Messages from the Readers

Part4

Kathy Hawkes U.S.A, 1 February,1998

Hello, was surfing the net for Miyajima and found this page.
I called my 15 year old son and read the memoirs to him and he was (as I was) deeply moved and disturbed.

I know that we need to have more awareness for the bombing.....here they keep on and on about Dec 7 and it upsets me because they also ought to show the afteraffects of that "day of infamy".

Anyway, I'm glad that the page is up in English, it will bring more awareness to people. Thank you.

Kathy Hawkes U.S.A.

Sandy Logan Belgium, Europe, 16 March,1998

"I am essentially a post-world war child, like my mother...
Yet, in these past months, as people have discussed the posssibility of a second Gulf War and biological warfare, I remember what my professor in contemporary history told us about the A-bomb.
He reminded us of the human loss and the consequences for the Japanese people who still live today with this terrible event engraved in their being. He also told us of the Teller bomb, more lethal than the A-bomb and even more cruel, in the sense that it destroyed all forms of life and acted like a wind of death, leaving all buildings intact.

On the eve of the Second Millenium, my generation lives with the fear that the experience of Mr. Terao might be repeated and that the consequences might be just as disastrous, if not worse.

I respect Mr. Terao for having donated his experience to people like me through the Web and hope that many more might access it and understand the irreparable pain and loss that he suffered that day...

My humble resepcts

Sandy Logan"
Belgium, Europe.

Yaeko Shirakawa Osaka, Japan, 30 March,1998

I feel all mass media in Japan, such as TV, play, or press, head toward August 6th every year to focus on the A-bomb. My father is also a victim who became A-bomb sick by breathing the contaminated air. I am a Korean living in Japan. My father was once lingering between life and death despite he is a Korean.

I am very sorry for Mr. Terao, a survival of the bomb. I can only say so for him who was then just an ordinary citizen.

I sometimes hear that the bomb brought a quick end to the war. It may sound an irony, but I also support this opinion.

This is because I think if the war was ended by another way, rather than A-bomb, Japanese people wouldn't have hated America.

But we should remember the fact that all eastern Asian people such as Chinese, Korean, and Filipino, have also survived the hard times after the war with agony.

Japanese people keep remember the world the absurdness of war through the A-bomb, just as American do so about Pearl Harbor.

War is an act of foolishness anyway. People can't by any means kill others if they are in normal sense, people can do it only when they are put under a special condition like battle fields. A-bomb attack was carried out by the order of the people in power. Such people who actually pushed the button are not guilty at all.

In this meaning, I feel wrath against the people in power in those days. Innocent citizens, like Mr. Terao, have been always the victims of the foolish deed of the powerful people.

People in power are shamelessly planning another war.

Olivia Binetti Canada, 14 April,1998

Mr. Takeharu,

I am an 18 year old student living in Canada. I am doing a project on the Atomic Bomb.
After reading your article I have realized how ignorant I was as to what went on in the world many years ago. Your words have touched me beyond belief. I can not express what I am feeling at this moment. I wanted to thank you for sharing your personal memories.
They have helped me to appreciate my life even more.
It is people like you who are the real heros.

Sincerely,

A Touched Student

Yuko Oishi Kanagawa Japan, 21 May,1998

When I was in a elementary school pupil, I got a big shock by viewing an A-bomb movie.
The nuclear test by India the other day reminded me of the terror of A-bomb I have so long time out of my mind. I realized anew that we should never forget the fact of A-bombing. Our fragile earth is crying....any person of any country has the same feeling.

We never forget what Mr.Terao appealed us through his hard memory and those who lost their lives under the A-bombing. I will surely tell my son when he will be grown up enough to hear the Terao Memoir. We must hand down important things without fail.

Takeo Kobori Ibaragi Japan, 26 May,1998

Hello, my name is Takeo Kobori. I can not hear. This means I tend to become in shortage of information when compared to normal people. Therefore, I sometimes at a loss how to use correct word and how to communicate with other people properly. I am afraid that I may often write, unintentionally, something impolite in my letter. In this meaning, I will write this message very carefully, but if you find anything against manners, please forgive me.

I am one of those who think seriously about war and A-bomb. It was in a summer several years ago that I first think of them. I was at a loss what I should draw next in my comic(my hobby.) It was just about August 6th, 9th, or 15th. When I was watching a TV without my will, I suddenly become aware of the fact that the TV program easy-to- understand for children on war or A-bomb is decreasing in number year by year.

"Is this normal status?",
I asked myself and started to write comics on A-bomb under the title of "A memory of my grandfather."
After I published the comic, I couldn't be still free from thinking about A-bomb. I made a trip to Hiroshima last summer and met survivals of the A-bomb to hear their irreplaceable experiences. Suddenly one of them bursts into tears on his way of telling. It makes me understand clearly how war or A-bomb hurt people's heart so deeply.
I will think more about war and A-bomb together with you from now on.

Shuuji Yamane Hyogo Japan, 15 July,1998

Nice to meet you.

I have just read Mr. Takeharu Terao's experience of radiation exposure following the Hiroshima A-bomb.
My father was in the army, serving in the Hiroshima district when the A-bomb was dropped on the city.
Every August,he regularly talked to me about his recollection of what happened in Hiroshima. He died several years ago.
Recently, I made up my mind to summarize what I had heard from him in my childhood. When I was browsing the web, I came upon Mr. Terao's "A personal Record of Hiroshima A-bomb Survival" site.

In fragments, my father told his family about the A-bomb tragedy, but not about his army experience.
He seldom referred to his unit's name and his duty. But I once heard from my mother or from neighbors that he had belonged to the Akatsuki unit.

