2023 World Conference against A & H Bombs
International Meeting -- Session 1
Yokoyama Teruko
Hibakusha of Nagasaki
Vice President, Nagasaki A-Bomb Survivors’ Council

News videos about Ukrainian children running away from Russia’s bomb attacks
makes my heart ache as those scenes overlap with what happened in July 1945.
In late July 1945, American B-29 bombers frequently flew over Nagasaki to dropbombs. Each time, my family and I would hide in an air-raid shelter dug under thefloor of our house with our neighbors, holding our breath. Once the bombingsubsided, we moved to a larger bomb shelter in the town. Along the way, the B-29s
continued bombing without mercy. I had just turned four years, but I still can vividly
remember the experience.
To escape the horrific bombing, my two older sisters and I were evacuated by our
grandparents to the countryside. My parents and my younger sister, who was 16
months old, remained at home. Soon after, an atomic bomb was dropped.
My house was located 4 kilometers from the hypocenter. When my mother learned
that B-29 bombers were coming, she was about to dress my younger sister, who wasplaying naked in the front yard. She felt a blinding flash of light as she called out tomy younger sister "Ricchan!" from the house. Immediately she put her own body overmy sister. It became pitch dark all around, and what looked like gold dust was falling.
Inside the house, she saw all the drawers of the wardrobe fall out. She also saw
tatami mats floating and windowpanes shattering and getting stuck in the walls.
My father was at Fuchi National Elementary School, 1.2 kilometers away from thehypocenter. He was blown away from the school building, over the playground anddown the cliff.
My mother immediately went out to look for my father, carrying my little sister on herback. But beyond the station she saw the red flames from the telephone poles andother objects, and could not reach where he was.
Only on the fourth day, she found him in an air-raid shelter. His eyes were swollen
1purple. His face was bleeding and his lips peeling. He had severe burns to his entire
body, which was also bloated. His clothes were bloodstained. He looked almostunworldly. My mother and sister stayed in the air-raid shelter with my father until thewar’s end on August 15.
Inside the shelter, water was dripping from the ceiling, and there were only thin straw
mats on the floor. Underneath was a soggy mess of vomit of other victims, dirt, andmaggots that seeped through to the top of the mats. My mother could not lay mysister down to rest.
My father had something stuck in his eye when he was blown away. He lost sight in
his right eye, but his life was saved. However, even though he recovered enough towork, we often saw him crouching at the front door, unable to leave home for work inthe morning. That was because he suffered the A-bomb bura-bura disease (extremetiredness). He also later suffered from the aftereffects of the broken hip he sustained
when he was blown off by the blast, liver disease, and a thyroid gland that caused his
neck to swell to twice its size, making it difficult to move even a little. He was repeatedly
hospitalized.
My little sister got hoarse and her throat was wheezing and hissing. She complainedof pain and cried continually. At age 5, she underwent surgery on her vocal cords atNagasaki University Hospital, which had been treating patients at Shinkozen
Elementary School.
After the surgery, her voice was reduced to just a muffled whisper. After that, she wasrepeatedly hospitalized and entered junior high school three years late. She was only
able to attend junior high school for one semester of first year. She was forced to live
in hospital until she died at the age of 44. Before her death, she lost sight in botheyes and asked me from the darkness, "What handicaps am I suffering? What do I
get punished for?” I could not say anything.
Had it not been for the war, or for the atomic bombing, my sister could have enjoyeda beautiful life. Whenever I remember her, I get sad, frustrated, and angry at the war
and atomic bombs.
Nine days after the bombing, my grandmother took me back to Nagasaki from ourevacuation home. All around us was a burnt field and an indescribable feeling of fear
surrounded us, as if we had entered a “dead town”. I grabbed my grandmother'smom’pe (working pants women wore during the war) tightly and asked her, "Where2

am I? Where am I?” I still clearly remember walking a little and asking, "Where am I?”
My youngest sister, who was born three years after the atomic bombing, developed
purpura when she entered elementary school. We witnessed many people who diedshortly after developing purple spots on their body, after exposed to radiation fromthe atomic bombing. I was terrified to see such spots appearing on my little sister’sbody. Fortunately, she survived but even she, who was born after the atomic
bombing, was threatened by the aftereffects of the atomic bombing.
In our family, someone was always hospitalized. My mother always took care ofthem. She died of stomach cancer at the age of 64 in 1972. And three years later, myfather died of lung cancer.
My eldest sister, who had come back to Nagasaki with grandfather immediately after
the bombing, died of leukemia. My second elder sister suffered various cancers,
starting with skin cancer. She eventually died of bile duct cancer.
If only the atomic bomb had not been dropped, my family would have lived a healthy
and happy life. Every day we were haunted by sickness and worries of theaftereffects. The atomic bomb continues to torment us until we die.
Those A-bomb survivors, or Hibakusha, are also undergoing unspeakable suffering.
Russia is now threatening to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. This reminds
Hibakusha vividly of what happened to them on that day and the suffering we haveundergone. It brings great suffering and sorrow to us.
Nuclear weapons would bring unimaginable hell on earth. They should never be used
for whatever reasons. The only way to completely prevent the use of nuclear
weapons should be for all the countries to join the Treaty on the Prohibition ofNuclear Weapons.
I hoped that the G7 Summit held in Hiroshima would be of some significance. But theworld seems to be moving in the opposite direction of "a peaceful world without
nuclear weapons”. Six years have passed since the TPNW was adopted, thegovernment of Japan, the only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons,
has not even signed it. I had hoped that the Hiroshima summit would give theJapanese government an opportunity to sign the treaty. I never expected to see asummit statement that recognizes the role of nuclear weapons.
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The Hibakusha are approaching the time limit of their lives. I strongly hope that while
they are still alive, we must set a course for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
I will join forces with all global citizens to exert my last strength to eliminate all
nuclear weapons from the earth as soon as possible.
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