Remembering Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and 80 Years of Nuclear Violence

I grew up in Kyoto, Japan, with no family connection to the atomic bombing experience in Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Atomic bombing was never discussed at my home, and was hardly taught in school. So, I did not know much, but I always felt they were important, because it was an important public memory in Japan. Every year, on August 6th and 9th, the days atomic bombs were dropped, memorials are held in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I grew up watching clips of these memorials on TV and learning about survivors’ experiences through the media. Children’s books, such as ”Hiroshima no Pika” or “Barefoot Gen,” were recommended, and many schools took students to Hiroshima and Nagasaki for peace education.

(My first encounter: How can I respond to the nuclear violence?)

My school trip took me to Nagasaki when I was 16. We visited the Atomic Bombing Museum and saw horrifying photos of the aftermath: People burnt alive, skin peeling off… Vivid images of dead and severely injured people in a destroyed city were so scary. I wanted to look away, but I felt I shouldn’t. Atomic bombing was something scary and serious that I had to look into, but too scary and serious to do so. I felt I had to engage, but it was too overwhelming; I didn’t know how.

(Japanese physicists, environment and child-raising)

I began reading about nuclear issues in my university years. During the Second World War, Japanese physicists also tried to develop atomic bombs. But seeing the aftermath of the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they became committed to abolishing wars and nuclear weapons. In 1949, when the Japanese Academy was created, the Japan Physics Society demanded international control of nuclear energy, never to use it for weapons. In 1950, the academy decided never to conduct scientific research for war purposes. Japanese physicists advocated for international collaboration to abolish nuclear weapons and to refuse research for war. Many also spoke against nuclear power plants, because of the danger of radiation and also because it was tied to nuclear weapons production.

By the time I went to university, such activism among physicists was fading. But I read those books as the responsibility of a physics student: to understand the issue and to build my informed opinion to share with others.

As an environmentalist since childhood, sensitive to humans harming other beings, I was appalled by the way Japan kept building nuclear power plants.

But it was the responsibility of becoming a mother that pushed me to be involved in nuclear issues. Through seeking a child-raising community that cares for the land and water, I found farmers, fishermen, mothers, and many land and water protectors, and learned about nuclear issues in the grassroots movement to protect life, fighting against nuclear violence, especially from people living near nuclear power plants. The responsibility of raising children prompted me to seek resources for children and take them to places of learning.

(Maruki Toshi and Iri)

When my daughters were in elementary school, I took them to the Maruki Gallery of Hiroshima Panels near Tokyo. I was blown away by the works of Maruki Iri and Toshi. When I stepped into their studio, I instantly felt at home. There were shelves full of books about nuclear issues, war responsibility, art, literature, social justice, community building, and more. We sat on the tatami floor, looked at books, looked at the river and trees through the window, and made drawings on their desk, as all visitors were invited to do so. I felt Iri and Toshi were opening a door for us to join the community of caring for all beings, which also meant fighting hard against violence against life. This visit changed the way I look at the tragedy of the atomic bombing.

Toshi and Iri went to Hiroshima right after it was bombed. They helped their family, neighbours and strangers while witnessing the devastation created by the atomic bomb. Years later, they began to paint what they saw on the first day, the next day, and the following days in Hiroshima. Those paintings were filled with cruel deaths and indescribable suffering, just like those Nagasaki photos I saw on my school trip. But instead of looking away, I looked in, drawn by the beauty and dignity of life. Many people were dead, but I could see that each of them had lived a precious life. A mother holding her dead baby, naked people burnt alive, or pierced by smashed pieces of glass… People were going through tremendous pain and sadness, but each life was so precious and beautiful, especially the way they cared for each other as family, friends and community.

Since then, Hiroshima and nuclear issues have turned into remembering the preciousness of all lives to let such beauty continue: protecting life, fighting against nuclear and all violence, by building a caring community.

(Nagasaki)

When my daughters were teenagers, I took them to Nagasaki. By this time, the museum exhibit had changed. It took us back to what happened on the day the bomb was dropped and after, with explanations in the context of the continuing history of conflicts, violence, war, nuclear, and peace-building. We heard stories from survivors, learned a bit of history, and sat in sadness in front of a screen watching video footage of too many mushroom clouds of nuclear testing that continued in different parts of the world.

We walked around town, visiting places that carried the memory of death, destruction and suffering the bomb had brought. Feeling the memory of the land, meeting survivors and being warmly welcomed by the community changed us. Nagasaki began to feel like our hometown. As we connected with the people and place, we felt connected to their experiences and their commitment to peace.

(Hidankyo)

I did not know about Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Sufferers Organization, until I saw them awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year: “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.” I was impressed by Hidankyo elders, unwaveringly committed to peace. Then, I met their long-time supporter and started learning.

In 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, taking the lives of 220 thousand people, and severely injuring countless. However, most survivors did not know what happened beyond their personal experiences.

Japan went under the American occupation, which forbade reporting on atomic bombings, so most people did not know what actually happened. The US sent medical doctors to Hiroshima and Nagasaki to examine the injured people, not to give medical treatment, but to collect data on the radiation impact on human bodies. They took their findings to the US and kept them secret. Scientific information was not shared, international journalists were forbidden to enter those cities, and articles, artworks or books about atomic bombing were banned. The knowledge of atomic bombing was silenced and kept away from the public – until the survivors started writing and sharing their personal experiences, which grew into the Atomic Bombing Victims Association in 1954, after the American occupation ended in 1952.