In reviewing my father's experience, I have browsed the web using key words "Akatsuki unit" and as a result I found Mr. Terao's site. By reading the site, I first learned that the Akatsuki unit, to which my father belonged, was a part of the army's small boat division for troop transport, and it was this unit that performed the major rescue activities just after the explosion of the A-bomb.
I have read thoroughly Mr. Terao's memoir and other messages sent to the site. I collated them and found that, with minor exceptions, they are in good agreement with my father's account.

As a result of reading the unimaginable tragedies of Mr. Terao and of other people, I have resolved to hand down my dead father's story of Hiroshima.
I will publish it on the web when I complete the summary. My father's life ended while still under the mental anguish and instability caused by the experience and the after-effects of Hiroshima.
He would be happy beneath the ground if his experience can be used, even in a small part, to abolish nuclear weapons and aid in the construction of world peace.

I pray that "A Personal Record of Hiroshima A-Bomb Survival" will be read by much more people.

July 15, 1998
Shuushi Yamane

Mayumi Tsunemitsu Kanagawa Japan, 6 August,1998

As it is the A-bomb Memorial day today, I was looking for related articles on the web and found Mr.Terao's site.
I had once lived in Mihara city until I was in senior grade of an elementary school.
My parents came from Mihara as well and from Onomichi city. From my childhood, I have been asked to sit down in front of a TV on this specific day and watched the live program of the Memorial Ceremony without knowing the real meaning of it.
I don't know about war. "Our experience of the war" that my parents regularly told me every year by watching the program, has never been left from my brain until today. When I was small, I just felt it horrible but since I have grown up, I became thinking about the meaning of the word "peace."

It is a fact that an A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively. It seems to me that the number of people, who live their lives without knowing the meaning of the fact, is increasing from year to year. I hope this web site and A-bomb Museums will give chances to those people to think about the fact.

I will surely tell about the fact to my children when I have them. I hope new generations will respond seriously to the fact when they hear my story in the future.

Mayumi Tsunemitsu, Sagamihara city, Japan

Tadami Inui Wakayama Japan, 7 August,1998

Nice to meet you. I have just read through the Terao Memoir.
I came up to this site through a search engine.
Yesterday was the unforgettable day when an A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and every mass media reported the day in full scale. I also watched some TV coverage and realized keenly the terror of nuclear weapons anew. I searched the Internet using two key words "A-bomb", and "experience" and finally found the site.

When I was watching some coverage, I found there were some different aspects of the coverage, one reported what happened in Hiroshima, while the other went more referring to the recent nuclear tests by India and Pakistan. The TV program made me ponder what I could do for the abolition of nuclear weapons. On a TV program, a lady who went ahead with an anti A-bomb exhibition in India discussed with Indian people about the need of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, Indian people have not any bit of sense to abolish nuclear weapons. This may comes from the difference of history they have lived or from nationality. It was very sad, pity, and I felt bitter resentment against them.

However, I myself wonder, when asked, how deep I comprehend about A-bomb. I have to confess that I know only a little about A-bomb just by reading a comic "Bare footed Gen" in my childhood. I have once visited Nagasaki A-bomb Museum on our way of high school excursion, but as it was so busy and restless trip, I was, in my regret, not serious at that time. I feel very pity how I had wasted precious time indeed.

In this meaning, Mr.Terao's hard experience beyond description suddenly awakened my eyes to see the truth beyond any question. It could be called a quirk of fate, just to be there on that very moment in that place changed his life: direct exposure to the bomb and resulting hard times of survival. I could learn the important fact that can't be taught in any school around the world. Once I have learned the fact,I made up my mind to join an antinuclear movement. This is not just an affair of other people anymore. I must stand up today to do something against the problem that human being is facing right now.

Fortunately, I have many overseas friends. I think some of them may know what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki more than a half century ago. Although it can be not easy to let them know the fact through my tongue, I will not only tell the fact as it is but also talk about the mental side of the survivors. I feel keenly that it is my work to hand down, in my own voice, to the people outside of Japan about the terror and mentality of the survivors who were forced to be reluctant to speak out the fact.

I firmly decided to engrave the name of Mr.Terao and those words like "Hiroshima, Nagasaki, no more nuclear weapons" to the deep part of the heart of my overseas friends.

I am sorry to say so many things by reading Mr.Terao's Memoir that moved me so much. Thank you again.

August 7th, 1998
Tadami Inui
Tanabe city, Wakayama prefecture, Japan

Norine Kikue Ishii Hawaii USA, 7 December,1998

Aloha,

I had the pleasure of reading Mr. Terao's page. It gives me plesure to read and understand what the people in Hiroshima went through to survive this bomb. I am writing from Hawaii, as we know Hawaii has a lot of people from Hiroshima, Yamaguchi and all over Japan. We have a special memorial here on August 6 at the time of the bombing. On December 7 Pearl Harbor has a special memorial when the Japanese attacked. Today, was a special day for the remaining survivors. My mother remembers the day the sky was blue and the sunny to pitch black and lots of smoke.

I also visited the Peace Memorial and was told by my uncle who once lived in Hiroshima before returning to Hawaii, he said it was devestating and frighning to see his fellow Hiroshima residents fear for their lives. I took a lot of pictures when I visited the Memorial, I have a better knowledge and understanding of how the people brought back the city. I also was amazed by little girl who contacted Lukemia and came close to making the 1001 tsuru's before her death.

I was speechless when I was there, it gave me an eerie feeling that I will never forget. Hopefully I will plan a return trip to Japan and hopefully make a special trip to Hiroshima. After all I have an auntie who is a survivor and is still living today.

aloha, from Hawaii
Norine Kikue Ishii