By Philip Jennings, IPB Co-President
“I forget things easily, but I can’t forget that day. I want to, but I can’t. I need to hand down my experience. Until the age of 80, I refused to speak about August 6, but now I do. I was 15. I worked in a tobacco factory; we were 600 metres from the epicentre. There was a white light, then a blast which rocked me. I had a moment to seek shelter that saved me, but my friends did not. There were fires and bodies everywhere. Children and adults with skin covered in blisters. The skin was hanging from their bodies. Children were crying, and then silence as their hearts stopped. I collected the bodies, and we made funeral pyres day after day.”
These words from a Hibakusha were shared at the 2025 Gensuikyo A & H conference in Hiroshima. The audience listened in respectful silence, with many tears being shed.
Continue reading “Bearing Witness: Reflections from the World Conference against A and H Bombs”
