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''Hibakusha'' ( or ; ja, 被爆者 or ; "person affected by a bomb" or "person affected by exposure o radioactivity) is a word of Japanese origin generally designating the people affected by the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...
at the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.


Definition

The word ''hibakusha'' is Japanese, originally written in
kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...
. While the term Hibakusha (''hi'' "affected" + ''baku'' "bomb" + ''sha'' "person") has been used before in Japanese to designate any victim of bombs, its worldwide democratisation led to a definition concerning the survivors of the
atomic bombs A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
dropped in Japan by the
United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
on the 6 and 9 August 1945.
Anti-nuclear The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, nationa ...
movements and associations, among others of ''hibakusha'', spread the term to designate any direct victim of nuclear disaster, including the ones of the nuclear plant in Fukushima. They therefore prefer the writing (substituting ''baku'' with the homophonous "exposition") or "person affected by the exposition", implying "person affected by nuclear exposure". This definition tends to be adopted since 2011. The juridic status of ''hibakusha'' is allocated to certain people, mainly by the Japanese government.


Official recognition

The Atomic Bomb Survivors Relief Law defines ''hibakusha'' as people who fall into one or more of the following categories: within a few kilometers of the
hypocenter In seismology, a hypocenter or hypocentre () is the point of origin of an earthquake or a subsurface nuclear explosion. A synonym is the focus of an earthquake. Earthquakes An earthquake's hypocenter is the position where the strain ener ...
s of the bombs; within 2 km of the hypocenters within two weeks of the bombings; exposed to radiation from
fallout Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...
; or not yet born but carried by pregnant women in any of these categories. The Japanese government has recognized about 650,000 people as ''hibakusha''. , 118,935 were still alive, mostly in Japan. The government of Japan recognizes about 1% of these as having illnesses caused by radiation. ''Hibakusha'' are entitled to government support. They receive a certain amount of allowance per month, and the ones certified as suffering from bomb-related diseases receive a special medical allowance. The memorials in
Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui ...
and
Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...
contain lists of the names of the ''hibakusha'' who are known to have died since the bombings. Updated annually on the anniversaries of the bombings, , the memorials record the names of 526,000 ''hibakusha''; 333,907 in Hiroshima and 192,310 in Nagasaki. In 1957, the Japanese Parliament passed a law providing for free medical care for ''hibakusha''. During the 1970s, non-Japanese ''hibakusha'' who suffered from those atomic attacks began to demand the right for free medical care and the right to stay in Japan for that purpose. In 1978, the Japanese Supreme Court ruled that such persons were entitled to free medical care while staying in Japan.


Korean survivors

During the war, many Korean people were forced to go to both Hiroshima and Nagasaki to work by Japanese imperialists. According to recent estimates, about 20,000 Koreans were killed in Hiroshima and about 2,000 died in Nagasaki. It is estimated that one in seven of the Hiroshima victims was of Korean ancestry. For many years, Koreans had a difficult time fighting for recognition as atomic bomb victims and were denied health benefits. However, most issues have been addressed in recent years through lawsuits.


Japanese-American survivors

It was a common practice before the war for American
Issei is a Japanese-language term used by ethnic Japanese in countries in North America and South America to specify the Japanese people who were the first generation to immigrate there. are born in Japan; their children born in the new country are ...
, or first-generation immigrants, to send their children on extended trips to Japan to study or visit relatives. More Japanese immigrated to the U.S. from Hiroshima than from any other prefecture, and Nagasaki also sent a high number of immigrants to Hawai'i and the mainland. There was, therefore, a sizable population of American-born
Nisei is a Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants (who are called ). The are considered the second generation, ...
and Kibei living in their parents' hometowns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the time of the atomic bombings. The actual number of
Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...
s affected by the bombings is unknown – although estimates put approximately 11,000 in Hiroshima city alone – but some 3,000 of them are known to have survived and returned to the U.S. after the war.Wake, Naoko
"Japanese American Hibakusha"
''Densho Encyclopedia''. Retrieved Aug 5, 2014.
A second group of ''hibakusha'' counted among Japanese American survivors are those who came to the U.S. in a later wave of Japanese immigration during the 1950s and 1960s. Most in this group were born in Japan and migrated to the U.S. in search of educational and work opportunities that were scarce in post-war Japan. Many were "war brides", or Japanese women who had married American men related to the U.S. military's occupation of Japan. As of 2014, there are about 1,000 recorded Japanese American ''hibakusha'' living in the United States. They receive monetary support from the Japanese government and biannual medical checkups with Hiroshima and Nagasaki doctors familiar with the particular concerns of atomic bomb survivors. The U.S. government provides no support to Japanese American ''hibakusha''.


