Hiroshima tragedy: a firsthand narrative by a survivor

On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber rumbled in and dropped the world's first deployed atomic bomb over Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 per cent of the Japanese city and immediately killed 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more were destined to die later from radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan's then Emperor Hirohito announced his country's unconditional surrender in World War II (1939-45) in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of "a new and most cruel bomb."
At an American military base on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a group of young men await a top secret mission briefing. They have been training for nine months, unaware of the details of their assignment. Now their leader, Colonel Paul Tibbets, addresses them, alongside a ballistics expert. The men are told that they would be dropping a bomb with an explosive force of 20,000 tonnes of TNT on a Japanese city. It will destroy everything within a three-mile radius of its impact point. Tibbets later remarked his crew were 'unable to imagine a single bomb with such an explosive force.'
Japan was in a very uncomfortable situation just before its defeat in the Second World War (SWWII). Hitler was gone and other Axis powers were also defeated. Psychologically Japan had little strength to fight. Even then they were carrying on their battle. Their broadcasting media was exhorting them to fight, blacking out the real picture of war, though the authorities knew defeat was certain. The people of Japan came to realise it gradually when they watched with horrors that enemy bombing almost without resistance was destroying the cities and towns.
There was lack of supply of electricity and water and they faced acute food shortage.
During 1943 and 1944, America exerted tremendous military pressure on Japan, totally sapped the strength of the Japanese Army, and at one stage, it appeared that there was no way out for Japan than to surrender.
But the soldiers on the ground were fighting hard battles and some allied specialists opined that it was impossible to defeat Japan in formal war.
America intensified their attack through naval and air forces. Japan had by this time lost its foreign possessions, on which it was completely dependent for all supplies, including materials supplies for its war efforts.
At this stage, Japan was trying frantically for a sort of negotiation for dignified surrender but before that came the terrible strikes, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 August, 1945.
HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI: Historians often point their fingers at the massacres in which imperial Japan was associated. But this whole tragedy appeared to have been overshadowed by what happened to the beautiful cities and the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after atom bombs were lobbed on them.
The impact of these bombs still reverberates through the length and breadth of human conscience. This bombing benumbed all the people of the world, raising at the same time the question whether the bombing was necessary.
Millions of dollars and huge energy of numerous scientists led to invention of this destructive device.
However, none did expect the use of such bomb in any war when they found, with horror, the result of the first test that took place on 16 July 1945.
They knew what would be the consequences if it exploded on any human habitation.
Mrs. Watanabe Reiko was only fourteen in 1945 when the bombs were dropped on two Japanese cities.This writer met her in 1992 in Hiroshima City at a seminar. Then she was sixty-one-year old but what she saw at her tender age was still vivid in her mind.
Although she lost one of her eyes, she can still visualise how the attack came and remember the aftereffect. She becomes very busy when Hiroshima day arrives every year.
Frail in her physic but she still speaks with force like a young and strong person.
"I woke up at 8:05 am to a terrible sound. That morning of the 6th August in 1945 is still peeping through the windows of my memory. At first a bright flash of blue- pink light covered the whole sky. It was followed by a terrible deafening sound, which I can never forget. In a moment the clear azure sky turned cloudy. I thought an earthquake stuck Hiroshima," she said.
"There was fire all around. It seemed that the eyes were melting to flee away from the rattling fire. The whole city was seemingly crying in pain. That sound touched the hill and seven flowing rivers of Hiroshima city. My body also caught fire. I started running and then I lost sense. I discovered myself in a hospital after two days of the event. What did the creation of that bomb achieve? It is a betrayal to the modern science as it aimed to destroy the human existence."
Watanabe also pointed out that the scientists who were associated with this bomb had been cursing themselves ever since they discovered the unprecedented destruction caused by their invention.
"Albert Einstein, the great scientist, was then at Princeton University. When he was informed of it, he was benumbed and sobbed like a child on hearing the news," Watanabe recalled.
After the Second World War, the whole of Japan suffered from famines, droughts, financial problems and political unrest. Hundreds of Japanese left their country and settled in other countries like Hawaii and even they went to Latin American countries like Peru, Brazil. Thus former president of Peru Alberto Fujimori is of Japanese descent. These Japanese are called "NikkeiJin", which means paternal Japanese.
Now Japan is an economic superpower. They were defeated in the battlefield but now they emerged as the "Tiger of Asia" and dominating the world of economy and technology. Their success in every sector-- education, politics and democracy - is due to their industriousness, honesty and intellectual abilities. Today many people consider Japan as "The country of Paradise". In 79 years of their toil and hard work, they reached the pinnacle of success, which is envy of all.
Last year, I had the opportunity to revisit the site of the Hiroshima atomic bombing. However, my experience in 2023 couldn't compare to my visit in 1992. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum has undergone significant changes. During my first visit in 1992, the museum displayed various charred artifacts and personal items belonging to the victims of the atomic bombing. Today, the exhibits no longer provide the same comprehensive understanding of the history.

The writer is a documentary filmmaker, and cultural activist.
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