Urgency to bear witness grows for last Hiroshima victims

According to a recent Asahi newspaper survey of 768 survivors, nearly two-thirds said their wish for a nuclear-free world is not widely shared by the rest of humanity, and more than 70% called on a reluctant Japanese government to ratify a nuclear weapons ban treaty.“We must work harder to get our voices heard, not just mine but those of many other survivors,” Lee said in an interview Tuesday at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. “I want each child to live a full life, and that means we have to abolish nuclear weapons right now.”Even after so many years, too many nuclear weapons remain, Kondo said, adding, “We are not screaming loud enough for the whole world to hear.”Kondo, who survived the blast as a baby, is the daughter of the Rev. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, one of six atomic bomb survivors featured in John Hersey’s book “Hiroshima.” She struggled for decades until she reached middle age to overcome the pain she experienced in her teens and the rejection by her fiance.She was almost 40 when she decided to follow her father’s path and become a peace activist. “I will keep talking as long as I live.”More than 300,000 hibakusha have died since the attacks, including 9,254 in the past fiscal year, according to the health ministry.“For me, the war is not over yet,” said Michiko Kodama, 82, who survived the bombing but has lost most of her relatives to cancer.