Living with Hiroshima

What Does Peace Mean to the Elite?

On May 5th, 2005, I visited the Kennedy School of Harvard University in Boston. It is the super-elite school that was founded to offer higher education after graduate school. Nine hundred students are learning there from eighty countries. The majority of them are students sent by companies.

To tell the truth, from the previous night my heart had pounded wildly, because Shigeko Sasamori, who had had repeated operations for keloids caused by the A-bomb’s heat rays, was scheduled to attend the same presentation. As I miraculously escaped injuries at the A-bombing, I have felt guilty about other survivors. Therefore, when telling my A-bomb experience, I always speak about the survivors who suffered from keloid.

The meeting for the presentation was held at a hotel adjacent to Harvard University. I gave a presentation in a tense atmosphere. However, the presence of Japanese students among the staff, especially the ones from Hiroshima, made me feel relaxed.

From the beginning, professors and students argued lively. We could sum up their opinions; It is difficult to abolish nuclear weapons immediately. In the past 60 years there have been good things and bad things. Please understand that there were also successful aspects.

American people are proud of the use of the A-bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which they believe made the war end earlier. Nuclear deterrence is also one of the good things for them. One bad thing may be that the international public opinion doesn’t accept having dropped the A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Other bad things include the hidden exposure to radiation while developing nuclear weapons, the enormous cost needed to develop nuclear weapons and the cost for storing nuclear weapons.

A professor stated, “In the 1950s or 1960s, nuclear weapons spread and so did the threat. However, the JFK elites deterred the further spread of nuclear weapons. The present number of nuclear powers is fewer than ten. If they hadn’t taken any actions, there would have been more nuclear powers.” I felt a chill to see many students nodding at his statement.

I said, “I worked in the Hiroshima Atomic-bomb Hospital which was built 12 years after the A-bombing. There were many patients who could not have regular jobs because of the disorders from their burns and surface injuries or the after-effects of radiation. To my surprise, it was the first time for many of them to see a doctor. To me, who witnessed the tragedy of the A-bomb, the assertion of nuclear deterrence sounds empty.”

Holding her keloid hand up in the air, Ms. Sasamori said, “It is true that America is a nuclear power. Now I’m living in Los Angeles. I can’t tolerate the fact that the tax I pay is used for nuclear weapons. If America will not make efforts to abolish nuclear weapons, we can’t prevent other countries from possessing nuclear weapons.”

Red Sox Stadium could be seen from the windows of the hotel we stayed in. Ichiro was scheduled to play in the game on the day we left New York City. I felt very sorry about the near miss.