HIROSHIMA 75 years after. 'To my last breath': survivors fight for memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
As they mark 75 years since their cities were destroyed in an instant, the
ageing men and women who bore witness to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki are struggling to remind the world of the horror of nuclear weapons. Keiko
Ogura was eight years old when the Enola Gay, a US B-29 bomber, dropped a
16-kilotonne nuclear bomb on Hiroshima at
8.15 am on 6 August 1945.
75 years ago: When Leo Szilard tried to halt dropping atomic bombs over Japan
Heda Margolius Kovaly (1919-2010) : Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941–1968
An estimated 80,000 of
the city’s 350,000 people were killed instantly; by the end of the year, the
death toll would rise to 140,000 as survivors succumbed to injuries or
illnesses connected to their exposure to radiation. Ogura, who was playing
outside her home when the force of the blast swept her off her feet and knocked
her unconscious, is one of a dwindling
number of survivors who have made it their life’s work to tell their
story. They hope, with increasing
desperation, for a world without nuclear weapons.
“My father had said
that something didn’t feel right that morning and told me not to go to school,”
she said. The blast ripped the roof off the house she shared with her parents
and two brothers, and destroyed much of the interior. But they had survived.
“It was dark and there was absolute silence. I didn’t know what to do except
crouch on the ground. All I could hear was the sound of my little brother
crying.”
As evening fell,
people who had been closer to the hypocentre a mile and a half away started
arriving at their home. “They had badly burned faces and hair, and their skin
was hanging off. They said nothing … they just moaned and asked for water.” Ogura
gave water she had fetched from a well to two people and watched in horror as
they drank but then collapsed and died. “I didn’t know that it was dangerous to
give water to people in their condition. For 10 years I blamed myself for their
deaths.” Ogura is one of an
estimated 136,700 remaining hibakusha –
survivors of the atomic bombings – from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including those
who were in the womb at the time of the attacks. With an average age of just
over 83, many suffer from chronic illnesses linked to their exposure to
radiation.
More than 300,000
survivors have died since the attacks, including 9,254 in the past year,
according to the health ministry. A recent survey by Kyodo news agency found
that more than three-quarters of survivors were “struggling” to pass on their
experiences, with many citing their advanced age. Only a fifth said they planned
to continue sharing their stories. Those like Ogura who
have spent years talking to audiences in Japan and overseas, are
frustrated by the lack of progress on nuclear disarmament, and fearful of a future
without hibakusha testimony….
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/06/to-my-last-breath-survivors-fight-for-memory-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki75 years ago: When Leo Szilard tried to halt dropping atomic bombs over Japan
Heda Margolius Kovaly (1919-2010) : Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941–1968
