News

by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Senior Staff Writer

A special exhibit titled “Living as Hibakusha: Mitsuo Kodama as Seen through Documents” is being held at the Hiroshima University Institute of History of Medicine, located in the city’s Minami Ward. It introduces the life of Mitsuo Kodama, who was exposed to the atomic bombing at the age of 12, and continued to give testimony in Japan and overseas while repeatedly suffering from cancer. He died in 2020 at the age of 88. It conveys his appeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons before his death to the summit meeting of the G7 (The Group of Seven Industrialized nations), to be held in Hiroshima in May. The special exhibit will continue through May 26. Admission is free.

Mr. Kodama was exposed to the A-bomb in a school building about 870 meters from the hypocenter when he was a first-year student at First Hiroshima Prefectural Junior High School (now Kokutaiji High School in Naka Ward). The special exhibit includes about 100 items including manuscripts of testimonies, and records of diseases from his home in Minami Ward. It also includes a class photo taken shortly after the A-bombing and memoirs written by the bereaved families of classmates who were killed, showing that his feelings for schoolmates were the starting point of his testimonial activities.

Also on display are some of the diagnostic records from when he was over 60 years old detailing a number of cancers that were found on his skin, stomach, and other parts of his body. The English manuscript of his testimony in the United States four years before his death is also on display, conveying the lifelong health effects of A-bomb survivors and his enthusiasm for testifying.

In December 2022, the Hiroshima University Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine (RIRBM) planned the special exhibit after his wife, Yoshiko, 85, a resident of Minami Ward, donated Mr. Kodama’s belongings. Akiko Kubota, an assistant professor, said, “I hope visitors can sense from the materials his desire that nuclear weapons should never be used again.” The special exhibit is open weekdays between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. The RIRBM also plans to produce explanatory materials in English before the summit. For more information, call the RIRBM analysis section at 082-257-5877.

(Originally published on March 17, 2023)