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U.S. Attends Hiroshima Ceremony

Kyodo, via Reuters

People prayed in front of the cenotaph for the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing, at Peace Memorial
Park in Hiroshima.
By MARTIN FACKLER

Published: August 6, 2010

HIROSHIMA, Japan — The U.S. ambassador participated for the first time on Friday in an
annual ceremony to mark the anniversary of the atomic bombing here in World War Two,
raising hopes that President Barack Obama may soon follow.

With the mournful gonging of a Buddhist temple bell and the release of doves, a crowd of
55,000 solemnly marked the moment 65 years ago when the world’s first atomic attack
incinerated this city under a towering mushroom cloud.

During the ceremony, Hiroshima’s mayor welcomed the ambassador, John Roos, and
praised President Obama as one of the world leaders who “wielded their powerful influence”
to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

During the solemn ceremony at the city’s peace park within sight of the iconic Atomic Bomb
Dome, other speakers also praised President Obama’s call last year in Prague for a
denuclearized world.

http://www.nytimes.com| Maurijones J. de Albuquerque

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“We greet this August sixth with re-energized determination that no one else should ever
have to suffer such horror,” said the mayor, Tadatoshi Akiba. “Clearly, the urgency of
nuclear weapons abolition is permeating our global conscience.”

Mr. Roos did not speak at the ceremony, which included a minute of silence at 8:15, the
moment the bomb detonated on a Sunday morning in 1945, killing more than 140,000
residents. In a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy, Mr. Roos said, “we must continue to
work together to realize a world without nuclear weapons.” While no one mentioned it
during the ceremony, city officials have said they hoped Mr. Roos’s attendance would serve
as a step toward a future visit by President Obama to Hiroshima, which along with Nagasaki
has become a symbol of the horrors of nuclear war.

Mr. Akiba also praised the ambassadors of Britain and France and also the United Nations
secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, all of whom also attended the ceremony for first time.

It is time to move from “Ground Zero to Global Zero,” Mr. Ban said in a speech, referring to
the elimination of nuclear weapons. “For many of you, that day endures as vivid as the white
light that seared the sky, as dark as the black rain that followed.”

http://www.nytimes.com| Maurijones J. de Albuquerque

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Hiroshima survivors exhibition marks 65th

anniversary of first atomic bomb
Exhibition's harrowing portraits act as grim reminder of the continuing
legacy of the events of 6 August 1945
• Maev Kennedy
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 5 August 2010 17.34 BST
• Article history

Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Morita with Hideo Ohya, the man who painted her portrait and those of
others. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

At 8.15am on 6 August 1945 the lives of Setsuko Morita, her husband, Noboru, and those of
everyone they knew changed forever. They were school pupils in Hiroshima, both freed from
study to work in the fields on Japan's wartime food production, at the moment the Enola Gay
dropped the atomic bomb on their city.

Their portraits are among those of 65 survivors in a London exhibition opening tomorrow,
including those of a woman and her baby who are third and fourth-generation Hibakusha –
literally bomb-affected people – and a man who was just a foetus in his mother's womb on
August 6 1945 and who is too embarrassed to use his survivor's card. It is the first time the
portraits have been seen outside Japan.

The Moritas, explained Setsuko, are quiet people who married when they were 18 but "were
never fortunate enough to have the blessing of children" – almost certainly as a result of injuries
she suffered that day. They have come to London driven by the same urge which created the
exhibition – to bear witness to what happened so that it will never happen again.
http://www.nytimes.com| Maurijones J. de Albuquerque
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Setsuko Morita managed to stagger home after the bombing with 25% burns, through roads
where every building was gone, crowded with people bearing terrible injuries, pleading for
water. Her parents treated her for a week with three buckets of sterilised water and baby powder
until they finally got her to a doctor. She overheard a conversation in which her mother said it
would be better if she died, while her father argued that her life might still be worth living.

Noboru, meanwhile, spent the next three months working in his school, just beside his family
home, which became a hospital, morgue, crematorium and cemetery. He watched many people
die in what had been his classroom, begging for water. He spent most of every day searching for
wells and springs because the mains had been destroyed and the river was choked with wreckage
and bodies.

The portraits are by Professor Hideo Ohya, a renowned artist in Japan, and by colleagues and
postgraduate students at Hiroshima city university. A postwar baby, it was only when he moved
from Tokyo to head the art faculty that he realised how limited his understanding of the fate of
the city had been. As he began to meet survivors he realised that the youngest were approaching
old age and there would soon be no first-hand witnesses. Gradually members of the university
staff came forward, volunteering to have their own portraits included. Many in the city have
hidden their status as a badge of shame that still attracts fear of contamination.

The exhibition has come to London through Paul Stafford of Kingston university, who found
them almost unbearably moving even though none show obvious disfigurement. He saw the
portraits as a way of fostering links between the two institutions.

The Brunei gallery at the School of Oriental and African Studies in Russell Square, which has a
Japanese garden on the roof where a private ceremony will be held to mark the exact time of the
atomic bomb explosion, proved the perfect space for the exhibition.

Like many of those portrayed, Noboru Morita looks remarkably calm and cheerful – but that is
one of the side effects he bears. He has been on anti-depressants for 20 years to calm his growing
dread of cancers and other long-term effects suffered by many of the survivors. He felt angry for
years, baffled and even resentful of his own survival, never speaking of them but deeply affected
by the scenes he witnessed.

His wife, in her portrait as in life, looks tranquil and immaculate. Only when she pushes back her
sleeves do the streaks of white scars along the outside of one arm and the inside of the other
show.

• The Light - portraits of the Hibakusha, Brunei Gallery, London, free, until 8 October

http://www.nytimes.com| Maurijones J. de Albuquerque

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Portrait profiles

Mother and child portrait at the Hibakusha exhibition. Photograph: Rikki Hodder for the Guardian

A mother holding her baby symbolises the generations affected by the Hiroshimo bombing. Born
in 2007 and aged just one in this portrait, the boy is a third-generation atomic bomb survivor on
his father's side and a fourth-generation survivor on his mother's.

"Children are the lights that connect us to the future, they are hope and the joy of being alive. I
hope peace will last, for the sake of our children," his mother says. His grandmother and great-
grandparents are also part of the project.

Noboru and Setsuko Morita with their portraits. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Painted by Hideo Ohya, professor of art at Hiroshimo city university and creator of the project,
Setsuko Morita was 13 at the time of the bombing. On returning home her parents tended to her
burns with rationed ointment. She married fellow survivor, Noboru, at the age of 18 and believes
strongly in speaking about her experiences. She has re-counted them at schools in Japan and
New York.

Walking with his mother towards the family field, Noboru Morita was 13 when the atomic bomb
exploded. Noboru helped to care for the injured at the refuge set up at the school behind his half-
demolished home.

He moved away after marrying Setsuko but returned to the city at the age of 55. Keeping his
survivor status a secret for many years he has, through the encouragement of his wife, gradually
become able to speak about his experiences.

Ami Sedghi

http://www.nytimes.com| Maurijones J. de Albuquerque

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http://www.nytimes.com| Maurijones J. de Albuquerque