Atomic bomb: Memories haunt victims 69 years after

Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan share many bad memories. Both cities were attacked during the Second World War with atomic bombs. Hiroshima was attacked on August 6, 1945 with a uranium-plated “little boy” loaded on a B-29 plane at 8:15 am, while Nagasaki suffered its fate via a plutonium-laden “fat man” on August 9, 1945 […]

Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan share many bad memories. Both cities were attacked during the Second World War with atomic bombs. Hiroshima was attacked on August 6, 1945 with a uranium-plated “little boy” loaded on a B-29 plane at 8:15 am, while Nagasaki suffered its fate via a plutonium-laden “fat man” on August 9, 1945 at 11:02am.
Indeed both cities experienced death, pain, sorrow, grief, anger and hate. In Hiroshima, over 70,000 people were instantly killed by the bomb, while the figure rose to 166,000 from the injuries sustained in the months that followed. In Nagasaki, about 60,000 people died as a result of the bomb, while 20,000 others died thereafter from the aftermath.
The injuries inflicted by the atomic bomb resulted from the combined effect of blast wind, heat rays and radiation, and manifested in an extremely complex pattern of symptoms. According to a publication by the Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki University “The medical effect of the Nagasaki Atomic Bombing”, the death toll within a distance of one kilometre from the hypo centre was 96.7% among people who suffered burns, 96.9% among people who suffered other external injuries, and 94.1% among people who suffered no apparent injuries. Also the publication noted that the data show that the deaths occurring immediately after the bombing, were due not only to burns and external injuries, but also severe radiation-induced injuries.
At Hiroshima, the hypo centre of the bomb was the Shima Hospital which was destroyed complete, with the buildings within its four-kilometre radius reduced to ashes. However, a part of the Hiroshima Prefecture Industrial Hall was upright in the face of the disaster. The building, completed on April 5, 1915 and designed by   Czech architect Jan Letzel, is now referred to as the A-Bomb Dome or Genbaku in Japanese. It is now a world heritage site. At Nagasaki, the hypo centre was the Lawn Tennis court of the top management employees of the Mitsubishi Company, famed for its ship-building.
After the bombings of the two cities, Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces led by the United States.

Across the river channel in Hiroshima from the A-Bomb Dome ,is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and the peace park. Within its precinct is a mound where thousands of those burnt beyond recognition by the bomb were cremated. The Memorial grounds hold about 15 monuments erected in memory of those killed in Hiroshima. Also the museum building holds thousands of relics, documents, films and photographs ,among other items of the sad reminder of August 6, 1945. Some of the items included air-raid hoods, student service corps armbands, conscription notice, household items, and hundreds of personal and official documents.
In Nagasaki, a peace park was erected near the hypo centre of the bomb, with a huge human statue erected on the spatial grounds. Designed by the Japanese Seibo Kitamura, the statue was completed in August 1955, commemorating the ten year anniversary of the bombings. According to the initiators of the statue, it is an appeal for world peace and prays that such a tragedy must never happen again.
Even as the tragedy affects the whole of Japan, the direct victims face difficulties as they are discriminated against in various ways. The victims called Hibakushas in Japanese are not usually given employment and face social stigma. The effects of the bombing usually make them too weak for physical work ,and employers see them as lazy. Also many people do not marry from among them because of some deformities they have suffered, and also on health grounds.
In fact, the bomb also caused epilation, leukaemia, thyroid, breast cancer, keloids, A-Bomb cataract, chromosomal aberrations, solid cancer and microscopy, among others, to the victims. Some of the injuries were immediate, while some took years to manifest, and up till today there are signs of diseases on some people carried from generations. Infact, it is not until one comes in contact with the place and victims of the Atomic Bomb before the trauma could be better appreciated even decades after it occurred. On a recent visit to Japan, 69 years on, the pains of the bombing are still felt, despite the fact that the hypo centres have been turned into beautiful landscapes for tourists and visitors, and the cities rebuilt. However the multiple effects of the bomb on the people is as if it happened not too long ago.

Mito Kosei is a guide at the Hiroshima A-bomb Dome. His mother was 4 months pregnant with him when the Enola Gay B-29 plane dropped the deadly weapon. He told a group of journalists that visited the A-Bomb Dome that it was by the grace of God that his mother survived with the pregnancy. This group of survivors are called in-utero survivors.
In Japan, there are four classes of atomic bomb survivors recognised by the government. They are the first class, those within 4 or 5 kilometres of the hypo centre, second class cadre, those within two kilometres, third class, those treated or cremated and fourth class are in-utero survivors.
For Kosei, what is needed now is a world free of nuclear weapons. He quoted a Japanese truism based on the instruction of Buddhism, “peace never flows from hate.” He however said: “There is no doubt that it would be very difficult to get nuclear nations to sit down at the negotiating table, and work out a treaty banning nuclear weapons.”
But for 77-year-old Emiko Okada who   sobs intermittently, as she narrates the events of August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima. She witnessed the horrors. “When I see sunset even today, I remember the day the atomic bomb was dropped. My 12-year old sister is missing until today. The eastern playground near the railway station was filled with dead bodies” she said. Okada recalled how missing children were looking for their parents for days, and did not know where to go. Some had to steal to survive, she said.

