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Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall receives 10,000 accounts of A-bomb experiences

by Hiroaki Watanabe, Staff Writer

On March 1, the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims, located in Naka Ward, announced that it has received 10,103 accounts of A-bomb experiences from people across the country, which were solicited in connection with a fact-finding survey of A-bomb survivors conducted in fiscal 2015 by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Among this total, 3,785 accounts are from people residing in the city of Hiroshima, and 1,772 accounts are from those residing in other parts of Hiroshima Prefecture. The Peace Memorial Hall will make them available in July 2017 after preparing them for the public.

Accounts were received from 32 prefectures and the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki between December 2015 and the end of February 2016. Under the theme “My Thoughts About the Atomic Bombing,” A-bomb survivors have described their experiences on paper in frank detail. Regarding the site of their A-bomb experience, 7,265 accounts recall the Hiroshima bombing, 2,778 accounts cover the Nagasaki bombing, and 60 accounts did not specify the location of their experience. Accounts from the remaining 15 prefectures in Japan have yet to arrive.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has conducted this fact-finding survey every 10 years with the aim of using these findings on the livelihoods and health conditions of A-bomb survivors to implement relief measures for them. About 56,000 A-bomb survivors residing in Japan and abroad were included in the survey carried out last October and November in fiscal 2015. The ministry began calling for A-bomb survivors to write down their experiences in the 50th anniversary year of the atomic bombing. This was the third such appeal for A-bomb accounts. The last time, in fiscal 2005, a total of 11,778 accounts were received.

The accounts will be made available to the public after they are checked. They will also be entered into a database by July 2022. The Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims will release these writings to the public, too.

(Originally published on March 2, 2016)

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