HIBAKUSHA

HIBAKUSHA

On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb.”

This atomic bomb give so many pain for Japanese citizen back then. Don’t just look to the amount of killed people. There are 650.000 victims who need to experience the incident. We can call them hibakusha (people who affected by the 1945 hiroshima and Nagasaki bomb). Based on the Atomic Bomb Survivors Relief Law, there are certain recognized categories of hibakusha:
1. people exposed directly to the bomb and its immediate aftermath
2. people exposed within a 2 kilometer radius who entered the land of destruction within two weeks of the explosion
3. people exposed to radioactive fallout generally
4. those exposed in utero, whose mothers were pregnant and belonging to any of these defined categories.

Doctor Michihiko Hachiya (A survived doctor from atomic bomb) said, “Hiroshima was no longer a city, but a burnt-over prairie”. That’s how a victim illustrate Hiroshima after the atomic hit the ground. Ash from the burned buildings, blood, and smell from cadaver mixed together makes the condition getting worst. All of the survived people had worst wound on their body. Even most of them had a very serious illness that will permanently sculpted on their body. Not only that, the worst thing of atomic bomb is the radiation. It will provide long term illness such as cancer, leukemia, etc. The symptoms of radiation included hair loss, bleeding gums, loss of energy, purple spots, pain, and high fevers, often resulting in fatalities. In one village, Hesaka, about 30000 victims gather together, but mostly of them die because of the radiation. In this time, the doctor didn’t even know yet about radiation.

As the Hibakusha feel the pain, the rumors spread trough other Japanese citizen.  The rumors said that the disease caused by radiation was contagious. So many Japanese people afraid and didn’t want to had a contact with Hibakusha. This is the beginning of discrimination trough Hibakusha. Not only on that moment, the discrimination happened in a long period.  already traumatized by their experience of the “unforgettable fire” they fell victim to discrimination and were often found ineligible for work and marriage.
All of the pain, physic and emotional, felt by Hibakusha. They are just a normal people who turn to be a victim of the war. Because of that, some of the Hibakusha push government to take a responsibility. In 1956, Nihon Hidankyo (the Confederation of A and H Bomb Sufferers) was formed.  Hidankyo members, all of them are hibakusha, fought for two laws: the “A-bomb Victims Medical Care Law” (1956) and the “Law on Special Measures for Sufferers” (1967). After several insistence and activism, the government was forced to give Hibakusha a certain amount of allowance/ month and special Medical Allowance for them.

Today, There some of hibakusha who still struggling with the discrimination that their faced. Can’t get married and can’t get a proper work. Some of them choose to burried all the pain, never turn back, and walk straight to continue their life. But some of them choose  to share their story, explain about what happened to their generation in order to give a moral lesson. We can conclude from the survivors that we must not start and commit any war as wars destroy human life completely. There is a stone monument in Hiroshima carved a declaration stating that

“Please rest in peace. We will never make the same mistake again”.

References

Admin. (2009). Who are the Hibakusha? Retrieved from Hibakusha Stories: https://hibakushastories.org/who-are-the-hibakusha/
editors, H. (2009, November 18). Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Retrieved from HISTORY: https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki