64 years ago, on the 6th and the 9th of August, atomic bombs were dropped by the U.S. forces on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Over 200,000 people died and every year, ceremonies are held to commemorate those victims and to remind humanity of the horrors of war and of the use of nuclear weapons.
Some Japanese bloggers reflect on their history and the meaning of this anniversary.
Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. By Flickr user kamoda.
touhen 03, from Hiroshima, tells us the story of the building (pictured above) now become the symbol of the A-bombing and of his memories related to it.
The Industrial Promotion Hall was built before the war, in the 15th year of Taisho Era [1933] during the Taisho Era, in 1915, and it seems it was a very nice building.
Now that it is called the A-Bomb Dome, some of the nice decorations on the facade can still be seen.
This year the 6th of August has come. The anniversary of the day when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
At that time, my mother who used to live in Yano-Cho, a suburb of Hiroshima, was an elementary-school-student and was doing the morning greeting in the school yard. She told me that for a while the atmosphere was colored a transparent white and she believed that the bomb had fallen near her house. My grandmother was at the seaside working as a salt-maker. Thinking that the enemy had arrived, she took my great grandmother by the hand and both ran away as fast as they could. In the meantime a rumor spread, that a bomb had fallen on what at the time was the Toyo Factory (now Matsuda Inc.) in the near village Akigun Fuchu. But when they thought they had to go to help their relatives, the news that Hiroshima was a sea of fire was on everybody's lips. The victims started to arrive one after the other and my grandmother was drafted to help as a nurse.
I was brought up listening to the stories of those hours on that morning of August 6th. Every time I got on the bus I remember my grandmother telling me “look, in that area as many many people died”.
In the bus going to the area where the bomb was dropped I used to listen to these stories which left me with a very strong impression. When I was a kid, every time I was on that bus going to the center of the city, in a corner of my mind, I used to think ‘I have just entered a part of the town from where you cannot come back alive’ and, on the way back, after passing over Fuchu-cho I remember feeling slightly relieved.
I experienced what being a victim of atomic bombing means from close range, plus I heard about it so many times and also at school, during the lunch break. The diary of the A-Bomb experience used to be broadcast in the 60s -70s and in Hiroshima, the dropping of the atomic bomb was remembered as if it had happened only yesterday.
Blogger at ocntodayrecalls [ja] one of the most popular works that tells of that tragic event: Hadashi no Gen [Barefoot Gen] by Keiji Nakazawa (Here is the cartoon version [en])
On Atomic Bombing Anniversary Day, Japanese singer Masaharu Fukuyama (福山 雅治), during his radio program, publicly admitted, for the first time, to being the son of two A-bomb survivors.
This made many reflect on the social discrimination that for years the victims of the bomb (被爆者 hibakusha) and their relatives had suffered and which prevented many second generations hibakusha from telling the truth about their family's past.
Here is a blogger's witness.
It's possible that there are still a lot of people who never admitted being the descendents of A-bomb victims. It was the same for me and hearing that such experience was announced so publicly made me feel a bit uncomfortable. At present, there is no discrimination against the A-bomb survivors in the Hiroshima area and at least in those neighborhoods such discrimination would be meaningless. If something similar still exists, it is just a very sad affair.
However, it is true that those people who had serious health problems due to exposure to radiation were kept away from society because of the injuries caused by bombing.
Prejudices against the survivors and different attitude against them among the Japanese population unfortunately continue to exist.
Being exposed to atomic bomb radiation not only causes direct external injuries, it also causes serious internal injuries resulting in loss of hair, bleeding, diarrhea and vomiting, chronic leukemia, and the possibility of developing thyroid cancer. In short, it causes radiation sickness.
The sons of A-bomb survivors are called ‘2nd generation hibakusha‘ and their children ‘3rd generation hibakusha’. Although it is said that they have more probability of showing genetic health damage, this is not yet scientifically proven and a follow-up survey is still a work in progress.
Because in the past, there have been no similar cases, the impossibility of fully understanding the mechanisms of radiation sickness let misunderstandings arise.
The Maiden of Peace, in Nagasaki. By Flickr user Kamoda.
Mindful of the atomic bombing experience, many in Japan support the anti-nuclear policies of the country. Recently, however, the news that in the past Japan had secretly allowed the transit of American nukes in the country aroused the indignation of those who still value the triple non-nuclear principle adopted as a resolution in the 1960s.
Blogger at Canada de Nihongo points her finger at some politicians ambivalent attitude towards Japan's position as a non-nuclear armed country.
In Japan the three non-nuclear principles which rule are: ‘not to possess nor manufacture nuclear weapons, nor to permit their introduction.’ At present it is believed that Japan doesn't have any nuclear weapons but as there is no specific law in this regard some say that within one year it may become a country with nuclear weapons.
There is actually the suspicion that in the past an aircraft carrier of the American Navy carried [nuclear weapons] into the country, in those ports where the military bases are. According to a rumor, the Japanese government would have allowed the American forces to secretly bring nukes in.
Also regarding the anti-nuclear principle, there is a huge difference in beliefs between PM Idio-Taro Aso and the opposition's leader Hatoyama. When he was the Foreign Minister Aso defended Shoichi Nakagawa's position when he stated that ‘Japan should have nuclear weapons’. That is why the opposition party passed a vote of no confidence in him as Minister of Foreign Affairs. In other words, he seems not to appreciate the significance of the triple anti-nuclear principle.
As Hirosetoreports, in this year's Peace Declaration [ja] Mr. Akiba, Mayor of Hiroshima, declared his support for Obama, referring to the U.S. President's discourse when, in April, he stated that the United States would “take concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons.”
These are the last lines of that Declaration. (On Chugoku Shimbun website the entire translated version)
We have the power. We have the responsibility. And we are the Obamajority.
Together, we can abolish nuclear weapons. Yes, we can.
With the aim to “achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world” by 2020, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 2008 became the promoters of the joint Hiroshima Nagasaki Protocol [en, pdf], complementary to the Non Proliferation Treaty.