2023年5月18日

正雄Ito, 82,是减少数量的“核爆炸”,广岛和长崎的原子弹爆炸幸存者1945法新社8月6日,1945年,4岁的正雄Ito是他家附近骑着三轮车在广岛炸弹从空中坠落,永远改变了他的生活。他幸存下来的美国核攻击,他的母亲,但恐惧只是开始。他的父亲,在工作中更接近日本西部的中心城市,在末日之后搜寻Ito的12岁的弟弟。当他发现这个男孩,他是如此严重烧伤,伊藤的父母拒绝让他们四岁的看到他的弟弟,在家里几天后去世。伊藤的10岁的妹妹在一个亲戚家里,摧毁了无影无踪。“人们从震源的走向郊外,我们家在哪里。他们严重烧伤,几乎不能走路,”82岁的告诉法新社。他的父母邀请幸存者在家里休息。“但他们死了,一个接一个的。”In the August heat, the bodies had to be moved, but there was no cemetery to take them to. "They were moved to an open space, not even in caskets but placed one on top of another. Kerosene was poured over them to burn them," Ito said. The scene is one he doesn't talk about often, but it remains visceral more than seven decades later. "It was just horrible, a horrible smell," he said. "It's a scene I really wish I could forget." A retired bank employee, Ito has worked for almost two decades as a volunteer guide for the peace memorials and museum in Hiroshima, and as an anti-nuclear campaigner. He is one of a dwindling number of hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombings in the last year of World War II that killed around 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki. This week, leaders of the G7 developed economies will meet in Hiroshima, and are expected to visit the Peace Memorial Park and speak to hibakusha. He said he would warn them: "If you have nuclear weapons, you may be tempted to use them, and accidents can happen." "It's simply better not to have them," added Ito, who wears large glasses and a pin depicting a bent missile with an anti-nuclear symbol over it. He acknowledges that a world without nuclear weapons might seem impossibly idealistic, particularly as Russia makes thinly veiled threats about using the weapons, and North Korea continues missile tests. But he believes holding the summit in Hiroshima can send world leaders a powerful message. "As long as there are nuclear weapons in the world, there is a possibility that your city could become like Hiroshima." "Is that really something you are willing to accept?" Ito's childhood was shattered by the bomb: his father died of radiation poisoning, and the family business collapsed into bankruptcy. He and his mother fled Hiroshima to escape their debts, and he contracted tuberculosis, spending over a year in a sanitorium, where he received a US care package containing medicine and a Bible. He read it, but when he encountered the line beseeching Christians to "love your enemies", he was so angry he threw the book against a wall. "My enemy was the Americans... Why in the world should I love America?" he recalled thinking. Ito would later convert to Christianity but his anger did not fade. When he began offering peace tours, he felt discomfort with the inscription on the Hiroshima cenotaph: "Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil." "I felt I should promise to avenge the souls of those who died so they could find peace." With time though, and especially as he met Americans who were devastated by what they learned in Hiroshima, his feelings changed and he "started to understand finally" what the Bible phrase meant. His tour groups include school children, who he feels have a particularly important role. "I can't continue forever. I tell students, it's your turn now to... achieve a world free of nuclear weapons." Atomic bomb survivor Masao Ito has worked for almost two decades as a volunteer guide for the peace memorials and museum in HiroshimaAFP An anti-nuclear symbol is seen pinned on the jacket of atomic bomb survivor Masao Ito in HiroshimaAFP © Copyright AFP 2023. All rights reserved. IBT Fast Start - Let the best of International News come to you Sign up and stay up to date with our daily newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . Join the Discussion