By Ezae Darby
Surviving an atomic bomb is a catastrophic event that is quite hard for most to fathom. This unique reality is one that some people understand too well, one of those people being the Assistant Secretary General of Nihon Hidankyo, Masako Wada. On Thursday, March 6, the BC Cancer Center (BCCC), BC Center for Health Promotion, department of Health and Nutrition Sciences (HNSC), and American Cancer Society hosted a conversation with Wada. The talk was moderated by Kiyoka Koizumi, a professor in HSNC.
During the talk, she discussed not only her personal experiences with surviving the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, but also touched upon her organization and what they hope to accomplish.
“There are 195 countries in the world and trillions of independent countries, but my question is…is Japan really an independent country?” Wada stated. “We lost the war and were occupied. A lot of information was stolen.”
Wada went on to talk about the pressure of other worldwide powers on controlling the decision-making of the Japanese government.
“I wonder if the reason Japan isn’t banning nuclear weapons is because they are being influenced by other countries,” she stated.
Wada then began to discuss her mother’s experience before the bombing.
“It was a usual lunchtime. Suddenly, she heard a tremendous sound. The green mountains surrounding the city turned to brown […] A long line of people escaped the fire from the epicenter and headed to the northern part of the city.”
She went on to describe the graphic aftermath, going into great detail about the injuries that many people sustained.
“From a distance, the people staggering down looked like a line of ants but in fact they were rows of burned and injured, chocolate-covered people,” Wada stated. “They had no clothing on and their hair was blooded and matted by horns and burns […] People who collected the bodies from the roadside grabbed their limbs and threw them into the carts so casually.”
Wada posed a question to the audience: “What is human dignity? Should human beings be treated like this?”
Wada then went on to talk about the unfortunate nature of the situation in the U.S.. She explained how those in charge of the Manhattan Project, the military program in the U.S. that developed the atomic bomb, lied to the American public and said that no one was suffering from radiation. Going even further, stating: “Those who were doomed to die, had died.”
Wada continued, talking about the effect on Japan as a whole following the bombings. She provided the audience with some data to help everyone better understand the weight of this tragedy.
“The number of deaths from the epicenter was 147,000 in Hiroshima and 90,000 in Nagasaki. 65% of them were women, children, and the elderly. 50% of them died while being cared for by someone,” she stated.
Wada also found it important to bring attention to the organization she works with, Nihon Hidankyo. According to the Nobel Prize’s official website, the organization is a grassroots movement comprised of people who survived the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
The organization aims to promote the social and economic rights of all Hibakusha, the term used for bombing survivors, and to ensure that no one ever has to be subjected to the tragedy that they endured.
Following the creation of Nihon Hidankyo and its popularity after some time, the organization was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2024.
“Nuclear weapons are an injustice that must be abolished by the humans that invented them. It is a role of public justice and consciousness to accumulate small efforts to achieve the elimination of nuclear weapons,” Wada stated. “We are finally seeing a light illuminating to achieve our goal.”