Hiroshima survivors - in their own words

As promised in my interview post with Yuki Miyamoto to mark the 80th anniversary of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima, I’ve recorded some extracts from the following book, which I purchased from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum when I visited in 2004.

Please take care listening as these testimonies feature graphic and extremely distressing descriptions. But the first-hand memories are vital for the world to hear - and even more so as the events recede further and further into history.

The survivors’ appeals - that nuclear weapons must be abolished and no nuclear strike ever allowed to happen again - can not, must not be ignored.

If you missed the interview with Yuki, you can read it here:

I was also very interested to come across this piece by Kjeld Duits which includes the very photo taken on Miyuki Bridge by Yoshito Matsushige, one of the survivors whose testimonies I’ve read out here.

In my ignorance, I hadn’t realised quite how significant the photo Matsushige describes taking is and I’d highly recommend taking a look at the full piece, which goes into a lot more detail on this photo as well as many other rare and important images.

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