By Kotaro Takami

HIROSHIMA, Aug. 2 Kyodo, In A-bombed Hiroshima, canna plants produced flowers about one month after the disaster, although it was said at the time, ''Neither plants nor trees will grow for 75 years.''

There is a picture of the canna at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. ''Whenever I see the picture, I am encouraged. That flower is us,'' said Yukiharu Yamasaki, 38, who assumed chairmanship of the National Liaison Council of A-Bomb Survivors Second Generation Organizations in January.

Yamasaki, who took over the post from a predecessor in his 50s, said, ''We, who do not know the war, are asked how we can hand down A-bombed experiences to the next generation.''

The number of the A-bombing second generation is estimated at 300,000 to 500,000 nationwide, but they are not able to receive any help under the Atomic Bomb Survivors Support Law. The state insists, ''No hereditary influence has been confirmed'' from the atomic bombing, but some experts disagree.

Public support is limited to simple health checks, and there is no free cancer check for them. No health check is done for the third generation.

The liaison council is receiving a lot of inquiries from the second generation and their parents about their health.

Yamasaki is no exception. He says that whenever his 5-year-old son shows asthma symptoms, the thought flashes through his mind, ''It may be due to the A-bombing.''

When he was in elementary school, his father, 74, told him about his experience during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima when he was 14. ''On seeing a B-29, I jumped into a river, and when I came out of the river, the city was a sea of fire. And I walked back home.'' He did not talk about his experience further, and even now, he remains tightlipped.

Later, Yamasaki says, he came to know that there are many A-bomb survivors who are hesitant to talk about their experiences. ''It may be the past they want to forget,'' he said.

Yamasaki is an employee at the Otake municipal government in Hiroshima Prefecture.

He was raised with almost no consciousness that he belongs to the second generation, but while engaged in peace campaigns as a labor union activist, he began to think there may be something he can do as a member of the second generation.

At present, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation institutes jointly operated by Japan and the United States in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are carrying out large-scale health checks for the second generation, and the results will come out next year.

Yamasaki hopes that the checks will give the state a chance to reconsider its measure for the second generation. His organization has started collecting signatures to urge the state to provide ample measures for the second generation.

Recently, he has begun to feel strongly that he will have to ask his father to talk more about his experiences. Then, he will be together with his two sons, the third generation, to listen to what his father has to say.

(This is the second of two news focus stories about A-bomb survivors)

2006-08-02 08:38:23JST