Technology connects students with survivor

"Every day I carry in my body traces of the deep, long-lasting tragedy of the atomic bomb," Iwao Nakanishi, survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, told 30 Viterbo students, faculty, and community members on Feb. 22 via a web conference. 

Nakanishi was 15 years old when the atomic bomb, "Little Boy," was dropped on his city. On Aug. 6, 1945, Nakanishi was waiting for a bus with his junior high schoolmates to be transported to a factory 500 meters from the center of the blast. Nakanishi considers it his good fortune that the bus never came and he was exposed to the blast 2,700 meters away from the hypocenter.

At 8:15 a.m. Nakanishi's world turned upside down when a blinding flash accompanied by a blast filled his eyes and ears. Nakanishi remembers thinking, "I'm dead," before losing consciousness.    

The bomb grew to a 300 meter diameter fireball that heated the ground temperature directly underneath to 4,000 degrees Celcius. Where Nakanishi lay covered in darkness, dust and smoke, 2,700 meters away, the ground reached a temperature of 800 degrees Celcius.

Following the fireball, a shock wave of high pressure and radiation traversed through the city. 

When Nakanishi regained consciousness, he believed he had woken up to hell. People were burnt bright red and dripping in their own blood. He saw victims with their skin melting off their bodies and the dead lined the streets that were no longer distinguishable. 

One image that haunts Nakanishi to this day is of a mother trying to nurse her dead baby in her arms. 

Nakanishi walked five kilometers to his home to find his family safe and alive.     

In Hiroshima, 140,000 others were not as lucky, and died immediately from the impact of the atomic bomb, Nakanishi said.

 "I had no physical injuries from the bomb, but two weeks after the explosion, my body began to fall apart," Nakanishi said. Nakanishi showed symptoms of what became known as "radiation sickness" around Hiroshima, including vomiting, bleeding of the gums, diarrhea, and the loss of hair. 

Radiation sickness did not make sense to the people of Hiroshima. "There was a rumor going around that poison gas was dropped with the bomb," Nakanishi said.  "People believed that nothing would grow in Hiroshima for the next 75 years."

However, six months after Nakanishi became sick, he was able to witness the life grown in Hiroshima as he recovered from radiation sickness.

Nakanishi now uses his story to educate the world about the devastation of atomic bombs as a guide for the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Museum since 1999.

"As a Hiroshima survivor, it is unbearable to watch as more and more countries acquire nuclear weapons," Nakanishi said. 

In 2007, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Museum started doing web conferences to reach more people around the world with the help of technology. Since then, the Peace Memorial has conducted 130 web conferences, presenting in every state of the United States excluding North Dakota and Texas. 

Steve Leeper, a chairperson of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, also presented with Nakanishi on current nuclear issues. 

Leeper said the world no longer has a choice in proliferation of nuclear weapons. The world needs disbarment, he said.

"As long as some countries have nuclear weapons, others are going to want them," Leeper said. Leeper said the world is standing at a perilous crossroads where it will be forced to decide whether to eliminate nuclear weapons or not.       

Although the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been rebuilt to eliminate the physical affects of the atomic bomb, survivors are not left unscarred.