Special Report LAST UPDATE October 31, 2009
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October 3, 2009 Hibakusha Tanabe – Tanabe Shunsaburo: Victims also have a responsibility
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Mr Tanabe believes that by sharing his testimony of the Hiroshima bombing he is fulfilling his responsibility to humanity.
Tanabe Shunsaburo still has nightmares about the day the sun exploded. Now 84 years old, he recalls in great detail the events of August 6, 1945. Affectionately called “Grandpa”, Mr Tanabe is the oldest Hibakusha (the Japanese name for atomic bomb survivors) on the 67th voyage and has been sharing his testimony of the bombing of Hiroshima.

In 1945, Grandpa was an ordinary, healthy 20 year-old student. The school schedule had been disrupted and on the morning of August 6, he was at a factory with friends. The hostilities of World War II persisted and like many Japanese youth at the time, Grandpa had grown accustomed to the sight of American B-29 warplanes, warning sirens and explosions. When the plane flew overhead on the morning of August 6, Grandpa expected the continuous explosions and evacuations that had become the norm.

It was just after 8:00 when the atomic bomb, “Little Boy”, was released over Hiroshima. Two kilometers away from the hypocenter, Grandpa remembers a blinding white light and intense heat. The light was followed by a powerful gust of wind. A huge, grey cloud spread in the sky. He braced himself for the series of explosions that usually followed, but they never came. At the time, Grandpa had no knowledge of nuclear weapons or the horror that awaited him beyond his hiding place.

His face badly burnt, he was distracted from his own injuries by the cries of his friend, Saito. Saito had been thrown by the blast and then pounded with rubble. He was red and black with blood and dust. Grandpa recalls how difficult it was to get a hold of his friend, because his skin was loose and came off easily. The sight of Saito’s injuries was only the beginning of the suffering he would encounter in aftermath of the bombing.
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Grandpa uses art to share what he saw in the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing.
Outside the factory, buildings were on fire at every turn. With his friend in his arms Grandpa wandered through the streets looking for help. He came across a line of people calling for water. They too had been burnt by the blast. They walked with their arms extended in front of them with loose skin hanging down. Grandpa says they looked like ghosts. He found water and started sharing it with them. He vaguely recalled a warning that it was dangerous to give blast victims water, but by the time this came to mind, the first man who drank the water had died.

Grandpa did his best to assist everyone he could, but at times what he saw overwhelmed him. A baby whose head collapsed into ash at his touch; a man whose lungs were exposed by his injuries; a woman whose scalp came off in his hands; and bodies with protruded eyes and tongues were just some of the misery he encountered as he made his way through the town. By the time he came across the bodies floating in the Ota River - having drowned in their desperate pursuit for water - Grandpa says his emotions had grown numb.

Later that evening he was relieved to find his own home still intact. With comparatively mild injuries to his face, he expected a return to normality when his skin healed and Hiroshima recovered. Six years later, a health check for a new job revealed an abnormally low white blood cell count. The doctors feared leukemia and he was hospitalized for one month. Intestinal cancer, liver failure and a lifetime of health complications, injections and medication would follow. His exposure to radiation would also affect his hope for a family.
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Mr Tanabe continues to be treated for a number of health conditions he developed as a result of the bombing. This is his three-month supply of medication for the 67th voyage.
Grandpa shares his story with anyone willing to listen. When asked about his readiness to relive such a wretched moment in his life, Grandpa says he feels he has a responsibility to make sure the world never forgets the immediate and enduring impact of weapons like atomic bombs. His vivid recollection of the Hiroshima bombing has been invaluable to Peace Boat’s Hibakusha Project and the push for a nuclear-free world.

Grandpa is particularly interested in communicating his personal story to the younger generation. He worries that because nuclear weapons have not been used in their lifetime they run the risk of under-estimating the danger of the existence and proliferation of these weapons. He hopes that his story will help galvanize opposition to nuclear weapons among everyday citizens of the world and that they will in turn demand anti-nuclear commitments from their governments.