Other foreign survivors

While one British Commonwealth citizen and seven Dutch POWs (two names known) died in the Nagasaki bombing, at least two POWs reportedly died postwar from cancer thought to have been caused by the atomic bomb. One American POW,
Joe Kieyoomia Joe Kieyoomia (November 21, 1919 – February 17, 1997) was a Navajo soldier in New Mexico's 200th Coast Artillery unit who was captured by the Imperial Japanese Army after the fall of the Philippines in 1942 during World War II. Kieyoomia was ...
, was a Navajo in Nagasaki at the time of the bombing but survived, reportedly having been shielded from the effects of the bomb by the concrete walls of his cell.


Double survivors

People who suffered the effects of both bombings are known as ''nijū hibakusha'' in Japan. A documentary called ''Twice Bombed, Twice Survived: The Doubly Atomic Bombed of Hiroshima and Nagasaki'' was produced in 2006. The producers found 165 people who were victims of both bombings, and the production was screened at the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
. On March 24, 2009, the Japanese government officially recognized Tsutomu Yamaguchi (1916–2010) as a double ''hibakusha''. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was confirmed to be 3 kilometers from
ground zero In relation to nuclear explosions and other large bombs, ground zero (also called surface zero) is the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation. In the case of an explosion above the ground, ''ground zero'' is the point on the grou ...
in Hiroshima on a business trip when the bomb was detonated. He was seriously burnt on his left side and spent the night in Hiroshima. He got back to his home city of Nagasaki on August 8, a day before the bomb in Nagasaki was dropped, and he was exposed to residual radiation while searching for his relatives. He was the first officially recognized survivor of both bombings. Tsutomu Yamaguchi died at the age of 93 on January 4, 2010, of stomach cancer.


Discrimination

''Hibakusha'' and their children were (and still are) victims of severe
discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of Racial discrimination, r ...
when it comes to prospects of marriage or work due to public ignorance about the consequences of radiation sickness, with much of the public believing it to be
hereditary Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic informa ...
or even
contagious Contagious may refer to: * Contagious disease Literature * Contagious (magazine), a marketing publication * ''Contagious'' (novel), a science fiction thriller novel by Scott Sigler Music Albums *''Contagious'' (Peggy Scott-Adams album), 1997 ...
. This is despite the fact that no statistically demonstrable increase of birth defects/congenital malformations was found among the later conceived children born to survivors of the nuclear weapons used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or found in the later conceived children of cancer survivors who had previously received
radiotherapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Rad ...
. The surviving women of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that could conceive, who were exposed to substantial amounts of radiation, went on and had children with no higher incidence of abnormalities/birth defects than the rate which is observed in the Japanese average.
Studs Terkel Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for '' The Good War'' and is best remembered for his oral h ...
's book ''
The Good War ''"The Good War": An Oral History of World War II'' (1984) is an oral history of World War II compiled by Studs Terkel. The work received the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. ''"The Good War"'' consists of a series of interviews wi ...
'' includes a conversation with two ''hibakusha''. The postscript observes: The is a group formed by ''hibakusha'' in 1956 with the goals of pressuring the Japanese government to improve support of the victims and lobbying governments for the abolition of
nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
s. Some estimates are that 140,000 people in Hiroshima (38.9% of the population) and 70,000 people in Nagasaki (28.0% of the population) died in 1945, but how many died immediately as a result of exposure to the blast, heat, or due to radiation, is unknown. One
Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission The Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) ( Japanese:原爆傷害調査委員会, ''Genbakushōgaichōsaiinkai'') was a commission established in 1946 in accordance with a presidential directive from Harry S. Truman to the National Academy of ...
(ABCC) report discusses 6,882 people examined in Hiroshima, and 6,621 people examined in Nagasaki, who were largely within 2000 meters from the
hypocenter In seismology, a hypocenter or hypocentre () is the point of origin of an earthquake or a subsurface nuclear explosion. A synonym is the focus of an earthquake. Earthquakes An earthquake's hypocenter is the position where the strain ener ...
, who suffered injuries from the blast and heat but died from complications frequently compounded by acute radiation syndrome (ARS), all within about 20–30 days. In the rare cases of survival for individuals who were
in utero ''In Utero'' is the third and final studio album by American rock band Nirvana. It was released on September 21, 1993, by DGC Records. After breaking into the mainstream with their second album, ''Nevermind'' (1991), Nirvana hired Steve Albin ...
at the time of the bombing and yet who still were close enough to be exposed to less than or equal to 0.57 Gy, no difference in their cognitive abilities was found, suggesting a threshold dose for pregnancies below which, no life-limiting issues arise. In 50 or so children who survived the gestational process and were exposed to more than this dose, putting them within about 1000 meters from the hypocenter,
microcephaly Microcephaly (from New Latin ''microcephalia'', from Ancient Greek μικρός ''mikrós'' "small" and κεφαλή ''kephalé'' "head") is a medical condition involving a smaller-than-normal head. Microcephaly may be present at birth or it ...
was observed; this is the only elevated birth defect issue observed in the Hibakusha, occurring in approximately 50 in-utero individuals who were situated less than 1000 meters from the bombings. In a manner dependent on their distance from the hypocenter, in the 1987 ''Life Span Study'', conducted by the
Radiation Effects Research Foundation The Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF) is a joint U.S.-Japan research organization responsible for studying the medical effects of radiation and associated diseases in humans for the welfare of the survivors and all humankind.Introduction ...
, a statistical excess of 507 cancers, of undefined lethality, were observed in 79,972 hibakusha who had still been living between 1958–1987 and who took part in the study. An
epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evi ...
study by the RERF estimates that from 1950 to 2000, 46% of leukemia deaths and 11% of solid cancers, of unspecified lethality, could be due to radiation from the bombs, with the statistical excess being estimated at 200 leukemia deaths and 1,700 solid cancers of undeclared lethality.


