Nagasaki Pledge for Peace
Aug. 9, 2013
This year’s summer is also a hot one. I will never forget that day. I was 18 at the time, a second grader at Normal School. Every day I worked at the Mitsubishi Sumiyoshi Tunnel Arms Factory as a mobilized student. On August 9, 1945 I completed a night shift and returned to my dormitory (located 1.8 kilometers north of the hypocenter). It was 7 a.m. After eating some pumpkin, a stable food at the time, I soon fell asleep.
I woke up to a cacophony of sound and in that instant I was blown back by the blast winds. When I came to, I noticed I had slammed into the wall. My friend who had been sleeping next to me was covered in blood. I, too, suffered from bad burns on my left wrist and leg and blood flowed from the parts of my body cut by glass fragments. Although barefoot and covered in blood, I managed to take refuge in an air raid shelter twenty meters away.
The air raid shelter was already full of people. In front of the shelter there were people who were charred black, people whose skin was peeling off their bones, people without noses and ears, a mother in a state of shock holding her dead child, and completely charred bodies standing expressionless. Just like straight out of a painting of a scene in Hell.
Before long, I was forced out by the spreading fire and I arrived at the temporary aid station in Nagayo. I received medical treatment at my house, located away from the hypocenter, from the following day. In those two months, I suffered from a fever, had bloody stool, and I couldn’t even stand. My hair fell out and I struggled from the pain of my wounds. After hearing that people nearby were dying one by one, I prepared for my own death, fearing I would be next. At the time, I still did not know the true fear of radiation.
I have been lucky to have been able to live as long as I have. What I desire the most is the immediate removal of these genocidal weapons of mass destruction from the face of the earth. However, nuclear tests are still being carried out today and nuclear weapon development continues. If one of these nuclear weapons were to be used, there is no way to be protected from the radiation. It will surely mark the end of humanity as we know it.
Japan, as the only country to suffer from a nuclear bombing, has a responsibility to stand at the forefront of the abolition of nuclear weapons movement. Other atomic bomb survivors and I have continued to call for the abolition of these weapons under the slogan, “Nagasaki: The Last Atomic Bombed City.” Unfortunately, Japan did not sign the joint statement at the last NPT Preparatory Review Conference calling for the recognition of the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. As atomic bomb survivors from Nagasaki, rather than being surprised, we cannot hide my resentment.
Meanwhile, due to the Tokyo Electric Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster, a new group of radiation victims was created, showing that even the peaceful use of this technology isn’t safe. Notwithstanding, actions are being taken place to restart nuclear power reactors and sell nuclear power to other countries even though disaster recovery is still underway.
It is clear that the lesson we can take from Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima is that humanity cannot coexist alongside all things nuclear. I call on the government to make sincere, proactive efforts to further the movements towards abolishing nuclear weapons and shuttering nuclear power plants. Even now, changes are being proposed to our peaceful Constitution. Please, all atomic bomb survivors and those who have experienced war, tell the people around you of your experience so that our country does not revert to the generation of warfare from the past and so that another tragedy does not occur again. There are young people in Nagasaki who desire a peaceful world without nuclear weapons that are working hard to achieve this goal. Their signature drive totals nearly 1,000,000 signatures.
I intend on continuing to tell my story to future generations, encouraged by these high school children. It is the responsibility of us adults to create a peaceful world safe from nuclear weapons and war.
Shohei Tsuiki
Atomic Bomb Survivor Representative
August 9, 2013
I woke up to a cacophony of sound and in that instant I was blown back by the blast winds. When I came to, I noticed I had slammed into the wall. My friend who had been sleeping next to me was covered in blood. I, too, suffered from bad burns on my left wrist and leg and blood flowed from the parts of my body cut by glass fragments. Although barefoot and covered in blood, I managed to take refuge in an air raid shelter twenty meters away.
The air raid shelter was already full of people. In front of the shelter there were people who were charred black, people whose skin was peeling off their bones, people without noses and ears, a mother in a state of shock holding her dead child, and completely charred bodies standing expressionless. Just like straight out of a painting of a scene in Hell.
Before long, I was forced out by the spreading fire and I arrived at the temporary aid station in Nagayo. I received medical treatment at my house, located away from the hypocenter, from the following day. In those two months, I suffered from a fever, had bloody stool, and I couldn’t even stand. My hair fell out and I struggled from the pain of my wounds. After hearing that people nearby were dying one by one, I prepared for my own death, fearing I would be next. At the time, I still did not know the true fear of radiation.
I have been lucky to have been able to live as long as I have. What I desire the most is the immediate removal of these genocidal weapons of mass destruction from the face of the earth. However, nuclear tests are still being carried out today and nuclear weapon development continues. If one of these nuclear weapons were to be used, there is no way to be protected from the radiation. It will surely mark the end of humanity as we know it.
Japan, as the only country to suffer from a nuclear bombing, has a responsibility to stand at the forefront of the abolition of nuclear weapons movement. Other atomic bomb survivors and I have continued to call for the abolition of these weapons under the slogan, “Nagasaki: The Last Atomic Bombed City.” Unfortunately, Japan did not sign the joint statement at the last NPT Preparatory Review Conference calling for the recognition of the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. As atomic bomb survivors from Nagasaki, rather than being surprised, we cannot hide my resentment.
Meanwhile, due to the Tokyo Electric Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster, a new group of radiation victims was created, showing that even the peaceful use of this technology isn’t safe. Notwithstanding, actions are being taken place to restart nuclear power reactors and sell nuclear power to other countries even though disaster recovery is still underway.
It is clear that the lesson we can take from Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima is that humanity cannot coexist alongside all things nuclear. I call on the government to make sincere, proactive efforts to further the movements towards abolishing nuclear weapons and shuttering nuclear power plants. Even now, changes are being proposed to our peaceful Constitution. Please, all atomic bomb survivors and those who have experienced war, tell the people around you of your experience so that our country does not revert to the generation of warfare from the past and so that another tragedy does not occur again. There are young people in Nagasaki who desire a peaceful world without nuclear weapons that are working hard to achieve this goal. Their signature drive totals nearly 1,000,000 signatures.
I intend on continuing to tell my story to future generations, encouraged by these high school children. It is the responsibility of us adults to create a peaceful world safe from nuclear weapons and war.
Shohei Tsuiki
Atomic Bomb Survivor Representative
August 9, 2013
