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Special exhibition on noted A-bomb doctor and author to take place in Okayama

by Keiichi Nagayama, Staff Writer

Residents of the Tsudaka district of Kita Ward in the city of Okayama will hold a special exhibition at their local community hall starting on August 1. The Tsudaka district is the hometown of Michihiko Hachiya (1903-1980), the former director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital and the author of Hiroshima Diary, in which he described the horrific damage caused by the atomic bombing from a doctor’s point of view. This will be the first time to exhibit newspaper articles which reported on the publication of Hiroshima Diary and the response it received back then in Japan and the United States, as well as a scrapbook with the reactions of well-known figures, including Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who spearheaded the development of the atomic bombs.

Dr. Hachiya experienced the atomic bombing of August 6, 1945 while at his home near the hospital, about 1.4 kilometers northeast of the hypocenter. Covered with blood, he rushed to the hospital and treated the wounded. In 1955, he published his diary, in which he described, over the course of 56 days, how the survivors suffered from the symptoms of radiation sickness. The book was translated into a dozen languages and readers responded strongly. After retiring in 1965, he returned to his hometown and spent his final years there.

In 2009, the scrapbook was found in the house where he was born. It consists of a collection of headline-making reviews of Hiroshima Diary from the publisher. Mr. Oppenheimer, who adopted an antinuclear stance after the war, wrote, “Thank you very much for sending me an advance copy of the text of Hiroshima Diary. I read it through at a sitting, putting it down rarely. It is a simple and unpretentious account of compassion, sorrow, and great courage; and I am grateful to you for publishing it.” The scrapbook also contains reviews by Pearl Buck, a Nobel Prize-winner for literature, and Eleanor Roosevelt, the former first lady at the outbreak of the war.

The special exhibition will be held by the Association to Honor Dr. Michihiko Hachiya and organized by local residents at Tsudaka Community Hall (in Kita Ward, Okayama) from August 1 to 16. The first edition of Hiroshima Diary will also be on display. Ryoichi Hishikawa, 64, the former head of the community hall and one of the organizers, said, “We want to put a spotlight on Hiroshima Diary in this 70th year since the atomic bombing, and convey the horror of nuclear weapons.”

For further information, contact Tsudaka Community Hall at 086-294-4222.

(Originally published on July 23, 2015)

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