Getting off at Genbaku Dome-mae (Street car) Station, I walked towards the A-Bomb Dome, a ghastly reminder of the devastation caused by the 1st Atomic Bomb.. As I was walking around the area, I saw a few Japanese with a sign that says "Free Guide".. And so I approached one of them, a gentleman.. Little did I know that I was to meet one of the youngest survivors of the Hiroshima A-Bomb, Mr MITO Kosei..
He started this free service 3 years ago as the sole tour guide, giving additional information and some first hand account of the catastrophe.. Now, he has 12 volunteer tour guides whom he calls "his students".. He showed me his Hibakusha Kenkou-techou (被爆者健康手帳 or A-Bomb Survivor's Health Book Certificates ), a small booklet that certified him as one of the 235,569 survivors..
There were 4 classifications: Class 1 - People who were in Hiroshima City when the bomb exploded (145,252 survivors), like Mr Mito's grandfather who were 600m from the hypocenter or commonly known as ground zero ; Class 2 - People who entered the area within two km and within two weeks (58,683 survivors), like his mother who went into Hiroshima 3 days after the blast; Class 3 - People who treated or cremated the victims (24,238 survivors), like his father, a school teacher who went back to his school to help the students; and Class 4 - People who were in-utero survivors (7,396 survivors) like Mr Mito himself, who was 4 months old in his mother's womb..
He then told me the horror of the blast.. dead bodies had to be piled up and burnt.. yet with no wood or material to help the burning and the unbelievably large amount of dead bodies, volunteers took almost 1 month to burn the bodies!! He then speculated that the Americans choose to drop the bomb on a Monday at 8:15am because they want to make sure the FULL effect is being felt where EVERYONE is out of their home, either working or in school.. He also lamented about the "friendliness" that the Japanese is showing the Americans.. He once posed this question to an American Harvard student who couldn't answer positively to this question,"If my country dropped the atomic bomb in your country twice and after all these years never once apologized about it, do you think I will be welcomed in your country as a tourist?"
Other than telling me about his family and how they survived (his father lived well into his 90s while his mother is a healthy 91year old..Mr Mito himself was a very sickly child who had to miss school almost a month every year during his elementary years), Mr Mito shared some trivial that the official tour guides failed to share or the official information missed out.. He was one of the museum tour guides, but he decided to quit because he thought that the officials are not portraying some of the things accurately..
Here are some of the things he told me..
A-bomb survivors are usually discriminate against, especially those who are single.. No counseling or psychological help were ever provided to any survivors, so it was not surprising for survivors to suffer from PTD (post-traumatic disorder) all their lives.. Many of them never spoke of the things they saw during the aftermath, like Mr Mito's father.. While some had to find courage and family support to tell their stories, like Mr Mito's mother, who was persuaded by Mr Mito to write the account of her father who finally succumbed to his injuries on Sept 3, a day after Japan surrender unconditionally. Her story can be read here, My Father's Sixth of August, 1945 in Hirishima, Japan.
Also, he mentioned that the antenna attached to the "Little Boy" Uranium bomb was made by a Japanese.. And that the ABCC (Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission) did more harm than help, with their inconsiderate actions like stripping students naked in the field to be photographed, regardless of gender and age.. Some of the girls were so traumatized by the humiliation (of forced public nudity) that they suffered from mental problems, on top of the injuries and PTD, ever since.. Yet ABCC was not dissolved until almost 30 years later!!
He then explained the resilience of the Japanese people, whereby 1 hour after the blast, the train services resumed, carrying the wounded for medical treatment; 1 day after, the bank opened for business and the mail delivery went on as normal; and ground zero was totally rebuilt within 2 years! Many companies took the initiatives to resume their services, even before the central government issued any directives..
He then showed me a small little graveyard not far from the A-Bomb Dome which held the tombstones of at least 100 deaths.. some even the entire family..
Lastly, he showed me the hypocenter, which was just 150m away from the A-Bomb Dome.. It was just in front of a hospital.. Hospital is still run by the same family.. I took a photo with Mr Mito but not before thanking him for his narrations..
My thoughts:
After seeing both Memorial Museums (in Nagasaki and Hiroshima), regardless of how cruel the Japanese were towards the Chinese or any of their occupied countries, no country deserved this.. in terms of atrocities and cruelties, the Nazis did things that were equally bad, if not worst to the Jews.. and frankly, if the Intelligence Unit of the Allied Forces did their job, they would know that Japan couldn't hold on any longer.. or maybe these bombs were dropped under the same pretext as the invasion of Iraq, the supposedly presence of WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction)..
I strongly feel that no one should ever have to suffer the horror of atomic explosion.. cos when wars are fought, it is the civilians (children especially) who will suffer the most, while those who had a hand in pushing the button stay safely thousand miles away in their fortified underground secret bunker..
If one believes in karma, like I do, it could be a way for them to pay for what they did overseas, although I would prefer a more humane way for them to pay their penance...
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