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Social Fallout of Atomic Bombings Hounds Survivors
TOKYO - With her knees shaking and her heart thudding, Toshiko Hamamako rose to address the audience. But it was more than stage fright.
The immediate effects of the blast killed approximately 70,000 people in Hiroshima. Estimates of total deaths by the end of 1945 from burns, radiation and related disease, the effects of which were aggravated by lack of medical resources, range from 90,000 to 140,000. Some estimates state up to 200,000 had died by 1950, due to cancer and other long-term effects. Hamamako was just an infant when the U.S. military dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, some 700 kilometers west of Tokyo on Aug. 6, 1945, and on Nagasaki three days later, in order to end the Japanese aggression and the Pacific War. Today, more than 60 years later, she is finally speaking out in public about her life of suffering.
"The experience of standing before an audience and talking about my life for the first time was terrifying but was also an important personal learning experience," Hamamako, now 66, recalled. She had related her story at the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference in New York in May, alongside other ‘hibakusha' or atomic bomb survivors.
Their oral testimonies, recounting horrifying stories of painful illnesses and treatment, continue to be powerful evidence of the devastation caused by nuclear weapons.
But the devastation they suffered was not only about living with radiation burns and medical problems. To this day, Hamamako, others like her and their families suffer from the social fallout of the atomic bomb blasts: stigma and discrimination toward survivors.
"We were considered contaminated and therefore must be avoided," Hamamako explained, adding that even infants in survivor families are stigmatized.
"I told the audience how awful it is to live as a hibakusha," said Hamamako, who now lives in Saitama, a suburb west of the capital Tokyo, with her husband and daughter. "My mother never spoke to me of that time because she did not want to recall the long years of how she and my sister, as well as everybody else around them, suffered. They were so badly affected from radiation burns that never healed."
When they got married, Hamamako's husband had in fact made her promise to keep her ‘hibakusha' status a secret, to protect the family from social discrimination. "I respected his wishes. It was only two years ago that I decided to speak out and I am so glad I did. I realise now how important my story is for world peace," she said.
"I knew I was reaching out to the listeners," 67-year-old Hiroshi Nakamura, another survivor, says of addressing the New York conference Hamamako went to. "My message was far more effective in comparison to books and films on the horrors of the atomic bomb."
These survivors' stories may not about the actual atomic catastrophe because they were too young then, but peace activists say they highlight both the impact of the atomic bombings and the social exclusion that persist decades later.
"People like Hamamako are crucial to the lesson we bring from Hiroshima to the world," explained Prof Mitsuo Okamoto, head of the Hiroshima Centre for Non-violence and Peace. "Their testimonies represent a continuation of the role played by the older generation of survivors, whose stories of that fateful day have galvanized global action for peace," he said.
There are some 162,000 officially-recognized atomic bomb survivors, according to government statistics. More than 60 percent are in their 70s and 80s, and suffer from radiation- related illnesses such as cancer or mental stress.
The uranium bomb dropped by U.S. warplanes over Hiroshima created a huge mushroom cloud of intense radiation, killing 140,000 people, or some 40 percent of the city's residents, on Aug. 6, 1945. In Nagasaki, the toll was just as horrendous: 73,884 people wiped out instantaneously, and another 74,909 injured.
In a survey of 1,500 atomic bomb survivors by the ‘Asahi' newspaper in July, some 61 percent of the younger generation of ‘hibakusha' - those now in their 60s - said they started opening up and telling their stories only after 2005.
For many, their prolonged silence was the result of social stigma they were already going through and fears of reduced chances of marriage, brought on by a fear among many Japanese that the health of children and grandchildren of ‘hibakusha' would be affected by radiation. In fact, Nakamura describes his ‘hibakusha' status as a "death penalty" because he does not know when he could be diagnosed with a radiation-related sickness.
But, this year, Nakamura is heartened by the news that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has decided to attend the ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6. Government representatives from the United States, France and Britain are also expected to be present for the first time in the history of these commemorative events.
"Such steps give us enormous hope to carry on," said Nakamura, who lost his mother - also a ‘hibakusha' - to cancer.
But among the biggest obstacles the ‘hibakusha' face is their fellow Japanese' cold reaction to them.
‘Hibakusha' and their supporters complain that Japanese history textbooks do not discuss the Pacific War and World War II in nearly enough detail - especially Japan's role in the war and its harsh colonization of parts of East Asia.
"There are many times, I feel, that the Japanese feel we are a nuisance because we bring (back) the past of Japan's role in World War II. This makes me sad," said Hamamako. "But I will keep talking."
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64 Comments so far
Show AllThe Hibakusha, the Japanese victims of the U.S. Military's infamous and indefensible attack on two cities full of civilians, should be taught in all our schools. Who wants to bet right-wingers wouldn't freak out over this??
