Japan is the only nation that has experienced a nuclear attack. For the past 72 years, we have not maimed or been maimed by a single human being in the context of war. Within the Japanese Constitution you will find Article 9, the international peace clause. If you sense it coming, it may be too late.’ “Dear young people who have never experienced war, Although we did not exchange words, I knew at that moment that he was safe in heaven.” He was wearing a kimono and smiling, ever so slightly. Fifty years later, I had a dream about my father for the first time since his death. If it weren’t for my father, we may have suffered severe burns like Aunt Otoku, or gone missing like Atsushi, or been lodged under the house and slowly burned to death. My father passed away – suffering greatly – on August 28. His hair began to fall out and dark spots formed on his skin. However, he soon came down with diarrhea and a high fever. We were later able to reunite with my father. Our family – those of us at the barrack, at least – survived the bomb. At 11:02am that morning, the atomic bomb was dropped. We changed our minds and decided to hide out in the barrack, for one more day. “The US is a day behind, remember?” When they opposed, he got very upset and stormed out to go to work. “Go back up to the barrack,” my father demanded. On the morning of the 9th, my mother and aunt opted for staying in the house. With several children and seniors in tow, it was a demanding trek. The trail up to the barrack was rugged and steep. He built us a little barrack up along the Iwayasan (a local mountain) to hide out in. My father somehow got a hold of one, and believed what it said. The leaflets were confiscated immediately by the kenpei (Imperial Japanese Army). “American B-29 bombers dropped leaflets all over the city, warning us that Nagasaki would ‘fall to ashes’ on August 8.
As a firsthand witness to this atrocity, my only desire is to live a full life, hopefully in a world where people are kind to each other, and to themselves.” I have seen a lot of pain in my long years, but truthfully, I have lived a good life. ‘What did I do to the Americans?’ she would often say, ‘Why did they do this to me?’ My younger sister suffers from chronic muscle cramps to this day, on top of kidney issues that has her on dialysis three times a week.
More than a decade after the bombing, my mother began to notice glass shards growing out of her skin – debris from the day of the bombing, presumably. I lost hearing in my left ear, probably due to the air blast. But since that day, mysterious scabs began to form all over my body. When my uncle finally found me and pulled my tiny three year old body out from under the debris, I was unconscious. I was buried alive under the house, I’ve been told. I don’t remember much, but I do recall that my surroundings turned blindingly white, like a million camera flashes going off at once.
“I was three years old at the time of the bombing. “You are only given One life, So cherish this moment Cherish this day, Be kind to others, Be kind to yourself” As the anniversaries of the bombings approach once again, here is a selection of that work.Īge: 75 / location: nagasaki / DISTANCE from hypocenter: 3.4 km Today, photographer Haruka Sakaguchi is seeking out those individuals, asking them to give a testimony about what they lived through and to write a message to future generations. Amid the death and destruction, some combination of luck or destiny or smarts saved them-and therefore saved the voices that can still tell the world what it looks like when human beings find new and terrible ways to destroy one another. For the survivors of those ruined cities, the coming of the bomb was a personal event before it was a global one. As TIME noted in the week following the bombings, the men aboard the Enola Gay could only summon two words: “My God!”īut, even as world leaders and ordinary citizens alike immediately began struggling to process the metaphorical aftershocks, one specific set of people had to face something else. New frontiers of science were opening, along with new and frightening moral questions. World War II would end, and the Cold War soon begin. 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later-was that rare historical moment that requires little hindsight to gain its significance. The decision by the United States to drop the world’s first atomic weapons on two Japanese cities-Hiroshima first, on Aug. When the nuclear age began, there was no mistaking it. Photographs by HARUKA SAKAGUCHI | Introduction By LILY ROTHMAN Survivors of the Atomic Blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki share their stories