Prayers for peace will pass the lips of tens of thousands of people across the world on Aug. 6. Sixty years ago on that day, the world entered the atomic age when a bomb detonated 1,900 feet (580 meters) above the center of Hiroshima and instantly killed
Prayers for peace will pass the lips of tens of thousands of people across the world on Aug. 6. Sixty years ago on that day, the world entered the atomic age when a bomb detonated 1,900 feet (580 meters) above the center of Hiroshima and instantly killed 70,000 people. Within a few months, the longer term effects of radiation sickness killed that many again. Just three days after the Hiroshima blast, another atomic bomb was detonated over Nagasaki, killing thousands more.
Among the few remaining “Hibakusha,” or atomic bomb survivors, are two women, who are members of the Hiroshima Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Mrs. Kino, now in her late eighties, lived about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the epicenter of the blast and missed the main effects of the detonation. Trained in first aid, she spent her time helping those whose bodies were scorched by the heat of the blast.
Today she lives in a retirement home especially for Hibakusha where she retells her traumatic tale to school-aged children. Yet she does not tell it in a sense of bitterness. She speaks of hope and how her and her community were protected. She also speaks of the help that she and her family were able to give to others.
“I knew God’s promise in the Bible that ‘although many fall, I will save,’” Mrs. Kino says. “Indeed, I think, I can feel the promise of that fulfilled for myself. I think many things happen in the world, but I think the most important thing is, just forget about fighting. If we become close to each other, hand-in-hand and believe in peace, I think that will bring a bright future.”
Mrs. Sako was 17 years old at the time. She was only 1.5 kilometers (0.9 mile) from the epicenter. She says it was a miracle she survived. The military first aid posts refused to treat her, telling her father that they had to help those who had some chance of living. She suffered for weeks with breathing difficulties, severe burns on the exposed parts of her body, maggot-infested wounds, and radiation sickness.
“Since then,” she says, “I really dislike war. I hate war. I really don’t want my children to experience what I experienced. I really try to do my best to prevent the thing that happened.”
With what Mrs. Kino and Mrs. Sako have been through, it would be understandable if they held hurt and bitterness in their hearts. Instead, they hold forgiveness.
Mrs. Sako explains that in her faith she “found the thing that did not change. Everything around me may change, but I believe in a God who does not change.”
Despite a horrific past, Mrs. Sako has found a hope for the future. She says she has been made whole by her faith in a creator God.
“The first time I went to church ... the subject was Genesis. I fell in love with the story of Genesis, of creation, and especially the idea that we are special; that we are in God’s image. That makes all people special to me,” she says. “That encourages me. I really treasure that God is my friend and the church is a support.”
Mrs. Kino and Mrs. Sako are just two of many Japanese who have carried the memory of an indelible tragedy for 60 years, but they look forward to a bright future with hope and forgiveness.
