Photo/Illutration Hideto Matsuura, a representative director of the Japan Federation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization (Nihon Hidankyo), in Matsuyama in November (Asako Hanafusa)

One of the “youngest atomic bomb survivors” will deliver a unique message when he speaks before students at the University of Oslo on Dec. 11.

Hideto Matsuura was exposed to radiation while in his mother’s womb when the United States detonated an atomic bomb over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.

His mother, seven months pregnant, was about three kilometers from ground zero.

In his speech, the 79-year-old is expected to say: “We did not see any scenes on the day when an atomic bomb was dropped, but we have been carrying its shadows on our shoulders.”

Matsuura obtained an atomic bomb survivor’s health handbook in his 30s after learning that he was exposed to radiation while in his mother’s womb.

A resident of Matsuyama, he also began working as a member of a group of hibakusha in Ehime Prefecture.

But he felt guilty about being a “half-hibakusha,” which he compares to the level between the first and second floors, or between hibakusha and non-hibakusha.

Matsuura, who became the group’s secretary-general in 2003, long believed that he was taking a background role behind those who experienced an atomic bombing on the ground.

But he gradually moved to the forefront as his seniors died one after another. His mother passed away at the age of 96 in 2010.

Matsuura now serves as a representative director of the Japan Federation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization (Nihon Hidankyo), the recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

He has participated in international conferences on nuclear issues and founded a nationwide network of prenatally exposed hibakusha.

He will attend the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony in Oslo on Dec. 10.

There are about 6,500 people who were exposed to atomic bomb radiation while in their mothers' wombs.

Collectively known as the youngest hibakusha, they are taking on an increasingly important role as the overall ranks of atomic bomb survivors shrink each year. 

As of the end of March, 106,825 people held the atomic bomb survivor’s health handbook, down more than 70 percent from the peak, with the average age of 85.58 years.

Matsuura now believes that prenatally exposed hibakusha symbolize damage caused by radiation and represent the horrors of nuclear weapons.

He has met with those born with abnormally small heads, or microcephaly, accompanied by physical and psychological disorders.

He learned that they have been living under persistent fears over serious medical conditions since childhood. 

Matsuura brought copies of a collection of accounts by prenatally exposed hibakusha, whose English version was completed this summer, to Oslo.

The collection contains messages from “hibakusha from birth” to the next generations.

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