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The Star
5 days ago
- Health
- The Star
Speaking up for peace, 80 years on
Eighty years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many of the remaining Japanese survivors are increasingly frustrated by growing nuclear threats and the acceptance of nuclear weapons by global leaders. The US attacks on Hiroshima on Aug 6, 1945, and three days later on Nagasaki killed more than 200,000 people by the end of that year. Others survived but with radiation illness. About 100,000 survivors are still alive. Many hid their experiences to protect themselves and their families from discrimination that still exists. Others couldn't talk about what happened because of the trauma they suffered. Some of the ageing survivors have begun to speak out late in their lives, hoping to encourage others to push for the end of nuclear weapons. Despite numerous health issues, survivor Kunihiko Iida, 83, has devoted his retirement years to telling his story as a way to advocate for nuclear disarmament. He volunteers as a guide at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. He wants to raise awareness among foreigners because he feels their understanding of the bombings is lacking. It took him 60 years to be able to talk about his ordeal in public. When the United States dropped a uranium bomb on Hiroshima, Iida was 900m away from the hypocentre, at a house where his mother grew up. He was three years old. He remembers the intensity of the blast. It was as if he was thrown out of a building. He found himself alone underneath the debris, bleeding from shards of broken glass all over his body. 'Mummy, help!' he tried to scream, but his voice didn't come out. Eventually he was rescued by his grandfather. Within a month, his 25-year-old mother and four-year-old sister died after developing nosebleeds, skin problems and fatigue. Iida had similar radiation effects throughout elementary school, though he gradually regained his health. He was almost 60 when he finally visited the peace park at the hypocentre, the first time since the bombing, asked by his ageing aunt to keep her company. After he decided to start telling his story, it wasn't easy. Overwhelmed by emotion, it took him a few years before he could speak in public. In June, he met with students in Paris, London and Warsaw on a government-commissioned peace programme. Despite his worries about how his calls for nuclear abolishment would be perceived in nuclear- armed states like Britain and France, he received applause and handshakes. Iida says he tries to get students to imagine the aftermath of a nuclear attack, how it would destroy both sides and leave behind highly radioactive contamination. 'The only path to peace is nuclear weapons' abolishment. There is no other way,' Iida said. Fumiko Doi, 86, would not have survived the atomic bombing on Nagasaki if a train she was on had been on time. The train was scheduled to arrive at Urakami station at around 11am, just when the bomb was dropped above a nearby cathedral. With the delay, the train was 5km away. Through the windows, Doi, then six, saw the flash. She covered her eyes and bent over as shards of broken windows rained down. Nearby passengers covered her for protection. People on the street had their hair burnt. Their faces were charcoal black and their clothes were in pieces, she said. Doi told her children of the experience in writing, but long hid her status as a survivor because of fear of discrimination. Doi married another survivor. She worried their four children would suffer from radiation effects. Her mother and two of her three brothers died of cancer, and two sisters have struggled with their health. Her father, a local official, was mobilised to collect bodies and soon developed radiation symptoms. He later became a teacher and described what he'd seen, his sorrow and pain in poetry, a teary Doi explained. Doi began speaking out after seeing the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster following a strong earthquake and tsunami, which caused radioactive contamination. She travels from her home in Fukuoka to join anti-war rallies, and speaks out against atomic weapons. 'Some people have forgotten about the atomic bombings ... That's sad,' she said, noting that some countries still possess and develop nuclear weapons more powerful than those used 80 years ago. 'If one hits Japan, we will be destroyed. If more are used around the world, that's the end of Earth,' she said. 'That's why I grab every chance to speak out.' After the 2023 Hiroshima G7 meeting of global leaders and the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the grassroots survivors' group Nihon Hidankyo last year, visitors to Hiroshima and Nagasaki peace museums have soared, with about one third of them coming from abroad. On a recent day, most of the visitors at the Hiroshima peace park were non-Japanese. Samantha Anne, an American, said she wanted her children to understand the bombing. 'It's a reminder of how much devastation one decision can make,' Anne said. Katsumi Takahashi, a 74-year-old volunteer specialising in guided walks of the area, welcomes foreign visitors but worries about Japanese youth ignoring their own history. On his way home, Iida, the survivor and guide, stopped by a monument dedicated to the children killed. Millions of colourful paper cranes, known as the symbol of peace, hung nearby, sent from around the world. Even a brief encounter with a survivor made the tragedy more real, Melanie Gringoire, a French visitor, said after Iida's visit. 'It's like sharing a little piece of history.' — AP