Health

*
Effects of nuclear explosions on human health The medical effects of the atomic bomb upon humans can be put into the four categories below, with the effects of larger thermonuclear weapons producing blast and thermal effects so large that there would be a negligible number of survivors clos ...
* Radiation poisoning


Notable ''hibakusha''


Hiroshima

* Hiroshima Maidens – 25 young women who had surgery in the US after the war * Hubert Schiffer – Jesuit priest at Hiroshima *
Ikuo Hirayama Ikuo Hirayama (''Hirayama Ikuo'' 平山 郁夫; 15 June 1930 – 2 December 2009), was a Japanese Nihonga painter and educator. Born in Setoda-chō, Hiroshima Prefecture, he was famous in Japan for Silk Road paintings of dreamy desert land ...
– ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 15 years old, painter * Isao Harimoto – ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 5 years old, ethnic Korean baseball professional player *
Issey Miyake was a Japanese fashion designer. He was known for his technology-driven clothing designs, exhibitions and fragrances, such as '' L'eau d'Issey'', which became his best-known product. Life and career Miyake was born on 22 April 1938 in Hiroshi ...
– ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 7 years old, clothing designer * Julia Canny - Irish nun who survived Hiroshima and aided survivors *
Keiji Nakazawa was a Japanese manga artist and writer. Biography Nakazawa was born March 14, 1939 Naka-ku, Hiroshima, Japan and was in the city when it was destroyed by an atomic bomb in August 1945. Most of his family members who had not evacuated died as a ...
– ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 6 years old, author of ''
Barefoot Gen is a Japanese historical manga series by Keiji Nakazawa. Loosely based on Nakazawa's own experiences as a Hiroshima survivor, the series begins in 1945 in and around Hiroshima, Japan, where the six-year-old boy Gen Nakaoka lives w ...
'' and other Anti-War
Manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...
. *
Kiyoshi Tanimoto was a Methodist minister famous for his work for the Hiroshima Maidens. He was one of the six Hiroshima survivors whose experiences of the bomb and later life are portrayed in John Hersey's book '' Hiroshima''. The 1985 edition contains an u ...
, ''hibakusha'' at 36 years old, Methodist minister, anti-nuclear activist, has helped Hiroshima Maidens and for ''hibakusha'' to gain social rights. Peace prize named after him *
Koko Kondo Koko Tanimoto (Née , born November 20, 1944) is a prominent atomic bomb survivor, peace activist, and the eldest of at least four children of Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a Methodist minister famous for his work for the Hiroshima Maidens. Both appear in Jo ...
– ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 1 year old, notable peace activist and daughter of Reverend
Kiyoshi Tanimoto was a Methodist minister famous for his work for the Hiroshima Maidens. He was one of the six Hiroshima survivors whose experiences of the bomb and later life are portrayed in John Hersey's book '' Hiroshima''. The 1985 edition contains an u ...
* Masaru Kawasaki – ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 19 years old, composer of the Dirge performed at every Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony since 1975 *
Michihiko Hachiya was a Japanese physician who survived the Hiroshima bombing in 1945 and kept a diary of his experience. He was Director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital and lived near the hospital, about a mile from the explosion's center. A 1984 editoria ...
– ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 42 years old, physician specialized in ''hibakusha'', writer of Hiroshima Diary * Sadako Kurihara – ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 32 years old, poet, anti-nuclear activist, founder of ''Gensuikin Hiroshima Haha no Kai''(« Mothers of Hiroshima ») *
Sadako Sasaki was a Japanese girl who became a victim of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. She was two years of age when the bombs were dropped and was severely irradiated. She survived for another ten years, becoming one o ...
– ''hibakusha'' at 2 years old, well known for her goal to fold a
thousand origami cranes The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy creatures (others include the dragon and the tortoise) and is said to live for a thousand years: That is why cranes are made, one for each year. In some stories it is believed that the 1000 c ...
in order to cure herself of
leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...
and symbol of peace * Sankichi Tōge – ''hibakusha'' at 28 years old, poet and militant *
Setsuko Thurlow , born , is a Japanese–Canadian nuclear disarmament campaigner and Hibakusha who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. She is mostly known throughout the world for being a leading figure of the International Campaign to Abol ...
– ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 13 years old, anti-nuclear activist, ambassador and keynote speaker at the reception of the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...
of ICAN * Shigeaki Mori – a historian of allied prisoners of war * Shinoe Shōda – ''hibakusha'' at 34 years old, writer and poet *
Shuntaro Hida Shuntaro Hida (1 January 1917 – 20 March 2017) was a Japanese physician who was an eyewitness when the ''Little Boy'' atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the ''Enola Gay'' on 6 August 1945. He treated survivors as a medical doctor and wrote ...
–''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 28 years old, physician specialized in treating ''hibakusha'' * Sunao Tsuboi – ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 20 years old, teacher and activist with
Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations The , often shortened to , is a group formed by ''hibakusha'' in 1956 with the goals of pressuring the Japanese government to improve support of the victims and lobbying governments for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Honors *2010: Award for S ...
* Tamiki Hara – ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 39 years old, poet, writer and University professor * Tomotaka Tasaka – ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 43 years old, film director and script writer * Yoko Ota – ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 38 years old, writer * Yoshito Matsushige – ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 32 years old, has taken the only 5 pictures known the day of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima * Shigeru Nakamura – ''hibakusha'' of Hiroshima at 34 years old, supercentenarian, oldest living Japanese man (September 9 - November 15, 2022).


