Storytellers Pass On Experiences of War Survivors in Kunitachi Lecture Series; Program to Preserve War Memories Marks 10th Anniversary This Year
In the lectures, the experiences of hibakusha atomic bomb survivors and others are shared by storytellers on their behalf. The city has already organized more than 100 of these events, and with those who lived through the war rapidly dying out, the storytellers stress the importance of passing down their wartime experiences to future generations.
Scenes from an atomic bombing
'Their skin was burned and hanging off their body. Some liquid was dripping from it,' said Yutaka Magofuku of Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, in a lecture at a public facility in the city in late July.
Magofuku, 78, spoke to about 30 participants about the scene witnessed by Shigeyuki Katsura immediately after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945. Katsura was about 2.5 kilometers south-southeast of the hypocenter when he felt the explosion.At that time, Katsura was 14 years old. He was on his way to deliver products from a factory set up at the junior high school he attended. Suddenly, he was blinded by a bright light like a camera flash. A powerful shockwave sent him flying, and he lost consciousness. He came to his senses after a while and set off for home down the debris-strewn road. Along the way, he saw a person who had died with the upper half of their body submerged in a water tank. He also heard cries for help coming from inside a collapsed building.
Raising storytellers
In 2015, which marked the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, the Kunitachi municipal government, in collaboration with Katsura and other survivors living in the city, launched a project to train people to pass on the stories of people who experienced the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
Katsura told The Yomiuri Shimbun at that time: 'We are very grateful for this opportunity to pass on our unparalleled, devastating experiences. We would like to do our best to fulfill this important responsibility during the time left to us.' He died in 2017 at the age of 86.
Magofuku, who at the time was working in the administrative offices of a university, saw an advertisement seeking storytellers. He decided to apply, feeling that the suffering people went through during the war must not be forgotten. He frequently visited Katsura's home to listen to his experiences. He says Katsura emphasized that he should convey the truth as it was, without distorting it. After 15 months of training, including learning recitation techniques, Magofuku began giving lectures in 2016. He now speaks about five times a year.
Magofuku said he tries very hard to faithfully convey what Katsura saw in the city immediately after the bombing and his experiences with atomic bomb sickness. 'Mr. Katsura wanted to convey the horror of war and the preciousness of peace, especially to the younger generation,' Magofuku said. 'It is vital that we learn what the war that ended 80 years ago was like for Japan.'
Toko Abe, a first-year student at Tokyo Junshin Girls' Senior High School in Hachioji, Tokyo, was among those who listened to a recent lecture by Magofuku.
'Just from listening to the story, I was able to imagine the terrifying scenes Mr. Katsura witnessed. The story made me strongly feel that I would like to see the remnants from the atomic bombing with my own eyes and reflect on peace.'
In 2017 Kunitachi also began efforts to pass on the experiences of survivors of the Tokyo air raids. Now, 21 storytellers are working to share wartime experiences. The city regularly holds lectures and dispatches storytellers to schools.
Regular lectures are scheduled for Friday and Aug. 22 in the city.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Times
3 hours ago
- Japan Times
'War trauma' transformed caring father into a complete stranger
Eighty years after the end of World War II, the psychological scars borne by former Imperial Japanese servicemen are drawing renewed attention. Many veterans, haunted by horrific battlefield experiences, developed post-traumatic stress disorder and related conditions that continue to affect their lives and families. Such war-induced conditions, often referred to as "war trauma," can profoundly alter a person's behavior and emotional state. In one case, a father who was once devoted and loving became distant, described by a family member as being merely an "empty shell" of his former self. A growing number of family members of former Japanese servicemen are coming forward to share their experiences, prompting the government to launch its first-ever survey on the realities faced by these families. The results are expected to be released within the current fiscal year ending March. Akio Kuroi, 76, from Musashimurayama, Tokyo, recalls the enduring impact military service had on his father, Keijiro, a former soldier who passed away in 1990 at the age of 77. "He was lethargic, and I couldn't even tell if he was really there. He was like an empty shell," Kuroi says. Kuroi's father was conscripted at the age of 20 and served as a leader of subordinates in areas such as former Manchuria, now northeastern China. After returning to Japan, he struggled to adjust to civilian life and never held a regular job, leaving his family in financial difficulty. Even at home, he remained distant. He would not respond when his grandchildren called out to him. "I thought to myself, 'I will never become a man like my father,'" Kuroi says. A quarter of a century after his father's death, Kuroi happened to watch footage of a former U.S. Marine struggling with the trauma of the Vietnam War. The video made him realize the depth of the emotional scars his own father had carried. "The pained face of the Marine overlapped with the image of my father," he recounts. Motivated by the understanding that war had transformed his father, Kuroi founded an organization in 2018 to support the families of former servicemen. The group has collected testimonies from family members, including accounts such as former servicemen getting drunk and becoming violent toward family members and those shouting loudly in the middle of the night. Yasuko Kurokawa, a 74-year-old Tokyo resident, regularly attends testimonial meetings organized by Kuroi. Reflecting on her late father, Yuzo Sato, she says, "He seemed to have no interest in others, including his own family." Sato passed away in 1993 at the age of 76. Drafted into the military just before Japan's defeat in World War II, Sato was later interned in Siberia. Upon his return to Japan, he was devastated to learn that his eldest son had died of illness at the age of 3 and that his 1-year-old daughter had starved to death during his absence. The trauma and grief weighed heavily on him, and he never spoke of his wartime experiences. Kurokawa's mother had described Sato as a devoted father who would carry his children on his back to the fields and bathe them with care. However, Kurokawa herself never saw that side of him. "Perhaps his experiences on the battlefield, combined with the sorrow of losing his children, broke his heart," she said, her voice heavy with emotion. "If only he had talked to me, I could have understood him better." In response to ongoing efforts to collect testimonies, the welfare ministry launched a survey in fiscal 2024 to better understand the experiences of former servicemen suffering from PTSD and other conditions, as well as the impact on their families. After analyzing patients' medical records, the ministry aims to present its findings in a permanent exhibition at Shokei-kan, a Tokyo museum dedicated to sharing the stories of sick and wounded former servicemen, starting around February 2026. Ahead of the permanent display, the ministry is also organizing a panel exhibition on the history of former servicemen who suffered emotional wounds, which has been on view since July. "We hope the exhibition will provide many people with an opportunity to learn about the challenges faced by former servicemen with mental illnesses and their families," a ministry official said.