7 days ago
- General
80 Years On: Orphaned Hibakusha Conveys Reality of A-Bomb
News from Japan Society Aug 6, 2025 08:30 (JST) Hiroshima, Aug. 6 (Jiji Press)--An 83-year-old orphaned hibakusha atomic bomb survivor continues to speak out about the reality of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima 80 years ago. Kunihiko Iida was 3 years old when the United States dropped the bomb 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 with his 25-year-old mother, Toshiko, and his 4-year-old sister, Makiko, in the home of Toshiko's parents roughly 900 meters from the hypocenter. After a flash of light, Iida was blown into the air with the tatami mat 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. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press
Euronews
7 days ago
- General
- Euronews
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 80 years later: Lessons from the living
ADVERTISEMENT Where there was once fire and ruin, Kunihiko Iida now walks through green lawns and memorials. Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park – built on the site where the atomic bomb hit on 6 August 1945 – is today a place of quiet reflection. It is also where 83-year-old Iida spends his time as a volunteer guide, sharing a story it took him 60 years to speak aloud. Iida was just three years old when the US dropped a uranium bomb on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. He was 900 metres from the hypocentre, at his mother's childhood home. He remembers being trapped under debris, bleeding from shards of broken glass. He tried to scream – 'Mummy, help!' – but no sound came. His grandfather eventually rescued him. Within a month, his 25-year-old mother and four-year-old sister had died. Iida suffered radiation symptoms into his school years, though he gradually regained his health. He avoided the site of the bombing for decades. Then, in his late 50s, he returned – reluctantly – at the request of his ageing aunt. That visit to the peace park marked the beginning of a slow, emotional process of opening up. Now, Iida guides foreign visitors through the memorial, worried that global understanding of the bombings is fading. In June, he travelled to Paris, London and Warsaw as part of a government-backed peace programme. He feared how his message might be received in nuclear-armed countries, but said he was met with 'applause and handshakes.' Key to his approach is encouraging students to envision the long-term consequences of nuclear war: not just the immediate destruction, but the radioactive contamination that would endure. 'The only path to peace is nuclear weapons' abolishment. There is no other way,' Iida said. In Nagasaki, 86-year-old Fumiko Doi's life was spared by chance. On 9 August 1945, a delay kept her train from arriving at Urakami Station at the moment the second atomic bomb detonated above a nearby cathedral. Through the window, Doi, then six, saw the flash. She bent over and covered her eyes as the glass shattered around her. Other passengers shielded her. Outside, she saw people whose faces were 'charcoal black' and whose clothes were torn to pieces. Doi kept her hibakusha (a Japanese term referring to survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) status hidden for years. She feared discrimination. Her father, a local official, had been ordered to collect bodies after the bombing and soon developed radiation symptoms. He later became a teacher and wrote poems about what he had seen – poems that brought his daughter to tears. She married another survivor and worried that her children might suffer long-term effects. Her mother and two brothers died of cancer, and her sisters still struggle with health problems. She only began to speak publicly after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, which revived her fears about radiation. 'Some people have forgotten about the atomic bombings... That's sad,' she said, underscoring that some countries have nuclear weapons even more powerful than those used on Hiroshima . 'If one hits Japan, we will be destroyed. If more are used around the world, that's the end of the Earth,' she said. 'That's why I grab every chance to speak out.' Roughly 100,000 survivors of the atomic bombings are still alive. Some, like Iida and Doi, are only now finding the strength to speak. Many others still stay silent, shaped by trauma or fear of stigma that lingers even eight decades later. After the 2023 G7 summit in Hiroshima and the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the survivor-led group Nihon Hidankyo, the city's museums saw a surge in visitors, many of them from abroad. At the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, about a third of visitors are now international. One of them, American visitor Samantha Anne, said she brought her children to understand the consequences of that day. 'It's a reminder of how much devastation one decision can make,' she said. Volunteer guide Katsumi Takahashi, 74, welcomes the growing interest from abroad but worries that Japan's younger generations are forgetting their own past. After one of his tours, Iida stopped at the monument to the children killed in the bombing. Nearby, millions of paper cranes – symbols of peace – hung on strings, sent from all over the world. Among those who listened to his story that day was French visitor Melanie Gringoire. 'It's like sharing a little piece of history,' she said.
