8/06/2007

Hiroshima Survivor - Recalls First A-Bomb






Shigeko Sasamori was 13 years old on August 6, 1945. At 8:15 AM she was working with her junior high classmates clearing the streets of Hiroshima, Japan. She looked up into the clear blue sky when she heard a plane flying overhead and saw something white dropping to the earth. Shigeko was less than a mile from the center of the explosion caused by the world's first atomic bomb.

Somehow, Shigeko survived, but she had terrible burns over most of her body. Some of her fingers had fused together and scars on her face made her and others like pariahs in Japan for fear of contamination.

Listen to her story:

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you have any first hand accounts of survivors of the Rape of Nanking (Est 150,00 - 300,000 killed), or the Bataan Death March, or the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor?
I'll bet they have some scars, too.

You will not find first hand accounts of the estimated 1,000,000 US casualties of a planned invasion of the Japanese home islands, however, a fact we should always keep in mind when moralizing about the US use of the A-bomb.

Sunny Badger said...

Anon:

You are quite sensitive about the use of the A-bomb. Personally, I think it's important, as a world community, to ponder the impacts of the mass destruction of innocent people. Or are there no innocent people? You raise excellent points above that would also be include in the destruction of innocent human beings. Revenge is in interesting concept. Would we have dropped the A-bomb on white Germans? Or did we feel better as a nation dropping it on the "yellow hoard?" If you'd like, you can join this blog and post your own things on the topics you mentioned.

E-mail us @ atbl1@yahoo.com.

Anonymous said...

Considering that Germany surrendered by May of 1945 and the first test of the bomb was a few month later in July, there was no need to drop an atomic bomb on Germany. The one thing consistent on this site is the misrepresentation of history from which you draw your ignorant views.

Andy Rand said...

I had never heard an account like this from victims who were there. Yes, you can rationalize that ending the war this way saved 1,000,000 lives, but wouldn't a demonstration of this weapon on a less populated area have had the same effect? Perhaps not, because if I recall my history correctly, the Japanese did not surrender until a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. I don't think this story is told to "blame Americans". The victim would up in America. I think it just offers a different perspective of war.

Sunny Badger,
Don't forget the Dresden bombing!

Anonymous said...

Civilians are not "innocent" merely because they are not firing weapons at you at that moment. No, they were building them. They were our enemy.

As the support for a military, any military, always comes from the people, the only way to truly defeat a military is to break the back of the civilians who support them. Hence the absolute necessity of Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.

1 drop of American blood, to the American government is more important than every non-American's life. That is, if our government is just. Why would we have a government that put other people before us? That's madness.

Andy Rand said...

Cato:

Just curious. Did you listen to this woman's story? Are you incapable of seeing things through any other perspective than you own political outlook. This isn't necessarily about
the need or correctness of dropping these weapons. It's more about the human consequences of such actions.

Anonymous said...

Ink Stained Wretch is asking if someone is capable of seeing things through any other perspective than their own political outlook? What a joke!

Andy Rand said...

He he he ! I'm laughing my arse off!