October 10, 1958
THE FISHERMAN
Page 3
First Hand Interview
Atomic Victims Tell Their Tragic Story
By GEORGE NORTH Editor, The Fisherman
THE short, stocky man with the twisted hand stood up, awkwardly wriggled out of his shirt and turned his back — baring not the smooth brown skin that stretches tautly and cleanly over rippling muscles but a ridged mass of ugly scars — the deep burns of the first atomic bomb.
The man was about 40, possibly younger. He* was Japanese, a citizen of Hiroshima. He had been talking, quietly but with emotion, about the events in his life following the sudden, fearful explosion at 8:15 on the morning of August 6, 1945, "the day the bomb dropped."
His listeners, from 10 countries including Australia, Burma, Canada, West Germany and Austria, were seated in the warm evening air a few hundred yards from the centre of man's greatest single act of indiscriminate carnage.
It was the patio of the New Hiroshima Hotel on the edge of Hiroshima Peace Park on the night of August 5. Tomorrow would be the thirteenth anniversary of the day an American B29 passed over the city of 300,000 and loosed an object which parachuted down to less than 2,000 feet till it burst with a lurid light. The explosion, the blinding, searing, savage heat razed the city, burned out the lives of tens of thousands without regard to age or sex, and left many in horrible pain and a slow unmerci-iu: death.
It left many thousands more crippled and scarred, like the man who stood half-naked in the New Hiroshima Hotel.
MR. Kikkawa, a founder the Hiroshima Atomic Victims' Association, is talking. He takes his listeners back 13 years. He speaks simply—his story a mere skeleton.
"My father was in the house before . the explosion but the house was already covered with fire when I arrived there.
"I was forced to hope my father would come to the house if he was already safe.
"After several hours, one man came to me," the badly injured Kikkawa related, "but I did not
know him. His eyes were like a line, his lips swollen and skin hanging on him like rags.
"I could not recognise him as my father till he called out my name. He was so glad to meet me he did not see his own son was ,o hurt himself."
His father lay there asking for "mizu" (water), the cry of all whose bodies lay in the path of „he great heat.
"I got my trousers and dipped .hem into the water and let my lather suck on the moistened cloth. He was very glad."
Meanwhile, low in the sky, a second plane passed over but only apparently to survey the destruction its predecessor had created
His fhi.her cou'.d not move but Kikkawa encouraged the older man to move to the countryside. With five wounded friends, they made their way from the burning city.
"When we got to the highway leading to the countryside, it was filled with dead bodies and many people with skin hanging from their bodies were moving in the same direction.
"Most of them suffered from thirst and whenever they found a house, many rushed up to ask for water. But the people in the houses told them not to drink because the water was no good. They said, Go farther on where the water is good'."
Already, many had become violently ill and many had died from radiation-poisoned water.
"When we arrived at a temple about three miles from the centre of the explosion," Kikkawa went on, "we could see people standing naked, their flesh discolored and not looking like human beings." They were the living dead—soon to be finally relieved of their suffering in death.
BY now it was twilight, nearly a dozen hours after the catastrophe. Hospitals in Hiroshima had been smashed, only one still partially standing; schools, temples, houses, buildings, that lay in the city were flattened or burned. Most of the doctors and nurses had been killed or badly injured, medical supplies were practically nonexistent, and yet all but a very few desperately needed treatment. Kikkawa lay in the temple for
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nine days, till August 16, out of his senses most of the time.
Thtn on August 16 he was moved to a Red Cross Hospital where he remained for six years.
During that time he underwent six operations but the terrible burns had left their permanent mark. One hand is forever twisted at right angles to his arm. And the back he exposed to his indignant audience was a mass of scar tissue, corrugated and discolored.
Kikkawa had been doing a lot of thinking in hospital and when he was finally released, set about organising the Association of Atomic Victims' Association which was formed in 1952.
First, the members consoled themselves by talking about the disaster and about their sufferings and sought to have their problems recognised and understood.
Almost inevitably, in its early days, "we were described as an organisation of Communist people," Kikkawa said, "and it was hard to establish our movement."
Until the Japan Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs was formed and the first World Conference held in 1955, the Victims' Organisation met opposition from the American authorities.
But since then it has grown very strong and has a membership of 52,000 in Hiroshima, 32,000 in Nagasaki, and many thousands more in Japan as a whole.
"All the victims are strongly united and lead in the movement against atomic and hydrogen bombs," Kikkawa reported. "When the Soviet Union banned its tests, we were glad because it can be said this was an important success for our movement. We know there is still a hard path ahead and we are glad the rest of the people are with us in our struggle as well as the people from other lands who are here."
FOREIGN delegates were deeply moved. Dr. Anders of Austria said "We were as pupils before someone who has had the real experience . . . your behavior gives us courage."
