sky. My expectation proved to becompletely wrong. It suddenly turned white all around me. I could see nothing. It was thecolor of the flash emitted by the bomb when it exploded. Next moment, I sensed an
imminent danger and ran down the stairs to the ground floor. I covered my eyes and ears
with my hands. During those days, we had been trained to do so to protect our bodies fromthe effects of conventional bombing: preventing our eyes from coming out of their sockets
and ears from tympans being torn. As soon as I lay down on my face on the floor, I lost
consciousness. I guess that the blast and its sound followed then, but I do not remember
having heard them. I did not even realize then that two big glass doors blown by the blast
were covering my body.
Mother was safe from the damage because she had gotten out quickly from the fallen
house right after the bombing. I came to myself when I heard her calling my name loud. I
noticed that the two glass doors on my body were not broken. They were intact which
seemed to me a miracle. The shock wave of nuclear bomb was known to be strong enoughto break into pieces any window panes on buildings located within 3 or 2 kilometers radius.
Despite this, the glass doors on my body withstood the shock and remained intact. Even
today, I consider it as a true blessing and thanks to that miracle that I have been able towitness the aftermath and the effects of the atomic bombing on the survivors and sharethem with you today.
If I could witness in the smallest details the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons
on survivors, it is thanks to two facts combined: the target of atomic bombing was changed
due to weather and that I survived by miracle. And it also allowed me to continue to tell you
about these consequences ever since.
At that time, Urakami district could not be seen from where I was because of the hills inbetween, but I saw the sky above the district turn black. The flames rising from the burningocity lighted the black smoke to color its large parts in red. When I saw that scene, I thoughtthat a huge burning inferno was appearing under that smoke. What I could not imagine wasthat citizens in tens of thousands were being killed there. I could see the sun through theblack screen of the smoke. It looked like a shining red ball.
Shortly after, a big fire broke out near where I was. It quickly spread and came close tothreaten me. If I let it develop, I would burn my house. As we were afraid that our house
would be destroyed by fire, we went to see the house. At that point, the fire somehow
stopped spreading because the wind changed its direction. Our house was damaged but
spared to be burned down.
However, in the auditorium hall of my elementary school we stopped at on the way back,we saw nearly a hundred injured people who were carried there. Most of them wereseverely injured or burned. Those who seemed not so badly injured were moaning that they
were in pain and suffering. About 4 or 5 women were looking after them. They were notdoctors, not even nurses. These professionals were not able to come to the first aid stationfrom outside, as they themselves were killed or severely injured. Those assigned to thetasks usually done by nurses, had to manage to come to the station on foot and tried togive care to the injured with makeshift materials such as sheets of cloth soaked in oil inbuckets which they put on the burns on the back of people. With time, people began to die
one after another crying “it hurts” or calling their mother.
Those people who died in the auditorium were taken out to the school yard. Their bodies
were piled up and incinerated there at the end of the day. I think most of the people in theauditorium died there. Mass incineration was conducted every day using the school yard ascrematorium. This is why for a week or two, “smell of death” hung in the air all around thetown.
Looking at Urakami area in tempest of flames, we thought about the families of my two
aunts who lived there. So, with Mother, I went to Urakami district to find out what had
happened to them. As there was no access to Urakami district from the city, we had tomake a big detour through the forests on foot of the mountains and eventually enteredUrakami three days later. The scene I first saw there made me feel the emptiness, thefeeling that everything had disappeared from Urakami. As we began walking down themountains, we found charred black human bodies lying around on the ground unattended.
In shady places, heavily injured people in hundreds, were also lying or sitting on the ground,omost of them barely capable of groaning. We had to walk in the middle of these people toreach my aunts’ houses to find out that their families had died. The family members of one
aunt were all burned black and left lying under the burned-down house. The house ofanother aunt was an isolated house and had fallen flat on the ground, but some of her
family had miraculously survived. Aunt herself had been severely burned and had diedshortly before we reached there. We put a sheet of iron on the grass in a field, placed her
body on it and covered it with pieces of wood to cremate. We collected some bones fromthe ashes and put them in a pot for storing miso as there was nothing else there to serve asa cinerary urn.
My grandfather was also heavily burned but was still alive when we found him. However, hewas so weak that he could not even understand that I was his grandson. He neverthelesssensed a human presence near him. He moved his lips to say he wanted water. Generally,injured people wanted water. As he was severely wounded, he was not an exception. On
his desperate request, I soaked my handkerchief with water and applied it on his lips. It was
the ending care that I could give to my grandfather.
A single bomb explosion, in the space of an instant, took the lives of five family members ofmine. After going through such a brutal attack, it was natural for any human being to beconvinced that such weapon should never be used in war. This is why I want that those
who continue to say that nuclear weapons should be eliminated to try to experience forthemselves what we the survivors actually endured. We should not reduce theirexperiences to just the word “inhumane” but capture the reality of what nuclear weapons
brought about to humans, of what kind of destruction or damage to them. I think this will bea source of powerful action, much more powerful than we have today and it will take us
closer to the elimination of nuclear weapons.
There still are many nuclear weapons on earth. And the president of the superpower
Russia is threatening to use these weapons in invading Ukraine. Such threat must not
become a reality. However, the war continues. This war must be stopped by negotiations assoon as possible so that these weapons will never be used again.
In closing, I want to say that we, people and the government of Japan must be the ones
that should take the lead towards the elimination of nuclear weapons. Prime Minister
Kishida has characterized Japan as “the only country to be A-bombed in war.” If so, hemust be the one to lead a global effort for the nuclear abolition. What he did instead was toodeclare at the G7 Meeting in last May that nuclear deterrence is so important and therefore
it should be fostered. What an aberration! We cannot let him do what he wants. We must
unite and radically change the nuclear policy of the present government. We must not wait
for somebody to do that. Who can make the change we want then? Those who have comehere to gather, for sure, but we need a lot more people like me and you, who are resolved
to work together for changing the government, putting huge pressure on it to make it sign
and ratify the TPNW and fighting on the frontline for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Let
us work together!!

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