(Adnkronos) – Eighty years after the destruction, the survivors of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, known as hibakusha, have fallen below 100,000. The Guardian, in a new era of nuclear risk, interviewed some of the last survivors of the World War II explosion, which caused over 140,000 victims and the destruction of about 70% of the buildings. “I remember the air was full of smoke and there were bodies everywhere, it was terribly hot – said Yoshiko Niiyama, who was ten years old that day, speaking in her home on the outskirts of Hiroshima – The faces of the survivors were so disfigured that I didn’t want to look at them. But I had to”.
Niiyama never found her father or his remains, which were probably incinerated along with those of his colleagues with whom he worked at the bank. In recent years, the now ninety-year-old woman said, many hibakusha have remained silent for fear of discrimination, such as not being able to marry or find a job. “It was said that children born in Hiroshima would be deformed,” lamented the survivor, who added: “I don’t like the month of August. I always have nightmares near the anniversary. I don’t want to think about that day, but I can’t forget it. I’m glad I still remember being a hibakusha.”
“Now that the anniversary is approaching, I can talk to her again,” confessed Kyoko, Niiyama’s granddaughter, explaining that when she was in high school she asked her grandmother to tell her about her experience during the war and only then did Niiyama, who was a bit reticent, break the silence. “(The anniversary ed,) is a truly precious moment for our family even if it is painful,” said the granddaughter, sharing the enormous difficulty of reliving the tragedy of Hiroshima.
Last year, the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks, gathered in the Nihon Hidankyo organization, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their campaign to rid the world of nuclear weapons. But the people of Hiroshima face a race against time to ensure that their message survives and spreads in time, in a world that seems to be getting closer and closer to a new era of nuclear risk. Russian President Vladimir Putin has not ruled out the use of tactical nuclear weapons in his war against Ukraine, while a veiled nuclear threat from former Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev recently prompted US President Donald Trump to move two US nuclear submarines closer to Russia.
“The hibakusha have spent their entire lives courageously telling their stories, essentially reliving the traumas of their childhoods, to make sure the world understands the devastating consequences of nuclear weapons on people,” said Melissa Parke, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. “They have tried to make everyone understand why it is necessary to abolish them, so that no one else has to relive their same suffering,” concluded the director.
“Little Boy” was the name of the nuclear bomb that, dropped by the American B29 Enola Gay, exploded about 600 meters above the ground over Hiroshima, with a power equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT. Between 60,000 and 80,000 people died instantly, with the death toll rising to 140,000 by the end of the year, due to burns and illnesses caused by acute radiation exposure. Three days later, the Americans dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing another 74,000 people. On August 15, Japan surrendered, ending World War II.