Nagasaki

*
Joe Kieyoomia Joe Kieyoomia (November 21, 1919 – February 17, 1997) was a Navajo soldier in New Mexico's 200th Coast Artillery unit who was captured by the Imperial Japanese Army after the fall of the Philippines in 1942 during World War II. Kieyoomia was ...
– an American Navajo prisoner of war who survived both the
Bataan Death March The Bataan Death March ( Filipino: ''Martsa ng Kamatayan sa Bataan''; Spanish: ''Marcha de la muerte de Bataán'' ; Kapampangan: ''Martsa ning Kematayan quing Bataan''; Japanese: バターン死の行進, Hepburn: ''Batān Shi no Kōshin'') ...
and the Nagasaki bombing *
Kyoko Hayashi was a Japanese writer associated with the Atomic Bomb Literature genre. Biography Hayashi was born in Nagasaki and spent the years from 1931 to 1945 with her family in Shanghai. She returned to Nagasaki in 1945 and enrolled in Nagasaki Girls' Hi ...
– ''hibakusha'' of Nagasaki at 14 years old, writer *
Osamu Shimomura was a Japanese organic chemist and marine biologist, and Professor Emeritus at Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and Boston University School of Medicine. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for th ...
– organic chemist and marine biologist;
Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
in 2008 *
Sumiteru Taniguchi was a survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, a prominent activist for a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons, and chairman of the Nagasaki Council of A-Bomb Sufferers. Early life Taniguchi Sumiteru was born in Fukuoka, Japan in 1929. ...
– ''hibakusha'' at 16 years old, known for a picture of him with his back skinless taken by a Marine; anti-nuclear peace activist, president of the council of the A Bomb of Nagasaki, co-president of the
Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations The , often shortened to , is a group formed by ''hibakusha'' in 1956 with the goals of pressuring the Japanese government to improve support of the victims and lobbying governments for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Honors *2010: Award for S ...
in 2010 *
Takashi Nagai was a Japanese Catholic physician specializing in radiology, an author, and a survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. His subsequent life of prayer and service earned him the affectionate title "saint of Urakami". Early years Takashi (mea ...
– ''hibakusha'' of Nagasaki at 38 years old, doctor and author of '' The Bells of Nagasaki'' *
Terumi Tanaka is a Japanese anti-nuclear and anti-war activist and former professor. He is a hibakusha, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, and is the secretary general of Nihon Hidankyo, a Japan-wide organisation of atomic and hydrogen bomb sufferers ...
– ''hibakusha'' of Nagasaki at 13 years old, engineer and associated professor at the University of Tohoku, activist with
Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations The , often shortened to , is a group formed by ''hibakusha'' in 1956 with the goals of pressuring the Japanese government to improve support of the victims and lobbying governments for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Honors *2010: Award for S ...
*
