What it means to survive an atomic bomb

Michiko Kono speaks to Vatican News about her life as an atomic bomb survivor, 79 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

By Francesca Merlo :

Michiko was only four months old on 6 August 1945. On that day, 79 years ago, the US B-29 fighter plane dropped the atomic bomb, known as “Little Boy,” over her hometown of Hiroshima.

It was 8:15 in the morning and Michiko and her parents were at Hiroshima station, where her mother had just placed her on a wooden bench to change her nappy.

Shortly after, just 2km away and 2,000 feet in the air, the A-bomb “Little Boy” was detonated. 80,000 people died instantly. The heat from the explosion reached the station, and although her parents suffered severe burns, Michiko got lucky on her wooden bench – the backboard shielded her from the heat and she was left unscathed. 1.6km south, back at their house, her grandmother was widowed.

Having been only four months old at the time, Michiko has no recollection of the event, but she does know what it feels like to have spent her whole life a survivor, dedicated to spreading a message of peace and hope to younger generations.

Her voice is in perfect harmony with that of Pope Francis, who visited the bombing sites in Hiroshima and Nagasaki - bombed just three days after Michiko’s Hiroshima.

Following in the footsteps of his predecessor, John Paul II, who visited the sites in 1989, Pope Francis stood at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial thirty years later, and gave an historic speech that denounced the use and possession of atomic weapons as “immoral”.

On that occasion, the Pope highlighted that “the use of atomic energy for purposes of war is today, more than ever, a crime not only against the dignity of human beings but against any possible future for our common home. The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possession of atomic weapons is immoral”, before warning: “we will be judged on this."

Conquered time

Mrs. Kono believes that the voice of influential leaders, too, are voices of peace and hope.

“Now people are more aware of what happened. Of the dangers of the atomic bomb”, she tells Vatican News.

She is in Italy making sure of this, as she attends the annual Tonalestate International Summer University. It has run annually since the year 2000, and this year, the University is focusing on the theme of “Le temps vaincu – time conquered” and Michiko Kono is participating in a day entitled "It is a sign of great character to always hope".

A childhood in the shadow of the Bomb

The Hiroshima Peace Museum that Pope Francis visited and Michiko Kono now volunteers at was opened in 1955, ten years after the bomb.

It took her 40 years to find the courage to visit the museum. “My mother took me when I was ten years old, but I was too afraid to enter”, she says. In 2001, “I realised it was my duty as a survivor to tell my story.”

It was only in the museum that she realised just how lucky she was.

“I lived on the suburbs of Hiroshima as a young girl, and attended school there. There, I did not see so much of the aftermath of radiation. From the museum, I learnt of its consequences and of the children that died in their elementary years from leukaemia and other diseases caused by the bomb.”

There were 350,000 people in the city and by the end of the year, 140,000 had died. Over half of those who died were turned instantly into unidentifiable ashes, now lying in the crypt of the memorial.

Many people suffered from the after-effects of radiation. Many of them died, and to this day, many more are still suffering the effects of the radiation.

In 2005, Michiko joined the legacy successor system at the museum. There she met Mitsuo Kodamo, whom she spent two years speaking to and learning from. He was 16 when the atomic bomb hit and he lived with severe effects of radiation until his death at age 66. Now, Mrs. Kono travels the world, telling his story and legacy.

Side-effects?

Although one of the lucky families, Michiko Kono, and her family, had strange experiences growing up.

“In June, the year after the explosion, I fell ill with high fever and diarrhoea. My doctor thought I would die. My father suffered from gum bleeding for a while after the explosion, whilst my mother had a continuous low fever. I remember when I was around nine years old, a lot of boils appeared on the lower part of my body. They hurt a lot. I still don’t know what caused them, she says. "Then, when I was a teenager in junior high school, I suffered from exhaustion in the summer. This, too, may have been an effect of radiation. And when I was in college, when I was tired, sometimes my fingers swelled. I always wondered if it was the radiation.”

But Michiko doesn’t know if it was radiation, nor does she know if others, too, were experiencing strange things they couldn’t explain. “At that time, there was no information about the after effects of radiation. It was not commonly spoken of on the media, so we didn’t notice and couldn’t compare.”

In the years following the war, Japan was occupied by the allies, led by the United States. There was a restriction on media coverage and information and research material regarding the A-bomb for 7 years, until the occupation ended in 1951.

Every citizen of the world should know

Now, Mrs. Kono says, “I think more people are starting to learn about the A-bomb.” She talks about world leaders visiting the Hiroshima Peace Museum, and learning about “how powerful and dreadful the atomic bomb was.”

But it’s not enough, she continues: “every citizen of the world should know how cruel the atomic bomb was.”

To young people, she says: “Please notice. Come to Hiroshima and Nagasaki and learn how dreadful and cruel the A-bomb was. Start thinking of the possibility of an end to nuclear weapons.”

This, she concluded, “is necessary for a peaceful world.”

-08 August 2024, Rosa Dalmiglio Women Leaders Voice