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Opinion

Messages from atomic bomb survivors for 2011: Action is path to peace

by Kenji Namba, Senior Staff Writer

Progress toward a world without nuclear weapons remains unpredictable. But the driving force for ensuring a path toward nuclear abolition still lies in the strong will of individual citizens and in the power of grass roots movements. This year will mark the 66th anniversary of the atomic bombing. The Chugoku Shimbun asked two atomic bomb survivors who have resolutely worked in the movement to convey messages upon the arrival of 2011.

Continuing to bear testimony while battling illness

Bun Hashizume, 80, Tokyo

I’ve had colon cancer and acute nephritis as well as other illnesses for which there are no names. I’m now seeing nine different doctors. But I want to continue talking about the atomic bombing in Japan and overseas and writing my personal history as long as my health will allow me to do so.

I was 14 and a third year student at a girls’ school when I was exposed to the atomic bombing. I was working as a mobilized student at the Hiroshima Branch of the Postal Savings Bureau. My whole body was covered with lacerations, and I had a bad wound on my head. My younger brother was killed. My parents couldn’t work, and we struggled to find a place to live and food to eat.

I went to work when I was 16. I suffered from high fevers and diarrhea and other unidentified illnesses. I got a job in Tokyo and continued battling my illnesses under the care of specialists.

I wasn’t able to talk or write about the atomic bombing until I was in my 40s, more than 30 years after the bombing. I got married when I was 30. We had three children. In my 40s my condition deteriorated again, and I was told I had only six months to live. I wanted to leave something to my small children. I decided to write something that would let them feel that their mother was encouraging them in tough times and sad times, so I wrote a children’s song.

Memories of August 6 in a poem

When I was living in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, a nuclear-powered U.S. submarine that was suspected of carrying nuclear weapons made a port call at Yokosuka. My 16-year-old son said he was going to take part in a sit-in. He had asthma and had had an attack the night before. I said to him, “Wait another 10 years. If you’re an anti-nuclear peace activist then, I’ll support you fully. But focus on your health now.”

“Adults won’t do anything, so we will,” he said. “You’re an A-bomb survivor. I know you have a hard life, but you could at least write a letter to the editor of the newspaper.”

I wondered what I could do. I sat at my desk, and the events of August 6 came back to me: A doctor said, “If you go to sleep, you’ll die.” A woman from my workplace stayed by my bedside as if she were my mother. I passed the night amid the blaze with a young man a few years older than I was.

I wrote a poem. Dawn came just as I finished. I put the poem under my son’s lunchbox. From that day on, the heavy burden that I’d been bearing became lighter, and little by little I became able to refer to the subject of the atomic bombing.

The sunset over Hiroshima after the atomic bombing was painfully beautiful. When the sky began to darken a flock of crows came. They landed on the dead bodies lying among the debris and pecked at them. One of them was that of a young girl who had been a playmate of mine.

The transience, strength and nobility of human life. Countless lives were taken without a trace of dignity. But there were also those who, having somehow survived, helped others although they could die at any time. And then there were the many absurdities…

Although time passed and the weight was gone from my heart, I intended to take to my grave the pain of the atomic bombing that I held deep in my heart and which couldn’t be shared with anyone else.

Studying English and traveling the world

When I turned 60 I looked back over my life. I decided I wanted to live my own life. Because of the war I hadn’t been able to study properly. There were so many things I wanted to learn. I chose English so I could travel abroad on my own.

I wanted to meet people who were leading hard lives in Africa, Central and South America and Asia and together consider what happiness is.

When I went to New Zealand a 17-year-old boy asked me, “Did your philosophy of life change because of the atomic bombing?” I replied, “It was a terrible experience, but I was also able to see the magnificence of human beings.” The next day I received an essay he had written. He wrote, “I will live my life looking at the ‘magnificence of human beings’ as you have.”

At one home the parents and the daughter hugged me and cried. At that time I realized what it meant to have survived the atomic bombing: It doesn’t matter if there is a language barrier. Merely by existing I can oppose nuclear weapons.

A writer said to me, “You must speak out. You must write. The only way we can learn about the atomic bombing is by piecing together the stories of the survivors.”

I saved my money and went abroad almost every year. Sometimes I went to eight or nine countries in one year.

