Nagasaki survivor: ‘The 1945 bomb is a homemade device compared to today’s nuclear weapons’

Shigemitsu Tanaka takes a small cream-coloured towel out of a bag, carefully unfolds it and reveals a kind of flattened blackish stone. “It’s not a stone, it’s a piece of tile from a roof in Nagasaki. In three seconds, it turned into this. Imagine the effect that the nuclear explosion had on human beings,” explains this 84-year-old Japanese man, a survivor of the atomic bomb, in an interview with this newspaper in Madrid, Spain.

In his bag he also carries pictures of charred children who were worse off than him only because they lived closer to the epicenter of the strike. There are also photographs of damaged buildings and numerous documents. Tanaka led an ordinary life until 2000, when he suffered a heart attack and began his activism in Nihon Hidankyo, an organization formed in 1956 by hibakusha, the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The organization was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating with witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.” The tears of this old man upon hearing the news went around the world. “Everything changed that day, the whole world knew that we existed,” explains Tanaka, who collected the award last December on behalf of the organization.

For 25 years, this man has been helping to inspect sites and extract soil samples to further analyze the effects of the deadly explosion. He also gives talks and gives guided tours to people who come to Nagasaki. “It is the clearest way to understand why nuclear weapons should be banned,” he says.

Tanaka’s agenda in Spain includes meetings with authorities and students and public events in Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona together with Yayoi Tsuchida, a representative of Gensuikyo (Japan’s Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs) and other leaders of organizations in the Asian country. The activities are part of an initiative by Alianza por el Desarme Nuclear (Alliance for Nuclear Disarmament), a Spanish network of groups seeking to get Spain to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which entered into force four years ago. So far, 94 countries have adopted it. For Tanaka, those who have not joined, even if they are not part of the group of nine countries that possess atomic weapons, “are saying that nuclear weapons can be used in their name.”

Question. It has been almost 80 years since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What do you remember about August 9, 1945?

Answer. I was four years old and it’s all a bit blurry in my memory, but I was in the garden, at the foot of a tree, with my grandfather and one of my brothers when I saw that blinding white light. We lived six kilometers from the epicentre of the radiation. We fled to the mountains near my house. None of my relatives showed any apparent injuries at the time.

The world is certainly a more dangerous place and those who have nuclear power are not afraid to threaten to use it

Q. Afterwards, did they?

A. Things happened after that. My mother helped wounded people at a school and had thyroid and liver problems for life. My father died of cancer 12 years later, as did a brother. I married another girl from Nagasaki, younger than me. One of our grandchildren was born with serious health problems, specifically in the diaphragm. He died three days after birth. No one is able to tell me from a medical point of view if it was because of what I may have passed on to him genetically from having lived through that nuclear attack, but I think so. I feel guilty and I am afraid.

Q. When did your activism begin?

A. I survived the attack in 1945, but lived a very normal life afterwards and was a train driver for decades. But in 2000 I had a heart attack, miraculously survived, and decided to join Nihon Hidankyo. Since then, I have given testimonies to high school students who come on school trips to Nagasaki, and I continue to explore the grounds and buildings with the organization’s teams, looking for remains and information about how the explosion has affected and may continue to affect the soil.

Q. The world has changed a lot since you started your activism 25 years ago and experts say this is the time of greatest nuclear risk in history.

A. The world is certainly a more dangerous place and those who have nuclear power are not afraid to threaten to use it. For example, Russia and Israel have nuclear weapons and there are conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. The nuclear taboo, the belief that nuclear weapons should not be used, is no longer so taboo. In addition, technological advances have made nuclear weapons smaller, more portable and more sophisticated. There are bombs that are physically half the size of the one dropped on my city. The 1945 bomb is a homemade device compared to today’s nuclear weapons.

I would take Pedro Sánchez to Nagasaki, to visit the museum and listen to testimonies. It is the clearest way to understand why nuclear weapons should be banned.

Q. Your visit to Spain is aimed at promoting the signing of the TPNW. What would you say to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, if you were with him?

A. I would tell him that nuclear weapons are evil, that they are not compatible with human beings. And that in the event of a nuclear attack, there are no winners or losers. Everyone loses. I would take Pedro Sánchez to Nagasaki, to visit the museum and listen to testimonies. It is the clearest way to understand why nuclear weapons should be banned.

Q. What has changed with the award of the Nobel Prize to Nihon Hidankyo?

A. People stop us on the street, on the bus and on the train to congratulate us on the work we do. More people have joined us. For example, an 88-year-old woman from Nagasaki has started to tell her story in recent months. And above all, the local authorities have changed their policy and agreed to deliver a document urging the country’s government to sign the TPNW, something that had not happened until now.

Q. Do you feel that the Japanese governments have turned their backs on you?

A. Yes. We are the only country to have suffered the atomic bomb, but our authorities seemed to be frightened, to be hiding, and have not provided the victims with adequate care or offered them material compensation. If they had done so, thousands of people could have had better lives and more financial stability, especially women.

The whole world knew that we existed, knew that the ‘hibakusha’, the survivors, were there, we were the living testimony of the history that must not be repeated

Q. Why women?

A. Women suffered especially. If they had visible wounds, they were ostracized more than men. If it was known that they came from places like Nagasaki, they came under suspicion and, for example, found it difficult to marry, because the boys were afraid of fathering babies with deformities or health problems.

Q. We are doing this interview in a school. What would you say to young people who learn about Hiroshima and Nagasaki but feel that these places are far away?

A. Young people should listen to these testimonies, be encouraged to join anti-nuclear groups and be curious to learn more, to read or watch films on the issue. Because they will be the transmitters and it is up to them to ensure that nuclear weapons are banned forever.

Q. After these 25 years of activism, what moment stands out for you?

A. When they told us that we had won the Nobel Peace Prize, everything changed that day. The whole world knew that we existed, knew that the hibakusha, the survivors, were there, we were the living testimony of a history that must not be repeated.

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