Orphaned hibakusha continues to tell of the destructive reality of nuclear weapons

Japan Times

a day ago

Eighty years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, an 83-year-old orphaned survivor continues to speak out about the destructive nature of nuclear weapons.
Kunihiko Iida was 3 years old when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city on Aug. 6, 1945, in the closing days of World War II. He has made it his mission to share his experience, believing that conveying the truth of the bomb will "lead to the abolition of nuclear weapons."
Iida was exposed to the bombing alongside his 25-year-old mother, Toshiko, and his 4-year-old sister, Makiko, at his grandparents' home, roughly 900 meters from the hypocenter.
After a flash of light, Iida was thrown into the air with a tatami under him, and shards of glass pierced his face and arms. Exposure to the bomb discolored their bodies and caused their hair to fall out.
They fled to the home of his mother's cousin, but his mother and sister both suffered necrosis, starting in their legs, and died a month after the bombing.
"I called out to my mother, and she responded 'Kuni-chan,'" Iida recounted. "Before long, she stopped responding."
Iida was orphaned by his mother's death, as his father had died in a battle in Okinawa Prefecture. He was then raised by his grandmother, but she died 2½ years later. After that, he lived with his uncle.
It took seven years for his wounds caused by the glass shards to heal. Even after turning 80, Iida still sometimes finds himself saying, "Mom, help me."
After graduating from a technical high school, Iida joined a heavy industry firm as an engineer. After retirement, he became a hibakusha witness of the city in his early 70s.
"I wonder how many people know the reality of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima," he said. "Without knowing the reality, people wouldn't understand why it's necessary to abolish nuclear weapons."
In his lectures, Iida shares not only his personal experience but also information about the devastation near the hypocenter.
He explained that the surface temperature at the hypocenter reached 3,000 degrees Celsius to 4,000 C. "Tens of thousands of people turned into white ashes and were blown away by the blast wave," he said, adding that collecting remains was difficult.
Iida noted that there were many dead bodies with peeled skin on bridges and in rivers, and that many orphans died of starvation. "There must be no more hibakusha, who experience inhumane and tragic situations," he said.
In order to share his experience directly with foreign tourists, Iida takes English conversation classes.
Between his lectures, he approaches visitors around the Atomic Bomb Dome and explains how buildings and people were blown away. He also distributes English-language leaflets he created.
Amid growing global instability, Iida is concerned that modern nuclear weapons, which far exceed the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, could be used.
"We must achieve world peace by abolishing nuclear weapons," he stressed.