Yōsuke Yamahata was a Japanese photographer best known for extensively photographing Nagasaki the day after it was bombed. Biography Yamahata was born in Singapore; his father, Shōgyoku Yamahata (, later to become known as a photographer) had a job there re ...
– military photographer, not directly victim of the Bomb but has taken pictures of Nagasaki the next day. Died of cancer probably due to radiation. Can be considered as a ''hibakusha'' according to the ABCC classification.


Hiroshima and Nagasaki

* Tsutomu Yamaguchi – the first person officially recognized to have survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings.


Artistic representations and documentaries


Literature ( 原爆文学 ''Genbaku bungaku'')


Hibakusha literature

* ''Summer Flowers (夏の花 Natsu no hana),'' Tamiki Hara, 1946 * ''From the Ruins (廃墟から Haikyo kara)'', Tamiki Hara, 1947 * ''Prelude to Annihilation (壊滅の序曲 Kaimetsu no jokyoku),'' Tamiki Hara, 1949 * ''City of Corpses'' (屍の街 ''Shikabane no machi''),
Yōko Ōta was a Japanese writer. Many of her works are associated with the Atomic bomb literature genre. Biography Ōta was born Hatsuko (初子, "first born") Fukuda in Hiroshima to a wealthy landowner and his second wife Tomi. In 1910, her mother divo ...
, 1948 * ''Human Rags'' (人間襤褸 ''Ningen Ranru''), Yōko Ōta, 1951 * ''Penitence (さんげ Sange)'', Shinoe Shōda, 1947 - collection of
tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the '' Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short ...
poems * '' Bringing Forth New Life (生ましめんかな Umashimenkana)'', Sadako Kurihara, 1946 * ''I, A Hiroshima Witness (私は広島を証言する Watashi wa Hiroshima wo shogen suru''), Sadako Kurihara, 1967 * ''Documents about Hiroshima Twenty-Four Years Later (Dokyumento Hiroshima 24 nen''), Sadako Kurihara, 1970 * ''Ritual of Death (祭りの場 Matsuri no ba)'', Kyōko Hayashi, 1975 * ''Poems of the Atomic Bomb (原爆詩集 Genbaku'' ''shishu''), Sankichi Tōge, 1951 * '' The bells of Nagasaki (長崎の鐘, Nagasaki no Kane),''
Takashi Nagai was a Japanese Catholic physician specializing in radiology, an author, and a survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. His subsequent life of prayer and service earned him the affectionate title "saint of Urakami". Early years Takashi (mea ...
, 1949 * ''Little boy: stories of days in Hiroshima'',
Shuntaro Hida Shuntaro Hida (1 January 1917 – 20 March 2017) was a Japanese physician who was an eyewitness when the ''Little Boy'' atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the ''Enola Gay'' on 6 August 1945. He treated survivors as a medical doctor and wrote ...
, 1984 * ''Letters from the end of the world : a firsthand account of the bombing of Hiroshima,'' Toyofumi Ogura, 1997 * ''The day the sun fell - I was 14 years old in Hiroshima'', Hashizume Bun, 2007 * ''Yoko’s Diary: The Life of a Young Girl in Hiroshima During World War II'', Yoko Hosokawa * ''Hiroshima Diary'',
Michihiko Hachiya was a Japanese physician who survived the Hiroshima bombing in 1945 and kept a diary of his experience. He was Director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital and lived near the hospital, about a mile from the explosion's center. A 1984 editoria ...
, 1955 * ''One year ago Hiroshima (Genshi bakudan kaiko)'', Hisashi Tohara, 1946


