The industrial exhibition palace (today Dome of Genbaku) of the prefecture of Hiroshima and the surroundings of the hypocentre. Photo taken in November 1945.
HB405, photo taken by the American army, provided by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
A survivor of Hiroshima recounts the horror, the stigmatization suffered and her fight for peace and a world without nuclear weapons. Testimony.
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, Nagasaki was struck by a second bomb. These attacks led to the capitulation of Japan and the end of the Second World War, but at the cost of some 210,000 lives.
Among the survivors and survivors, Michiko Kodama, then seven -year -old, was in a school on the outskirts of the city of Hiroshima, about four kilometers from the hypocentre.
Today it is one of the under 100,000 Hibakusha Still alive, name that we give the survivors and survivors of atomic bombing. Their average age exceeds 86 years.
A painful memory
In the Japanese post-war society, the Hibakusha were faced with discrimination and prejudices. Many could not speak publicly about what they had endured.
“People said that the Hibakusha should not get married, and that our children would be born with disabilities, tells Michiko Kodama to Swissinfo. We had no choice but to live as Hibakusha.For her, it meant being deprived of the right to live normally as a human being.
For more than a decade, she remained silent and did not talk about what she had witnessed in her childhood. But the scenes have remained engraved in his memory.
She remembers seeing “hell” and “people fleeing the hypoching, burnt and hanging skin”. She adds: “A girl about the same age that I already had half the burned face, the body too, and could no longer speak. So she begged me with his gaze: “Give me water. Help me”. It was very painful. But I couldn’t say anything or give it water. ”
The memories of this day still haunt her today. She could never get rid of her anxiety, but life continued.
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Despite his fears, Michiko Kodama got married and had a daughter. “When I got pregnant, I wondered: will my child be healthy?” Will he survive? ” Her daughter died of cancer in 2011. She still wonders now if it is her fault.
Michiko Kodama is now a deputy secretary general of Nihon Hidankyo, an organization that represents the Hibakusha. In 2024, the latter received the Nobel Peace Prize. For Japanese, this distinction is not only the recognition of years of painful fight against silence, stigma and discrimination, but also a warning for the future.
A voice for disarmament
Today, Michiko Kodama continues to express themselves, animated by a sense of duty. She militates for peace and a world without nuclear weapons. She has become one of the main spokespersons of Nihon Hidankyo, traveling Japan and the world to share her testimony. It testifies in schools, during international conferences and the United Nations.
In recent years, the threat of nuclear weapons has returned to the front page of the international newspapers. Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, growing tensions in East Asia and the world arms race have revived fears of a nuclear escalation.
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The disappointed hopes of nuclear disarmament in Geneva 80 years after Hiroshima
This content was published on
August 06. 2025
The world remembers the release of the first atomic bomb. But 80 years after Hiroshima, it is clear that nuclear weapons make a return in force.
Read more hopes disappointed with nuclear disarmament in Geneva 80 years after Hiroshima
“We, the Hibakushaare still alive and we are angry, she said. But sooner or later we will die. We must do everything in our power so that future generations do not have to live the same experience. ” Michiko Kodama believes that she has the duty to express himself, to remember and to ensure that the experiences of the past are not forgotten.
Inasmuch as Hibakushashe claims that these developments touch her personally. “We have already experienced this. We know the damage caused by nuclear weapons, she says. Never again Hibakusha, […] We must abolish nuclear weapons. ”
“I should be a grandmother enjoying the sun,” she adds. Instead, even at 87, I continue to tell this story. Because someone has to do it. ”
Text reread and verified by Virginie Mangin/DS, translated from English using an automatic translator/DBU
