Account of A-bombing recorded on video: Setsuko Thurlow makes impassioned plea overseas
Nov. 20, 2014
by Michiko Tanaka, Staff Writer
An atomic bomb survivor residing in Toronto, Canada has made a video in which she describes her experiences. Setsuko Thurlow, 82, who has recounted her story in English over the years, recorded the video on November 17 at the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims in the city’s Naka Ward. Recalling her post-war experiences, Ms. Thurlow talked about the discrimination that A-bomb survivors faced and the call for the abolition of nuclear weapons that she has continued to make overseas, where there is little interest in the A-bombing. “It’s important for each person to take action to ensure that no inhumane weapons are left to the next generation,” she said emphatically.
A native of Hiroshima’s Minami Ward, Ms. Thurlow was 13 and working as a mobilized student at the Imperial Japanese Army’s Second General Headquarters in Futaba no Sato (now part of Higashi Ward) when the A-bomb was dropped. She lost her elder sister and nephew, who had come home on a visit from the rural area to which they had evacuated to escape air raids. During the course of the interview for the video she said, “Perhaps I was emotionally numb under those extreme circumstances, but I didn’t cry. I was afraid I wasn’t human.”
Ms. Thurlow went to the United States in 1954 to study social work. The U.S. conducted a nuclear test on Bikini Atoll that same year. After speaking out against the test at a press conference she received an anonymous threatening letter. “I was troubled by it, but I became convinced that it was my duty to convey the facts of the atomic bombing,” she said.
Upon her marriage in 1955 she moved to Canada, where she continued to dedicate herself to recounting her experiences. She returned to Hiroshima for a visit on November 16 after being awarded the Kiyoshi Tanimoto Prize by the Hiroshima Peace Center, a local foundation. The video she recorded will be edited at the Peace Memorial Hall and made available for viewing there and on the organization’s website next spring.
(Originally published on November 18, 2014)
An atomic bomb survivor residing in Toronto, Canada has made a video in which she describes her experiences. Setsuko Thurlow, 82, who has recounted her story in English over the years, recorded the video on November 17 at the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims in the city’s Naka Ward. Recalling her post-war experiences, Ms. Thurlow talked about the discrimination that A-bomb survivors faced and the call for the abolition of nuclear weapons that she has continued to make overseas, where there is little interest in the A-bombing. “It’s important for each person to take action to ensure that no inhumane weapons are left to the next generation,” she said emphatically.
A native of Hiroshima’s Minami Ward, Ms. Thurlow was 13 and working as a mobilized student at the Imperial Japanese Army’s Second General Headquarters in Futaba no Sato (now part of Higashi Ward) when the A-bomb was dropped. She lost her elder sister and nephew, who had come home on a visit from the rural area to which they had evacuated to escape air raids. During the course of the interview for the video she said, “Perhaps I was emotionally numb under those extreme circumstances, but I didn’t cry. I was afraid I wasn’t human.”
Ms. Thurlow went to the United States in 1954 to study social work. The U.S. conducted a nuclear test on Bikini Atoll that same year. After speaking out against the test at a press conference she received an anonymous threatening letter. “I was troubled by it, but I became convinced that it was my duty to convey the facts of the atomic bombing,” she said.
Upon her marriage in 1955 she moved to Canada, where she continued to dedicate herself to recounting her experiences. She returned to Hiroshima for a visit on November 16 after being awarded the Kiyoshi Tanimoto Prize by the Hiroshima Peace Center, a local foundation. The video she recorded will be edited at the Peace Memorial Hall and made available for viewing there and on the organization’s website next spring.
(Originally published on November 18, 2014)