On March 1, 1954, the US conducted its largest weapon test: the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb was dropped on Bikini Atoll. It caused a weather change, and nuclear fallout spread all over the Marshall Islands and beyond, harming all life. Without any notification from the US, over 856 Japanese fishing boats in the Pacific were also exposed to the radiation. When these 20 thousand fishermen returned to Japan, they became ill and started dying. All the fish they caught had high levels of radiation; therefore, they had to be buried underground.

Shocked by the third nuclear disaster Japan had to endure, mothers in Tokyo, determined to protect all children, started a petition against atomic bombs. The movement spread all over Japan and the world, and the first international conference to abolish the atomic bomb was organized in Hiroshima. “Hibakusha”, the atomic bomb victims, were finally able to share their stories: the heartbreak of losing their loved ones, continuous pain from injuries and illness, fear of dying, and worries of passing on radiation effects to their children and grandchildren… Through remembering and sharing, Hibakusha, victims, found their way to turn their lives around to become “survivors”: committing themselves to remembering and fighting against nuclear violence to save all humanity. The second conference was held in Nagasaki in 1956, when Hidankyo, a network of atomic bomb survivors, was established, with a commitment:
“Never again to anyone!” Hidankyo became the leading organization fighting against nuclear violence by building grassroots collaborations, conducting research on the atomic bombing experience, and demanding international community abolish nuclear weapons.

Such activism of Hibakusha changed the course of the international discussion on nuclear weapon control, from political negotiation, dominated by powerful nuclear-armed states, to a moral commitment of all nations to protect all humanity. Finally, in 2017, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was adopted at the UN, entering into force in 2021.

(Pacific Islands, colonial and environmental violence)

I used to read a picture book to my daughters about the Marshall Islanders who continue to suffer from radiation and forced removal after the 1954 Castle Bravo nuclear bombing test by the US. Later, I learned that among 1,054 American nuclear bombing tests, 67 most powerful ones were conducted on the Marshall Islands. Castle Bravo was about 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. The United Kingdom conducted 45 atomic bombing tests in Australia and the Pacific Islands. France conducted two tests in the Sahara and 200 in French Polynesia.

Nuclear violence has also been colonial and environmental violence: powerful nations dropping atomic bombs onto colonies and the lands and people they value less. Learning about nuclear history has been heartbreaking: seeing such cruelty of what humans do to other humans and what humans do to the earth and all life. The powerful kept dropping atomic bombs on the powerless and voiceless. To keep or gain power, nations keep making nuclear weapons, and now, we live on the brink of nuclear disaster.The powerful also control the media, so knowledge about nuclear violence and the voices of victims have been suppressed.

How can we stop nuclear violence in this world of power? Hidankyo and many organizations have been demanding that America take its responsibility to lead the abolition of nuclear weapons. But America, the most powerful nuclear-armed nation, is refusing to do so. Nuclear-armed states and many allies are not signing the Nuclear Weapons Abolition Treaty, including Canada and Japan.

(Silent Fallout)

A Japanese filmmaker, Ito Hideaki, had been struggling with this dilemma and found a way. He made a documentary for the US audience to inform the public, believing that the US citizens themselves would pressure their government to change its policy if they knew the truth. His film, Silent Fallout, lets the silenced US survivors of nuclear test fallout speak their truth.

Since the 40’s,100 nuclear bombs exploded in the sky of the Nevada Test Site, creating radioactive fallout that was carried by the winds to Nevada, Arizona, Utah, California, and all over the US, taking many lives. Survivors who lost family and friends from radiation-related illnesses tell how nuclear bombs developed to attack enemies have harmed and killed Americans instead.

The documentary also tells the story of courageous women in St. Louis, Missouri:
In 1958, determined to protect all children, a group of women led a movement of collecting baby teeth to be examined by the doctors, who proved strontium-90 from the nuclear test fallout was in human bodies, endangering people’s health. Their findings convinced President Kennedy to stop above-ground nuclear testing in 1963, signing the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty!

However, nuclear tests continued in Nevada with 828 “underground” explosions, contaminating air, land, and water, and we are still living in the world of nuclear weapons and nuclear facilities.

The documentary continues, explaining that nuclear bombings conducted in the Marshall Islands were far more powerful than the ones in Nevada, and most fallout in Virginia or the East Coast came from these nuclear tests in the Pacific and from the Soviet Union.

We are all Hibakusha, nuclear victims, exposed to radiation, says Ito. Nuclear tests in different parts of the world have been contaminating the whole Earth beyond national borders. Therefore, Ito insists, the nuclear issue should be discussed as an environmental issue endangering all lives and needs to be regulated internationally. He made this documentary, believing in ordinary Americans: if they knew the truth of nuclear violence threatening their lives, they would convince their government to abolish nuclear weapons and facilities.

(Remembering)

Canada has not signed the Nuclear Weapons Treaty, but ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1970. We have 22 nuclear power plants, mostly in Ontario, but in British Columbia, nuclear plants and uranium mining have been banned under the province’s Clean Energy Act of 2010. There is a long way to go in ending nuclear violence, but I am grateful to those who fought against it, and hope to continue the work.

Facing violence and tragedy is difficult. Every day life is already overwhelming, and with so many injustices and tragedies happening around us and in the world, it is difficult to deal with them physically, mentally, or emotionally, so I tend to push them away for later. But many people I met along the way, who are committed to preventing violence in the future, have inspired me to remember, reminding us of the preciousness of life.

Let us help each other in remembering, for the beauty of the Earth and all life.