Katsuyuki Nagahisa was a 10-year-old boy playing in a school yard when he saw a “strange, mushroom-shaped cloud rising in the direction of Hiroshima.”
Mr. Nagahisa who is the standing board member of Tokyo Federation of A-bomb Sufferers, addressed a group this weekend at the Morristown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. He explained that he and his classmates “exchanged some words of wonder but casually spent the hot summer day without giving any speculation as to why there was such a huge cloud in the sky.”
It would be four days before he and his father, in search of family members, would see the devastation caused by the atomic bomb that had been dropped on Hiroshima. Because of the wreckage, they were forced to disembark from the train headed for the city and traveled the rest of the way on foot.
The passage of 64 years appears to have done little to erode the memories of what the young boy witnessed that day.
photo by Kevin Lyden, SGI International
“We passed ground zero and passed our grandmother’s home in Dambara-Ohata District (2 kilometers from the epicenter), where I saw burned skeletal remains of a tram that ran through the area still standing on the railroad. A dead cart horse lying with his belly up under the scorching sun and the miles after miles of burnt ruins. On the other side of the tram line toward the Hijiyama mountain was left with nothing; everything had been crashed into bits and pieces by the bomb’s blast.”
Days later, he and his father were reunited with five family members who had been “horribly injured.” It was not long before his grandmother and a cousin would die of the aftereffects of the radiation.
Remembering the three temples of Jodo Shin school of Buddhism and five Shinto shrines in his hometown, Mr. Nagahisa spoke of the “joy and excitement of attending their seasonal events and rituals” during his childhood.
“With this background,” he shared, “I have had a number of opportunities to visit temples and shrines and attend their festival rites, and every time I am at a temple I pray for hardship. This is the prayer I am compelled to give out of unforgettable memories of the horrible devastation of Hiroshima.”
Some may call this response a form of “survivors’ guilt,” but it may just be what drives Mr. Nagahisa to honor the lives lost, provide aid to survivors and work to abolish the weapon that was the catalyst for the horrific suffering.
Mr. Nagahisa explained, “I am driven to give such a prayer because I feel extremely happy for being alive and at the same time feel sorry for those who died on that day and after and those who continue to suffer from illness because of the bombing. I feel I have been given too much happiness and so I feel I should be given more hardship. I feel I should strive to live for the lost lives of other people.”
“I do not mind taking the trouble of working hard if it is for the well-being and happiness of other A-bomb victims. Sixty-four years have passed since that summer but the bombing left an indelible memory to the childish mind and instilled me a strong sense of hatred and anger against nuclear weapons. We must not tolerate any kind of their production, possession or use.”
Mr. Nagahisa’s appearance was one of several along with a fellow Hibakusha (Japanese survivors of the bombings), Mr. Shigemitsu Tanaka, a Nagasaki survivor and standing board member of Nagasaki Council of A-bomb Sufferers. The events were organized by NJ Peace Action & the Aug. 9th Saving Lives Task Force and Seeds of Peace along with the Union County Peace Council.
Founded in 1957 in response to the growing nuclear arms race following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, NJ Peace Action is one of the nation’s oldest grassroots disarmament groups. According to Madelyn Hoffman, executive director of NJ Peace Action, the Hibakusha will be meeting this week with Senator Frank Lautenberg’s office to “share their hopes and dreams for U.S. policy on nuclear weapons and nuclear disarmament.”
Shigemitsu Tanaka was five years younger than Katsuyuki Nagahisa when the United States military dropped atomic bombs onto their homeland, but like Mr. Nagahisa his memory of the day and the years of pain that followed will never be forgotten.
photo by Kevin Lyden, SGI International
Mr. Tanaka lived only 6 kilometers from ground zero in Nagasaki City in August 1945. His father had been stationed at an army base 60 km away from Nagasaki and the young boy lived with his grandfather, grandmother, mother, and two brothers. Like Mr. Nagahisa, he described a day born of innocence.
“I spread out a mat under a persimmon tree and was playing with my young brother and grandfather in the garden. As soon as I said “Grandpa, I hear a plane coming,’ I watched the dazzling flash in the sky. And a sound like a thunderbolt reverberated and blew a hot blast of wind. I was surprised and horrified.”
After fleeing with his family to a hill behind his house, they returned to find a house with no doors and windows that had been broken. But, it was the unseen damage that day that would begin a lifetime of pain.
His mother had gone immediately the next day to a school to care for those seriously injured. “Almost all of the patients,” he described, “had injuries so severe that you could not even tell if they were male or female. Putrid smells emanated from the dead bodies. Though my mother wanted to treat the injured, there was no medicine and no gauze. Their wounds were covered with flies and the next day she found them crawling with maggots.” Mrs. Tanaka returned from ground zero exhausted.
Mr. Tanaka explained that before the bombing his mother had been “proud of her health, but she began to suffer from severe diarrhea of unknown origin and had many spots all over her body. She developed liver trouble and was in and out of the hospital more than 20 times because of having thyroid surgery. My father worked at ground zero to dispose of bodies and take away a lot of debris after the explosion. He always said he was exhausted.”
The stress of their situation created a tremendous strain in their relationship forcing his mother to leave home several times because her husband was violently taking his frustrations out on her.
Mr. Tanaka recalls “We had enjoyed a happy life but it changed into a sad one and we were forced to lead a miserable life because of the atomic bomb.”
For many Americans, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are pages in a history book. Perhaps more would be compelled to assist the Hibakusha and organizations like NJ Peace Action if their school books were traded in for an afternoon with Mr. Nagahisa and Mr. Tanaka.
