70 Years after the bombing of HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI

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 S ato , M ari F uk azawa, N ET- GTAS (Haruka S hinno ,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
dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima andNagasaki. Hibakusha ( A- Bomb survivors) who
survived the hell of the at omic bombs formed“Nihon Hidankyo” (Japan Confederation of A-and
H- Bomb Sufferers Organizations) in 1956. Our
vow was to save not only ourselves but also
mankind through our experiences. With thatsolemn intention, we' ve been appealing, “ No
more Hibakusha!” ever since.

We experienced A- bombs at the end of a war
that was initiated by the Japanese government.
In order to prove our determination to allow no
more Hibakusha,
we have been seeking
compensation for our sufferings.
Atomic bombs / nuclear weapons can't coexist
alongside mankind. America has a moral
obligation as an advanced country which was
the first to use nuclear weapons. Japan has the
responsibility as the only country in the historyof mankind that has been bombed with atomic
weapons in war time. Both countries must work
together. If both of them take the leadershiptowards the abolition of nukes, we can change
the world.

Two atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima andNagasaki in a matter of seconds andindiscriminately robbed countless people oftheir lives. Watching people walk like ghosts, I
regained consciousness and touched my face,chest and arms. I realized that my body was also
badly injured. It was bleeding and burnt and myskin was peeling off. The terror of maggots
eating my motionless body and the treatmentthat followed made me scream in agony. “ Killme!”, I cried.

The “ No More Hibakusha Project - Inheriting
Memories of the A- and H-Bomb Sufferers” wasformed by people who share the spirit of No
More Hibakusha in order to continue the work of
the Hibakusha as a memorial to their lives anddeaths. The members have been holding
Hibakusha storytelling sessions.
Many
Hibakusha shared stories of their A- bomb
experiences and of their lives filled with anxiety
and sufferings. They also talked about their
mission to live as Hibakusha, while people of allages, especially the younger generation,
listened eagerly.

Even if we survived, we suffer from sicknesses
caused by the A- bomb. Hibakusha evenexperienced prejudice and discrimination in ourdaily lives, from employment to marriage. Ourparents, brothers and sisters, friends andchildren were killed by atomic bombs. Somegave up living and took their own lives. For
Hibakusha, “ to keep on living” is a constantstate of suffering.

“Messages from Hibakusha” is a collaborationof Hibakusha and the younger generation;
Hibakusha shared their experiences and young
people wrote them down. Even though it' s asmall booklet, it is full of messages of hope from
Hibakusha and from people who want to carryon our mission.

Hibakusha believe in the wisdom of humanbeings and our mutual understanding.
Hibakusha have a mission to tell our children,
grandchildren and the future generations tocreate a world without nuclear weapons.
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 Movement1

downloading edition

1. A-Bomb Experiences
Several days later, I searched for mymother among the ashes of my house. I wasable to find what seemed like a corpse on
the site where she was lying. But it didn't
look like a human. She was a small oily
object, looking like a child manikin burnt
and coated with coal tar. My mother was
killed as an “object” not as a human. I was
distraught.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor,
unknown, M, age 15
Mobilized to a gas factory as a 3rd graderof junior high school, I was carrying
coke (smokeless coal) loaded on lorries andbringing it to the furnace. I was sitting
against the window of the factory. At thatmoment, a very strong light was all aroundus. I thought one of the gas tanks had
exploded. Light came to me first, thensound, the blast, and shattered debris inthat order. For a moment, inside the factory
was complete silence. Everyone seemed tohave almost fainted from the shock. Aboveus was blue sky where the ceiling used tobe. Wooden posts and board walls had fallen.
I was in a triangle created between railings
and walls, so I escaped from injury. Then, I
walked along the beach to an air-raid shelter.
I saw black smoke and fire rising from thecity. There were people bleeding from theirfaces and whose clothes were torn to pieces.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.3 km,
M, age 13
After a while, I realized that I was alive
because I could faintly hear someone crying,“ Help! ” I crawled out from the destroyed
school building and got outside. There I saw
the mushroom cloud rising up into thegloomy sky. “What is that!?” I asked. But noone answered.
After a while, darkness
became moonlight, then I found out that not
only the school building, but nearby houses
were also all destroyed. I had no idea what
had happened. Some marks of small hands
were left on my shirt. My friend pulled meout of the building, I was told. We stayed
there until a little after 9, but no adults
were around. No teachers either. My
friends were calling for help but fire wascoming, so I left them and ran away.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.2 km,
M, age 16
My mother was trapped under thecollapsed house. I screamed “Mom!”, then, I
heard from under the roof, “ I' m here! ” Ipeeled off the roof shingles and put my facein, but I couldn't go any further because big
joists overlapped one another on theconcrete bedding. Through the narrowest
gap, I saw my mother lying on her backabout 1 meter away. She was bleedingaround her closed eyes. She never opened
her eyes no matter what I said, and she
didn' t even try to turn her head to me. I
decided to dig up my mother from anotherside, but shortly, a very strong fire storm
approached to us. Sparks from the fire werefalling on me. I desperately screamed “Mom,
I can' t. Fire is coming. I can' t come any
closer from my side.” My mother answered,“Then, run away. Hurry up.” Next moment,
she started to chant “the Heart Sutra”. She
must have prepared for death. I reluctantly
left my mother to die. I ran away hearing
her voice behind me.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.4 km,
F, age 2
My grandmother was down on bended
knees, putting her hands together andsaying, “ Please forgive me. Please forgiveme, ” in the direction of voices she could
hear. They were voices of women who lived
in the neighborhood. There was no way tohelp them, so the only thing she could do
was apologize. My mother saw a handpulling my leg. It seemed like a middle-aged
woman who lived next door. Her face andhands were sticking out, but the rest of her
body was covered by debris. Her eyes
showed she was in deep pain, and her
painful look calling for help had a hold on
my mother. Nevertheless, she hardened herheart and smacked the hand away from my2

downloading edition

leg. Ever after, my mother sometimes
remembered those women's faces, faces ofwomen who she could not help. She often
said to me. “I became a devil. That moment,
I was a devil.” The thought tormented mymother for almost 70 years.

