Obit of the Day: Voice for the Hibakusha (被爆者)
On August 9, 1945, Senji Yamaguchi was working with six classmates digging an air raid shelter about one mile from downtown Nagasaki. At 11:01 a.m., the boys saw a flash of bright light - and then nothing. When Mr. Yamaguchi woke up his friends were gone and he suffered from radiation burns across the right side of his body. He would undergo thirteen skin grafts to repair as much of the damage as possible. He was 14 years old.
Almost exactly eleven years later, on August 10, 1956, Mr. Yamaguchi would found the Japanese Confederation of Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo, 日本被団協) which gave a voice to those victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. Many of those who lived, like Mr. Yamaguchi, were treated poorly by fellow Japanese who were disturbed by the appearance and did not want to associate them. The men, women, and children were called hibakusha, “bomb survivors.” As of March 2012 there were over 210,000 hibakusha still living, and the average age was 76.
Nihon Hidankyo’s main objectives are to prevent nuclear war and rid the world of nuclear weapons. They came to international prominence in 1982 when Mr. Yamaguchi spoke before the United Nations on disarmament, holding up a picture of his disfigured body taken immediately following the blast.
In 2010, Nihon Hadankyo was awarded the "Peace Summit Award for Social Activism" by the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates.
Senji Yamaguchi died on July 6, 2013 at the age of 82.
Sources: The Daily Telegraph, Nihon Hadankyo, Japan Times, and Wikipedia
(Image, undated and uncited, of Senji Yamaguchi is courtesy of BBCMundo.com)
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