There were a lot of decent men in my family who fought in WW II, saw the carnage. They thought that the bombing of Japan was necessary to end the war. I strongly disagree with them on that point, but think that informed debate without aspersions is required to rid ourselves of our sick attachment to militarism in otherwise responsible and kind people who would otherwise never willingly hurt a civilian.
Germany and Japan benefitted in the long run from post War prohibitions on militarism, while we became profligate military spenders and drunk with delusions of invulnerability. The economies and the national psychologies of the "losers" are now healthier than ours.
I agree with you that we need to teach more about this history and get people to wrestle with these questions here in the US, in every country that promotes and supports a standing military force, and in Japan, . The Japanese are not blameless. Worshipping an Emperer (or a Fuhrer), rejecting victims of war rather than rejecting those who start wars, is a low level of human behavior, both bullying and slavish - and still far too common everywhere, especially here.
Joe
Wrong. The Japanese were defeated and wanted to surrender.
But it was just too much fun for guys like you
to massacre civilians.
I wish you had read my post more carefully. I was talking about the long standing prevalence of the notion that the bombings were justified and the need to contend with that notion.
Joe
Point taken, especially your good points about demilitarization. (I guess I'm touchy about repeating the sins of other countries, since it is used as a cover for the sins of the US.)
Part of the problem as you alluded to is that our "successful" bombing lead us to believe we could bomb our way to victory.
While I feel the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima were and Nagasaki, and the firebombing of Dresden were war crimes you do state one underlying truth.
The total and utter destruction of Germany and japan ended Militarism in those countries. The problem was it only transferred that Militarism (and more) to the "Victors"
One would hope there other means by which this can be done, both in the then and in the now and this is one reason why people should be anti-war and forget this nonsense of "Supporting the troops" and making war on peoples the world over because they might one day be a threat.
I do not feel the least bit sorry for the bastards. They brought it upon themselves.
If we remember anyone, it should be the victims of Japanese aggression.
Pearl Harbor, the Bataan Death March, the execution of POWs on Wake Island, the Rape of Nanking(250,000 Chinese slaughtered), "scientific experiments" conducted on US POWs.
Japan has sowed the wind, then reaped the whirlwind.
You are a hate twisted committer of human atrocities, and ignorant of history to boot. Maybe if you used some of your energy lost on hate to learn something you could actually make the world a better place - or least make a useful post.
YOU should read some history dipshit,
The Japanese DID commit widespread wanton slaughter in Nanking, 1937. Some 250,000 people were butchered- wholesale rape and atrocities. Prisoners executed, shot beheaded, or bayoneted with their hands tied behind their backs.
If Japan had gotten the bomb 1st, don't think for a minute that they would not have saturated all of America with bombs, and think nothing of it.
Japan started the war, committed wholesale slaughter, then rightfully had wholesale destruction wrought upon them.
BTW- don't cry for those Jap 'civilians", just where the HELL do you think their soldiers came from?
Yup, from those same "civilians" that were bombed.
The US soldiers that commited the Massacres at My Lai, the tortures at Abu Ghraib, Bagram and Gitmo, the Flattening of Fallujah, the bombing of wedding parties in Afghanistan , the carpet bombing of Hanoi and of Laos and of Cambodia, the dropping of Agent Orange on Vietnam, the slaughter of some 200,000 Filipinos...all Came from the US civilians.
Colonel Chivington, on ordering his men to shoot every man, woman and child in a peaceful Villgae of Native Americans had a mindset much like yours when he suggested "Nits grow up to become lice..."
Uncle Ho actually 'knows' what he is talking about.
Uncle ho doesnt "know" anything. From what I read he "Knows" just about as much as those Lynch mobs "Knew" when they were stringing Blacks up from trees in Alabama.
At least you're a rude no-nothing.
Again , I strongly believe Uncle Ho is a Vietnamese poster.
Only peoples who suffered under Japan's harsh rule( look up 1944-1945 Vietnamese rice famine ) ever use the word 'Jap'
I was on the bus talking to a Filipino guy about WWII and out of no-where he says "the japs F***king would throw up babies and catch them on there bayonets "
Most of us Americans have no harsh feelings towards the Japanese ( this is in part due to how Douglas Mc Arthur declared them to be victims of the manipulation of a few military leaders) . Keep in mind the rest of Asia isn't so forgiving
Any country includes lots of innocent people of all different kinds, including children. If we dehumanize it to words like "Japan" or "Gooks" or "Ragheads", then we are giving legitimacy to the practice of killing human beings as the chief method of taking control of territory, natural resources, of consolidating power against rivals.