square at the base of Waseda Shrine andthere were stone stairs there too. Both thesquare and the stairs were filled with
evacuees after the bombing. Students froma girl's school come for labor services were
there in a line, but I couldn' t tell if they
were girls or boys. When their parents
came to search for their children, they
could not distinguish them by their faces sothey checked the name tags on their clothes.
My mother tried to pump water from anearby well, but the water run out by thetime she came back to the house. She gave
water to those girl students on the way,
because they were begging her “ please,water please” . She never told this story. I
suppose that it is because she wasdesperately struggling to make our living,and it might have been taboo to talk aboutsomething like this. It wasn't until she wasin her late 70's that she finally talked about
those girl students and how she had
scooped water with her hands and given
them a suck of water one by one. Even then,she couldn't talk anymore and cried as she
remembered those girls' faces at the end ofher fingertips when she tried to give themwater. I never asked her about it again.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7 km,
F, age 5
My mother was barely conscious andcouldn't get any treatment. We put her on
my grandfather' s two- wheeled cart andescaped uptown to Furuta Town where mymother' s parents lived. I don' t remember
what time it was exactly, but the site I saw
on the way there is still stuck in my eyes. I
cannot forget it.
What I saw there was a line of people
exposed to the A-bomb around the epicenterand trying to get out of the city. Exposed tothe blast and the heat rays, they seemed tobe covered by ashes, their hair stood on end,
and burnt skin of their arms or bodies hungdown like rags. As a child, I first thought
their clothes were torn and hanging down,
but my grandmother told me later it was
burnt skin. On the other hand, some people
were almost naked or bare foot. Theirclothes must have been blown away orburnt off. I heard that the blast blew awayeven shoes around the epicenter. Covered
with dust and ashes, and indistinguishable
as men or women, those people werewalking slowly and weakly, without saying aword. The scene was like “ghosts on parade”
in hell.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5 km,
F, age 7
The scene that I saw on the way home isbranded on my memory. I cannot forget it,even though 68 years has passed. I saw
those people, one whose eyeball was out of
its socket, one whose skin was burnt andhanging down from the arm, one who wasburnt black, and another whose bowels
were hanging out. Then I saw a fallen girlof about my age.
Our eyes met.
Sheseemed not to be able to speak, so she
appealed to me with her eyes: “Help me.” I
still regret that I could not help her, that I
could not give her a cup of water. Even
now I remember vividly her eyes pleadingfor help.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.6 km,
F, age 9
I saw people swarming out of buildings
destroyed by the blast. Their faces were all
covered in blood, and their clothes were
torn to pieces. There was no fire around me.
Many Korean people lived around a publicbath and they start to walk, uttering “Aigo,
Aigo” (a Korean word to express frustration,
annoyance, tiredness— comparable to “ ohmy” in English) . I decided to follow themhoping that things would be alright.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.3 km,
M, age 13
A mother was running with her headlessbaby in her arms. I saw the scene like avision from hell when I was 13 years old.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.5 km,
F, age 4
My house was located next to a small

3

downloading edition

# Hiroshima, entry survivor, M, age 19
The railway sleepers were smoldering inthe station. As we were walking in the dark
to the city, a burnt smell pervaded the air.
An empty streetcar was burned black. We
advanced in file to Aioibashi (Aioi Bridge),
our destination. When it gradually dawned,
we saw that there was nothing remaining of
the houses, except wreckage of buildings offerroconcrete or stone.
We wereoverwhelmed by the grotesque sight andsmell of bodies burnt black. We continued
to advance and saw swarms of burnt people.
Tiles of roofs had become so fragile thatthey crumbled at the touch. Bodies wereturned into white bones. Only their skulls
were still damp. There were burnt andswollen bodies floating on the surface of
Ohtagawa (Ohta River) and M otoyasugawa( Motoyasu River) . I was appalled at thesight. It was like a scene from hell.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7 km,
F, age 20
In my family my brother's wife was killed
outright.
At the time she was in the
detached part of our house. From there she
was thrown into the main part, thencrushed under the two-story house and died.
The house burned down and none of herbones remained.
My eldest brother, who served in theprefecture office, went to work by bicycle alittle late. When he was on his way to theoffice the Atomic- bomb was dropped. He
fell down and hurt his leg.
On September 16, when I returned to
Shikoku, our place of refuge, I was
astonished to hear that my eldest brotherhad died on August 23. Though he was not
burnt, but only hurt his left leg, he bledfrom his eyes, nose, mouth and ears andfrom all over until he died. The doctor of
Shikoku didn' t know about atomic bombs,
but I believe my brother died from illness
caused by atomic-bomb radiation.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7 km,
F, age 5
When we came to the Nishi-ohashi, many
people who had somehow managed to makeit there crowded into the river to quench
their unbearable thirst, as if the river was a
crowded beach in summer. Standing on thebridge, we saw some people floating in theriver. They might have been already deadand floating downstream.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.4 km,
F, age 2
We spent 3 days and nights in a field.
Around us were bodies scattered here andthere. They were infested with flies; black
bodies covered with flies.
I have heard that flies also swarmed
around injured people and laid their eggs in
the wounds. Crawling maggots were so
painful that the injured picked them out
with the end of a stick.
But one after
another they died.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7km,
F, age 5
As my mother worked near ground-zero,
she was exposed to heat rays from head tofoot. Even though she was heavily burnt,
she came back home by herself.
Manypeople who went with her were lost. They
could not bear the heat and pain, so they
jumped into the river and were lost. But mymother came back. The road to our home
was blocked by broken buildings and a lotof debris. My mother was burnt all over,her mouth was parched, but she passed
through this road which would have been
hard even for uninjured people to traverse.
At last she made it home. As soon as sheheard from my grandfather that I was safe,
she fell down unconscious.
I think she
would have kept on looking as long as she
could until she knew that I was safe.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5 km,
F, age 16
The medical department of the army
began to treat the injured people. We heard
voices saying “Help me!”, “Give me water!”
We dabbed Mercurochrome, rivanol (nameof a disinfectant) and butter on their burns.
A mother whose whole body was burnt
except the arches of her feet desperately
came to have a doctor treat her baby. I
looked at the baby which she was carrying
on her back and said involuntarily “It doesn't
have a head. ”
Immediately the motherfainted and died. Why did I say that? I still
have feelings of remorse towards her.

4

downloading edition

neck and died the following year of an
illness caused by radiation from the atomicbomb.

# Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12
There was a woman who was a member ofa women's volunteer group who had injuries
to half of her face. She said “Give me somewater, please.” I gave her water, saying,“ Here you are.” As soon as she had drunk
the water, she fell flat on her face. Now, I
think that I should have asked her nameand where she lived. But at the time I
myself didn't know how the members of myfamily were, so I could not be thinking
about strangers. I was not concerned about
the people lying around. I was numbed byworry.

# Hiroshima, entry survivor, M, age 11
About 10 or 11 o'clock, people who wereburnt and stripped of their skin fled to ourelementary school. We, sixth grade pupils,
helped to care for the people lodged in theschool. We removed maggots from themwith tweezers, but the next day they died.
The corpses were gathered and burnt in theplayground. Ashes were divided into thenumber of corpses.
I will never forget the voices saying,“Water,” “Water.” I should have given themwater, but we were stopped from giving
water to soldiers.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5 km,
F, age 16
On August 9, I went through the city to
Koi to get my younger sister. There were
heads, arms and bodies with their bowels
hanging out here and there in the city.
There also was a dead man holding a strapof a tram. As I passed the city, I was
exposed to radiation from the atom bomb
not only directly but also secondarily.
The treatment at the army was done forhigh- ranking soldiers first of all and forpeople who could survive. When the
broadcast of the Emperor' s announcementof Japan' s surrender was heard, I was
attending the captain. It was very hard tochange the bandage on his wound. It was
hardened by pus. Taking off it, his stuck
flesh also came off.

# Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 2.2 km,
M, age 20
A boy in 5th or 6th year of elementary
school slept next to me. His brother, a 1st
or 2nd year secondary school student, waswith him. The head of the little boy was
split open and we could see his white brain.
Even in the night, he roared to his brother,“ Where is father? Where is mother? ”
Someone sleeping near him shouted at him,“Don't be noisy!” His older brother was at
his wits end. Soon I fell asleep. When I
woke up, the boy was dead. He was a really
pitiable boy.
# Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12
Shinkozen Elementary School was ashelter for injured people. Fifteen people ina row were laid in 4 rows in the same
direction. The school was filled with themfrom the first to the third floor. As thetreatment given there was only to irrigate
wounds with water boiled once in a drum
can and there were neither medicines nor
applications, they were dying one after
another. Dead people were carried on
stretchers to the playground and piled in aquadrilateral shape, then gasoline waspoured over them and they were burned. I
had seen many black burnt bodies, so I felt
nothing about them. But bodies burned
thus were moving. I could not bear thesight. It was the sight of hell. It always lies
under my consciousness and sometime it# Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 4.0 km,
M, age 9
On summer vacation, from August 7 of1945, I and my younger sister, who was afirst year elementary school pupil, werestaying at our relative' s house about 4km
from ground zero.
After the atom bomb was dropped on
Nagasaki on August 9, my aunt, cousin andI went to my house to search for my father
and brothers.
My grandmother diedcrushed under the house. My mother andyoungest sister were also killed on the spot.
My elder brother, a fourth year secondary
school student, died at the place where he
was mobilized and my elder sister cameback home from mobilization and died. My
father was burnt on the backside of his

5downloading edition

comes to mind: their ragged hair, male andfemale indistinguishable. I thought there is
no God, but only the Devil in this world.

their teacher. I have heard that for sometime after, at the sound of windows anddoors rattling in the wind, my mother would
jump out of bed thinking, “ Hisashi ( mybrother's name) has come back”. I supposethat the way her son died was always on her
mind. Losing two of her children like thatmust have been very painful for my mother.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.3 km,
F, age 5
The state of August 9 has been branded in
my mind like a vivid picture scroll,
especially the bloody shapes of my father
and young sister. The Japanese mattress onwhich I lay in colic at the moment of the
A-bomb was torn in two and hung from thewillow in the corner of our garden. A-bomb
victims lying in agony on the mats in theschoolyard of a Buddhist monks' school;
victims walking in a ditch; bodies of parent
and child with maggots crawling over themin the playground of an elementary school;
the smell of burnt bodies in a playground of
an elementary school everyday evening; theoperation without anesthesia on my younger
sister' s head to remove pieces of glass 3
weeks after the bombing: these memories
are even now in my mind.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.3 km,
M, age 13
When I am asked “What do you remember
about the atomic bomb? ” , I answer, “ Iremember maggots, flies and smell.” At thetime, I wondered why there were so manyflies. They didn't come from just anywhere;
they came from human bodies alive or dead.
# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7 km,
F, age 5
I tended my mother. In the over 30℃
heat of August, a bad smell pervaded the air.
The smell of burnt fish is quite strong, isn't
it. But I think only their families can bear
the smell of people who were burned fromhead to foot. I lose my appetite justremembering it. It took me several years toforget the smell.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5 km,
F, age 7
My cousin who was A-bombed at a place
500 meters from ground zero came to ourhome for help. She was burnt from herback to her hips and a stick penetrated herfoot from arch to instep.
I could notrecognize her, though I was very fond of her.
I wiped her body fluids with a boiled towel
and removed maggots from her wounds. I
nursed her hard but a few days later she
died in my arms. She was 14 years old.
Another cousin also came to our home forhelp. He was 10 years old. He did notreceive severe injuries but was sufferingfrom diarrhea. At the end of August, hesuddenly bled from his ears and nose, thenspat a mass of blood from his mouth anddied. It was the effect of radiation.

# Hiroshima, entry survivor, M, age 15
In Shimonoseki, I had experienced air
raids twice and been surrounded by fires.
Though I had accustomed myself to air
raids, and seen the ruins of fires and manydead people, the sight of bombed Hiroshima
in August was more terrible. It looked likethe whole city had been flattened.
# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.6 km,
F, age 9
After the fires went out, we could see
straight to the Hiroshima Station. Many
unidentified people burnt black and swollen
were floating, stirred by tides on or in the
Honkawa River.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.3 km,
F, age 1
My elder sister died on August 26, burnt
by the strong flash. My elder brother, afirst year secondary school student, hadbeen mobilized to work from early morning
on a road near ground zero. He was killedby the bomb with all his classmates and# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.4 km,
F, age 2
In the meantime, for public hygiene thebodies were loaded one after another into
trucks and carried away, then gasoline waspoured on them and they were burned. My
mother said that large fields were filled

6

downloading edition

with the smell of burning bodies, and she
could not forget the stench. There were
heaps of ashes all over the place. As time
went by, winds blew and rain fell. The
heaps gradually became flat, so that we
could not know how many people had died.
We could not know who was who. No doubt
there were people searching, but it was
impossible to find them. Each one musthave had loved ones, but the dead weredeprived of the opportunity to die a humandeath. My mother said that she wasdistressed at the thought of it.

my face. I'm done for. You are the eldest
daughter. I realize I have brought great
hardship upon you, but I ask you to takecare of your mother, sister and brother. ”
Those were his last words. His hair fell out
in bunches one after another and purple
spots broke out on his face. He took a sipof rice gruel and a bit of grated apple which
my mother had managed to scrounge, thenhe passed away.
# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5 km,
F, age 16
On the morning of August 6, my motherwas to go to evacuate houses for the war.
She was not in good health, so she asked
the woman next door to go for her, while
she herself rested at home. Though ourhouse didn' t burn, the areas of the otherside of Miyuki-bashi (Miyuki Bridge) burnt.
The woman next door came back heavily
burnt from the work. Her baby couldn' t
recognize his mother because of her burnt
face, so he cried and would not suck her
breast. Then his mother turned her faceaway from him and gave him her breast.
My mother saw the scene and regretted
what she had done. For the rest of her life
she kept saying, “I'm sorry, I'm sorry.”# Hiroshima, entry survivor, M, age 11
We went to the Hiroshima Daiichi
Secondary School to look for my elder
brother, but we could not find him. Afterthat my mother looked for him for about aweek on her own. At last, she found analuminum lunch box on which his name wascarved beside the swimming pool. I thinkthat he died before eating the lunch mymother made with rice that she hadmanaged to scrounge from our neighbors.
# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.5 km,
F, age 4
On September 11, my father died. I haveheard from my mother that his whole body
looked like it was covered with cobwebs
and its color was turned to purple. He diedafter suffering for about 3 days.
I
remember the atmosphere as I looked at myfather from behind a sliding paper door.
Though I was told, “Come here,” I didn't go.
I think I was afraid of his groans. My
mother told us that it was so hard to getwood to cremate him. We six, my mother,younger brothers, younger sisters and I,
saw off the smoke from my father' scremation on the river bank.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.1 km,
F, age 13
I escaped death, because I was absent
from school, but all my classmates were
killed.
Though I made it to the school somehow, I
could not do anything for my friends.
I cannot say that I was happy to be alive
because of my absence. It has been mytrauma.
When I went to the house of my bestfriend, I could not enter the house and holdher hands.
I have felt nothing but regret.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5 km,
F, age 16
In April 1946, my father was sick in bed.
Looking at my father' s bloody stool andvomit, a doctor from the neighboring village
said, “It might be typhoid fever, an infection.”
He said that our diarrhea also might becaused by typhoid fever. On the morning ofApril 19, my father looked in the mirror andsaid, “The shadow of death is already upon

7

downloading edition2. Life After the A-Bombs
resulted in me wasting away to skin andbone. I was absent from school for 4 months
and the doctor gave up on me. At one point,
I was wandering between life and death.
However, I miraculously recovered. That
surprised the doctor and my family. It is
still unclear what the cause was and whatbrought me back to life.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7 km,
F, Age 5
It was one or two years later that a young
man who was one of my relatives who had
come to find us in the burned- out ruins
passed away due to the effects of residual
radiation. He had looked for us only 4 or 5days after the bombing in every nook andcranny of the city from the tip of eastern
Hiroshima, across the city central to thewest. It was clear that his death was causedby the Atomic Bomb radiation. A carthorse
he took with him in his search for us also
died a while later. I remember being
disconsolate about the two unnecessary
deaths as a little girl since it felt as though
they died in place of us. Since then, I havealways lived with a fear of death that was
happening everywhere. It could just happen
to us at any time.

# Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12
Although I felt listless, I tried to thinkthat it came from my mental weakness. But
what really bothered me was that when I
was injured, it would not heal properly.
Even a mosquito bite became infected.
# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.4 km,
F, age 2
In my adolescent years, I would often
experience the so-called bura bura disease
which is an unexplained strong fatigue
similar to seasickness and anemia, andcommonly seen among Hibakusha, theAtomic Bomb victims. My father would
angrily say to me in my tired state, “ Pull
yourself together! ” On the contrary, when
my father was out of the house, my motherwould come to me and tell me that she wassorry over and over again. My father would
also reprimand my mother for taking thechildren along with her to her parents'
home in Hiroshima that day which resulted
in us being exposed to the Atomic Bombing.
He said she did it without any regard forthe family she had married into.

# Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 16
I would have a bloody nose or some kindof bleeding almost every day until 1950.
But my hair that had fallen out began togrow back. In 1991, I was diagnosed withgall bladder cancer and had it taken out.
Since then, it has not become metastaticyet. I have had spinal problems, and I sufferfrom backache and sore knees, so thedoctor puts me in traction. What' s foundeven now is uric blood every time I get acheck-up.
# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7 km,
F, age 5
It was 4 years after being exposed to the
Atomic Bomb when I was in 4th grade in anelementary school that I got an unknown
disease. I felt listless, lost my appetite andbecame bedridden. Besides, I was living in arural area with only one clinic owned by anelderly doctor so I was not able to receive
adequate treatment.
The cause waspresumed to be related to the Atomic Bomb.
As my condition got worse, I could not eat
anything at all and even threw up the
medicine that was my only hope and# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5 km,
F, age 7
My second daughter developed a cancer
in 2010. It was hard when she asked me
why she had to suffer from cancer. I wasstung with remorse. In the following year,
my daughter passed away.
# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.0 km,
M, age 3
Two years after my father died frompancreas cancer, I was also diagnosed with8

downloading edition

rectum cancer. Then, I was convinced that
it was attributed to the exposure to Atomic
Bomb. I have always lived with the fear of
the Atomic Bomb affecting not only myself
but my children and my grandchildren. The
Atomic Bomb never ends for us, Hibakusha,
the survivors. It always remains within our
body, damaging our cells to develop anotherdisease which will come in 10 years.

despite fearing the worst, I was blessedwith the birth of a healthy baby.
# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7 km,
F, age 20
I kept to myself the fact that I am a
Hibakusha, a Atomic Bomb victim, for avery long time. Even when I got married, I
never mentioned it nor even where I wasfrom. So, I had no intention of getting an
Atomic Bomb Survivors' Certificate and theinsurance until my mother suggested it tome before she passed away in 1951. The
doctors did not know how to treat Atomic
Bomb- sicknesses. My mother had severe
bleeding from the mouth, gums, nose andeyes when she passed away.
I also had three miscarriages. I tried hard
to convince myself that it was just because
I was doing the laundry and cleaning thebath tub in the cold weather. I never had ababy. Looking back, having a baby wasperhaps not for me because I had wanderedthrough the burned-out ruins of the town ofHiroshima that day. I could never have been
genuinely happy anyway.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.3 km,
F, age 1
Miss Sadako Sasaki would have been myown age and I grew up worrying about what
if I came down with leukemia like Sadako.
Even after marriage, I was distressed andalways doubted if I would really be able togive birth to a healthy baby. At the age of
40, I developed breast cancer and was
saddened that it had finally happened to me
as I was always hoping to live until mychildren were in high school and be alive
when they turned 20 years old. Fortunately,
early detection of the cancer saved my lifeand I am still alive today.
# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor,
unknown, F, age 10
It was not until 1960 when I gave a birth
to my child that I first came to consider
myself to be a Hibakusha, an Atomic Bomb
victim, because I had constant bleeding for
the whole year. The doctors in Tokyo whowere not well- acquainted with radiation
sickness did an operation on me. Not only
did it not work, but it has prevented mefrom ever falling pregnant again. I became
thin and I suffer from anemia. I was amental and a physical wreck when I had toraise my child.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.3 km,
F, age 5
Every August weekly magazines featurestories on Hibakusha, the Atomic Bombsurvivors. The stories are about who they
are, where they lived and how they died.
My family and I always read these stories
with a pounding heart to see if they wereabout anyone we knew. Even the times
when none of our acquaintance were listed,
we still had a heavy heart and suffered froman acute fear of when death would come tous. Every year when August comes, the painof the memory is the last thing I want torecall and I never feel like being in
Hiroshima.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7 km,
F, age 5
When I found out that I was pregnant, I
was so upset because I had heard a news
report of a female Hibakusha having a baby
with a disability, A- Bomb microcephaly. I
worried myself into a severe hyperemesis
where I was not able to eat and intake theadequate nutrition a pregnant woman needs.
In such a condition, I was not physicallyable to have a normal delivery. I had towear an oxygen mask. Fortunately though,# Nagasaki, unknown, F, age 1
At the time of marriage, I could not bringmyself to tell my husband that I was
exposed to the Atomic Bomb. I did not holdthe survivor's insurance certificate. It wasnerve wrecking for me going through mybaby's delivery without the insurance and I
never felt at ease while raising my child.
But when my child was in Grade 3, I

9downloading edition

decided to confide in my family. After that, I
received the insurance.

approaches that memory mentally andphysically wears me out. At one point, theinternal medicine department did not toknow what to do with me as there was no
mental care they could provide at the time.
The doctor told me “go back home.”# Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 3.0 km,
F, age 13
I' ve had a number of death threatening
experiences because of atomic Bomb
illnesses. I am not sure if it was one of theafter-effects, but I had overlapping warts on
my fingers and the kids in my village pickedon me, calling me “Demon.”# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.5 km,
F, age 4
When my mother was almost 80, she
moved up to Tokyo and found a nursing
home to live in on her own. There, shebegan writing notes on her story of that day
and of the depression she suffered fromlater. Not only did she refuse injections in
the nursing home but she also refused toeat, saying that she wanted to die. So I took
her back to my home. She had long sufferedfrom medically unexplained chest pains but
the pain and the depression may have beencaused by the fact she sealed off many of
the unbearably painful experiences she
endured at the time of the Atomic Bombing.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5 km,
F, age 7
Being a Hibakusha, I was discriminatedagainst in my job hunting. When I decided
to marry someone whom I truly loved, hisfather was really against our marriage
because they did not want Hibakusha' s
blood in their family and we were not given
permission to marry. At the time, it wassaid that one in four of all Hibakusha
thought of taking their own lives. My father
who also had thought the same said he
could not kill himself when he watched us
children sleeping.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5 km,
F, age 16
I do not know how many times I thoughtof taking my own life and I would haveended it if it had not been for my family.
Before my father passed away, he asked me
to take care of my younger sister andbrother, and I have stayed alive justbecause of that promise. And because I am
still alive, I want to tell my story of thatday, how people died, and how much theywanted to live. I will be 85 years old in 3
months, but I want to keep telling the story
until my last breath.
If you really
understand the facts of war, you know why
war can never be justified.

# Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 3.0 km,
F, age 13
After marriage I gave birth to healthy
children and they have kept my spirits up.
My daughter,
however,
had herengagement broken off because she was thedaughter of a Hibakusha. As her parent,
that was the most agonizing feeling of mylife. She has now 3 dogs and treats them as
if they were her childlen but I still feel her
pain at the back of my mind.
# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor,
unknown, F, age 10
The black rain that fell in the lateafternoon of the day the Atomic Bomb was
dropped was highly radioactive. It made me
fall sick and I was short of physical strengthcompared to my peers. Seeing the horrificsite as a child, I later became neurotic andit did not heal even after the age of 20. That
image of the mushroom cloud has been
burnt into my memory like the endless loopof a film. The fierce red of that cloud is thecolor that burnt the entire city and over 200
thousand people. Every year when summer# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7 km,
F, age 5
Although I went through quite a hardshipthat could not be told easily, given those
who died in the blink of an eye and sufferedto death from after-effects, I feel like what I
experienced is insignificant. Instead, I have
lived day by day with a gratitude for being
kept alive from the hellish situation. I alsofeel strongly that I should live for mymother whose life was ended at the age of31.

10

downloading edition

approve. They hoped that it will be of help
to other Hibakusha.
I was bitterly shocked myself and by thethoughts of my sister's sorrow, and the pain
my parents suffered. I was reluctant to talkabout my experience and remained silent.
However, in 1980, I set up a Hibakusha' s
Association in my area. When one of themembers who was 4 years older than me
passed away at the age of 68 from cancer,
she said to me “ There is nothing more
frustrating” . On behalf of my sister andmany of those who died due to the Atomic
Bomb, I will keep on raising my voice toabolish nuclear weapons and to call on ourgovernment to make amends.

# Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 2.2 km,
M, age 20
My third son who works for a research
institute was told not to take a job involving
radioactive materials due to his low whiteblood cell count. It was discovered in acheck- up that he did not meet theprescribed standard of the Industrial Safety
and Health Law. When I heard about it, I
felt discouraged. Some years later, I heardthat my grandchild in junior high school had
the same problem and was advised by the
track club teacher to have a complete
physiacal examination. Then, I shed tears offrustration. I just have to pray that my
grandchildren and great-grandchildren will
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 thesame 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 ofthem 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, 3.6 km,
F, age 3
Fortunately, my family and I were notaffected by the Atomic Bomb, and I did notworry much until March 1964 when myyounger sister developed a malignant
cancer and passed away within threemonths of the discovery. She was exposedto 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 fromcollege. Her death was obviously broughton 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
MORE NAGASAKIs and NO MOREHIBAKUSHAs” come true. The US President
Barack Obama made a speech to the worldin which he said that he will pursue “a world
without nuclear weapons. ” But nuclear
weapons still exist. Japan must legalize thethree antinuclear principles and leave the
Nuclear Umbrella.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7 km,
F, age 20
Never start a war, it is nothing more thanmurder. If you do not kill your opponent,
you will be killed. That is why I am
absolutely against war. In movies or inanimations, war is depicted as something‘cool’ or ‘exciting’ but it is nothing like that.
It is just homicide. What I would like thenext generations to know is only this. They
should never start a war. Moreover, we livein the Atomic Age, in an atomic war
everything will be consumed by flames in a
flash. I am lucky to be alive. If another war
breaks out, it might not turn out the same.
You have only one precious life which youwere given by your parents. Please do notwaste it.

# Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12“ The first bombs were dropped byAmerica, so we should fire one back at theAmericans”. Such a spiral of hatred must be
stopped. My ultimate wish is to get rid of all
the Atomic Bombs.
# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7 km,
F, age 5
There are a hundred different stories of ahundred different bomb victims. The fact
is, there are many who experienced theAtomic Bombings but only a few are willingto speak up and talk about what they saw.
Many people refuse to talk about it even to
their own families because it is too painful
to even think about it. And some victims
have passed away without ever telling
anybody about their experiences. 69 years
have passed and some people still hide theiridentity as bomb victims. Those who foundthe courage to tell people about theirexperiences -including myself- can't tell all
their stories because there are many
theories about the risks to human healthafter exposure to radiation. Many people
have been forced to live under the fear thatthe after effects might affect their own
children and grandchildren as well.

# Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12
There is a theory which justifies the use of
Atomic Bomb. It explains that by dropping
the Atomic Bombs, many Japanese lives
were saved. Thanks to the Atomic Bombs
the war ended earlier than expected and so,
the dropping of the bomb was the rightthing to do. And that is what makes us feelshame.
# Hiroshima, unknown, M, age 4
The two Atomic Bombs that were dropped
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took the lives ofa few hundred thousand people in a flash.
Even though we know it was in the midst of
a great war, it is still an inhuman act and it
should never be forgiven. These bombs
burnt down everything that was standing,destroyed the lives of many people andkilled many other people. 69 years has
passed but the surviving victims of thebombings are still suffering from after
effects caused by radiation.
My message is “ Please, get rid of all the
nuclear weapons in the world” because I
believe that is the only way to make thevision of “ NO MORE HIROSHIMAs, NO# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.1 km,
F, age 13
Dispose of all atomic weapons immediately.
That was the reason President Obama wasawarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The
Japanese government' s attitude at theUnited Nations gives me a feeling of

12

downloading edition

righteous indignation.
Foreign peace
activists also feel disappointment. On top of
that, I feel the same about the Japanese
news media which does not cover enough ofthese stories of the Atomic Bombings.
Mankind cannot coexist with nuclear power.
All people must be more aware of the risk ofradiation.