There were other victims, the wealthy man whose life was probably saved because his riches made it necessary for him to have a safe in his store.
Holding himself erect with a cane, Mr. Okamoto said that only 42 in his immediate neighborhood survived the atomic bomb. The area in which he lived, located two-thirds of a mile from the hypo-centre, recorded 16,000 dead as against only 2,632 survivors.
The figure of dead and wounded has steadily increased as the years have gone by as new facts have come to light. The number of dead in Nagasaki is estimated at more than 78,000 and in Hiroshima at double that number with half as many injured. We heard some put the death toll for the two cities at 300,000.
The United States government as early as 1946 accepted as "official" for Hiroshima a count of 78,-■50 dead, 13,983 missing, and 37,425 injured, an obvious attempt to min-mise the effect of the new wea-■ on. These figures are quoted by Tohn Hersey in his Hiroshima pub-ished that year but even while the Vmerieans were using the statists, thousands of new dead were being added to the rolls.
TN his area, Mr. Okamoto said, A on-one is suffering from external ailments because all those who were exposed died.
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ATOMIC PATIENT
A young patient in Hiroshima's Red Cross Hospital receives a basket of fruit from a delegation of visitors which included Fisherman editor George North. Presenting the fruit and expressing her wishes for recovery is Mrs. Ma Ma Lay of Burma, noted writer. Also in the picture are Dr. Anders of Austria and George De Bock of Holland. The three women patients in this room, all married, are suffering from anemia, with the possibility one of them has incurable leukemia.
"Fortunately, my wife and daugh- ( ter and I were under the safe and escaped serious injury."
His eldest son, however, died in the explosion. Mr. Okamoto's foot was broken and he has been in the hospital, but still needs a cane to get along.
Mr. Okamoto's daughter was healthy and seemed well for four years after the fateful day but she is now in the hospital with cataracts on her eyes. This is only one of the many ailments plaguing those who suffered from radiation effects.
His father, who was in the house looking after him, got leukemia 18 months after the explosion and died. That disease is the greatest present day killer and more than 30 persons have died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki so far this year.
Mr. Okamoto is himself a hospital case since he also has a cataract on one eye but before invaliding himself, he said he was going to the Japan Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs. That gathering, attended by nearly 5,000 delegates from all parts of Japan, coupled with the annual world meetings, are to the Japanese bright symbols of hope. *    * *
THERE were others, some with heartbreaking stories. Mrs. Hisume has only one son left and "my only wish is that my only son left safe after the explosion will not be killed."
Mrs. Hisume lost her husband, three sons and one daughter who died six months after the vicious new weapon was "tested" on the population of Hiroshima.
She herself is hard of hearing. The right side of her body was exposed to radiation and Mrs. Hi sume is living in constant fear that she will develop leukemia which is fatal. Her blood count is less than normal but it is also less than is usually found in leukemia cases
She takes electric treatments a home because she cannot be admitted to hospital in her presen, condition. The Red Cross Hospital in Hiroshima, which has only 9i beds, is always full, with cases apparently considered more serious than that of Mrs. Hisume.
This courageous lady has been active in organising the Victims' Association, and two years ago went to Great Britain and West Germany where she told of the movement and the sufferings of her people.
"It is a great encouragement to see people from other parts of the world who support our movement," she said.
I made a note when she was speaking that such people as Mrs. Hisume must come to Canada to tell first-hand their story as they have in other countries. The World Conference in Tokyo endorsed just such a proposal two weeks later and efforts will be made to raise funds for small groups of victims to tour all countries of the world.
BIG problems faced by victims of the atomic bomb are proper treatment, relief for their families while medical cure is being given, and to a certain extent, employment.
Mr. Hiramoto, whose wife was blinded and whose daughter lost
one eye on August 6, 1945, is himself a hospital case. But he can't take the necessary treatment because he is the family's sole bre?d-winner and the government will not provide for his dependents if he ceases to work. That was one of several points on which the present Japanese conservative government was attacked.
In addition, victims have found it difficult to obtain employment, a sort of social pressure. As a result, many have hidden the fact that they were affected by the ex-ilosion.
This situation fortunately, is changing as the Victims' Association and the Japanese peace movement become more closely integrated and their problems understood by the public. In fact, fund-raising for the victims is carried on by the Japan council and its hundreds of thousands of members. People in other countries are also helping.
The trade unionists of Japan, as well as many people in other fields, from political figures such as Mayor Watanabe of Hiroshima, who gave a reception to visiting peace delegates, to humble farmers and other folk, are united in a deep desire to live in peace. They want no more of what happened 13 years ago, nor what has happened to their fishermen as a result of the 1954 and more recent tests in the Pacific.
There is no question about that determination never to go back to militarisation. That I know from meetings with trade unionists and others in Japan, including businessmen. That I saw in Japan.
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