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Horror of Nuclear and the atomic bombs
Yuriko's life with "Microcephaly"
The story of Kunizo Hatanaka
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On the day of August 6, 1945, when I was thirty years old, I was in
the Shikoku region (one of the four main islands of Japan) to fight in
a battle, so my wife, 26 years old, was alone with a little baby at home
in Hiroshima.
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 August
6.1945, my pregnant wife was exposed to the bomb. |
That day my wife had to be mobilized, in my place, to destroy wooden
houses in the neighborhood(wooden houses are easily burnt and cause fires
when attacked from the air). On that day, because I was out of Hiroshima,
my wife had to work in my place with her little baby boy (only one year
old), and she was exposed to the A-bomb 730 meters away from the hypocenter.
Here let me tell you the situation in detail as it was when the atomic
bomb was dropped. Again in the morning of 6 August, 1945, my wife was working
with the men of the neighborhood and one of the men worried about my wife
because she was pregnant, working with her little baby, and suggested her
to take a rest at a hut nearby. So she moved to the hut and just after
she entered, the atomic bomb exploded. The hut she was in was swayed by
the blast, it suddenly got dark outside. She stayed there, keeping her
body low and saw it gradualy getting brighter outside. Even after the bomb
exploded she felt very much fear because she thought maybe another one
would be dropped. And as it became brighter outside, she saw many people
running away. My wife began to run with them but she did not understand
where they were heading and actually there were no places to go.
While they were running away, it began to rain and she found that the
rain was black rain (the black rain includes radiation). She entered a
hut nearby to wait for the rain to stop and turned around to her little
boy. She was so shocked to see that her baby was bleeding from his head.
The telephone booth nearby had been exploded by the blast and pieces of
glasses stuck in his head. She began to pull the pieces of glass from his
head. Meanwhile it stopped raining and she went back to her house. She
saw everything was gone including her house. She spent two days in an evacuation
cave, and the next day she went to Otake city, her hometown. It is still
a big surprise for me to know that some of the people who were directly
injured in the bombing could survive while the people who had looked unhurt
after the A-bombing died. I know that although such people looked unhurt
they were exposed to the radiation and later developed radiation-related
disease.
One week later after the bombing my wife began to show some symptoms
of radiation disease such as blisters on her back, diarrhea, her teeth
falling out and always feeling tired. She spent days in bed. Also because
of the radiation, her hair began to fall out and she became bald. Some
days later I came back to my house from Shikoku. Of course there were no
jobs in such a situation, but I had to work to make a living, so I began
to run a barber shop.
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| February
14.1946, Yuriko was born. |
On February 14, 1946, my wife gave birth, and this was the birth of
my daughter Yuriko. When she was born she looked just like a normal baby.
Although she was a little smaller than other babies, she just looked fine.
Yes, she looked fine to us but not to the midwife who assisted the birth.
For some reason she did not tell us immediately if the baby was a boy or
girl. Rather she said to us "Please take good care of your baby."
As she grew, Yuriko began to show some signs of being different from
other babies. Even at the age of one she could not crawl or walk. We worried
very much about my daughter, but my grandmother encouraged us, saying,
"Don't worry. She will begin to crawl soon, so don't worry." However even
at the age of two, she could not crawl or walk. And at the age three, still
she could not crawl or walk. Gradually, we began to worry seriously about
her. We wanted to take her to the doctor, but we could not afford to do
that because we were in such a serious condition financially. At the age
of 6, the age when ordinary kids enter elementary school, Yuriko could
not go to school because she could not take care of herself. For example,
she could not go to the ladies room by herself. Even at the age of seven
she could not go to school. And she did not go to school even a day. Without
going to school, she used to spend days reading visual books and eating
sweets.
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| Microcephaly
inflicted my daughter and cancer took the life of my wife. |
One day, a group of scholars and doctors came to our home. One of the
doctors examined Yuriko and diagnosed her as microcephalic (means "small
head disease" see *1). The doctor knew that the disease is caused by the
effects of radiation, and also he knew that because of the disease Yuriko
would be retarded, late to grow and wouldn't be able to walk normally.
However, he did not mention about radiation and only diagnosed her as "microcephaly".
We still continued to believe that Yuriko would get well soon.
Eleven years had passed since the bombing and one day people of a film
company visited us and asked to let them take a video of Yuriko. At the
end of that year we had a chance to watch the video "The World in Fear"
and we were very shocked to know that the disease of microcephaly is caused
by radiation. You see, we spent 11 years not knowing about that. (Now 48
people suffer from microcephaly)
Some years later, my wife began to suffer an ache in her waist and
legs and went to the doctor. He encouraged her to take a thorough examination.
Meanwhile, my wife's knees became weaker and weaker. Finally it turned
out that she had developed bone-cancer. (Bone-cancer is a disease that
makes bones thinner and thinner.) Her condition continued to become worse
and one day, December 26, 1978 she passed away and never came back. She
died very silently.
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| Sufferings
that Yuriko experienced who was born after the atomic-bombing. |
Finally, what I want to say is: war is miserable. You see, if a person
is killed directly by an atomic bomb, the person will die; but we all have
to die some day, some way. However, there are people who have to suffer
for years after wars, though they are not exposed to radiation directly.
Even babies who are not born at the time of the A-bombing have to suffer
after they are born. They, too, have to suffer for many years. We, the
caretakers, suffer too.
That's why we have to abolish nuclear weapons. We have to talk to the
young generation about the misery of nuclear weapons. We really have to
do it. It is never enough for only the sufferers to understand how miserable
war is. You see, if we let a candle burn out and never light another, the
fire will be put out and never make a fire by itself. Likewise, we should
not put out our desire for peace. I sincerely hope that you will continue
to pass our fire--our desire for peace--no matter what happens over to
the next generation and for ever.
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| Reference:
Microcephaly |
In 1946, some women who were exposed to radiation relatively close
to the hypocenter during pregnancy gave birth to babies with small heads.
It was found that some of the babies had severe mental retardation. This
condition is termed, "microcephaly". These disabilities happened when pregnant
women were exposed to radiation at a gestational age of 8-25 weeks (especially
8-15 weeks) because at this stage the fetal brain is particularly sensitive
to radiation. |