stop my tears from flowing down my cheeks
when I try to talk about war. I don' t want
my daughter and grandsons to have toendure such sorrow.
# Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 3.6 km,
F, age 10
My message is “Please maintain the peaceconstitution and do not start a war.”
To the government of America: “ There is
no way, that nuclear weapon can act as adeterrent. To reduce the number of thenuclear weapons is not good enough. They
must all be disposed of.” To the governmentof Japan: “Do not blindly follow the ways of
the American government. Be proud as the
only Atomic Bombing victim nation in theworld and act as a leader of the peacefulworld. ”# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor,
unknown, M, age 15
Anything that is related to nuclear
technology, whether it is a weapon or a
power plant must be banned. Accidents will
occur,and yet Japan still sells its
technology even to foreign countries.
Something terrible will happen and theprice will be unbearably huge.
We the Atomic Bomb victims havepledged “Let all the souls of the people whohave died here in Hiroshima and in
Nagasaki rest in peace; for we shall not
repeat this evil.” Those lives were sacrificed
for the establishment of Article 9 of theConstitution of Japan. Protect the corevalues of today' s Japan, Article 9 of theConstitution and we will live. We should not
die for the Constitution, but live because ofit.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.3 km,
F, age 5
It is needless to say war is a foolish act.
With the wisdom of mankind, I hope we canend this nuclear war era. The peaceconstitution must be protected, as it isprecious to mankind.
I want to leave these two messages:
Accuse those responsible for bombing andprotest against the inhumanity of theAtomic Bombing. But also accept the factthat we too are the guilty culprits in thecourse of this history. There is no suchthing as good excuses. Have the courage toabandon war and dispose of nuclear
weapons.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor,
unknown, F, age 10
Recently there are many nuclear power
plants and nuclear weapons spread widely
throughout the world. And radioactive
waste still has not been disposed of. Atomic
Bombs are weapons. Nuclear power plants
are for energy production. The two are used
for different purposes but both are equally
dangerous. All nuclear power plants could
become nuclear weapons. There is nopeaceful way of using nuclear power.

# Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12
A new generation of politicians who don't
know war are moving to change Article 9 of
the Constitution of Japan, saying it isnecessary to become free of post- war
politics. That terrifies us very much. Almost
70 years has passed since the war ended
and no one in Japan' s Self-Defense Forces
has died in combat in that period. This isthanks to Article 9 of the Constitution.
Now, how many times has America gone to
war since the end of WW Ⅱ . These wars
have not all been justified. Considering
those facts, I want to pass this peace on toyounger generations and maintain thepresent system.

# Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 4.0 km,
M, age 9
War is sorrowful. I have had so muchtrouble, looking for a job, and getting
married because of the fact that I lost bothof my parents in the bombing. Long ago,
when my older brother and I were sleeping
side by side at our aunt's house, I asked mybrother “ Why do we have to go through thismuch of pain and suffering? ” I still can' t

13

downloading edition

actually happened as much as I can. The
future of this world depends on thethoughts and the actions of young people.
The sufferings, we the Atomic Bomb victims
have experienced is not a story of the
distant past. It will be close to us as long as
nuclear weapons exist. And it could very
well happen to the next generation. I say,
“ We do not want any more Atomic Bomb
victims” To speak of my experiences is toprevent the world from making the same
mistakes.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.0 km,
M, age 3
My fear is that one-day all the people of
the world will forget the tragedy of war andthe lessons taught by war. And we will do
the wrong things all over again. Especiallyin Japan, some people are trying to change
the present constitution. I worry that ourcountry might become a nation that gets
involved in war again. We cannot give ourchildren “a country, which starts war” And
now, I feel the fear of war more than ever.
Peace, does not come to us just by itself. Allof us, together, have to stand up andprotect it.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.7 km,
F, age 5
For more than a half century, the Atomic
Bomb victims along with people wishing forpeace of the world, have continued to tellpeople inside of and outside of Japan not to“make more bomb victims” and to “create aworld without war and without nuclear
weapons”. Now that I have lived to the ageof 78, it is not so hard to guess that my wish
to see a world without nuclear weapons will
not come to be. It is time I pass on mywishes to the next generations. I wish all
the young people will learn from history
that you cannot sit and wait for peace tocome. You need to make efforts to acquirepeace. From that lesson, I want them tolook for and to find the way for “the world toprioritize peace and life most of all” and to
avoid being involved in wars. I believe, that“peace will happen through communication
between different people” .
So for the
younger generations, I want them tocommunicate with lots of people in theirown fields all over the world and exchange
culture because the closer you become withstrangers, the farther away war will be.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.5 km,
F, age 4
I testified about the Atomic Bombing inWashington DC and was questioned, “ How
can you manage to testify in front of youradversary, don't you feel a great anger?”I answered, “ I do not stand here withanger, nor with hatred. I cannot testify andprotest against nuclear weapons withfeelings like that. ” However, my answer
wasn' t delivered, to the audience because
the interpreter could not stop crying. I do
not feel anger. Maybe that's because I was
too young at the time, but I also think it
may be because my mother has taken thesin of those feelings to the next world.
That's why, I say to the world “Don't let themothers of the world cry”.
# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.6 km,
F, age 9
All we can do is to let others know how
terrifying the Atomic Bombs are, in thehope that one day, peace will come, andthere will be no more war. There aren' t
many people who can tell personal stories ofthat time anymore, and even when we do,
many people just walk passed us. We all
have to do what each of us can do, since
there are those, who have lost their lives
and their dreams.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.2 km,
M, age 16
I want you to take over, and be the leaderof Atomic Bomb victims and nuclear
accident victims, and tell the world thateveryone needs to think of the disposal of
nuclear waste problem as it is their own
problem. We say, “Today, you are a listener,
tomorrow you will be the story teller” . If
you cannot ask your listener to tell the next
person to spread the story of what they
have heard, you cannot change the tide of# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5 km,
F, age 7
The Atomic Bomb victims are aging day
by day.
I want to tell the younger
generations the true history of what

14

downloading edition

public opinion and dispose of nuclear
weapons.

Atomic Bombs, but we must also make “that”
country admit that they have responsibility
for that war. We cannot change the recent
movement to revise the constitution so thatthe country can start a war again. The
Atomic Bomb victims are not clinging to thepast damage. If we don' t make thegovernment admit their fault, in future
there will be more bomb victims. These are
the messages that I want to pass down to
the next generations.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 3.5 km,
F, age 7
After the war, the Japanese government
covered up the effects of the Atomic Bombs.
While we are working for the bomb
victims, the Tohoku Earthquake occurred in
2011. Once again, the government did notreveal the true damage caused by thedamage to the Fukushima Nuclear Power
Plants. After all, the government has notchanged from that time.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 2.2 km,
M, age 1
2.3 million soldiers, and 3.1 million if you
include civilians, have lost their lives. I
want to make it apparent to everyone thatthe country went into an unwinnable war.
Couldn't we have saved half of the losses if
we had ended the war, a year earlier? Over
100 thousand people also lost their lives in
air-raids in Tokyo and in Okinawa. It is hard
to tell who and what is responsible for that.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.4 km,
F, age 2
Stories of Atomic Bomb victims are notjust about the hardships that they havebeen through. You should be aware that we
too are, in fact, facing the same problem
and that we live in the same era, as we
listen to the stories. Wouldn' t that be theleast we can do for those who died? I havepledged at my mother' s gravestone “ Tomake a world without nuclear weapons, andto think of it as my own problem”. I will dothe same for the people who are sufferingfrom the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
accident, and think of the problem as myown as well.

# Nagasaki, entry survivor, M, age 12
It isn't possible to understand and explain
the absurdity of war, just by listening to theexperiences of victims or just by talking
about it. You first need to learn thehistorical background and then startbuilding up on that knowledge what you
hear from others. The fact that yourunderstanding of war is logical can be thecore of your anger, and it also can makeyour peace activities last longer.