UPI
05-08-2025
- General
- UPI
Japan and world mark 80th anniversaries of atomic bombings
1 of 3 | Small bonfires light the Motoyasu River in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, Japan, on Tuesday. Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Remembrances in Japan, the United States and elsewhere mark the 80th anniversaries of the only instances of atomic weapons being used in military conflict and against civilian populations. The nature of global conflict changed permanently when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on different Japanese cities three days apart in August 1945, with combined casualty figures estimated at more than 200,000 by the end of that year. Kunihiko Iida, 83, is among the remaining survivors and a volunteer guide at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park, according to Korean JoongAng Daily. He leads tours of the memorial's exhibits and shares his own experience regarding the horrors wrought by one of the world's two most powerful weapons that ever have been used in military conflict. Survivors tell their stories Iida was 3 years old and inside his family's home that was located about a half mile from the bomb blast's hypocenter when it detonated. He says the blast felt as though he were thrown from a building and covered him in debris and pieces of broken glass. Iida tried to scream, "Mommy, help!" but the words would not come out of his mouth. Instead, his grandfather found him, and his 25-year-old mother and 4-year-old sister died within a month after each developed skin conditions, bleeding noses and exhaustion. Iida said he developed similar symptoms, but he slowly regained his health over several years. Iida first visited Hiroshima's peace park when he was 60 after his aging aunt asked him to go there with her. The park is located within the atomic bomb's hypocenter, and Iida became a park volunteer a few years later. "The only path to peace is nuclear weapons' abolishment," Iida told the Korean JoongAng Daily. "There is no other way." Another survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, Fumiko Doi, 86, was a 6-year-old passenger on a train that was stopped about 3 miles from the Hiroshima bomb's hypocenter. She saw the bomb's bright flash and ducked as broken glass rained down upon passengers, some of whom protected her with their bodies. Those on the street had burned hair, charcoal-black faces and tattered clothing, she said. None of her family members died during the initial blast, but her mother and three brothers died from cancer, and her two sisters had long-term health problems. Doi's father was a local official and helped collect bodies from the blast, which led to him developing radiation symptoms. Doi now lives in Fukuoka and travels to anti-war rallies to speak against nuclear weapons. "Some people have forgotten about the atomic bombings. That's sad," she told the Korea JoongAng Daily. "If one hits Japan, we will be destroyed," she continued. "If more are used around the world, that's the end of the Earth." She said the potential for a global calamity is why she continues to speak out against the development and use of nuclear weapons. Memorial services for atomic bombing victims Many Koreans who were in Hiroshima also were killed or became ill due to the atomic bombing. A memorial ceremony held on Saturday at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park commemorated the Koreans who survived the bombing. About 110 people, including many survivors and the families of bombing victims, attended to offer flowers and silent prayers, according to The Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims also enables visitors to attend memorial services and view exhibits that depict the atomic bombing and its aftermath. Visitors also can register the names of victims from the bombing, which numbered 198,748 names as of Aug. 9, 2024. Nagasaki is located about 750 miles and Hiroshima is about 500 miles from Tokyo in southwestern Japan. Remembrance events also are scheduled for the two atomic bombings in locations across the United States. Two days that changed the world A B-29 Superfortress bomber named "Enola Gay" by its crew unleashed the "Little Boy" atomic bomb that was made from enriched uranium-235 on Aug. 6, 1945, and indiscriminately killed an estimated 140,000 of the city's 350,000 residents. The Little Boy bomb killed about half of all who were located within three-quarters of a mile of the blast's hypocenter and between 80% and 100% of those located within its hypocenter, according to the city of Hiroshima. When the Japanese emperor did not surrender unconditionally following the Hiroshima bombing, the B-29 Superfortress named "Bockscar" dropped an enriched plutonium-239 bomb called "Fat Man" on Nagasaki and its population of 200,000 on Aug. 9. That bomb killed an estimated 40,000 and injured another 60,000 Japanese and others upon detonation, but the number of those killed rose to about 70,000 by the year's end, according to The Manhattan Project. An estimated 100,000 Japanese survived the attacks, which ended World War II and spared Japan and the United States from an otherwise inevitable invasion of Japan's home islands. About a third of Americans surveyed said the atomic bombings were justified, while about an equal amount said they were not, according to the Pew Research Center. Another third of those surveyed said they are unsure. Japan marks 80th anniversary of Hiroshima bombing South Korean residents in Japan offer flowers for Korean atomic bomb victims at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park to mark the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing in Japan on August 5, 2025. Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo
The Mainichi
05-08-2025
- General