20 hours ago
80 Years On: Japanese American Vietnam Veteran Tells War Stories to Students
New York, Aug. 12 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese American veteran of the Vietnam War has been relating his experience of discrimination and the misery of war to students in the United States. "I don't want our experiences to be repeated ever again, for any race or any person," Takeshi Furumoto, 80, a resident of New Jersey, says in Japanese. He was born in a concentration camp during World War II, volunteered to fight in the Vietnam War and suffered mental and physical trauma from his time on the battlefield. His father, Kiyoto, born in Japan, emigrated to California in 1921, labored at farms from his teens and founded a vegetable wholesale company in 1938. Some 120,000 Japanese Americans were sent to concentration camps in 1942 under U.S. Executive Order 9066, which was signed by then President Franklin Roosevelt and regarded them as hostile aliens. Kiyoto, who was one of them, lost his property. He decided against signing up for military service or pledging allegiance to the United States as he was afraid that doing so would make him unable to return to Japan. He was locked up in the Tulelake concentration camp in northern California, where Furumoto was born in October 1944. The family of seven lived in a small room that was extremely cold in winter. "Japanese Americans were hated, and nobody helped us," Furumoto remembers. "After the war, most of the parents who spent time in such camps wouldn't talk about their painful experiences." [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
Yomiuri Shimbun
a day ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Storytellers Pass On Experiences of War Survivors in Kunitachi Lecture Series; Program to Preserve War Memories Marks 10th Anniversary This Year
In an effort to pass down the experiences of people who lived through atomic bombings and air raids during World War II, as well as those survivors' thoughts on peace, to future generations, the city of Kunitachi, in western Tokyo, continues to hold public lectures, part of a project which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. In the lectures, the experiences of hibakusha atomic bomb survivors and others are shared by storytellers on their behalf. The city has already organized more than 100 of these events, and with those who lived through the war rapidly dying out, the storytellers stress the importance of passing down their wartime experiences to future generations. Scenes from an atomic bombing 'Their skin was burned and hanging off their body. Some liquid was dripping from it,' said Yutaka Magofuku of Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, in a lecture at a public facility in the city in late July. Magofuku, 78, spoke to about 30 participants about the scene witnessed by Shigeyuki Katsura immediately after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945. Katsura was about 2.5 kilometers south-southeast of the hypocenter when he felt the that time, Katsura was 14 years old. He was on his way to deliver products from a factory set up at the junior high school he attended. Suddenly, he was blinded by a bright light like a camera flash. A powerful shockwave sent him flying, and he lost consciousness. He came to his senses after a while and set off for home down the debris-strewn road. Along the way, he saw a person who had died with the upper half of their body submerged in a water tank. He also heard cries for help coming from inside a collapsed building. Raising storytellers In 2015, which marked the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, the Kunitachi municipal government, in collaboration with Katsura and other survivors living in the city, launched a project to train people to pass on the stories of people who experienced the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Katsura told The Yomiuri Shimbun at that time: 'We are very grateful for this opportunity to pass on our unparalleled, devastating experiences. We would like to do our best to fulfill this important responsibility during the time left to us.' He died in 2017 at the age of 86. Magofuku, who at the time was working in the administrative offices of a university, saw an advertisement seeking storytellers. He decided to apply, feeling that the suffering people went through during the war must not be forgotten. He frequently visited Katsura's home to listen to his experiences. He says Katsura emphasized that he should convey the truth as it was, without distorting it. After 15 months of training, including learning recitation techniques, Magofuku began giving lectures in 2016. He now speaks about five times a year. Magofuku said he tries very hard to faithfully convey what Katsura saw in the city immediately after the bombing and his experiences with atomic bomb sickness. 'Mr. Katsura wanted to convey the horror of war and the preciousness of peace, especially to the younger generation,' Magofuku said. 'It is vital that we learn what the war that ended 80 years ago was like for Japan.' Toko Abe, a first-year student at Tokyo Junshin Girls' Senior High School in Hachioji, Tokyo, was among those who listened to a recent lecture by Magofuku. 'Just from listening to the story, I was able to imagine the terrifying scenes Mr. Katsura witnessed. The story made me strongly feel that I would like to see the remnants from the atomic bombing with my own eyes and reflect on peace.' In 2017 Kunitachi also began efforts to pass on the experiences of survivors of the Tokyo air raids. Now, 21 storytellers are working to share wartime experiences. The city regularly holds lectures and dispatches storytellers to schools. Regular lectures are scheduled for Friday and Aug. 22 in the city.
