“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story.”
This is a quote from the Broadway musical Alexander Hamilton, a quote that I feel encompasses the different sides we’ve seen about the tragedy of Hiroshima atomic bomb and its effects on the prefecture. Whenever we hear the town “Hiroshima,” Americans only associate the place with the atomic bombing and that one died from the bomb. We never ask ourselves what happened to the people who survived and brush away the discomfort of the subject, moving onto the next big point in world or U.S. history.
WHO LIVES.
Yesterday, we left our homestay parents from Kita-hiroshima. I was assigned to the Shimono family who welcomed my peers and I into their home for the night and we were immersed in their world. They opened and touched our hearts, sharing immense love with us despite the language barrier. We helped make all the meals that they provided for us using the freshest, most natural ingredients. I’ve never been more immersed in nature and other natural elements than before as we took photos of the Shimono family animals, walked around and visited their neighbor’s farm, and hiked to the top of 龍頭山 (Dragon Head Mountain). The whole experience put my heart at peace—it was truly life changing and none of us wanted to leave. Although only a brief one night, this experience is something that I will never forget for the rest of my life.
WHO DIES.
After leaving Kitahiroshima, we visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and witnessed the preserved artifacts that tell the experiences of those who died. Walking through the exhibits I felt uncomfortable, disappointed, and sorrowful. A thousand questions spiraled through my head. How could our nation have done such a horrible thing? I could almost see the screams of the burned, the pleading for water, and the sobbing of the parents. “It’s killing me, it’s killing me, it’s killing me!” “Dad, I can't pull them out.” “I hate it, I don’t want to die.” It was suffocating and maddening reading these words, so much so that I felt like I was on the verge of tears. Why are these voices silenced in America?
WHO TELLS YOUR STORY?
Today, we witnessed the work done by the people of Hiroshima prefecture to preserve the trees that survived the atomic bomb and its trees to advocate for world peace. We listened to the story of a living hibakusha, a survivor of the atomic bomb, told by a legacy speaker. Listening to the speaker share how painful it was for the hibakusha throughout her life physically, socially, and mentally was... a bit saddening, but extremely empowering. It struck something within me. The hibakusha suffered so much from the atomic bomb—she lost her sister, her left eye, and her dream. She experienced more than five different forms of cancer and social ostracization growing up post-atomic bomb, but she is a survivor, and in a way, a resilient warrior who refuses to give up. I cannot imagine how much she struggled to battle the unfortunate forces thrown at her as a young teenager. Although she wasn’t here to share her story in person, I thank her for her courage in sharing her story with us and hope she’s finally able to live her life fully with love and peace without pain.
As I leave Hiroshima tomorrow, I hold onto the stories shared by the living, the dead, and the hibakusha with me. I ask myself “what could’ve been done to prevent this in the past? What can be done in the present to protect the future? What can we, the Tomodachi Inouye Scholars, do to have their voices and stories be told?” I hope that we can develop a plan that will support world peace and serve justice to those impacted by the atomic bomb because this is important. 9 nations in the world currently have nuclear weapons and continue to add more to their arsenal. It may be only a matter of time until history repeats itself and millions of people experience the same effects as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki prefectures experienced. So much more needs to be done to preserve and spread the effects of the atomic bomb as a nation holding nuclear power. We, the Tomodachi Inouye Scholars, need to tell their story.
Who lives. Who dies. Who tells your story?
- Emma Liu
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