Twelve-year old Sadae Kasaoka (birth name Hiraoka), a first-year student at a girls’ high school, was at home with her grandmother on Aug. 6, 1945, enjoying a beautiful morning and doing housework because she had not been mobilized for war work.
Decades later, Kasaoka recalls that she saw a brilliant flash of light about 8:15 a.m. that was “a beautiful color like the sunrise mingled with orange,” and then hearing a tremendous bomb. The first atomic bomb used in warfare had just detonated 1.900 feet above Hiroshima.
Kasaoka was slightly more than two miles from “ground zero,” at the time of the explosion. The windows shattered and her face was cut by shards of flying glass.
Sadae’s mother died in the explosion. Her father had been terribly burned; he died two days later. She became a hibakusha — the Japanese word for people who survived the bombings, and as such became a victim of discrimination.
Hibakusha are often denied jobs and shunned as marriage partners due to the widespread but erroneous belief that the consequences of radiation sickness are hereditary or even contagious. Kasaoka found work with the Hiroshima Prefectural Office and entered into an arranged marriage with another hibakusha; they had two children but he died of cancer at 35, presumably due to his exposure to the radiation.
Kasaoka continued to work as an employee of the Hiroshima Prefectural Office and raised her children. In 2005 she became a registered A-bomb witness with the city of Hiroshima; for the past 20 years she has shared her experiences with overseas visitors and school students.
Kasaoka was the featured speaker Tuesday when the Battleship Missouri Memorial observed the 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with a commemorative ceremony aboard the historic warship.
“I want the people of Hawaii to know that Hiroshima was the first city in history to experience an atomic bombing, and that the city was reduced to ashes in an instant, and many innocent lives were lost,” Kasaoka said via email through a translator. “At the USS Missouri Memorial, I will mainly share my experience as an atomic bomb survivor. I also want to express my gratitude and speak about the importance of peace and compassion. I know that many people from Hiroshima came to Hawaii before the war, seeking work. When the war began, some lost their homes. After the bombing, we received warm and generous support from people in the United States, including those in Hawaii.”
The ceremony will include a formal Hawaiian and Japanese blessing, remarks from leaders representing the City and County of Honolulu and the City of Hiroshima, the grand opening of “White Flash, Black Rain,” a new temporary exhibit documenting the immediate impact and enduring legacy of the bombings, and presentations by two Oahu high school students, Hiroshima Peace Scholarship recipients Mia Nishiguchi of Kalani High School and Chloe Tonda of Punahou School, who participated in a Japan-America Society of Hawaii ceremonial visit to Hiroshima for the 80th anniversary observances on Wednesday.
Nishiguchi and Tonda recall hearing about Hiroshima and Nagasaki as children but the bombings took on greater personal significance for them in high school.
“Peace advocacy is really important, and in order to advocate for something, you have to be educated about it,” Tonda said. “The (scholarship) program was an opportunity for me to better understand that history in current events and from the past. Just because the war doesn’t affect you directly, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about it.”
The “White Flash, Black Rain” exhibit will be on display through February. It includes artifacts on loan from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. Of special interest are origami cranes folded by Sadako Sasaki, a young victim of the bombing of Hiroshima, who famously folded more than 1,300 origami cranes before she died of leukemia at the age of 12 in 1955. There are also origami cranes folded by former President Barack Obama for his visit to Hiroshima in 2016.
Nishiguchi and Tonda took 1,000 folded cranes to Hiroshima and presented them at the Children’s Peace Monument. They also visited the Peace Park and the Peace Memorial Museum, participated in a peace forum with Japanese high school students, attended the Peace Memorial Ceremony on Wednesday, visited the school that Kasaoka had attended in 1945, and made a courtesy visit to the deputy mayor of Hiroshima.
It was a busy week and Tonda and Nishiguchi returned home with fresh insights into the bombings and their legacy.
“One thing to share is how essential peace building is, especially in today’s political climate,” Nishiguchi said. “It’s definitely something that we can incorporate into our policies, our communities and even in our day-to-day lives. Even if it’s something that’s not huge, but if it’s a small step that everyone can take, I think that can have a really big ripple effect.”
Eighty years after the morning that changed her life forever, Kasaoka hopes sharing her experiences will encourage people everywhere to help prevent future use of nuclear weapons.
“Hibakusha — the survivors of the atomic bombing — have always said they don’t want anyone else to suffer as they did,” she said. “I hope more people will learn about what really happened in Hiroshima, and join us in working toward a world without war and without nuclear weapons — a world where everyone can live in peace.”
Source: The Garden Island