News

by Yu Kawakami, Staff Writer

Nonoka Koga, 21, a junior at Waseda University and resident of Tokyo, made a documentary video about the A-bomb experience of Toshiharu Goto, 83, a resident of Nishi Ward of Hiroshima. A letter she received in her high school days encouraged her to create the film. Mr. Goto was impressed by her video wherein she expressed her sense of discomfort over the logo of a high school where she studied while in the United States. The logo was a “mushroom cloud.” The two shared a desire for peace that transcended generations, which led to the creation of the documentary video.

In front of Ms. Koga’s camera in the schoolyard of Tenma Elementary School in Nishi Ward, Hiroshima, Mr. Goto looked up at a tree that survived the atomic bombing, saying, “The difference between life and death was very slim.” Mr. Goto was caught under the collapsed school building of Tenma National School (now Tenma Elementary School) about 1.2 kilometers from the hypocenter. While the flames spread, he escaped on his own, but his close neighborhood friend was killed.

“His mother lamented many times, saying to me, ‘He went to school with you, but he didn’t come home,’” said Mr. Goto in a strained voice. He said he had always refused to tell his experience of the atomic bombing. “I strongly felt I had to tell my experience, but I just didn’t want to remember what I saw at that time.” The camera caught the expression on his face.

“I was encouraged.”

It was Ms. Koga who brought forth Mr. Goto to tell his experience for the first time. When she was studying at a high school in Richland, Washington, in the western U.S., she questioned the use of a mushroom cloud as the school’s logo. The logo was designed as such because the area was where the plutonium used in the Nagasaki atomic bomb came from. In May 2019, before returning to Japan, she asked in her video whether they should be proud of the atomic bomb that had taken the lives of so many people.

Her video attracted wide attention on the Internet and was covered by the Chugoku Shimbun Select newspaper. After reading the article, Mr. Goto sent a letter to the high school in Fukuoka Prefecture where Ms. Koga attended. “You have raised a wonderful issue. Your courage inspired me, and I have decided to begin telling my experience of the atomic bombing,” the letter said. But he could not yet take the first step.

Inspired by reading the letter again

It was Ms. Koga again who gave Mr. Goto the push he needed. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ms. Koga, who majors in journalism at university, decided to make another video to convey a message of peace. She once again read Mr. Goto’s letter, which she had kept, and in May this year, she asked him to help her make the video. While she stayed in Hiroshima for four days in June, Mr. Goto guided her and visited Mr. Goto’s school and the grave of his friend killed in the atomic bombing. Ms. Koga completed her 15-minute video.

On August 6, the 77th anniversary of the atomic bombing, the video was shown at a café in Hiroshima. Mr. Goto was invited to the event and said, “Ms. Koga asked me good questions, and so I was able to tell my story little by little. I want to share my experience with local children, too,” he said.

Ms. Koga has not yet decided whether or not she would show the video to the public, but said, “Mr. Goto’s letter made me want to learn more about the reality of the atomic bombing. I hope this video will start a chain of positive influence toward a world without nuclear weapons.” She hopes her work will help convey the horrors that took place under the mushroom cloud.

(Originally published on August 27, 2022)