A third-generation survivor of the atomic bombing shares their story | With a wish for peace

This is Miki, representative of SoundRest.

Today, August 6th, we are taking a day off from all business operations as we do every year to pay our respects to Hiroshima, the hometown of my late grandmother, and to quietly pray for peace.

"A wish for peace"

On that day, my grandmother was living in Funairi-cho, which is said to be within 1km of the atomic bomb's impact zone, an area with the lowest survival rate.

At that time, all the healthy men were away fighting in the war, so the women were raising the children on their own. My grandmother would leave her two young daughters and son with my mother and go to work at her company every morning.

8:15 AM, August 6, 1945. I heard that he felt an intense heatwave and instinctively doused himself with water from a nearby tank.

(The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum also has records indicating that an extraordinary, scorching blast wave struck Hiroshima over a wide area.)

She managed to stay hidden and survive, but apparently her scalp was completely scraped off at the time.

I hurried back home, but the entrance was blocked by a collapsed gate. I could hear my mother's last scream from inside the house as it burned down in the flames.

"If you stay here, you'll burn to death too! Get away from here and go find your brother!"

Upon hearing those words, my grandmother left home in tears, and the next day she was reunited with her younger brother at the city hall, where they had promised to meet if anything happened. It was a town far from Funairi-cho, but she had expected that she would be able to get help if she went to the city hall.

In fact, those who had taken refuge in government offices were given food such as rice balls, but what ultimately saved lives was leaving the hypocenter as quickly as possible.

At the time, the dangers of radiation were not well known, but it seems that many people who were there died from residual radiation exposure, so it was thanks to my grandmother's wise judgment that life was preserved for future generations.

People who have experienced war don't talk about it much. My grandmother was like that too; her house was burned down without a trace, and she couldn't find a single bone of her parents or children. After that, she said that wherever she walked, it felt like she was stepping on the scattered bones of her grandmother and children, and that she couldn't stay in Funairi-cho anymore.

She sought refuge at a relative's house, but it seems she was treated like an unwanted intruder, just like in the animated film "Grave of the Fireflies." Using her ingenuity, she somehow managed to raise funds to buy lumber and build a makeshift hut, single-handedly protecting her younger brother.

Later, she was reunited with her grandfather, who had miraculously survived the war, and thus passed on life to future generations.

My mother is a second-generation atomic bomb survivor, born after the war to my grandmother and my grandfather who returned home. I am alive thanks to my grandmother, who endured unbearable hardships and kept the family going.

Through my musical works, I hope to convey a "wish for peace" not only to people living today, but also to those 100 years from now.

A life without war is the greatest happiness. Thank you for reading to the end.