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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| August 1, 2003 |
Surviving the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima – Fumiko Amano |
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| Survivor of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Fumiko Amano |
On August 6th, 1945, Fumiko Amano was a 14 year-old girl on her way to a hospital appointment in Hiroshima. That same morning, at 3,000 feet above the city, the first ever-atomic bomb to be used against human beings was detonated, instantly killing between 70,000 and 80,000 people.
Fumiko remembers the flash of light and deafening sound of the explosion as she fell to the ground. She was inside the hospital at the time, and opened a door to look outside and see what had happened. "I didn't know what I was seeing." she said. The city was devastated and a huge column of smoke was rising into the sky. Everywhere people were shouting for help, and she ran and ran, searching for the meeting point that her mother had said to go to if she were ever in danger.
The ground was so hot it was difficult to walk on. She couldn't find the meeting place amongst the ruins, and went on to her home, stepping over bodies and apologizing to them for not having died too. When Fumiko thought she was also going to be killed, she sat down on a pile of rubble. A pink sun rose above the destruction, and she said that at this moment she just "wanted to die with her father."
When she got back to the house, she found him alive but covered in broken glass. Her brother was terribly burnt, and would die a few days later of his injuries. Not believing that Japan could lose the war, her father told her brother that Japan had won just before he passed away. After tens of thousands more people lost their lives in the following bombing of Nagasaki, Japan surrendered to the United States. |
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| Continuing the campaign against nuclear weapons |
Fumiko spoke to the Peace Boat audience of her continuing mission to "talk for those who died" in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She has travelled all over the world, appealing for peace and the end of nuclear weapons. In 1978 she gave a testimony at a UN conference, and her diary of the events has been made into a book.
As well as the catastrophic effects of the actual explosions, Fumiko also highlighted the long-term health consequences of survivors exposed to the radiation caused by the bombs. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many children were born deformed, immune systems were weakened and life expectancy shortened. People who were facially scarred by the heat of the blast remember the day every time they look in the mirror.
Despite her disturbing and traumatic memories of the bomb, Fumiko believes in a life that "focuses on the good and not the evil." Though her kindergarten students "see her as something strange," she says, "by loving children we can learn to love." Talking helps ease the pain of August 6th and 9th, and by continuing the campaign against nuclear weapons, she hopes that the victims "didn't die in vain." |
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