# Hiroshima, directly exposed survivor, 1.3 km,
M, age 13
The government of Japan has stated, “ Inan emergency situation which is a threat tothe 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 toapologize to those killed. If they do, thegovernment cannot start another war. The
average age of the Atomic Bomb victims is
now over 80, so we hope to hand over thebaton of life and pass on.
# Nagasaki, directly exposed survivor, 3.0 km,
M, age 13
Not only for the damage caused by the15

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 thesewords 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 inthis 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 inbrackets following their comments.

■ Among the Hibakusha whohave struggled with their pains
ever since the end of the war,
only a few are brave enough to
talk
about
what
they
experienced on that day. How
can I satisfy them with myreaction to their stories whileliving my ordinary everyday
life?
“ Maybe you can' t
understand the situation. It' s
totally beyond imagination. ”
That's probably t rue. Even so,
I am determined to accept
everything I heard from them,and pass it down to ourgeneration.
The
time
remaining for the Hibakusha islimited, but they are trying toconvey things that are hard tounderstand. Let me receive
the baton from Hibakusha. So, I
shall take it. ( 2nd year highschool student)

the Atomic Bomb and the war
continued for such a long timeafter the end of the war. I
strongly hope that ourgeneration should try tounderstand their experiences
and pass the stories on to otherpeople so as not to forget their“ heart”. (3rd year high school
student)■ I was able to listen to thestories of an Atomic Bombsurvivor: not only the story of
how she couldn' t confess that
she is a Hibakusha to herhusband and his family, butalso the story of how she felt
guilty when her daughter got
sick and then asked her if she
was one of the survivors.
It was my first time to hear
the stories of Hibakushas'
experiences , and although I
was really shocked by thetruth that the Atomic Bombs
destroyed the most bright,
promising time of their lives,and by the stories that
described how the impact of■ What's left most in my heartis the truth that the pain anddiscrimination brought by
Atomic Bomb never ends. I feelvery sad because wars are still
waged even though many
people are strongly against
war. I truly wish that more andmore people would pray forpeace. ( 3rd year high school
student)■ No matter how much wegrieve over this tragedy that
already happened, the hurt andloss will never come back. This
is why we must have power toimagine what war is and learn
from the past in order to keep
conveying our thoughts about
peace to the rest of the world.
“ War should be gone from ourworld forever no matter what
happens. ” Here I would like topledge that I will do my best to
make the wishes of the
Hibakusha come true. Let' s
keep the strong messages ofthe Hibakusha engraved in ourhearts, and be determined tostop war. Listen to the voices
unheard. Cover the invisible
pain with our tears, and holdthem tight. ( 2nd year high)school student)■ When I asked “What was themost difficult experience ofbeing a Hibakusha?” I was toldthat because their daughter isa second- generation of
Hibakusha,
her marriage
proposal was declined by her■ Amid ongoing controversy
over a proposal to amend
Art ic le9ofJapan ' sConstitution and Osaka City
Mayor Hashimoto' s negative
comment about the so- called“comfort women” issue, war is■ Although there are manyhigh school students who areinterested in peace and social
issues, not many of them havethe initiative to take part in an
actual event like this. What weneed to do right now is to think
about how we can motivate
those young, people, especiallyjunior and senior high school
students, to think together
about peace. ( 2nd high school
student)

16

partner' s parents. I thought
this is terrible. However, theparents of the partner would
have also thought about thelife of a future grandchild.
What is truly terrible is not theparents' reaction who were
just being honest as humanbeings, but the war itself
which eventually dropped
Atomic Bombs on Japan. ( 2ndyear high school student)

downloading edition

no longer a thing in the past inJapanese minds. It is necessarythat those who are building thefuture listen to the stories of
the aging Hibakushas'
experiences, and pass them
down
to
the
younger
generation. This need is not
limited to only the stories of
the Atomic Bomb, but the same
principle should be applied toall other things which must not
be forgotten, such as theexperiences of the air raids andtheFukushima
nuclear
explosion incident. ( 2nd year
high school student)■ “ Where there are one
hundred Hibakusha, there will
be one hundred stories to tell.”
I felt exactly the same way
after hearing the stories ofmany Hibakushas' experiences.
I should never feel that' senough, I don' t need to hear
any more. I should listen to as
many stories as possible. And
in that way, form my own
views about war. ( 3rd year
high school student)■ One of the survivor's strong
hope that there will be “ nomore wars” is genuine. I reallyfeel that we in Japan, which is
the only nation that has been a
victim of Atomic Bombs,
should know everything about
what actually happened before
we try to take action for peaceto the world. ( a high school
student)■ One of t he Hibakusha said,“ This year, 2015, is very
important because it marks the70th year since the Atomic
Bombings. I really feel that wehave never again have such asignificant moment in the
future.” This surprised me andit made me think. What does
the 70th Anniversary year
mean for all of the surviving
Hibakusha? We need to takethis very seriously.

■ While one of the Hibakusha
never told one of her childrenthat they were both Hibakusha,
she confided it to her daughter
who was born after the war. I
thought this reflected themother's kindness. She did notwant to make her Hibakushachild worry. I think we alsoneed to listen to what themother told her daughter bornafter the war. As a child andsister of Atomic Bomb victims,
that daughter really caredabout the mothers and thechildren who suffered from the
Fukushima nuclear explosion.
We should record as many
testimonies of Hibakusha as
possible in order to help all of
the surviving Hibakusha.
■ A nine- year old boy walked
around the city of Nagasaki
after the blast of the Atomic
Bomb and discovered thateveryone in his family wasdead. This is really hard to
imagine. And what waited forhim next was the harsh realityof ostracism and being sentfrom one relative' s place toanother. “ How could all thesethings happen to me? ” Thesewords are now deep in myheart.
I feel the cruelty
brought by the Atomic Bomb.
In spite of his sufferings, thatboy was eager to look forward
to the future and live his life
fully. Not only did he graduate
from high school while working
at a part- time job, but he also
tried to study at an open
university.
A middle-aged member of thegroup who listened to the
Hibakusha's stories said, “I wasreally moved by t hat young
boy' s positive attitude in the
midst of his first reaction what
had happened towards his own
life. He was determined toalways be cheerful no matter
what happens, and to cherish
his relationships with otherpeople. ”
It really is an
important message.