Non-Hibakusha literature

* ''Hiroshima notes'' (''ヒロシマ・ノート'', ''Hiroshima nôto''), Kenzaburô Ooe, 1965 * '' Black Rain'' (黒い雨 ''Kuroi Ame''),
Masuji Ibuse was a Japanese author. His most notable work is the novel '' Black Rain''. Early life and education Ibuse was born in 1898 to a landowning family in the village of , which is now part of Fukuyama, Hiroshima. Ibuse failed his entrance exam to ...
, 1965 * ''Hiroshima'', Makoto Oda, 1981 * ''Bakushin'' (爆心;), Yūichi Seirai, 2007 * '' Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes'',
Eleanor Coerr Eleanor Coerr (née Page; May 29, 1922 – November 22, 2010) was a Canadian-born American writer of children's books, including ''Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes'' (historical fiction) and many picture books. Biography She was born in Kam ...
, 1977 * ''Debu Hiroshima ("Ashes of Hiroshima")'', Othman Puteh and Abdul Razak Abdul Hamid, 1987 * ''Burnt Shadows'',
Kamila Shamsie Kamila Shamsie FRSL (born 13 August 1973) is a Pakistani and British writer and novelist who is best known for her award-winning novel ''Home Fire'' (2017). Named on ''Granta'' magazine's list of 20 best young British writers, Shamsie has been ...
, 2009 * ''Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War'', Susan Southard, 2015 * ''
Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui ...
'', John Hersey, 1946 * ''
Hibakusha ''Hibakusha'' ( or ; ja, 被爆者 or ; "person affected by a bomb" or "person affected by exposure o radioactivity) is a word of Japanese origin generally designating the people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at th ...
'' (2015 short story)


Manga and anime

* ''
Barefoot Gen is a Japanese historical manga series by Keiji Nakazawa. Loosely based on Nakazawa's own experiences as a Hiroshima survivor, the series begins in 1945 in and around Hiroshima, Japan, where the six-year-old boy Gen Nakaoka lives w ...
'' (はだしのゲン ''Hadashi no Gen''),
Keiji Nakazawa was a Japanese manga artist and writer. Biography Nakazawa was born March 14, 1939 Naka-ku, Hiroshima, Japan and was in the city when it was destroyed by an atomic bomb in August 1945. Most of his family members who had not evacuated died as a ...
, 1973-1974, 10 Vol. (also adapted in film in
1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...
,
1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...
and a TV drama in
2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...
) * ''
Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms is a one-volume manga written and illustrated by Fumiyo Kōno. The two connected stories were first published in Japan by Futabasha in '' Weekly Manga Action'' in 2003 and 2004, then collected in a single ''tankōbon'' volume in 2004. The s ...
'' (夕凪の街 桜の国 ''Yūnagi no Machi, Sakura no Kuni)'',
Fumiyo Kōno , commonly romanized Fumiyo Kouno, is a Japanese manga artist from Nishi-ku, Hiroshima, known for her 2004 manga ''Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms'' and her 2007 manga ''In This Corner of the World'' which got an anime film adap ...
, 2003-2004 (adapted into novel and film in 2007) * ''
Hibakusha ''Hibakusha'' ( or ; ja, 被爆者 or ; "person affected by a bomb" or "person affected by exposure o radioactivity) is a word of Japanese origin generally designating the people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at th ...
,''
Steve Nguyen Steve Nguyen (born December 30, 1985) is a Vietnamese-American director, writer, artist and film producer. Nguyen and fellow director Choz Belen formed Studio APA, a multimedia collective that specializes in the production of animated films, chi ...
and Choz Belen, 2012 * '' Bōshi (帽子),'' Hiroshi Kurosaki,
NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...
, 2008, 90 mn * In This Corner of the World (この世界の片隅に, Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni), Masao Maruyama,
MAPPA is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Suginami, Tokyo. Founded in 2011 by Madhouse co-founder and producer Masao Maruyama, it has produced anime works including ''Terror in Resonance'', '' Yuri!!! on Ice'', '' In This Corner of th ...
, 2016


