Features

by Michiko Tanaka, Senior Staff Writer

“If I were found out to be an A-bomb survivor (hibakusha), life would be impossible here,” a survivor once told Tamiko Nishimoto, 84, who has lived in Kanazawa City for almost 50 years. Ms. Nishimoto was the last chair of an Ishikawa Prefectural association of people who had suffered in the atomic bombings, an organization that was disbanded in the spring of 2022. She is also an A-bomb survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Survivors greeted with cold stares, backbiting

In the past, people in Kanazawa City used to call people from other prefectures enjo-mon (in English, ‘someone from a faraway place’). Ms. Nishimoto said, “Kanazawa traditionally has a conservative culture. On top of that, people were not welcoming of A-bomb survivors.” There was a survivor whose child’s arranged marriage had been cancelled because of backbiting by a neighbor who had whispered behind their backs, “That person experienced the atomic bombing.” Ms. Nishimoto added, “All the A-bomb survivors in this region have lived as if they were in hiding.”

In areas distant from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, successive prefectural A-bomb survivor organizations were created around the time of founding of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) in 1956. The Ishikawa Prefectural association was one such group. When the association’s founding ceremony was held in August 1960, slightly more than 20 A-bomb survivors gathered.

The association’s first chair was Mikiso Iwasa, who also was co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo and died in 2020. When he was 16, he experienced the atomic bombing in the yard of his home in the area of Fujimi-cho (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Naka Ward). As the flames approached, he tearfully was forced to abandon his mother, who had been trapped underneath their collapsed house. His younger sister, a student who had been mobilized to work on that day, was never found. Holding on to hatred of the atomic bombing, he began seeking out other survivors in the area, bringing together like-minded people starting in 1953, when he became an instructor at Kanazawa University.

In 1963, he joined a nationwide tour throughout Japan that sought relief for A-bomb survivors and a ban on atomic and hydrogen bombs, based on the belief that “a growing grass-roots movement will lead to great change in society, finally forcing the national government to act.” In 1964, he established a three-party conference, consisting of A-bomb survivors, scientists, and religious leaders. In 1965, he sent A-bomb survivors to what was known at the time as the Hiroshima Atomic-bomb Survivors Hospital to undergo medical examinations. Ms. Nishimoto supported Mr. Iwasa and his activities after she moved to Kanazawa in 1974 when her husband was transferred. The starting point of her own work is also in Hiroshima.

When Ms. Nishimoto was four years old, she was enveloped in the flash from the A-bomb detonation while at home in the area of Danbarasuehiro-cho (in Hiroshima’s present-day Minami Ward). All seven members of her family, including her mother who was with her at that time, experienced the bombing. They all survived, but the family had to be divided up and live in different relatives’ homes until they were able to move together into wooden public housing built in the Motomachi area (in the city’s present-day Naka Ward) in 1948.

At around the time she was 23, while working at an insurance company, Ms. Nishimoto walked around visiting people’s homes in Hiroshima City collecting signatures in a call for abolition of atomic and hydrogen bombs, at the invitation of an acquaintance. She was shocked to witness scenes of isolated A-bomb survivors living in desperate poverty, unlike herself with her parents, and that was the start of her involvement in the A-bomb survivors’ movement.

After she married a man who had entered Hiroshima soon after the bombing, Ms. Nishimoto moved to several different cities, becoming aware of a gap in consciousness about the atomic bombing between people in the A-bombed cities and those in other parts of Japan. Ishikawa Prefecture in particular is considered to have experienced the fewest aerial attacks in Japan during the Pacific theater of World War II. “That’s precisely why I felt we had to work to convey the tragedy of the war.” Ms. Nishimoto has assisted members of the association who have lived their life quietly out of sight, helping with their applications for Atomic Bomb Survivor’s Certificates and other things. Meanwhile, she has shared her experiences in the atomic bombing repeatedly both in Japan and overseas.

Survivors’ associations disbanded one after another

Still, aging is inevitable. In Ishikawa Prefecture, there were around 240 A-bomb survivors in the 1970s, a number that had decreased to 56 at the time the association was disbanded. In other prefectures, 10 groups have shut down or suspended their activities. One after another of regional organizations under the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organizations (Hiroshima Hidankyo; chaired by Toshiyuki Mimaki) have suffered from unsustainable operations. Making the decision to shut down the Ishikawa Prefectural association, Ms. Nishimoto said, “We had no choice but to end it, because there was no one who could carry out the necessary work.”

But not all of the association’s activities have been halted. Every summer, it holds a memorial gathering in front of an A-bomb memorial monument erected in Kanazawa City, as well as an A-bomb exhibition at the Ishikawa Prefectural government offices. Ms. Nishimoto serves as chair of the executive committee for those activities. Listed committee members include representatives of consumer cooperatives and anti-nuclear physicians’ associations.

Ms. Nishimoto will visit Oslo, Norway in accordance with the holding of the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony. Local Norwegians await the opportunity to hear testimonies from A-bomb survivors about their experiences in the bombings. Ms. Nishimoto said, “I will continue telling my story as long as I’m alive.”

(Originally published on December 6, 2024)