Hibakusha

For the short film, see Hibakusha (film).

A victim of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, she suffered severe burns; the pattern on her skin is from the kimono she was wearing at the time of the bombing.

The surviving victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are called hibakusha (被爆者), a Japanese word that literally translates as "explosion-affected people" and is used to refer to people who were exposed to radiation from the bombings.

Official recognition

The Atomic Bomb Survivors Relief Law defines hibakusha as people who fall into one of the following categories: within a few kilometers of the hypocenters of the bombs; within 2 km of the hypocenters within two weeks of the bombings; exposed to radiation from fallout; or not yet born but carried by pregnant women in any of these categories. As of March 31, 2013, 201,779 hibakusha were recognized by the Japanese government, most living in Japan. The government of Japan recognizes about 1% of these as having illnesses caused by radiation.

Hibakusha are entitled to government support. They receive a certain amount of allowance per month. About 1%, certified as suffering from bomb-related diseases, receive a special medical allowance.

The memorials in Hiroshima and Nagasaki contain lists of the names of the hibakusha who are known to have died since the bombings. Updated annually on the anniversaries of the bombings, as of August 2013 the memorials record the names of almost 450,000 hibakusha; 286,818 in Hiroshima and 162,083 in Nagasaki.

Panoramic view of the monument marking the hypocenter, or ground zero, of the atomic bomb explosion over Nagasaki.

Citizens of Hiroshima walk by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, the closest building to have survived the city's atomic bombing.

A photograph of Sumiteru Taniguchi's back injuries taken in January 1946 by a U.S. Marine photographer.

Korean survivors

During the war, Japan brought many Korean conscripts to both Hiroshima and Nagasaki to work as forced labor. According to recent estimates, about 20,000 Koreans were killed in Hiroshima and about 2,000 died in Nagasaki. It is estimated that one in seven of the Hiroshima victims was of Korean ancestry. For many years, Koreans had a difficult time fighting for recognition as atomic bomb victims and were denied health benefits. However, most issues have been addressed in recent years through lawsuits.

Other foreign survivors

While one British Commonwealth citizen and seven Dutch POWs (two names known) died in the Nagasaki bombing, at least two POWs reportedly died postwar from cancer thought to have been caused by the atomic bomb. One American POW, Joe Kieyoomia, was in Nagasaki at the time of the bombing but survived, reportedly having been shielded from the effects of the bomb by the concrete walls of his cell.

Double survivors

People who suffered the effects of both bombings are known as nijū hibakusha in Japan.

A documentary called Twice Survived: The Doubly Atomic Bombed of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was produced in 2006. The producers found 165 people who were victims of both bombings, and the production was screened at the United Nations.

On March 24, 2009, the Japanese government officially recognized Tsutomu Yamaguchi (1916–2010) as a double hibakusha. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was confirmed to be 3 kilometers from ground zero in Hiroshima on a business trip when the bomb was detonated. He was seriously burnt on his left side and spent the night in Hiroshima. He got back to his home city of Nagasaki on August 8, a day before the bomb in Nagasaki was dropped, and he was exposed to residual radiation while searching for his relatives. He was the first officially recognised survivor of both bombings. Tsutomu Yamaguchi died at the age of 93 on January 4, 2010 of stomach cancer.

Discrimination

A hibakusha, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, tells young people about his experience and shows pictures. United Nations building in Vienna, during the NPT PrepCom 2007.

Hibakusha and their children were (and still are) victims of severe discrimination due to public ignorance about the consequences of radiation sickness, with much of the public believing it to be hereditary or even contagious. This is despite the fact that no statistically demonstrable increase of birth defects/congenital malformations was found among the later conceived children born to survivors of the nuclear weapons used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or found in the later conceived children of cancer survivors who had previously received radiotherapy. The surviving women of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that could conceive, who were exposed to substantial amounts of radiation, went on and had children with no higher incidence of abnormalities/birth defects than the rate which is observed in the Japanese average. Studs Terkel's book The Good War includes a conversation with two hibakusha. The postscript observes:

There is considerable discrimination in Japan against the hibakusha. It is frequently extended toward their children as well: socially as well as economically. "Not only hibakusha, but their children, are refused employment," says Mr. Kito. "There are many among them who do not want it known that they are hibakusha."

—Studs Terkel (1984), The Good War.

The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization (日本被団協, Nihon Hidankyō) is a group formed by hibakusha in 1956 with the goals of pressuring the Japanese government to improve support of the victims and lobbying governments for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Health

• Effects of nuclear explosions on human health
• Radiation poisoning

People

• Hiroshima Maidens
• Isao Harimoto - ethnic Korean baseball player born in Hiroshima
• Issey Miyake - clothing designer
• Joe Kieyoomia – an American Navajo prisoner of war who survived both the Bataan Death March and the Nagasaki bombing
• Keiji Nakazawa - author of Barefoot Gen
• Koko Kondo - notable peace activist and daughter of Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto
• Sadako Sasaki - well known for her attempt to fold a thousand origami cranes in order to cure herself of leukemia
• Takashi Nagai - doctor and author of The Bells of Nagasaki
• Tsutomu Yamaguchi - the only person officially recognized to have survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings

Representations

• Children of Hiroshima (1952 film)
• Black Rain (1965 novel)
• Barefoot Gen (1973 manga series)
• Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (1977 non-fiction children's book)
• No More Hiroshima (1984 documentary film)
• Hiroshima Witness (1986 documentary film)
• Black Rain (1989 Japanese film)
• Rhapsody in August (1991 Japanese film)
• Hiroshima (1995 film)
• novel (2005 novel)
• Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (2003 manga, 2007 novel and film)
• Hiroshima (2005 documentary/docudrama film)
• White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (2007 documentary film)
• Atomic Wounds (2008 documentary film)
• Boushi (2008 TV drama)
• Hibakusha (2012 animated short film)
• Carl Randall (UK artist who met and made portraits of Hibakusha in Hiroshima, 2006/09)

See also

• SCOJ 2005 No.1977

Further reading

• Terkel, Studs, The Good War, Random House:New York, 1984. ISBN 0-394-53103-5
• Hersey, John, Hiroshima, A.A. Knopf: New York, 1985. ISBN 0-679-72103-7

External links

• Nagasaki Archive
• White Light/Black Rain official website (film)
• Voices of the survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Voice of Hibakusha "Eye-witness accounts of the bombing of Hiroshima"
• Hibakusha, fifteen years after the bomb (CBC TV news report)
• Virtual Museum "Hibakusha testimonies, coupled with photographs, memoirs and paintings, give a human face to the tragedy of the A-bombing. Starting in 1986, the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation initiated a project to record hibakusha giving testimonies on video. In each year since, the testimonies of 50 people have been recorded and edited into 20-minute segments per person"
• The Voice of Hibakusha
• Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission ABCC
• Radiation Effects Research Foundation website
• "Survival in Nagasaki."
• "Living with a double A-bomb surviving parent."
• "Fight against the A-bomb."
• "Contribute actively to peace."
• Hibakusha Testimonies - Online reprints of published sources including excerpts from the Japan Times.
• Hibakusha Stories "Initiative of Youth Arts New York in partnership with Peace Boat, the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, and New York Theatre Workshop."
• A-Bomb Survivors: Women Speak Out for Peace - Online DVD Testimonies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Hibakusha with subtitles in 6 different languages.