Setsuko Thurlow welcome to Scandinavia

you live in Canada but but you were born

in Hiroshima and you've spent your life

working against nuclear weapons and you

were actually there when it happened

please tell me where exactly were you

well I was a 13 year old grade age

student and in those days we students

were mobilized to help the army and

municipal governments and so on and on

that very day I was up the army

headquarters about 30 of us had been

recruited to be trained as decoding

assistant we just got to the army

headquarter which was 1.8 kilometer from

hypocenter about 1 mile I was on the

second floor of the wooden building I

saw the bluish white flash in the window

and then my body was thrown up in the

air I do remember the sensation of

floating in the air because all the

buildings were flattened by the blast

and obviously the building I was in was

falling and my body was together falling

so you can know you can only from from

the detonation itself what you remember

is the flash and yourself in the air

that's right not no sound well people in

the distance heard that roaring sound

but I didn't I was right in it and

sometime later I found myself in the

total darkness and silence and I knew

what was happening to me I was faced

with death I tried to move my body but I

could

then I started hearing whispering voices

of the girls around me mother helped me

god help me I remember those voices

belonging to certain people they're

still ringing in my ears from time to

time all of a sudden from behind that

somebody shook my left shoulder and with

the male voice said don't give up keep

keep moving keep kicking keep pushing

I'm trying to free you and he helped me

and he also suggested that I should

crawl to the direction where the sound

Ray was coming through so I crawled out

in the total darkness I began to see

some moving object approaching me for a

while I couldn't say what those black

things want but then I could tell they

were injured human beings they didn't

look like human beings I'll tell you

their hair was standing up like while

the wire standing up and they were

covered with blood and skins were

scorched flattened and skin and flesh

were hanging from their bones and part

of the bodies are missing and some

people I know it this is gross but

carrying their eyeballs in the eye in

the hands and they were slowly shuffling

from the center part of the city but did

they collapse onto the ground when they

collapse their stomach burst open with

the intestines stretching out this kind

of situation I witness then the soldiers

said ugurus join that procession in

escape today

outside so so we did that by allotted

what did Hiroshima look like from from

there well I couldn't see the entire

city but what I could see was the area I

escaped to together with those ghostly

figures by carefully stepping over the

dead and dying people at the foot of the

hill there was a army training ground

about the size of two football fields

together and the place was packed really

packed with the dead bodies and dying

people seriously injured people this

strange thing was there was no screaming

and yelling nobody had that kind of

physical and psychological strength you

know look help me help me I'm in trouble

nobody all they could say was in whisper

water please

water please well we escaped in three

girls were not injured so badly so we

wanted to be of help

but we had no cups and bucket to carry

water so we went to the nearby stream

washed off or the blood and we thought

of our blouses and soak them in the

water and dash back to the dying people

and put it put the wet cloth over their

mouths and they just sucked in the

moisture that's the level of rescue or

relief work and I looked around and see

if I could see doctors or nurses none so

tens of thousands of people without

medication without any care and not even

drops water only few fortunate ones were

able to get water from

how have you coped with this mentally

through the years you've talked a lot

about it you like you talked about it

it's not how you cope with it I think

that that's wrong yes healthy way of

dealing with yes and you also spent a

lot of your life working against nuclear

weapons

do you do you think that the people who

have not experienced what you have

experienced are able to grasp the

consequences of nuclear weapon of a

nuclear detonation certainly good if

they put their mind to the issue if they

are interested in finding out what kind

of world we are living in then you can

read you can think you can talk yes you

can use your imagination it's possible

they can't say only the survivor can

understand the horror and the survivors

in spite of the pain we are the

recalling our experiences and speaking

out around the world because it's not

the thing of the past 70 years ago but

it has been going on the past you know

almost 70 years the situation hasn't

improved at all it got worse and worse

at that time only two bombs which were

used on earth mentality we thought it

was a catastrophic situation but now we

have sixteen to seventeen thousand

nuclear weapons so the world has become

a worse place to live but most of the

people have their heads in the fund

today you're 82 years old and almost 83

hey eighty three and a half no more than

that and and you you've been you you

wanted to tell your story and many

survivors from Hiroshima did not want to

tell necessary they kept quiet why is

that that's not accurate

yeah many people who what's too painful

to look back and believe them experience

but a lot of people have come to come

out of that Nam Nam condition they are

willing they are actively engaged in

sharing the experiences one final

question

I wonder you've had a long life now yeah

and your life starting with this

gruesome experience which it is has that

changed do you think your perspective on

life

certainly that contributed to the change

yes of course I was raised in the family

where service to the society was very

important but having experienced that

and having lived in the aftermath of

that where poverty hunger discrimination

or all the ill you can think of but some

people were so courageous they devoted

their lives like my church minister

devoted their lives to support help

those people and a young teenager I

wanted to be like those people who are

helping people so I chose my field of

Social Work that became your line of

work so she's like a social worker peace

activist

I have led a very busy life yes thank

you very much thank you please welcome

John please