Underneath all the rhetoric, war is usually a form of armed robbery carried out at the expense of the ordinary people on behalf of the rich. There is always another way.
Joe
Yeah, really, Uncle Ho? If they "brought it upon themselves" by what "they" did...
What in the hell are Americans bringing upon ourselves by what "we" are doing?
Do we deserve to get nuclear bombs dropped on our babies' heads?
By your logic, we do.
In the future, if people were thinking like you were thinking when you wrote that post, they would say,
If we remember anyone, it should be the victims of American aggression. The bastards brought it upon themselves.
Think about that. Think about that good and hard.
So with your "logic", Uncle Ho, and assuming you are an American citizen, do you feel comfortable with the knowledge that YOUR extended family should be unceremoniously "wiped out" as payback for American aggression? Should we not be remembering the victims in say, Cambodia, El Salvador, Iraq or Afghanistan, to name a few?
As Howard Zinn has stated: All wars are wars against children.
I feel sorry for you. Your life is consumed with hatred. I live just 5 miles from the Manzanar Internment Camp National Monument, and I taught elementary school in Seattle for 15 years. I had many children from Japanese/American families in my class over the years. If you had personal relationships with as many wonderful children of Japanese descent and had experienced the love and respect these people show to their children's teachers you could not possibly call the innocent people of Hiroshima the bad names you call them in your post.
Should you be killed because Nixon and Johnson and Kennedy led a foreign policy that murdered 3 million Vietnamese? Perhaps you were directly involved, but you still deserve at least a trial, not to be vaporized. What about the 9 year old children, the age group I worked with as a teacher, who lived in Hiroshima? Surely you can't believe that they deserved to be vaporized because of the actions of the Emperor and the adult military class of Japan.
I agree with you, the Japanese reaped what they had sown.
The victims of horrific crimes against humanity conducted by the Japanese have not been remembered as they deserve to be.
Obviously you are old enough to have learned about Japanese autrocities as they were happening against innocent men, women and children.
Many of the contributors to this site are young, naive, and uneducated.
You have no morality.
- - - AND don't forget the poor, under-trained, C-level, disbelieving troops from the Canadian prairies, rushed overseas and sacrificed to Japanese internment and slavery by PM MacKenzie King and that prick Winston Churchill.
Trylon
Uncle Ho you are a patriot to the right-wing, neo-con, warmongering people of this world, but to those of us who actually believe in the goodness of humans and the teachings of Jesus, you are in need of our love and forgiveness.
I hope you never are a victim of terrorism. I hope no one ever nukes you or arrests you for no reason. I hope you never have to spend a day in jail or have your rights as a human being deprived.
Uncle Ho , is a common way for the Vietnamese to talk about the founder of there modern nation , Ho Chi Minh. ( Like like we have honest Abe)
During the 1944-1945 Vietnamese rice famine caused by the Japanese army deciding to steal there rice over 2 million innocent people starved to death. Therefore since the poster is probably Vietnamese its completely understandable that he doesn't feel sorry for Japan.
Just stating facts here...
If we can drop atomic bombs on a war that we were 'winning'. . .then what precedence does that set for a war that some country is losing?
I think the decision to drop bombs on civilian targets was due directly to the fact that the war in Europe was won by the Russians. As it was, in fact, Russia that took Berlin. Now that the only remaining Axis power was geographically surrounded by China and Russia, the communists were well on the way to 'winning' WWII. The decision to nuke civilians was more about global politics than 'saving human lives'.
In 1954 the State Department watched in horror as the French Expeditionary Forces were trapped in a valley at Dien Bien Phu and faced their total defeat after eight years of war (five years of which American taxpayers had financed). No less than three U.S. offers were made to France of an atomic bomb to drop upon Vietnam. To their credit, through their diplomats, the French government said "no, thanks all the same".
James Michener was among U.S. troops who soon occupied Japan. In 1954 he would publish an astonishing book called "Sayonara". It would be turned into a terrible movie with Marlon Brando and Red Buttons - terrible because the ENDING WAS CHANGED. The point is that, having dropped so much ordnance upon the Japanese people, once American men were exposed to the women of Japan, an amazing percent wanted to marry them. Chaplains were directed to discourage this phenomenon as much as possible, and in the plot of the book, the Army tells an enlisted man he cannot bring his bride back to the United States. In response, the couple commit suicide.
Nature versus nurture?
Trylon
True. By 1870 US birth records were now fairy common, nationwide. For several decades, until we "caught up" with pre-war levels, male births outnumbered female births. Nature is not fooled, and - - - Humankind might be ONE living organism.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were selected because the areas were not already scarred from bombings. These places were picked to gauge the destructive power of the prototypical bombs (one Uranium and the other Plutonium). The fact that the citizens were non military is as nonsensical as bombing the world trade Center.
