Photo/Illutration Terumi Tanaka, right, and other members of Nihon Hidankyo (the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations) arrive at Oslo Airport on Dec. 8. (Jun Ueda)

OSLO—A hibakusha who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima is traveling to Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize festivities here with a book of English poetry and writings about her experience.

Bun Hashizume, 93, has entrusted her hopes for peace to the booklet.

Representatives of Nihon Hidankyo (the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations), which is made up of survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, arrived at Oslo Airport in Norway on the evening of Dec. 8.

They will receive the Nobel Peace Prize at the Dec. 10 award ceremony in Oslo, where three hibakusha will deliver speeches calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

The delegation consists of 30 hibakusha from Nihon Hidankyo and six companions.

“I’m extremely nervous,” said Terumi Tanaka, 92, the co-chair of the organization, who will deliver a speech at the award ceremony.

“We are of an advanced age, but given the worsening global situation regarding nuclear weapons, I’m even more motivated to convey the message that hibakusha have been advocating.”

Separately, more than 50 anti-nuclear activists from a tour organized by the Peace Boat, an NGO, and Gensuikyo (the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs), which have long worked to share the testimonies of hibakusha with the world, also arrived in Oslo.

These activists will not attend the award ceremony but will participate in public viewings and related events.

Hashizume, who resides in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, joined the tour carrying a small booklet.

“The seeds sown by hibakusha have finally sprouted into the Nobel Peace Prize,” she said before departing.

Hashizume survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima when she was 14, while working at the Hiroshima Savings Bureau as a mobilized student.

On Aug. 6, 1945, she had just arrived at work. As she headed to her boss’s desk near a window, just like any other day—it happened.

“The sun fell right in front of me!” she wrote in her booklet, describing the blinding flash followed by a blast that knocked her unconscious.

Her entire body was showered with shards of glass and blood flowed endlessly from a wound on her head. She moved to a nearby hospital and spent the night there amid rising flames.

Around the time she turned 60, Hashizume began studying English, something she had been unable to do earlier in life.

She went on short-term study programs in Scotland and New Zealand, where she was surprised by the great interest in Hiroshima.

“Maybe there’s something only I can do,” she thought.

She compiled four atomic bomb poems and the story of her experience of surviving the bombing, which she had been writing over the years, into two booklets—one in Japanese and the other in English.

She titled these books “Ningen yo Eichi to Ai wo” (Fellow Humans! Let Us Foster Love & Wisdom—From Hiroshima).

She had several hundred copies printed at a local print shop.

She traveled alone, distributing her booklets and sharing her testimony as a hibakusha in Sweden and nuclear-armed states such as France. She also visited New Zealand, a stronghold of the anti-nuclear movement, nearly 30 times.

In 2003, during a visit to Oslo, she fell and fractured her spine. Her injuries made it difficult for her to walk, and she was unable to travel alone.

This is her first visit to Oslo since then.

Conflicts continue around the world, and the threat of nuclear weapons shows no sign of ending.

“Humans have made no progress,” Hashizume said. “Even a single nuclear detonation would devastate the entire planet.” 

She feels that the horrors of nuclear weapons are still not fully understood and sees little hope for global change.

Even so, for those who ask her to “teach us about Hiroshima,” she has packed a few remaining copies of her booklets into her travel bag.

(This article was written by Asako Hanafusa and Takashi Ogawa in Oslo.)

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