Emiko Okada

In order to better talk about my experience of the A-bombing, after returning to Japan, I studied about the historyof the war’s beginning and the harm that Japan did to other Asian countries.  When I tell my story, I can’t avoid questions about the past such as, “Why did Japan start the war?” “Why did Japan continue the war, though the situation had deteriorated?”

A small number of people with power always start wars.  And children and women, the weakest members of society, always become victims.

Barbara Reynolds said, “A war starts instantly.  However, we can’t build peace instantly.  To build world peace, living people should make efforts to have constant dialogue.  And the people of Hiroshima have to undertake that role.”  Hearing her words, I made up my mind to talk about my experience for as long as I live.  If I don’t, my sister would have lost her life for nothing.

Though it has been 75 years since the atomic bomb was dropped, nuclear bombs have still never been abolished from the earth.　If nuclear bombs were dropped now, when scientific technology has incomparably developed, the damage caused by them would be far worse than Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Human beings made A-bombs and human beings dropped them.  But as a result, human beings had their lives or souls taken by them.

Abolishing nuclear weapons and not starting wars are the A-bomb survivors’ ardent wish.  To fulfill that wish, all the people in the world should make efforts to build world peace, having consciousness of being a member of the Earth, not thinking about one’s nationality.