Reflections on the Anniversary of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Reflections by Akemi Terukina, Youth Coordinator of RTT Japan

Seventy-seven years ago, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 6 and 9, Peace Ceremonies took place in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and a lot of Japanese news media covered these events. The language I often hear during this time of the year in Japan is that we are facing the conflict between ‘reality’ and ‘ideal.’ At this year’s Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony, Prime Minister Kishida mentioned, “the Japanese government has made an effort to bridge the ‘reality’ of deteriorating security environment and the ‘ideal’ of the world free of nuclear weapons.”

The question I always have when I hear this is whether this dichotomy between ‘reality’ and ‘ideal’ is reasonable. How do we know that it is the “reality” that the US military will protect Japan’s national security? And who can say that Hibakusha’s longing for the world free of nuclear weapons is the “ideal” that exists somewhere apart from the “real” geopolitics? It is true that the nuclear weapon countries are far from reducing their nuclear arsenals, but separating the discussion on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons and security concerns keeps us from making progress on nuclear disarmament.

August 6 and 9 are days when remind myself the “real” impact of nuclear explosion. When I visited Hiroshima for my junior high school’s school trip, I saw pictures and videos that showed the destructive power of the nuclear weapons and unimaginable pains that people experienced after the nuclear explosion. I also heard one of the survivors who lost her mother in the nuclear explosion. I cannot forget the question she asked to the audience, “My mother had been living a simple and earnest life. Why she had to die in such a miserable way?” Her question conveyed anger against the injustice caused by the indiscriminate attacks and a determination that we should prevent this from happening again.