Survivors' Accounts | My Hiroshima

Survivors’ Accounts

My grandmother was in a hair salon in Takeya-cho, approximately 1.5 kilometer from the hypocenter of the atomic bombing. I was told that my grandfather went to look for her, and that apparently as there were no survivors in the general area, he collected some bones in the area the hair salon was believed to have been located in. He was 51 years old. He never worked again and never spoke about what he saw and what he felt, to me and perhaps to anyone else. My two aunts were also survivors of the atomic bombing; one of them had a scar on her cheek. Both of them told me that they did not want to remember or talk about their experience. This is what most survivors would say, and this is why there was a strong opposition from the survivors to the city’s proposal to preserve a single building, which is today’s Atomic Dome.

Many survivors, if not all, believe that it is a wish of those who died from the atomic bombing that such weapons will never be used again. Some of the survivors therefore write and tell their first-hand accounts hoping that the wish of those who died can be fulfilled. I admire those people.

Until you listen to or read their stories, you will not be able to fully understand or imagine the depth of the human misery caused by the use of a nuclear bomb. Various parties including the Japanese Government have been making efforts to disseminate accounts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors, and some of them have been translated into English (and other languages) and made available online: (Some sites carry videos as well.)

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Testimony of Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors)

http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/un/disarmament/arms/testimony_of_hibakusha/

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum Peace Database

http://a-bombdb.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/pdbe/search/col_testify

Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims

http://www.hiro-tsuitokinenkan.go.jp/english/index.php

長崎原爆の記憶(Memories of Nagasaki Atomic Bombing)

http://portal.nagasakipeace.jp/evidence_english

Hiroshima Peace Media Center by Chugoku Newspaper

http://www.hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/?lang=en

Nagasaki City-Peace & Atomic Bomb

http://nagasakipeace.jp/english/survivors.html