17■ While my father was away
fighting in the war, his wifeand their children died in the
Atomic Bombing. My father
remarried after the war and I
am a child of that marriage. I
have a memory from myelementary school days ofhearing stories about theAtomic Bombs when we allwent to school on August 9th
during the summer vacation.
Later, when I visited my family
graves, I realized that my halfbrothers at the time of theAtomic Bombing were so young,
only three and five years old.
This made me feel that I should
live my life fully for them. And
today,
after hearing the
Hibakushas' stories I, again,strongly feel how horrible areboth war and the Atomic
Bombs. I am determined to
study with other people andtake part in the “ No More
Hibakusha” campaign.
■ When the Hibakusha tell us
about that day, the day of theAtomic Bombs, they tell us
about what they saw, what
they smelled, and what their
hellish experiences were like. I
think that when they tell us
their stories, filled with painful
flashbacks and experiences
they don' t want to recall stories they don' t want to telleven to their own families - wemust humbly listen. I realize
how brave they are for telling
their stories, which are notconfined to a moment or a day,but rather they are stories of
their 68- year history of livingwith discrimination.
■ The first time that I heard a
Hibakusha's personal testimony
and his reasoning for proactively
talking about such a horrificexperience, I felt especially
how sincere he was. It could
have been me. There were kindunderclassmen in the girls'
high school and I must speakout for their sake. I want todownloading edition

discover ways tothoughts like these.

convey■ The fact that the whereaboutsof the Hibakusha' elder sisterand mother are unknown tothis day moved my heart. The
story of how he dug throughthe burnt remains of his house
but found nothing had not been
mentioned until a question was
asked. I realized that much ofwhat he felt on that day,August 9, heading home from
Tachibanawan, where he had
been mobilized, to Matsuyama,
where he lived, was left unsaid.
“It is not something good, it isquite a harsh bitter memory so
I came to want to try to forget
about it. I began to think ofdisappearing without talking
with anyone. When seeing my
carefree 5-year-old grandchild,
who reminds me of my sister, I
thought that these children
will never know anything
about it if I don't talk. I have totalk. ” But it wasn' t just thecontents of the narration. It
was his expressions and thetone of his voice that made me
feel
t he
Hibakusha' s
everlasting “pain” and “wishes
for the future.”■ The fact that Hibakusha
talk about their experiences
because this issue, rather thanbeing part of the past, is an
issue that persists today andconcerns even our future wasmost impressive. I was strongly
convinced that we, the young
generation who are carrying
the future on our shoulders
have to think about this moreearnestly.
■ How can we convey to thisgeneration, one that is only
familiar with the contemporary
lifestyle that war is not
something of the past? I fully
realized that this is something
we must reflect on further andfurther.

■ I once again thought that
our country' s culture has notchanged from that day to thisday. The circumstances ofHiroshima,
Nagasaki and
Fukushima are not being
correctly reported on.
■ The words “ youth thesedays”
have been usednegatively for a long time but I
was able to feel hopeful that
there is something only we cando about this issue. “ Because
we're alive.” I want to keep on
living while remembering this.
(2nd year university student)■ This was the first time I
heard the stories of the
Hibakusha first- hand, and I
became embarrassed by myown ignorance. As a Japanese,and as a future mother, I want
to study so that, from now on, I
can
pass
on
accurate
information.
When,
during teachingpractice, I noticed a student
selecting “ The atomic bomb
brought an end to the war, it
was inevitable” , option to aquestion I sensed impending
danger. I realized that someone
who had participated in thisevent and heard the Hibakusha
testimonials first- hand would
not have thought that way, so I
learned how important theseopportunities are. ( 4th year
university student)■ A Hibakusha's words “ life's
baton pass” were impressive.
Indeed,I realized how
necessary it is for us to takethat baton and,turning
towards the world, take action.
■ Upon hearing that we haveto find a way to carry on thecollaboration with people inforeign countries and promoteaction by youth on this issue, I
decided to try new ways of
successfully
conducting
activities from now on. I
strongly thought that it' s

18necessary for us to study thehistory of war and the Atomic
Bombings, and make sure thatsuch mistakes are never madeagain. For that end, I believe
it' s important for us to havethe courage to raise our voices
and take a stand,never
allowing what must not beallowed, while bearing thethoughts of those who haveexperienced war in mind.
■ Every student today isthinking of getting connectedto the next generation. It
would be nice if we could comeup with a role for thosestudents. ( 3rd year university
student)■ With the personal experiencesof each Hibakusha being
distinct, I not only wanted toknow more, I fully realized wemust know more. As much as
we try to imagine the tragedyof that day, I' m sure that thereality was in fact even worse.
(4th year university student)■ In a debate held after aschool trip to Hiroshima, I wasshocked to find that those infavor of and against the war
were evenly split. I felt that itis necessary for us to study
ways of stirring up theimagination
andbetterconveying the message ofpeace. On the other hand, I
began to think that even those
without personal experience
could participate in narrations
that include the attackers andthe victims or that connect tocurrent wars.
■ First of all I want to learn
more about the Atomic
Bombings, and having done
that, I want to play an active
part in ant- war activities. I
would like to keep on working
on events such as recitals,
peace work, vigils for peaceand concerts.
( 4th year
university student)

downloading edition

■ I am now interested inhearing t est imonies frommany more people. I also want
to look into issues mentioned
during t he talk, like t hespread of nuclear weapons andwar-victim compensation fromnow on. ( 3rd year university
student)■ You cannot convey thecruelty and inhumanity of theAtomic Bomb in a few words,
so I would like to increase theopportunities for people toactually hear the stories fromthe Hibakusha themselves, aswell as to join them in taking
responsible action as citizens
to make sure that the same
tragic acts are not committed
ever again.
■ Every story they tell feels
new, and in the knowledge they
impart you can feel the warmthof mankind accumulating. By
the end of the talks I wanted toknow more.
■ I wondered why the Japanese
government repeats the same
mistakes. Nothing but sadness
remains when wars take place,and starting nuclear plants will
end up leading to a second
Hiroshima or Nagasaki in myopinion. (High-school student)■ Figuring out how to leavebehind for future generations
the voices of those who cannot
speak is an issue that I felt
needs to be addressed, and it issomething that I will think
about from now on. ( 2nd year
university student)

nuclear accidents. I would saythat the Japanese politicians'
culture of unaccountability has
invited corruption to thepolitical sphere by keeping
politics away from the generalpublic.

■ The current government, on
pretexts like aiding developing
countries,
stimulating theJapanese economy, or evenpreventing global warming iseagerly pushing for the sale ofnuclear power plants. However,it seems that they are notinterested in - or are evenactively avoiding - learning
about the suffering andsadness of the Atomic Bomb
victims. They condescendingly
tell us to endure the sacrifices
and accept the risks because it
is for the sake of the country's
growth, For example, in thecase of Fukushima, no one
takes responsibility for it. It is
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 nationalorganization 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 andhouses to the ground, turning Hiroshima and Nagasaki into cities of death. Spread out before us was acompletely scorched land, full of dead bodies and injured people writhing in pain. Its misery can only bedescribed as “ hell.” Invisible radiation from the bombs continues to afflict the survivors and undermine theirhealth.
These A- bomb survivors witnessed firsthand the true nature of nuclear weapons and understand on aphysical 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 thehuman race. As long as nuclear weapons exist in the world, human beings will always be haunted by the threatof nuclear war and will be in danger of extinction.
F o r the las t 70 years since tho se two d ays, we have co nsistently and fervently ap p ealed to thewo rld , “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 inhumanenature 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 westand here today for the 2015 NPT Review Conference. We are encouraged by the fact that a majority ofnations 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 fora 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,” tobe 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 ourhope for all to learn from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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

20

downloading edition

NIHON HIDANKYO (Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations)
Gable Bld g. #902, 1-3-5 Shiba-Daimon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0012 JAPANTEL
FAX
E-mailWeb site＋81 3 3438 1897
＋81 3 3431 2113
kj3t-tn k@as ahi-net.or. jp
h ttp ://w w w.n e.jp /asah i/h id ankyo/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 JAPANTEL/FAXE-mailWeb site＋81 3 5216 7757
h ironag a8689@ g mail.com
h ttp ://kioku isan. com
April 2015

downloading edition