On August 6th, 1945, the United States made history by deploying an atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima immediately killing around 80,000 people (History.com Staff). Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped over the city of Nagasaki killing another estimated 40,000 people (History.com Staff). Japan surrendered on August 15th, 1945, and while the attacks had ended, the devastating effects of the bombings were just beginning to unfold. Physical effects of the bombs devastated the survivors and many were so impacted by the atrocities they experienced that they attempted to create a culture of peace to prevent such destruction in the future. At the same time, peace culture has been used by some to spur on a wave of nationalism
…show more content…
Within a month of the bombing, people began to lose their hair, experience diarrhea, and contract leukemia. However, many people remained unaware of the full effects of the radioactivity because of the Press Code information ban so many people continued their lives as normally as they could (Mapping the Modern Mind: Readings for World Cultures III 139). Among them was Watanabe’s own brother who contracted infiltration of the lungs and then leukemia a couple of years after the explosion but kept working for many years afterward without treatment. It wasn’t until 1961, over sixteen years after the bombing that he was diagnosed, but he had already begun to waste away and he died in 1963 at the age of thirty-eight. In describing the agonizing death of her brother, Watanabe notes the far reaching horrors of the bombing, stating that not only was it “going through hell to experience the destructive force and the heat rays of the bomb, it was also hell to watch people dying” (Mapping the Modern Mind: Readings for World Cultures III …show more content…
Among the hibakusha is Akihiro Takahashi, who was fourteen years old when Hiroshima was bombed. His skin was so badly burned in the explosion that some of it charred and hung off, but like many hibakusha, the worst of his medical of his medical problems would not become evident until years afterward. Takahashi jokes, “that the only kinds of doctors who have never seen him are gynecologists and psychiatrists” (Cameron and Miyoshi 28). Also like Watanabe and many other hibakusha, Takahashi dedicated much of his life to the idea of preserving the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki so that such events do not
Within a month of the bombing, people began to lose their hair, experience diarrhea, and contract leukemia. However, many people remained unaware of the full effects of the radioactivity because of the Press Code information ban so many people continued their lives as normally as they could (Mapping the Modern Mind: Readings for World Cultures III 139). Among them was Watanabe’s own brother who contracted infiltration of the lungs and then leukemia a couple of years after the explosion but kept working for many years afterward without treatment. It wasn’t until 1961, over sixteen years after the bombing that he was diagnosed, but he had already begun to waste away and he died in 1963 at the age of thirty-eight. In describing the agonizing death of her brother, Watanabe notes the far reaching horrors of the bombing, stating that not only was it “going through hell to experience the destructive force and the heat rays of the bomb, it was also hell to watch people dying” (Mapping the Modern Mind: Readings for World Cultures III …show more content…
Among the hibakusha is Akihiro Takahashi, who was fourteen years old when Hiroshima was bombed. His skin was so badly burned in the explosion that some of it charred and hung off, but like many hibakusha, the worst of his medical of his medical problems would not become evident until years afterward. Takahashi jokes, “that the only kinds of doctors who have never seen him are gynecologists and psychiatrists” (Cameron and Miyoshi 28). Also like Watanabe and many other hibakusha, Takahashi dedicated much of his life to the idea of preserving the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki so that such events do not