Yudaen and Yamaguchi Prefectural University compile booklet on A-bomb survivors
Apr. 13, 2016
by Fumiyasu Miyano, Staff Writer
Yudaen, the social welfare center for A-bomb survivors in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and Yamaguchi Prefectural University have compiled a booklet on the lives of seven A-bomb survivors. Both organizations are located in the city of Yamaguchi, and they shared the new booklet with A-bomb survivors and students on April 12. The booklet is the first outcome of continuing interviews with survivors, which were launched last year with a three-year plan in mind. The aim of the project is to convey the wishes for peace of the A-bomb survivors to younger generations.
The 129-page booklet is in A-4 format. It contains survivors’ accounts of the atomic bombing, along with questions and answers between survivors and students. In their account, the survivors describe the horrific conditions of the aftermath of the bombing and the hardships they then faced in their lives, including the loss of friends to A-bomb-related leukemia and a doctor’s advice to avoid having children.
Miyoko Hayashi, 75, a resident of the city of Hofu who was exposed to the atomic bomb’s radiation after entering Hiroshima in the wake of the attack, acknowledged for the first time that she had felt suicidal. Seeing the keen interest of the students, she said, “I think they sensed the real pain and anguish of our experiences of the atomic bombing.”
The booklet also contains letters that the students sent to the survivors after the interviews. In their letters, the students wrote frankly about their thoughts, such as “I don’t want to forget the horror of war and the suffering it creates” and “I tried to put myself in their shoes, imagining how sad and bitter I would feel if I was told I shouldn’t have children.”
Taking up the baton from the A-bomb survivors, Sayaka Urata, a 21-year-old senior at the university, plans to work in public welfare in the future. “As a first step, I listened to the survivors’ lives and realized how precious my own happy life is right now,” she said. “From here I want to study how social workers have given support to the A-bomb survivors.”
Fifty copies of the booklet were printed. They can be accessed at Yudaen and at the Yamaguchi Prefectural Library and Yamaguchi City Central Library.
(Originally published on April 13, 2016)
Yudaen, the social welfare center for A-bomb survivors in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and Yamaguchi Prefectural University have compiled a booklet on the lives of seven A-bomb survivors. Both organizations are located in the city of Yamaguchi, and they shared the new booklet with A-bomb survivors and students on April 12. The booklet is the first outcome of continuing interviews with survivors, which were launched last year with a three-year plan in mind. The aim of the project is to convey the wishes for peace of the A-bomb survivors to younger generations.
The 129-page booklet is in A-4 format. It contains survivors’ accounts of the atomic bombing, along with questions and answers between survivors and students. In their account, the survivors describe the horrific conditions of the aftermath of the bombing and the hardships they then faced in their lives, including the loss of friends to A-bomb-related leukemia and a doctor’s advice to avoid having children.
Miyoko Hayashi, 75, a resident of the city of Hofu who was exposed to the atomic bomb’s radiation after entering Hiroshima in the wake of the attack, acknowledged for the first time that she had felt suicidal. Seeing the keen interest of the students, she said, “I think they sensed the real pain and anguish of our experiences of the atomic bombing.”
The booklet also contains letters that the students sent to the survivors after the interviews. In their letters, the students wrote frankly about their thoughts, such as “I don’t want to forget the horror of war and the suffering it creates” and “I tried to put myself in their shoes, imagining how sad and bitter I would feel if I was told I shouldn’t have children.”
Taking up the baton from the A-bomb survivors, Sayaka Urata, a 21-year-old senior at the university, plans to work in public welfare in the future. “As a first step, I listened to the survivors’ lives and realized how precious my own happy life is right now,” she said. “From here I want to study how social workers have given support to the A-bomb survivors.”
Fifty copies of the booklet were printed. They can be accessed at Yudaen and at the Yamaguchi Prefectural Library and Yamaguchi City Central Library.
(Originally published on April 13, 2016)
