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<\/a>Nagasaki atomic bombing survivor Chiyoko Motomura delivers the Pledge for Peace on the 81st anniversary of the nuclear attack, 9 Aug. 1945.
(Mainichi\/Takeshi Noda)<\/p><\/div>\n
\nTranslation of the Pledge for Peace delivered by Japanese atomic bomb survivor Chiyoko Motomura on the 81st anniversary of the 9 Aug 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki – provided by the Nagasaki Municipal Government.<\/em><\/p>\n
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9 Aug 2026\u00a0<\/em>– Today, 81 years since the atomic bombing, marks a transition period in history. An era without a single hibakusha, such as myself, has drawn very close.<\/p>\n
At 11:02 a.m., August 9th, 1945, I experienced that tremendous flash of light and blast as just a small, six-year-old child, having just entered the first grade of national school. I was living in Koe-go, Fukuda Village, around 4.5 kilometers from the hypocenter.<\/p>\n
That day, my mother, grandfather, and aunt were out working in a rice field, and my grandmother was at home preparing lunch in the earthen-floor kitchen. I was playing alone on the porch when a huge, strange ball of fire exploded right before my eyes. In that instant, our home collapsed, the glass sliding doors toppled over, and with an enormous sound my small body was thrown into the garden. Curled into a ball, I was protected by my grandmother, who rushed over and laid herself on top of me. Before I could tell what had happened, she laid me in her arms and took me to the air-raid shelter.<\/p>\n
The strange ball of fire, the roaring sound, the blast, and the silence that followed it were seared into my young mind. When my mother and family returned a while later, I learned that an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. After the bombing, our seaside village saw nearly unending fires cremating the deceased and meager funerals conducted for them almost as a formality. My grandmother, who suffered severe wounds on her back when she rushed to protect me, passed away that next March. She had never received proper treatment, and was unable to rest lying on her back. These are my distant, yet vivid memories from when I was six years old.<\/p>\n
Eighty-one years have passed since that day. This hill we stand on in Urakami, turned into a charred, inanimate wasteland by the atomic bomb, has seen an incredible revival. At first glance, it is a peaceful view, but what about the rest of the world?<\/p>\n
Seemingly every day in the newspapers and on television I see news about conflicts around the world. The war between Russia and Ukraine shows no sign of ending.<\/p>\n
Do the leaders of these nations not see the faces of those struggling each day to survive? Do they not see the wandering, barefoot, crying young children? Are my memories of the atomic bombing, this cross I have been given to bear for 81 years in exchange for the life of my grandmother, merely an old story?<\/p>\n
Last December, I traveled around the United States for 14 days, occasionally relying on a wheelchair to visit sites such as the Los Alamos National Laboratory. After building up a dialogue with one of the guides on that visit, he strongly conveyed to me that there is not a single person working there who does not wish for peace.<\/p>\n
In response to this, all I could say to him was to please never use nuclear energy as a weapon. This conversation reminded me that the only way we as human beings can truly understand each other is through dialogue. Another place I visited on this trip was Pearl Harbor. As I looked out over those calm waters, I kept wondering why that war had to happen, and why so many lives had to be lost.<\/p>\n
I believe that peace means to protect life, and that life should be protected above all else.<\/p>\n
I will spend the rest of my life continuing to raise my voice for peace and pray that war shall never occur again. This is my pledge to all the souls resting on this hill, lost in an instant to the atomic bomb.<\/p>\n
\n—\u00a0Chiyoko Motomura,\u00a0Atomic Bomb Survivor Representative<\/em><\/p>\n
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