In Nagasaki, the Shiroyama Elementary School is about 500 metres from the hypo centre. But of the 1,400 pupils on the day of the bombings, only few survived. Uchida Tsukasatsu was 15 years old and in the 4th grade when the bomb was dropped. Now at 84, he vividly recounts the horrors of that day. “There was a flash of light and a huge thunder, and I was thrown to the ground. I had 15 stitches on the head,” he said. According to him, his teeth were affected and he suffered loss of hair due to radiation. “Survivors are getting older and we feel more strongly than ever that we must pass on our feelings that nuclear weapons must be eliminated,” said Tsukasatsu who is a member of the Nagasaki Foundation for the Promotion of Peace. He was just 1.3 kilometres from the site of the blast.
“The bomb had a lot of impact and it left a strong mark on us that weapons should never be used again,” he said. “It’s a tragedy that cannot be described by words. We live with those symptoms until this day.”
Other family members were close to the hypocenter, and Tsukasatsu said he saw their bodies disintegrate. “The anger has disappeared now,” he said. “But we’re seeking world peace and I don’t know how much power we can exercise, but we won’t stop. We want to ensure future generations will remember.”
Though Tsukasatsu did not exhibit any emotional betrayal as he narrated the situation of that day, he exhibited inner pain and regret . He said five members of his family disappeared (died) as just their spines and skulls remained. Fortunately, his mother who was away at the time of the bomb survived. “I often think about the moment they died,” Tsukasatsu said.
Mr. Matsuyoshi Ikeda also attended the Shiroyama School in Nagasaki. He was 7 years old when the bomb was dropped in 1945. Now a tour guide and peace advocate, he said only 50 children survived in the school and he was one of them. He was not in school on that day as he was helping in the digging of air-raid shelters a  few kilometres away. On his feelings about the bombing he said: “I have overcome the anger. The war is something we should never see again.” Though Ikeda said he lost a lot due to the war, people outside Japan or Nagasaki and Hiroshima do not worry about the effects of nuclear weapons, and that is why they are talking about peace strongly.
Perhaps, the abode of the Atomic Bomb survivors that has gained prominence in Japan is the “Hill of Grace” or “Magumi-no-Oka” situated in Nagasaki. The Hill of Mitsuyama as it is also called , was an evacuation place for reverend sisters and their students. It was said that on that historic day, August 9th, 1945, the first Mother General of the sisters, late Sister Ezumi happened to send many sisters to the hill to collect pine resin, with students who were not mobilised for the war effort. While they were working, burnt pages of name lists and pages of the bible were blown from the city indicating that a disaster had occurred. They ran down the hill immediately to find and rescue sisters and students from the debris and ashes left by the atomic bomb. Without the hills, the religious order and school would not have survived. According to reports that is why the hill is called “The Hill of Grace” or “Megumi-no-Oka”.
However, after the war and the restoration of peace, Sister Ezumi will never forget the students who worked in a munitions factory and were killed. With the compassion for the parents of the deceased students and to honour the dedicated souls, she built a nursing home for aging Atomic Bomb victims whose children were no longer alive to take care for them. That is how “The Hill of Grace” came to be.

Originally, the home started with 50 residents of special care, and 100 of regular care. Now the home has expanded tremendously with numerous facilities, and it is capable of taking over 300 residents.
Recently, foreign journalists accredited to cover the 8th Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative (NPDI) in Hiroshima had the opportunity of visiting “The Hill of Grace”. 98-year old Misano Hamada and Masako Omagari, 90, both relived their experiences of the doomsday. 69 years after the incident, Omagari keeps sobbing as she recounts the  ordeal. But Hamada was more resolute. She told the team of journalists how the whole sky was turned pinkish-red when the bomb was dropped, and in a flash everything was gone. Taking the opportunity of meeting journalists from across the globe, she called for the elimination of nuclear weapons world-wide. She said the experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is enough lesson on what the lethal weapon could cause, with the consequences lingering for a very long time.
While Hamada had the courage to narrate the events, the emotional effect of the atomic bomb was too strong for Omagari, who could not continue to narrate her story and had to be excused, for the 90-year old woman is still crying 69 years after. She still feels the pains of the event just as many others feel about the evil day.