With her warm smile and calm speaking voice, Noriko Kubota recounted the story of her father-in-law, Masayoshi, who survived the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. “He no longer has the strength to speak in public like he used to, so I chose to do this for him,” Kubota said, stressing the message he always wishes to convey: “Cherish life, and care for your friends and loved ones.” On this July day, as the 80th anniversary of the bombing approached, the elderly man sat among some 20 listeners in the audience, hearing his experience recounted by someone else.
Kubota is one of the hibaku taiken denshosha, or “successors to the experience of the irradiated,” who are tasked with vividly conveying the message of the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, which occurred on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. Both cities are determined that these bombings and the hibakusha‘s (“irradiated people”) call for nuclear disarmament and world peace will not be forgotten.
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui was expected to use the traditional August 6 Peace Declaration to emphasize: “Never give up,” the credo of Sunao Tsuboi, a hibakusha and former president of the Atomic Bomb Victims’ Association, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 96.
You have 79.78% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