“Sixty-four years ago,” said Mr. Tanaka “the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki turned the city to ruins in a split second. People were evaporated instantly and were burned by its heat and fire ball. People were under rubble which had fallen and were burned alive. In Nagasaki, more than 70,000 people were burned to ashes. In Hiroshima more than 140,000 people died in agony, burned to ashes. Moreover, the bomb destroyed our human dignity. After battling atom-bomb illness, poverty and unjustified discrimination tortured many Hibakusha and led them to suicide. Many atomic-bomb survivors still regret now that they could not give their hands to the people who asked for help.”
Mr. Tanaka went on to explain that in Japan, there is a Hibakusha Aid Act. Unfortunately, despite the law, he charges that the Japanese government has underestimated the effects of the bombing “because it embraces the idea that Japan enjoys the protection of the “nuclear umbrella’ provided by the United States. The government has ignored the spirit of the law and has denied extending legitimate support measures to the Hibakusha.”
Pressing even harder, Mr. Tanaka stated nuclear weapons “not only kill humans, but destroy every life form on earth. They are the weapons of devil. The use of nuclear weapons is the biggest crime one could commit against humanity.”
In response to President Barack Obama’s speech in Prague this Spring, Mr. Tanaka commented “We know that he has made a landmark remark in Prague on April 5, this year when he said that the United States has a moral responsibility to seek a world without nuclear weapons as the only country that has used such weapon.”
He expressed excitement that a U.S. President had made such a statement, but acknowledged that talks of an abolition of nuclear weapons had just begun.
President Obama announced this goal in April. Specifically, he said “So today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. I’m not naive. This goal will not be reached quickly – perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence. But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannot change. We have to insist, “Yes, we can.”
Mr. Obama stated that in order to reduce our warheads and stockpiles the U.S. would negotiate a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with the Russians this year. He also stated, “To achieve a global ban on nuclear testing my administration will immediately and aggressively pursue U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.” He also called for a strengthening of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Despite the fact that no National Intelligence Estimate on Iran has been produced since 2007 when it stated that among its findings, “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program,” President Obama declared that “Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile activity poses a real threat, not just to the United States, but to Iran’s neighbors and our allies.”
I don’t claim to know otherwise, but it does seem as the rhetoric against Iran enjoys a steady rise, an updated estimate or “memorandum to the holders” is certainly in order.
Mr. Obama raises the concern over the “real threat” to justify a costly, unproven and controversial missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland. “The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defense against these missiles. As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven.”
It is worth noting that on the White House website where this speech is posted that the poster took the time to include (Applause) after this and many of Mr. Obama’s remarks. The President added “If the Iranian threat is eliminated, we will have a stronger basis for security, and the driving force for missile defense construction in Europe will be removed.” I will leave it to the reader to determine how he or she chooses to interpret that one.
President Obama concluded that “we should come together to turn efforts such as the Proliferation Security Initiative and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism into durable international institutions. And we should start by having a Global Summit on Nuclear Security that the United States will host within the next year.”
I asked Madelyn Hoffman, executive director of NJ Peace Action, for her thoughts about the president’s Prague speech. She acknowledged this as a historic statement as it has been a long time since a U.S. President has spoken of a move toward a world free of nuclear weapons. She quickly added “However, the optimism created by that statement is tempered by a healthy skepticism, both because we’ve been here before – moving toward nuclear disarmament – and then been derailed and because we see the continuation and expansion of some of the policies begun during the Bush administration.” She pointed specifically to the “increasing tension and violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
As for the role Peace Action is taking, Ms. Hoffman offered that “Peace Action on a national level has embarked on an ambitious program over the next eight months (leading up to the May 2010 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York City) to increase public support for nuclear disarmament.”
They have been gathering signatures on a petition to be sent to President Obama that will ask him to “keep his promise about moving toward a nuclear weapons free world.” “We will be meeting with and asking our members to contact our elected officials asking both members of Congress and the U.S. Senate to support legislation and ratify treaties moving us closer to a nuclear weapons free world.”
Prior to the May 2010 Conference, they will once again host Hibakusha and they will organize a large demonstration on May 2 in New York City.
Ms. Hoffman is clear. “We want to do everything we can to build a movement so strong that President Obama can’t ignore us and will be compelled to keep his promise.”
Across the Delaware River, in Philadelphia, the Brandywine Peace Community, the Philadelphia Catholic Peace Fellowship along with the Northwest Greens held a Nagasaki Day Peace Observance on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at the SS Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Cathedral.
photo by Cheryl Biren-Wright
During the vigil, participants were invited to light a stick of incense in remembrance of the dead and to take a drink of water in memory of those who, on August 9, 1945 rushed to the Nagasaki River bed seeking relief from the blast only to perish instantly.
photo by Cheryl Biren-Wright
A bell tolled 64 times, once for every year of war and nuclear weapons since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
photo by Cheryl Biren-Wright
As the bell tolled, in the background many of Philadelphia’s homeless settled in for the night on the benches and the ground of the city’s Logan’s Circle.
photo by Cheryl Biren-Wright
Mr. Tanaka in his address called for “an earth where there are no nuclear weapons,” but he also added “no war and no poverty, and filled with hope for our children.”
photo by Cheryl Biren-Wright
Special notes: NJ Peace Action thanks Soka Gakkai International(SGI), a worldwide Buddhist organization, for their assistance with providing translation and for their commitment to nuclear disarmament.
Also, the Hibakusha will be speaking today, August 11, at the following locations: 3:30 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 61 Broad Street, Elizaeth, N.J. and a 7:00 p.m. program sponsored by the Islamic Center of Morris County and hosted by the Boonton Mosque located at the Boonton Mosque/Jam-e-Masjid Islamic Center, 110 Harrison Street, Boonton, N.J.
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