Michiko Yamaoka
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
Title: My Hiroshima Legacy: An A-Bomb Story of My Mother and Aunt
Lecture: 4:00-5:00 pm
Abstract: “Why do you go to the hospital so often?” I asked this question to my mother when I was in 6th grade.
“Because I am an atomic bomb survivor and a victim of radiation sickness caused by the bomb.” It was
the first time I heard about the atomic bomb from my mother who suffered a series of ill-defined diseases
and had been constantly in and out of the hospital. She and her sister were bombed on August 6th,
1945. Her sister was a middle school student and at the time when the bomb was dropped, and she was
1.2 km from the hypocenter while helping with the demolition of buildings. My mother, who was not
externally injured, searched for her sister in the city of Hiroshima after the bomb. It took her two days to
finally find her sister. She was severely wounded, and her face was swollen from burns. Her sister
passed away two days after she was brought home. My mother frequently said “thousands died in my
sight and Hiroshima looked like hell. It is difficult to describe what it was like. Only atomic bomb survivors
who saw everything can understand how the bomb destroyed the city and claimed many lives.” A great
number of people were killed, injured, and tormented by the war. We need to look back and study history
in order not to make the same irremediable mistake. The purpose of this presentation is to show the
harsh reality of what happened in Hiroshima in the events and aftermath of the atomic bomb. By sharing
the memoirs and experiences of atomic bomb survivors, we hope to prevent this kind of suffering from
happening to anyone again. I think that unless we can overcome hatred, we will never be able to
achieve a truly peaceful world.
Host: Motomu Ibaraki (ibaraki.1@osu.edu)