Japan is richly blessed yet its people don’t create their own nation. Why not? The government that clings to the nuclear umbrella, the reality of the military bases in Okinawa, where public opinion is not respected: at a profound level the war has not ended. The atomic bombing gave Japan the chance to create a proper nation and yet...

I have written almost 10 volumes of poetry, essays and other writings so far. Starting this spring I will publish an account of the atomic bombing experience and my personal history, an anthology of poetry, a record of the talks I have given overseas and other works. I go to the doctor almost every day, but the spirits of the tens of thousands of victims who lost their lives in the atomic bombing keep me going.

Bun Hashizume
Poet. Real name: Fumiko Hashizume. Native of Naka Ward, Hiroshima. Began traveling the world for peace after turning 60. Works include “Fushigi na Kuni Torko” (The Mysterious Land of Turkey) and the poetry anthology “Konchu ni Natta Shonen” (The Boy Who Turned Into an Insect).


Devoting remainder of life to the cause

Toshiyuki Mimaki, 68, Kita Hiroshima-cho

It was six years ago that I recognized myself as an atomic bomb survivor and became active. It was after I took over as president of the Toyohira Atomic Bomb Survivors Association.

Until that time my only involvement with the atomic bombing consisted of hearing my mother talk about her experiences. I hadn’t actively done anything. When I wasn’t working at my company I was busy with the PTA and other community activities.

Then last May I went to the United States as part of a group of A-bomb survivors who were sent by the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization (Nihon Hidankyo) for the review conference for the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

At junior high and high schools in New York I talked about what happened in Hiroshima on the day of the atomic bombing, and I got an enthusiastic response from the students.

But at the time of the bombing I was only 3 years old, so my recollections are dim. I sorely wished I’d asked my late father more about his experiences.

I was born in Tokyo three months after the start of the Pacific War. My father was from Yoshisaka-mura [now Kita Hiroshima-cho]. He was working at a chemical plant.

On March 10, 1945, downtown Tokyo was reduced to ashes in an air raid. My parents took me and my 1-year-old little brother to Iimuro-mura [now part of Hiroshima’s Asakita Ward] to live. My father worked at the National Railway’s Hiroshima engine depot.

While I was playing in front of our house there was a brilliant flash. In the afternoon a lot of people came streaming along the road heading north.

My father hadn’t returned home, so my mother headed to Hiroshima to look for him, taking my brother and me with her. She was originally from Saitama Prefecture, and we had just moved to Hiroshima from Tokyo, so I wonder where she went and how she found her way around in that burned-out city she was unfamiliar with. She must have been exhausted.

My father was changing into his work clothes underground at Hiroshima Station when he heard a tremendous boom. Two days later he came home to Iimuro. He didn’t like to talk about the atomic bombing. He’d just say, “The city burned down.” He had scars from burns on his chest.

After the war we moved to Yoshisaka, where my father’s home was. We lived in a storehouse and drank the water that flowed down from the mountains. We had no bath, so we washed by pouring hot water over ourselves from a small tub.

My parents farmed and worked on construction jobs. I was in charge of cooking the meals. Whenever I made boiled potatoes and onions flavored with soy sauce my mother would always tell me how good it was.

I was a sickly child. In the fifth grade I missed four months of school delirious with a high fever. Even when I was sitting still I had difficulty breathing and my head hurt. I can recall my mother crying as she took my temperature at my bedside.

The doctor said to my mother, “I have some American-made medicine. Shall I give him a shot?” She said, “Yes, please” without hesitation. Apparently it wasn’t cheap, but thanks to that medicine I recovered.

In New York last spring I met Masahiro Sasaki, Sadako’s older brother, and his son. At that time I felt strongly that if I had not gotten that medicine and if my mother had not been there I might have met the same fate as Sadako.

I would like to devote the remainder of my life to the peace movement. We must continue to remain active. We need a framework under which we can convey to the people of the world the horror of nuclear weapons.

Seeing young people participate in the peace movement fills us with great hope. I want to continue to tell my story so that I can brighten that hope even further.

Toshiyuki Mimaki
Member of the board of directors of Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Hiroshima Hidankyo). Member of the national board of directors of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization (Nihon Hidankyo) and president of the Toyohira Atomic Bomb Survivors Association.

(Originally published Jan. 17, 2011)

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