When the Enola Gay dropped the A-bomb, they were attending a morning assembly in their schoolyard, located 1.2 miles away from the hypocenter. If they had gone to work an hour earlier, they might have died. Hirano and his classmates were supposed to be engaged in demolition activity in the center of the city around 9:00 a.m. On August 6, 1945, there was a clear blue sky over Hiroshima. Hirano and his classmates worked on farms or helped demolish houses to create firebreaks in preparation for the US air raids. Facing a labor shortage due to the deteriorating state of the war, the Japanese government mobilized junior high school students to work. He did not have many chances to study in school. In 1945, at the age of twelve, Hirano enrolled in a junior high school in Hiroshima City four months before the US dropped the A-bomb. He liked those “little adventures.” After Japan started a war with the US by attacking Pearl Harbor in 1941, his “adventures” became an important source of food for his family. He often played at a beach in his neighborhood, where he caught fish, crabs, and shells. Beginning of Suffering: Atomic Bomb Experienceīorn in 1932 as the second son in a Hiroshima family and raised in a suburb of the city, Hirano described his childhood as “the best time” of his life. Over the course of seven years of these interviews, I noticed that his attitude had changed dramatically, especially after he became a storyteller relating his A-bomb experience in Hiroshima. Most of the interviews took place at his home in a casual atmosphere. I interviewed him intensively in 2008 and conducted follow-up interviews in 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2015. I met Hirano for the first time in March 2008. The following personal story is based on in-depth interviews that I conducted during my fieldwork in Hiroshima. They are even able to turn their experience of suffering into a positive force as they call for peace through telling their stories. Instead of being crushed by the dreadful violence to which they were subjected, A-bomb survivors have struggled, resisted, and coped with it. Secondly, his life story demonstrates the resiliency of the human spirit. These effects are permanent, and the victims suffer both physically and psychologically. Firstly, it eloquently recounts how survivors have suffered from the effects of the A-bomb. 4 However, his personal story has a twofold significance. Hirano is not a well-known figure he is an ordinary A-bomb survivor. This article examines the life of an A-bomb survivor, Sadao Hirano. In the long term, the radiation caused serious diseases in survivors, such as leukemia and other cancers. Typical symptoms included vomiting, diarrhea, hair loss, and reduced blood cell counts, which often killed the sufferers. 3 Its short-term repercussions were called acute disorders, illnesses that affected the victims a few hours to several months after exposure to excessive radiation. The radiation emitted from the A-bomb was very harmful to the human body. The force of the blast threw some people for several yards and caused buildings to collapse crushing their occupants. Citizens within 0.7 miles suffered fatal injuries to their internal organs, and many were to die in the next few days. 2 Severe heat rays from the A-bomb reached people residing up to two miles away from the hypocenter. 1 The energy of the A-bomb consisted of heat rays, blast, and radiation. According to the city of Hiroshima, approximately 140,000 people had died by the end of December 1945. The area within 1.2 miles of the hypocenter was entirely leveled and burned. The nuclear bomb exploded over the center of the city, completely devastating it. On August 6, 1945, the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Hirano is circled in the second row from the front, the fourth from the left. Young Hirano at age twelve with his elementary school classmates shortly before entering junior high. Re-envisioning Asia: Contestations and Struggles in the Visual Artsĭownload PDF Genbaku (Atomic Bomb) Dome in Hiroshima, a building destroyed by the A-bomb. Distinguished Service to the Association for Asian Studies Award.Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies Award.Striving for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Asian Studies: Humanities Grants for Asian Studies Scholars.Gosling-Lim Postdoctoral Fellowship in Southeast Asian Studies. Cultivating the Humanities & Social Sciences Initiative Grants.Key Issues in Asian Studies Book Series.AAS Takes Action to Build Diversity & Equity in Asian Studies.AAS Community Forum Log In and Participate.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |