Tour to Ninoshima Island, where victims were taken, sheds light on A-bomb history
Nov. 29, 2012
I took part in a tour that visited Ninoshima Island, near the city of Hiroshima, where about 10,000 victims of the atomic bombing were carried in relief efforts following the blast. Many of them died there. Kazuo Miyazaki, 64, who lives on the island and has extensive knowledge of Ninoshima’s history, served as our guide and shared background on the war and the atomic bombing.
At the time of the bombing, one of the military facilities on Ninoshima Island was a quarantine station, and this station became a makeshift field hospital in the wake of the attack. An estimated 10,000 people were brought to this site.
Today we can still see the pier where the boats transporting the survivors docked, the incinerator in which bodies were cremated, and the well that was used for these relief activities. Our tour took in all these spots. The many victims who died on the island were buried there in the earth. After the war, remains were exhumed on several occasions. Not long ago, in 2004, the remains of 85 bodies, as well as 65 articles left behind by the dead, were discovered.
Mr. Miyazaki’s mother helped care for the victims brought to the island. She witnessed people dying, one after the other, and told her son, “It was hell on earth.” Mr. Miyaki, who also serves as a guide for junior high and high school students visiting the island as part of their peace education studies, said, “I want to hand down the tragic destruction caused by war, symbolized by the atomic bombing.”
When the bodies were discovered in 2004, I was in the second grade in elementary school. Mr. Miyazaki told us that more bodies may still be beneath the ground. I hope these victims can be reunited with members of their family. (Yumi Kimura, 16)
(Originally Published on November 19, 2012)
