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Helping to write atomic bombing testimonies
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At the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims, as the atomic bomb survivors get older, a project is underway to assist in the writing of atomic bombing testimonies, for those who would like to record their experiences of the bombing but do not feel capable of writing it by themselves.
In this project, Memorial Hall staff members visit the survivors in their homes or elsewhere, ask them about their atomic bombing experience, and record it in writing.
The project has been going since 2006, and by 2012, interviews had been conducted with 81 people.
In 2013 there were interviews with 12 people, whose atomic bombing testimonies are gradually being completed and released for public viewing at the Memorial Hall.
These are displayed in program exhibitions and on the homepage, and are also provided to public bodies and translated into multiple languages.
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For the survivors, their experience of 68 years ago is engraved in their minds as if it were only yesterday, and they draw from deep down in their memories as they speak of the tragedy at the time of the bombing.
These were experiences that they did not want to be reminded of, that they had kept secretly in the depths of their souls, but they applied to record their testimonies feeling that it is their mission to communicate them to later generations.
Below is an excerpt of the atomic bombing testimony of Mr. Masaru Takamatsu (aged 17 at the time of the bombing), who received our assistance for his testimony.
Mr. Takamatsu was working at the Hiroshima army munitions facility
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Interview with a survivor
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when the bomb was dropped, and after that was involved in work carrying corpses.
......My job was to load the bodies of the people who had died onto trucks.
I did not have any gloves so I carried them with my bare hands.
The skin of the corpses was peeling away because of their burns, and when I tried to pick them up the skin would peel off.
When the skin peeled off it produced an awful smell, a smell that seemed to remain on my hands, so that I could smell it all the time.
When I ate, I wrapped my hands in paper.
From August 7 onwards I was involved in this work carrying corpses.
The corpses loaded onto the trucks were then taken to schoolyards, where soldiers doused them in oil and burned them......
At the Memorial Hall there are currently around 130,000 atomic bombing testimonies on display, including those written as part of the testimony writing assistance project.
We encourage people to visit the Memorial Hall and experience the words and emotions of the atomic bomb survivors.
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| (Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims) |
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