Hiroshima survivor recounts experience

By Lauren Rothering
Cardinal Staff

Hiroshima survivor Shigeko Sasamori recounted her experience of the atomic bombing while pleading for world peace during a lecture on Oct. 16 at Winona State University (WSU).
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Sasamori was six years old when an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. Sasamori said she was less than a mile from the heart of the explosion; the mortality rate was nearly 100 percent for everyone within that radius.

While walking to school on the morning of Aug. 6, Sasamori said she saw a plane with a silvery white tail flying overhead. An object she later realized was the atomic bomb dropped from the plane, said Sasamori, and she was immediately knocked unconscious by the force of the explosion. “That moment changed my life,” said Sasamori.

Sasamori said she spent the next four nights and five days in a dormitory not far from the explosion site. According to Sasamori, there were no doctors, medical equipment or even basic nutritional items for the survivors at the dormitory. “It’s very difficult, what I’m trying to say, but try to imagine,” said Sasamori. “Can you imagine (going) five days, no food, no treatment? I feel I am very lucky to survive.”

After being reunited with her parents several days after the explosion, Sasamori said her mother nursed her back to health.

Nine years after the bombing, Sasamori said she was invited to participate in the “Hiroshima Project.” According to Sasamori, the “Hiroshima Project” provided 25 women affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan a trip to the United States (U.S.) to undergo plastic surgery to hide scarring left from burn wounds. After the project was completed, Sasamori decided to continue to live in the U.S.

Sasamori believes that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were an “obvious test on human beings.” Sasamori claimed that doctors were sent to Hiroshima immediately after the bombings not to provide treatment for the victims, but to examine and record the bomb’s effects on humans. The atomic bomb “wasn’t a warning,” said Sasamori. “We were human guinea pigs.”

“I’m not angry at the people (of the U.S.),” said Sasamori, “I’m angry at the leaders.” Sasamori pleaded for the “young people” in the audience to “please help keep this beautiful world and (its) beautiful people alive. We cannot forget the past happened, (and now there are) only two choices: peace or war.”

Sasamori’s lecture opened the “Hiroshima Peace Exhibition,” which was displayed at WSU from Oct.16 to Oct. 30. The exhibit consisted of posters of images chronicling the effects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.