Nihon Hidankyo, NPO post collection of A-bombing accounts online in hopes they will be read by people around world
Aug. 6, 2024
by Shinya Hori, Staff Writer
On August 5, the No More Hibakusha Project, a Tokyo-based non-profit organization that collects and preserves campaign and other materials involving A-bomb survivors throughout Japan, and the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) began posting online their collection of accounts about the experiences of A-bomb survivors in the atomic bombing. The two organizations have in their archives around 400 such accounts. Based on the consent of nationwide A-bomb survivors groups and others that created the accounts, the two organizations going forward will work to increase the number of accounts available to the public.
The collection of accounts includes descriptions by the survivors about the sounds and flash they experienced in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the moment the atomic bombs were dropped, how the cities were transformed, what happened to their own bodies, and the pain and suffering they endured after the bombings. Many of the accounts were self-published but in limited numbers. The No More Hibakusha Project introduces a list of the collection of accounts on its website and makes the materials available for viewing at its organizational secretariat.
Nationwide, the number of A-bomb survivor groups is on the decline. Through the experiences of the A-bomb survivors and before the preserved materials deteriorate, the two organizations decided to display the accounts online in order to support continuation of the campaign aimed at the abolition of nuclear weapons. Visitors to the website of the No More Hibakusha Project can read the survivors’ accounts.
Akira Hirai, 70, a staff member at the secretariat of the No More Hibakusha Project, said, “The documents, in which A-bomb survivors had the courage to record their experiences they in fact did not wish to recall, are invaluable, and many of the accounts had not made their way around the country. Our hope is that people throughout the world read the accounts.”
(Originally published on August 6, 2024)
On August 5, the No More Hibakusha Project, a Tokyo-based non-profit organization that collects and preserves campaign and other materials involving A-bomb survivors throughout Japan, and the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) began posting online their collection of accounts about the experiences of A-bomb survivors in the atomic bombing. The two organizations have in their archives around 400 such accounts. Based on the consent of nationwide A-bomb survivors groups and others that created the accounts, the two organizations going forward will work to increase the number of accounts available to the public.
The collection of accounts includes descriptions by the survivors about the sounds and flash they experienced in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the moment the atomic bombs were dropped, how the cities were transformed, what happened to their own bodies, and the pain and suffering they endured after the bombings. Many of the accounts were self-published but in limited numbers. The No More Hibakusha Project introduces a list of the collection of accounts on its website and makes the materials available for viewing at its organizational secretariat.
Nationwide, the number of A-bomb survivor groups is on the decline. Through the experiences of the A-bomb survivors and before the preserved materials deteriorate, the two organizations decided to display the accounts online in order to support continuation of the campaign aimed at the abolition of nuclear weapons. Visitors to the website of the No More Hibakusha Project can read the survivors’ accounts.
Akira Hirai, 70, a staff member at the secretariat of the No More Hibakusha Project, said, “The documents, in which A-bomb survivors had the courage to record their experiences they in fact did not wish to recall, are invaluable, and many of the accounts had not made their way around the country. Our hope is that people throughout the world read the accounts.”
(Originally published on August 6, 2024)
