Photo/Illutration The Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima on April 17, 2023 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

“Chichi to Kuraseba” (Living with father) is a play by Hisashi Inoue (1934-2010) about a man who died in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima but comes back as a ghost three years later to encourage his daughter, Mitsue, to pursue her budding romance.

On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, Hiroshima suddenly became a place of senseless death for many of its citizens. Humans were reduced to charcoal and survivors cried out for help in vain.

Three years later, Mitsue is still riddled with guilt for having abandoned her father in the nuclear inferno and denies her own romantic feelings for a young man she has come to know.

“I should have died with my dad,” she tells herself.

Just for this one play, Inoue collected a vast amount of research materials. At Chihitsudo Bunko, Inoue’s personal library, there is a volume titled “Hiroshima-ken Hogen Jiten” (Dictionary of Hiroshima Prefecture dialect).

I visualize Inoue with a highlighter pen in hand, marking numerous words and phrases while trying to imagine how the daily lives of countless people were brought to an abrupt end by the atomic bomb.

Among the numerous words he highlighted were “otottan” (father) and “ohiisan” (the sun).

And Inoue is said to have perused literally hundreds of personal accounts written by hibakusha survivors and hand-copied passages into his own notebook.

He recalled in an essay, “I copied them, mumbling to myself hundreds of times, ‘Oh, you sorrowful words, may you spread all over the world.’”

The play was first performed in 1994. Over the last 30 years, it has been also staged overseas many times.

But the path to the elimination of nuclear weapons still remains long and arduous. In fact, the goal seems to have moved further away.

Inoue is gone. And there are only few hibakusha left now to tell their stories. Still, I believe we must keep walking.

The play ends with the father encouraging Mitsue to live her life for his sake, too.

He says in the Hiroshima dialect, “Surely, your job is to tell people about human sorrow and happiness.”

The baton has been passed to his daughter, to me as a journalist, and to all of us who are living now.

Cicadas are singing. Today we mark the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, a tradition that must be passed on to posterity.

—The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 6

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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