The WTC building, Towers one an two and Building 7 all had some military secrets stored in them and were could have been allowed to be hit to permanently cover the truth from being learned.
Bombing civilians for the crimes of the bombers of Pearl Harbor, a place where the U.S. military should not have been, is incorrect. That is like saying that the killing of the children around the age of Jesus was justified because Jesus would be assumed to be dead.
Violence of all types is deplorable. Violence is a break down in respect for those created, if we believe there is a God, by Him and therefore should be respected from the womb to the tomb.
Peace!
"Their testimonies represent a continuation of the role played by the older generation of survivors, whose stories of that fateful day have galvanized global action for peace..."
These victims of one of the most horrific examples of human atrocity give me hope. In the face of being injured and their lives wrecked, they chose to turn their suffering into a chance for peace. It's not like some groups who use their suffering to "cash it in" and cause more suffering to others.
bligh4
"War is Hell" -Gen. William Sherman.
"War is Hell" -Gen. William Sherman.
That bastard would know- he caused enough of it during his "marches" and deserves to be eternally burning there.
ALL acts against ordinary citizens during these wars are unjustifiable, but that is how the USSA rolls.
Nanjing China Massacre: 300,000 Chinese People Killed, 20,000 Women Raped ...
These victims were killed 'individually' as entertainment for the troops. Japanese soldiers were sub-human in the way they treated their captured victims.
The atomic bomb was needed to end the bloody war.
Virtually no one in Hiroshima or Nagasaki was a Japanese soldier. The rape of Nanjung was 8 years earlier and had nothing to do with the state of defeat Japan was in by 1945. So, was it necessary that the children of Hiroshim or Nagasaki die in some sort of atonement for this action?
Modern day US soldiers - from Vietnam onward, are largely sub-human savages too. Will you offer up your and your familly's life in atonement for the millions they killed?
bligh4
"Modern day US soldiers are largely sub-human savages too". Are you kidding me? This site has gone to hell.
One thing i believe we all can agree on!!!
Will you offer up your and your familly's life in atonement for the millions they killed?
Dumb question.
I simply offered some history of Japanese autrocities in the war era.
OK, they were offered, but provide no justification for the atrocities at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
That was the reason you "simply offered some history", right?
The targets were CIVILIAN. Got that? Or does the fact we committed mass human atrocities just do it for you?
What a curious statement, do you know any Soldiers personally?
Soldiers from anywhere mind you, they do not even have to be US Soldiers.
I doubt you do.
As a rule we debate points here, not cast about prattle and inflammatory statements meant to do nothing more than stir the chamber pot.
It was a civilian target. Your points about "know any Soldiers personally" are totally irrelevant.
They are the one that brought it up 'tired'
Should have been posted one up, of course. (Not "tired" of good posts, by the way.)
I remain stunned that even on a this site, we get people defending the atomic bombings. One would think we would all be in agreement on at least this.
The justifications for the bombings, by the way, were made up some years later. No one aside from a circle of advisers around Truman, felt the bombings a military necessity.
The actual "target" of the bombings was the Soviet Union. They wanted them to be sure they understood who would be the boss-of-the-postwar-world.
The actual "target" of the bombings was the Soviet Union. They wanted them to be sure they understood who would be the boss-of-the-postwar-world.
That is a true fact!!
Rationalization. Humanity can no longer afford these rationalizations. Please stop.
Rationalization. Humanity can no longer afford these rationalizations. Please stop.
Revisionist nonsense. Your racism is showing.
Yeah, sure, uh-huh...
One would think that someone who's family was really half-asian would have some perspective in this matter, Mr. Doodley Squat.
Oh, right... sure... OK...
Not only he was Okinawa, he had a connection to the spirit world that could tell the future and he foresaw that if we didn't drop the atomic bomb (twice) he would die in an invasion of Japan.
No wonder, "He knew , you don't." Yeah, sure.
Is there any real reason you liked the massacre of civilians? Too brown for you?
can you sight any sources for this?
Lineament ones mind you
MY SISTERS FATHER IN LAW A FORMER JAPANESE SOLDER IN WWII , WAS A BEST SELLING AUTHOR IN JAPAN. HE SAID THAT KAGOWA, A FORMER STUDENT AT PRINCETON U. IN 1944 HAD A MESSAGE FROM THE EMPEROR SAYING THAT THE JAPANISE WOULD SURRENDER. OUR GOVERNMENT COVERED IT UP. KAGOWA WAS A GREAT SOCIAL ACTIVEST IN TOKOYO AFTER THE WAR. MANY BOOKS HAVE BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT HIS LIFE. MOST OF THEM ARE IN JAPANESE.