- The Mainichi
Japan's aging atomic bomb survivors speak out against nuclear weapons
HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) -- Eighty years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many of the remaining Japanese survivors are increasingly frustrated by growing nuclear threats and the acceptance of nuclear weapons by global leaders. The U.S. attacks on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and three days later on Nagasaki killed more than 200,000 people by the end of that year. Others survived but with radiation illness. About 100,000 survivors are still alive. Many hid their experiences to protect themselves and their families from discrimination that still exists. Others couldn't talk about what happened because of the trauma they suffered. Some of the aging survivors have begun to speak out late in their lives, hoping to encourage others to push for the end of nuclear weapons. An English-speaking guide at Hiroshima's peace park Despite numerous health issues, survivor Kunihiko Iida, 83, has devoted his retirement years to telling his story as a way to advocate for nuclear disarmament. He volunteers as a guide at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. He wants to raise awareness among foreigners because he feels their understanding of the bombings is lacking. It took him 60 years to be able to talk about his ordeal in public. When the U.S. dropped a uranium bomb on Hiroshima, Iida was 900 meters (yards) away from the hypocenter, at a house where his mother grew up. He was 3 years old. He remembers the intensity of the blast. It was as if he was thrown out of a building. He found himself alone underneath the debris, bleeding from shards of broken glass all over his body. "Mommy, help!" he tried to scream, but his voice didn't come out. Eventually he was rescued by his grandfather. Within a month, his 25-year-old mother and 4-year-old sister died after developing nosebleeds, skin problems and fatigue. Iida had similar radiation effects through elementary school, though he gradually regained his health. He was almost 60 when he finally visited the peace park at the hypocenter, the first time since the bombing, asked by his aging aunt to keep her company. After he decided to start telling his story, it wasn't easy. Overwhelmed by emotion, it took him a few years before he could speak in public. In June, he met with students in Paris, London and Warsaw on a government-commissioned peace program. Despite his worries about how his calls for nuclear abolishment would be perceived in nuclear-armed states like Britain and France, he received applause and handshakes. Iida says he tries to get students to imagine the aftermath of a nuclear attack, how it would destroy both sides and leave behind highly radioactive contamination. "The only path to peace is nuclear weapons' abolishment. There is no other way," Iida said. A regular at anti-war protests Fumiko Doi, 86, would not have survived the atomic bombing on Nagasaki if a train she was on had been on time. The train was scheduled to arrive at Urakami station around 11 a.m., just when the bomb was dropped above a nearby cathedral. With the delay, the train was 5 kilometers (3 miles) away. Through the windows, Doi, then 6, saw the flash. She covered her eyes and bent over as shards of broken windows rained down. Nearby passengers covered her for protection. People on the street had their hair burnt. Their faces were charcoal black and their clothes were in pieces, she said. Doi told her children of the experience in writing, but long hid her status as a survivor because of fear of discrimination. Doi married another survivor. She worried their four children would suffer from radiation effects. Her mother and two of her three brothers died of cancer, and two sisters have struggled with their health. Her father, a local official, was mobilized to collect bodies and soon developed radiation symptoms. He later became a teacher and described what he'd seen, his sorrow and pain in poetry, a teary Doi explained. Doi began speaking out after seeing the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster following a strong earthquake and tsunami, which caused radioactive contamination. She travels from her home in Fukuoka to join anti-war rallies, and speaks out against atomic weapons. "Some people have forgotten about the atomic bombings ... That's sad," she said, noting that some countries still possess and develop nuclear weapons more powerful than those used 80 years ago. "If one hits Japan, we will be destroyed. If more are used around the world, that's the end of the Earth," she said. "That's why I grab every chance to speak out." At Hiroshima, learning from survivors After the 2023 Hiroshima G7 meeting of global leaders and the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the grassroots survivors' group Nihon Hidankyo last year, visitors to Hiroshima and Nagasaki peace museums have soared, with about one third of them coming from abroad. On a recent day, most of the visitors at the Hiroshima peace park were non-Japanese. Samantha Anne, an American, said she wanted her children to understand the bombing. "It's a reminder of how much devastation one decision can make," Anne said. Katsumi Takahashi, a 74-year-old volunteer specializing in guided walks of the area, welcomes foreign visitors but worries about Japanese youth ignoring their own history. On his way home, Iida, the survivor and guide, stopped by a monument dedicated to the children killed. Millions of colorful paper cranes, known as the symbol of peace, hung nearby, sent from around the world. Even a brief encounter with a survivor made the tragedy more real, Melanie Gringoire, a French visitor, said after Iida's visit. "It's like sharing a little piece of history."
