97-year-old man determined to convey “how tragic the damage wrought by war and nuclear weapons is,” with atomic bombing and Tokyo air raids imprinted on his mind
Aug. 7, 2024
by Naohiro Yamada, Staff Writer
Makoto Morita, 97, of Hiroshima’s Naka Ward, began speaking this year about the experiences he has kept in the depths of his heart. He survived the devastation of the atomic bombing and the air raids on Tokyo, but no matter how hard he tries, he cannot forget the destroyed cities, the people who were cruelly killed or maimed, and the fleeting death of his younger brother. As the number of people who know about those days dwindles, his desire to convey “how tragic the damage wrought by war and nuclear weapons is” only grows.
Mr. Morita spent the morning of August 6 watching a live relay broadcast of the Peace Memorial Ceremony held by the Hiroshima City government. “I remember my brother. I cannot forget his voice saying ‘Ittekimasu’ (in English, ‘I am leaving’),” said Mr. Morita.
On that day, August 6, 1945, Mr. Morita was at home with his parents in the city’s Midori-machi (now part of Minami Ward), about three kilometers from the hypocenter. The moment he heard the low rumble of a U.S. B-29 bomber and stepped outside, an intense white light obscured his vision. Fortunately, they were safe, but Mr. Morita’s brother, Osamu, then 13, had just left home to take a streetcar to the national school in the central part of the city.
The next day, on the afternoon of August 7, his father found Osamu covered in dust and sand near their home. They washed his body and gave him a peach. He smiled and said, “It is good.” In a breath, he described how he escaped; a soldier saved him from a burning streetcar, and he was blown from a bridge into the river by fiery winds. Then, with a look of relief on his face, he passed away.
While looking for his brother, Mr. Morita saw a screaming girl who was hideously burned, a dead reddish-brown horse, and people walking with the skin of their arms hanging down. Three months earlier on May 25, the Tokyo Roppongi district where his boarding house was located was air raided; there he saw the leg of a fleeing boy blown off as incendiary bombs rained down. They all became horrible memories.
Mr. Morita, who took over the family business and became a dentist, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in his 70s, and was terrified by the fact he had been defenselessly exposed to nuclear damage. He has children and grandchildren, but of course they do not know the true ravages of war. Thinking “they will never know the preciousness of peace unless they understand the horror,” he began to share his accounts with his family.
On the evening of August 6, Mr. Morita walked around the Tsurumi-cho area in Naka Ward, where he and his family once lived until their house was demolished to make a fire lane just before the atomic bomb was dropped, and where their dental office was located after the war. “The city has become clean. Nothing of the past remains, but Hiroshima has overcome painful memories to become what it is today” ; Mr. Morita looked out over Peace Boulevard and said as if thinking deeply about his words.
(Originally published on August 7, 2024)
Makoto Morita, 97, of Hiroshima’s Naka Ward, began speaking this year about the experiences he has kept in the depths of his heart. He survived the devastation of the atomic bombing and the air raids on Tokyo, but no matter how hard he tries, he cannot forget the destroyed cities, the people who were cruelly killed or maimed, and the fleeting death of his younger brother. As the number of people who know about those days dwindles, his desire to convey “how tragic the damage wrought by war and nuclear weapons is” only grows.
Mr. Morita spent the morning of August 6 watching a live relay broadcast of the Peace Memorial Ceremony held by the Hiroshima City government. “I remember my brother. I cannot forget his voice saying ‘Ittekimasu’ (in English, ‘I am leaving’),” said Mr. Morita.
On that day, August 6, 1945, Mr. Morita was at home with his parents in the city’s Midori-machi (now part of Minami Ward), about three kilometers from the hypocenter. The moment he heard the low rumble of a U.S. B-29 bomber and stepped outside, an intense white light obscured his vision. Fortunately, they were safe, but Mr. Morita’s brother, Osamu, then 13, had just left home to take a streetcar to the national school in the central part of the city.
The next day, on the afternoon of August 7, his father found Osamu covered in dust and sand near their home. They washed his body and gave him a peach. He smiled and said, “It is good.” In a breath, he described how he escaped; a soldier saved him from a burning streetcar, and he was blown from a bridge into the river by fiery winds. Then, with a look of relief on his face, he passed away.
While looking for his brother, Mr. Morita saw a screaming girl who was hideously burned, a dead reddish-brown horse, and people walking with the skin of their arms hanging down. Three months earlier on May 25, the Tokyo Roppongi district where his boarding house was located was air raided; there he saw the leg of a fleeing boy blown off as incendiary bombs rained down. They all became horrible memories.
Mr. Morita, who took over the family business and became a dentist, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in his 70s, and was terrified by the fact he had been defenselessly exposed to nuclear damage. He has children and grandchildren, but of course they do not know the true ravages of war. Thinking “they will never know the preciousness of peace unless they understand the horror,” he began to share his accounts with his family.
On the evening of August 6, Mr. Morita walked around the Tsurumi-cho area in Naka Ward, where he and his family once lived until their house was demolished to make a fire lane just before the atomic bomb was dropped, and where their dental office was located after the war. “The city has become clean. Nothing of the past remains, but Hiroshima has overcome painful memories to become what it is today” ; Mr. Morita looked out over Peace Boulevard and said as if thinking deeply about his words.
(Originally published on August 7, 2024)
