Memories of atomic bomb
Michi Harata clearly remembers the flash of the atomic bomb exploding two kilometres from his dad’s house in Hiroshima.
Then 9 years old, he was eating breakfast with his father and aunt when ‘‘very bright light’’ filled the ceiling on the morning of August 6, 1945. A United States B-29 bomber had dropped an atomic bomb on the city in the closing days of World War II, killing tens of thousands of people instantly.
‘‘My father pushed me into the shelter we had dug near the house. Every family had dug one of these, big enough to get in, but very hand-made,’’ Harata said.
‘‘The light comes faster than the sound. We were two kilometres away, so it was probably seven or eight seconds before the shockwave came.’’
He and his aunt were in the shelter when the wave hit. His father couldn’t get inside in time and suffered injuries from debris as the house fell around him.
Up to 146,000 people were killed by the acute effects of the bombing over the next four months. Now 82, Harata shares his story with whoever will listen, promoting peace and nuclear disarmament. He arrived in Christchurch on Sunday aboard the Peace Boat, a ship run by a Japanese nongovernment organisation focused on raising awareness and connecting peace groups.
‘‘Telling my message is my obligation to the dead.’’
New Zealand was ‘‘one of the strongest countries to push the adoption of the ban on nuclear weapons’’, Harata said. Together with two other Hiroshima survivors, Harata rung the World Peace Bell in Christchurch Botanic Gardens on Monday.
The United Nations’ Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons came into effect on July 7, 2017 and was approved by 122 countries, including New Zealand. The treaty would become legally binding when 50 countries sign and ratify it.
‘‘Fifteen thousand nuclear weapons are in existence now, between 10 and 1000 times more powerful than Hiroshima. You can imagine … the kind of critical situation that could happen.’’
He remembered the ‘‘crowds of ghosts’’ leaving Hiroshima after 70 per cent of the city was destroyed.
‘‘Their hair was sticking up, skin dangling from their bodies. I could not tell whether they were male or female or even their age.’’
His father had a water tank that victims used to soothe their burns. Harata remembered people putting their faces in the water and not re-emerging, lying dead in the water.
‘‘The disastrous scenery was a shock for me. People who had burns just dived into the river to cool down their body. After several days all the rivers were full of corpses,’’ he said.
"The disastrous scenery was a shock for me. People who had burns just dived into the river to cool down their body. After several days all the rivers were full of corpses."
Michi Harata, Hiroshima survivor