‘Little children like me had to carry the bodies' – Hiroshima survivors urge world not to forget, 80 years on

Irish Independent

07-08-2025

She remembers the moment the bomb fell: Hiroshima flattened in an instant, as if a giant had stomped the city into the ground.
'Buildings were crushed, and fires broke out everywhere. That night, Hiroshima burned. The entire city kept burning through the night.'
Ms Ogura's family had moved a year earlier to the far side of a small hill just outside the city centre – a decision, made by her father to avoid air raids, that ultimately saved their lives. The hill stood between their home and the bomb's hypocentre, shielding them from the full force of the blast.
Scenes of horror surrounded Ms Ogura in the days after the bombing. Survivors had leapt into Hiroshima's seven rivers to escape the fires, but many drowned or died from their injuries. She remembers the waterways choked with bodies – some drifting downstream, others washing back with the tide, missing limbs and swarmed by flies.
Mass cremations became part of daily life. In front of her home alone, her father cremated around 700 people.
'Even little children like me had to help lift and carry bodies on straw mats,' she recalled in a video published by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
Nearly eight decades later, those memories remain vivid, etched with scenes of unbearable pain and incalculable loss.
For Ms Ogura, they are more than personal recollections. They are warnings. Warnings, she says, that the world must never allow itself to forget.
Hiroshima Day, observed each year on August 6, commemorates one of the most devastating moments in human history, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the US in 1945, during the final days of World War II.
That morning, a US B-29 bomber named Enola Gay dropped a uranium-based atomic bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, that detonated about 600 metres above the city.
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The explosion unleashed a ferocious blast, scorching heat and lethal radiation, instantly killing 70,000 to 80,000 people.
In the days and months that followed, tens of thousands more died from injuries and radiation sickness. The city was flattened, and survivors – known as hibakusha – endured long-term health effects and psychological trauma.
The Nobel Peace Prize had renewed their determination to campaign for nuclear disarmament
Three days later, the US dropped a second bomb, Fat Man, over Nagasaki. These bombings marked the first and only use of nuclear weapons in war and led to Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, bringing World War II to an end.
The atomic bombings killed more than 210,000 people.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki stand as lasting reminders not only of the immense human tragedy that unfolded, but of the profound danger nuclear weapons pose to humanity in today's fractured world.
In the years since 1945, survivors, activists and global leaders have repeatedly invoked the devastation as a stark plea for disarmament and a cautionary lesson for generations to come.
Last year, survivors of the bombings said that receiving the Nobel Peace Prize had renewed their determination to campaign for nuclear disarmament.
'I felt like I needed to work even harder on what I had done so far,' said Terumi Tanaka, who survived the atomic attack on Nagasaki.
Mr Tanaka (93) spoke at a press conference in Tokyo last year following his return from Oslo, where he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Nihon Hidankyo, the organisation of Japanese atomic bomb survivors.
'I believe it is important to focus on the next 10 years and strengthen the movement moving forward,' he added. 'I would like to lead a big movement of testimonials.'
On Monday, Mr Tanaka said: 'I believe a nuclear war could happen in the near future. Most young people today may not know how many nuclear weapons exist. There are 12,000 nuclear warheads.
'One warhead is 2,000 times more powerful than the bombs 80 years ago.'
Last year, Michiko Kodama, who survived the Hiroshima bombing, said: 'We hibakusha who saw the hell... within a decade won't be around to tell the reality of the atomic bombing. I want to keep telling our stories as long as we live.'
My father heard many people calling for help. There were heaps of bodies too
Ms Kodama was seven years old in August 1945.
Another survivor, Fumi Takeshita (80), said: 'I saw an extremely strong light coming in from the window. It was white, or shall I say yellow? So strong that I couldn't keep my eyes open.
'It was the day after the bomb dropped. My father walked through the hypocentre, the Urakami area, and heard many people calling for help. There were heaps of bodies too.
'Buildings were crashed to the ground and there was nothing left, apparently. I heard that from my grandmother. She said, 'Fumi-chan, remember the light you saw the other day? Because of that, there is nothing left in Urakami, and many people died'.'
While Ms Takeshita painfully recalls the devastation in the aftermath of the atomic bombing, other survivors have also borne the weight of their memories for decades.
Despite battling numerous health issues, Kunihiko Iida (83) has dedicated his retirement to sharing his story in the hope of advancing the cause of nuclear disarmament.
Mr Iida volunteers as a guide at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park, determined to raise awareness among foreign visitors, who he believes often lack a full understanding of the bombings.
He tried to scream 'Mommy, help!' on that day in August, 1945, but no sound came out, he recalled. He was eventually rescued by his grandfather.
Within a month, his mother (25) and four-year-old sister died after suffering nosebleeds, skin problems, and extreme fatigue – symptoms of radiation exposure.
Mr Iida experienced similar effects throughout elementary school, but slowly recovered.
It wasn't until he was nearly 60 that he returned to the peace park at the bombing site. His elderly aunt asked him to go with her, and he finally agreed. It was his first visit since that terr­ible day.
'The only path to peace is nuclear weapons' abolishment. There is no other way,' Mr Iida said.
As the survivors grow older, their warnings also feel more urgent. As of March 31 this year, Japan's ministry of health, labour and welfare reported that there were only 99,130 people officially recognised as hibakusha.
Their calls for a nuclear-free world have yet to be realised. Instead, rising global tensions have brought back fears of a nuclear war.
As the world holds events and talks of nuclear disarmament and a future free of atomic weapons, the question still looms: Have the powers that be deliberately made nuclear disarmament a distant dream in today's world? Is the dream of a nuclear-free world further out of reach?
And in the process, are we beginning to forget the horrors that hibakusha like Ms Ogura endured?
On Monday, Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Frydnes said: 'I don't think fear [of nuclear weapons] is the solution to our problems.
'The hibakusha clearly show that it is possible, even though in a situation of pain, sorrow and grief, to choose peace, and that's the message we want the world to listen to.'