Films

* '' Children of Hiroshima'' ''(原爆の子 Genbaku no Ko)'',
Kaneto Shindo was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, film producer, and writer, who directed 48 films and wrote scripts for 238. His best known films as a director include '' Children of Hiroshima'', '' The Naked Island'', '' Onibaba'', '' Kuroneko'' an ...
, 1952 * '' Frankenstein Conquers the World'' ''(フランケンシュタイン対地底怪獣 Furankenshutain tai Baragon)'',
Ishirō Honda was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 44 feature films in a career spanning 59 years. The most internationally successful Japanese filmmaker prior to Hayao Miyazaki, his films have had a significant influence on the film industry. Honda enter ...
, 1965 * '' Black Rain'' (黒い雨 ''Kuroi Ame''), Shohei Imamura, 1989 * '' The bells of Nagasaki'' (長崎の鐘, ''Nagasaki no kane''), Hideo Ōba, 1950 * ''
Rhapsody in August is a 1991 Japanese film by Akira Kurosawa based on the novel ''Nabe no naka'' by Kiyoko Murata. The story centers on an elderly hibakusha, who lost her husband in the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, caring for her four grandchildren over the su ...
'' (八月の狂詩曲 ''Hachigatsu no rapusodī (Hachigatsu no kyōshikyoku)''),
Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...
, 1991 * '' Hiroshima mon amour'',
Alain Resnais Alain Resnais (; 3 June 19221 March 2014) was a French film director and screenwriter whose career extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included ...
, 1959 * ''
Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui ...
'', Koreyoshi Kurahara and
Roger Spottiswoode John Roger Spottiswoode (born 5 January 1945) is a Canadian-British director, editor and writer of film and television. Early life He was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and was raised in Britain. His father Raymond Spottiswoode was a British ...
, 1995


Music

*
Silent Planet Silent Planet is an American metalcore band formed in Azusa, California, in 2009. Their name is derived from C. S. Lewis' science fiction novel ''Out of the Silent Planet''. The group consists of vocalist Garrett Russell, guitarist Mitchell St ...
, ''Darkstrand (Hibakusha)'', 2013 * Masaru Kawazaki, March forward for peace, 1966 *
Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', '' Polish Requiem'', ' ...
,
Threnody to the victims of Hiroshima (''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for 52 string instruments'') , other_name = , year = , catalogue = , period = Contemporary, postmodernism , genre = Sonorism, avant-gard ...
, 1961 * Masao Ohki, Symphony no 5 "Hiroshima", 1953 *
Toshio Hosokawa is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music. He studied in Germany but returned to Japan, finding a personal style inspired by classical Japanese music and culture. He has composed operas, the oratorio ''Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima'' ...
, ''Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima'', 1989-2001


Fine art painting

* ''Hiroshima shohenzu'' (広島生変図 ''Hiroshima's holocaust''),
Ikuo Hirayama Ikuo Hirayama (''Hirayama Ikuo'' 平山 郁夫; 15 June 1930 – 2 December 2009), was a Japanese Nihonga painter and educator. Born in Setoda-chō, Hiroshima Prefecture, he was famous in Japan for Silk Road paintings of dreamy desert land ...
* ''
Carl Randall Carl Randall (born 1975) is a British figurative painter, whose work is based on images of modern Japan and London. Education Randall is a graduate of The Slade School of Fine Art London (BA Fine Art), the Royal Drawing School London (The Dr ...
'' (UK artist who met and painted portraits of Hibakusha in Hiroshima, 2006/09)


Performing arts

* Hibakusha characters are featured in several Japanese plays including The Elephant by Betsuyaku Minoru


