Masako Wada: A Nagasaki Survivor: “The threat of the use of nuclear weapons is increasing in Ukraine and the Middle East” | international

Masako Wada is 81 years old. He was born in 1943. She was a child of one year and ten months at the time of the bombing of Nagasaki at 11:02 am on August 9, 1945. She humorously defines herself as “the youngest in the youth department.” The institution of Nihon Hidankyo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 in October “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through the testimony of witnesses that nuclear weapons can never again be destroyed,” according to the Nobel Committee. Should not be used.” Established in 1956, Nihon Hidankyo is the only Japanese national organization of so-called hibakushaSurvivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Like WADA, all its members are victims of the most destructive weapon ever used by humans against humans. He advocates the abolition of the atomic bomb through words describing his experiences. WADA has taken over as the oldest survivors have died. His vision is lively and he explains his point through an interpreter. “The danger of the use of nuclear weapons is increasing,” he warned in an interview conducted in late October in the organization’s small office in Tokyo, on two narrow floors filled with boxes, books and pamphlets. He doesn’t remember anything about the bombing. He usually tells his mother’s story. Display a map of the city with the statement:

Ask. Where were they?

Answer. My family lived 2.9 km away from the epicenter of the earthquake. My mother was cooking lunch. I used to play outside the house. He called me because it was very hot outside; I went inside and after some time a huge roar, an explosion was heard. I didn’t know what had happened. When he came closer, he saw that the glass doors, wooden doors, sliding paper doors and walls of the house, everything had been blown away. The pieces had become a pile of about 30 centimeters. He went out. He saw an orange powder; The green mountains had turned brown due to the heat of the explosion. The fire spread quickly, and many people who escaped outright death came to our area around the mountain. My mother saw lines of people coming down. They had no clothes or they were torn. I couldn’t tell whether they were men or women, their hair was standing up, curly, they looked like horns. He described the lines of people as if they were lines of brown, gray ants.

Why. How did he react?

R. My mother, who was 24 years old, carried me on her back while helping to serve the people who came. In those days, people used to save pieces of old cloth to use as bandages after disinfection. With those improvised gauze pads and water from the well in our backyard, they helped clean and dress the wounds. Our neighbor’s house had been demolished some time ago – it was official policy to prevent the fire from spreading – and the place was vacant. The bodies were taken there with the help of a large wooden cart, which was usually used to collect garbage. People picked up the dead bodies scattered on the road, put them in the car and took them there. Many arms and legs were sticking out as if they were dolls. Every day more and more dead bodies started being cremated. Gradually, after seeing so many dead bodies, my mother lost any sense of humanity, any feeling of sadness or pity towards those people. Everyone became numb. I just thought: ‘Okay, we have so many bodies today’; And the next day: ‘There are less today than yesterday’. She always said that humans were not born to be treated like garbage.

Why. How were the next days?

R. When the war ended, he was asked to help at an aid station set up in a nearby school. Many people in the auditorium were lying on the floor burnt or injured, groaning and crying. She had to follow the doctors carrying bottles of antiseptic liquid, but when she saw so many injured people she could not bear it, she asked that the liquids be taken away from her, so that they would not fall, and she fainted. . They were very valuable products. Many hospitals were destroyed. Doctors died, there were no medicines or nurses. So he asked him to work. When he arrived, he was assigned another task. Because of the heat and the rotting flesh, there were flies everywhere that laid eggs in the bodies of living people, they would lay eggs in the flesh and the larvae would move around. He had to brush them off and clean them from the floor. The larvae are usually very small. But he said they were the size of thumbs. They were so fat because they had a lot of food. He had never seen such a big larva in his life.

Wada stops and shows a picture of a cylindrical artifact. He says, when they dropped the bomb, they also dropped three such radiosondes to measure the pressure and other parameters of the blast. “These instruments collected data from objects on the ground,” he says. “But they never collected data about how people lived and died under the mushroom cloud and how they experienced life.” The preciousness of was abolished. These machines were never able to understand or collect that information to send to the US military.

Why. What is your first memory related to the bomb?

R. all the people in the neighborhood were hibakusha Who experienced the bombing. Whenever they met, they would naturally talk about those days. Many people had injuries, scars and keloids on their bodies. For me, listening to and observing them was an everyday affair.

Why. What does the Nobel Peace Prize mean to you and the organization?

R. According to the will of Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded to people or organizations that meet three conditions: promoting friendship among nations, contributing to the reduction or elimination of war or the reduction of armaments, and To work to promote. Peace and disarmament through conferences. This is exactly what we are doing. Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo was very timely, as the threat of the use of nuclear weapons is increasing.

Why. Why do you think this threat is increasing?

R. Russia and Israel have nuclear weapons and the threat of their use in Ukraine and the Middle East is increasing. We have a president who keeps threatening to use them. The nuclear taboo, or the feeling that nuclear weapons should never be used, is waning as the crises worsen. People don’t know what could happen if nuclear weapons were used. They don’t know what happened when it was used. It has been more than 50 years since the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty entered into force, but the promises of that treaty have never really been fulfilled. The countries that officially possess nuclear weapons, the P-5 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council), have not been honest in implementing their promises.

Why. What does this organization mean to people like you?

R. When I was young I did not know much about his activities. Upon returning to Japan after living in the United States between 1977 and 1982, I wanted to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons. 40 years had already passed. Still, there were many hibakusha With a very clear memory, who served to spread his praises. I helped them collect their stories and publish newspapers and booklets. I learned about their experiences. I also interviewed my mother and wrote about what she experienced. I tried to put it in a book, but my mother said it (its impact) was insufficient. I thought there might be others too hibakusha Even the veterans might be thinking the same. But after so many years, many people have died. The average age of survivors is 86 years. So slowly I feel like I have to tell this.

Why. Do you think people are forgetting what happened?

R. Yes, but because of the Nobel Committee’s announcement, Nihon Hidankyo is now better known in the world. And maybe that thing will resonate in people’s minds. You may remember that in many places people are collecting signatures and linking their actions to the abolition of nuclear weapons. Maybe they’ll find out what those people are doing and connect our activities to their own lives, and how it affects their lives, that’s our hope. The Committee assessed our work, exchange of evidence and experiences as something unique. It is true: we call for peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons, but not through weapons, but through dialogue and our words.