Life after the atomic explosion, as told by the survivors of Hiroshima

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The mushroom cloud was visible from the hills of the nearby prefectures. Those who were beyond the immediate ray of explosion may not have immediately shown external lesions, but commonly ill and died in the days, weeks, months and years that followed.

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And those outside the city were exposed to radiation when they tried to enter to help the injured.

The radiation also hit the children who were in the uterus at that moment. Common diseases related to radiation were the hair loss, the bleeding gums, the loss of energy (“no longer will” in Japanese) and the pain, as well as the potentially lethal high fever.

From 650,000 people They were recognized by the Japanese government as hit by the atomic attacks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While most now is dead, Figures Held by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Wellness from March 31, 2025, they show that there are about 99,130 still alive, whose average age is 86.

In a radio broadcast following the atomic attacks, Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan and invited the Japanese people to “bear the unbearable,“Referring to the” most cruel weapons “that had been used by allied forces without directly identifying the nuclear attack. Due to evil on the defeat, shame for the past and imperial role of Japan in the war, in addition to the censorship and ignorance on the reality of the world.

Generations affected

Yamanaka wanted for about seven years to recover her strength enough to lead a relatively normal life, so she has just graduated from high school. Subsequently, various diseases of blood, heart, eye and thyroid was diagnosed, as well as low immunity, simptomes that can be related to exposure to radiation.

His daughters also suffered. In 1977, when his eldest daughter was 19 years old, he had three skin cancer operations. In 1978, when his second daughter was 14 years old, he developed leukemia. In 1987, his third daughter suffered from unilateral wheevery (a surgical procedure to remove an ovary).

I repeatedly interviewed the daughters, nephew and many other Yamanaka survivors, starting with experiences before the atomic attack and continuing to the present day.

While these interviews generally started in the official position of the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Museum, I also led interviews on foot and went to sites of particular importance for their personal memories. I shared travel by car, coffee and meals with them and their helpers, because I wanted to see their lives in the context, as part of a community.

Their trauma and their suffering are treated socially. For the relatively few survivors who tell their stories in public, it is through the help of Strong local networks. While at the beginning I was told that I would not find survivors who wanted to share their stories, gradually the more they came forward through a snowball effect.

Returning to interview Yamanaka in August 2013, we traveled by car to his former Eba house, taking a break on the site where he had flatten after his journey through the river. There, Yamanaka hit a conversation with a surviving colleague who was broadcasting his bicycle. It was called Maruto-San. They had attended the same elementary school based on the temple.

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