Documentaries

* '' No More Hiroshima,''
Martin Duckworth Martin Duckworth (born March 8, 1933) is a Canadian documentary director and cinematographer who was on staff at the National Film Board from 1963 to 1970 and has continued to work with them as a freelance filmmaker. He was cinematographer on mor ...
, 1984 * ''Hiroshima: The real History'', Lucy van Beek, Brook Lapping Productions 2015 * '' Hiroshima Witness'', Hiroshima Peace Cultural Center and
NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...
, 1986 * ''
Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui ...
'',
Paul Wilmshurst Paul Wilmshurst is a British television director. He has worked on five seasons of the Sky One/ Cinemax action-adventure series ''Strike Back'' and directed on the first series of David S. Goyer's historical fantasy series '' Da Vinci's Demons ...
, BBC, 2005, 89 mn * '' White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki'',
Steven Okazaki Steven Toll Okazaki (born March 12, 1952) is an American documentary filmmaker known for his raw, cinéma vérité-style documentaries that frequently show ordinary people dealing with extraordinary circumstances. He has received a Peabody Award ...
, HBO, 2007, 86 mn * ''
Als die Sonne vom Himmel fiel ''Als die Sonne vom Himmel fiel'' is a 2015 Swiss documentary. Focusing on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the United States Army Air Force on 6 August 1945, it was filmed and produced at locations in the Hiroshima and in the Fukushima prefec ...
'',
Aya Domenig Aya Domenig (born 1972) is a Filmmaking, film-maker and anthropologist of Japanese–Switzerland, Swiss origin. Early life and education Born in Kameoka, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, Aya Domenig has joint Swiss and Japanese citizenship. Her ...
, 2015, 78 min * ''Atomic Wounds'', Journeyman Pictures, 2008


See also

*
Atomic veteran An atomic veteran is a veteran who was exposed to ionizing radiation while present in the site of a nuclear explosion during their active duty. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs defines an atomic veteran "who, as part of his or her military ...
*
Castle Bravo Castle Bravo was the first in a series of high-yield thermonuclear weapon design tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, as part of '' Operation Castle''. Detonated on March 1, 1954, the device was the most powerful ...
*
Doomsday clock The Doomsday Clock is a symbol that represents the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe, in the opinion of the members of the ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists''. Maintained since 1947, the clock is a metaphor for threats to humanity ...
*
Fat Man "Fat Man" (also known as Mark III) is the codename for the type of nuclear bomb the United States detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, the fir ...
* H Bomb * Hibakujumoku * Hiroshima Peace memorial park *
Little Boy "Little Boy" was the type of atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 during World War II, making it the first nuclear weapon used in warfare. The bomb was dropped by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress ''Enola Gay'' p ...
*
Manhattan project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
* Nihon Hidankyo *
Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, or CTBTO Preparatory Commission, is an international organization based in Vienna, Austria, that is tasked with building up the verification regime of the Com ...
(CTBTO) * SCOJ 2005 No.1977 *
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), or the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty, is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal being their total elimination. It ...
– Preamble


References


Further reading

* Terkel, Studs, ''
The Good War ''"The Good War": An Oral History of World War II'' (1984) is an oral history of World War II compiled by Studs Terkel. The work received the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. ''"The Good War"'' consists of a series of interviews wi ...
'', Random House:New York, 1984. * Hersey, John, ''
Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui ...
'', A.A. Knopf: New York, 1985.


External links


Nagasaki Archive


(film)


Voice of Hibakusha
"Eye-witness accounts of the bombing of Hiroshima"
Hibakusha, fifteen years after the bomb
(CBC TV news report)

"Hibakusha testimonies, coupled with photographs, memoirs and paintings, give a human face to the tragedy of the A-bombing. Starting in 1986, the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation initiated a project to record hibakusha giving testimonies on video. In each year since, the testimonies of 50 people have been recorded and edited into 20-minute segments per person"
The Voice of Hibakusha


ABCC
Radiation Effects Research Foundation website

"Survival in Nagasaki."

"Living with a double A-bomb surviving parent."

"Fight against the A-bomb."

"Contribute actively to peace."

Hibakusha Testimonies
– Online reprints of published sources including excerpts from the Japan Times.
Hibakusha Stories
"Initiative of Youth Arts New York in partnership with
Peace Boat is a global non-government organization headquartered in Japan established for the purpose of raising awareness and building connections internationally among groups that work for peace, human rights, environmental protection and sustainable dev ...
, the
Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation The Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation was established in April 1998 by the City of Hiroshima to promote peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly ...
, the
United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs The UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) (french: Bureau des affaires du désarmement) is an Office of the United Nations Secretariat established in January 1998 as the Department for Disarmament Affairs, part of United Nations Secretary-Gen ...
, and
New York Theatre Workshop __NOTOC__ New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) is an Off-Broadway theatre noted for its productions of new works. Located at 79 East 4th Street between Second Avenue and Bowery in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, it hou ...
."
A-Bomb Survivors: Women Speak Out for Peace
– Online DVD Testimonies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Hibakusha with subtitles in 6 different languages.
Literary Fallout: The legacies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
{Portal bar, Japan, World War II, Nuclear technology, United States Nuclear warfare Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Radiation health effects Japanese people Anti–nuclear weapons movement