Junko Morimoto's speechMy name is Junko Morimoto. I was 13 when I became a hibakusha , or victim of the bomb that was dropped in Hiroshima. The war was in its final stages and there was a shortage of everything, including food. Most of the men had been sent to war, creating a labor shortage. As a result, school children were forced to work even through the summer holidays. On that day, I was also mobilized to assist in the demolition of houses in town, but because I was ill with gastric for the previous two days, I stayed at home. It was 8:15 in the morning. My father was walking underneath the railway bridge near our house. My older sister and I were sitting on our futon, chatting. My older brother, who had come home after working all night, was strumming his guitar with his back to the window. My oldest sister had just come home and was eating breakfast. My mother was recuperating from an illness and therefore was not at home.
When we heard a low moaning sound I wondered whether it was the sound of my brother's guitar or perhaps the sound of a B29. Suddenly I heard a loud noise, like the sound of fabric being ripped, and at the same time there was a massive flash of light, the like of which I'd never seen before. My older sister threw herself on top of me and we screamed. We could hear screams and shrieks throughout our neighborhood.
Everything went dark. The words "I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die" raced through my mind and I lost consciousness.
I don't know how much time had passed, but light slowly returned and when I came to, with the realization that I was still alive, I saw that our house had been almost completely destroyed. I looked above and saw that grey sky. Fortunately we were able to get outside. The entire city of Hiroshima had already begun to burn. Our house, already destroyed, also began to burn. I walked along the train track, smoke rising all around, and arrived at the river embankment to see large numbers of people walking like ghosts, their burnt and peeling skin grey and hanging off them like rags. I saw young children clutching their dead mothers, crying and screaming their mothers names, I saw mothers with their dead babies still strapped to their backs, people who had stuck their faces into the river and simply died like that... The sky above was dark and what I saw was a scene from hell. I saw the brutality and horror that people had experienced - the sort of experiences that tore the hearts of tens of thousands of people.
This is how, one morning 61 years ago, a city was transformed into hell.
Around 4 months later, at the beginning of winter, I decided to go to the burnt out ruins of my school. When I arrived, I saw the school's vice-principal, alone, in the cold, sitting amongst the debris that covered the school yard. My teacher saw me approaching him, and his eyes filled with tears as he said, hugging me, "I'm so glad that you're alive".
Around 320 people from my school - either at the school or who had gone into town to work - died on that day because of the bomb. 10 days later, one month later, several years later and 20 years later - altogether over 30 students and teachers died as a result of radiation over this period. Many of the victims, including myself, secretly fear that the demon unleashed by radiation continues to live inside us. Modern science has benefited humans in so many ways but people have also gained the ability to create hell.
To classify people based on race and then use gas to kill them indiscriminately, to allow prisoners of war who have surrendered and who no longer have the ability to fight, to die through starvation or forced labor, to burn to death not soldiers but civilians living in some town or city - this is not war. These are criminal acts. These are crimes which can not be excused in the name of war.
I believe that we are being mis-led when nuclear weapons are referred to as "weapons of mass destruction" on television and in the newspapers. This is because human life should be valued and the word "destruction" should not be used in reference to human life. Nuclear weapons should in fact be called "weapons of mass murder". Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass murder that indiscriminately kill people who are not fighting in a war.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki taught us two things. One is that we human beings have acquired the ability to create hell. The other is that we are so foolish, untrustworthy and pathetic that we would actually put this frightening ability to use.
61 years have passed since that war. However, in the shadows of our peaceful and prosperous life, "weapons of murder" lie quietly waiting somewhere in the world, and the clock is ticking. And on this day, right now, this terrible criminal threat continues to multiply in every part of the world.
I look forward to the day when people will decide that we no longer need the ability to create hell.
Translation: Lotte Lawrence
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