[Documents menu] Documents menu

30,000 Mark Bombing Of Nagasaki Rallies Conclude World Conference Against Atomic And Hydrogen Bombs

By Robert Miller, The Militant, Vol. 59, no. 32, 4 September 1995

NAGASAKI, Japan—More than 30,000 people assembled in the Peace Park here August 9 to mark the 50th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of this city. At the same time, following an antinuclear march called a peace wave, 6,000 people overflowed the city’s arena to rally against nuclear weapons. These events marked the closing session of the 1995 World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, organized by the group Gensuikyo.

In addition, 4,000 people protested nuclear weapons at the Nagasaki Prefecture arena at the Congress Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, hosted by Gensuikin, another major antinuclear group in Japan. Hundreds of high school students attending the 22nd National High School Peace Conference took part in a die in at the Peace Park. And 250 patients and staff at the Nagasaki A-Bomb Hospital held a meeting in the building’s auditorium to mark the events.

At 11:02 a.m., the moment 50 years ago when the atomic bomb exploded 500 meters above this city’s most densely populated area, the entire city stood still for a minute of silence. Only the blare of the siren could be heard.

The U.S. bombing killed 74,000 people and wounded 75,000, overwhelmingly civilians.

The day before, the Japanese Federation of Trade Unions (Rengo) sponsored a conference of 3,000 called Rengo’s 1995 Nagasaki Peace Assembly, which called for a nuclear- free world.

Korean survivors speak out

This year, for the first time ever, 10 Korean atomic bomb survivors—known as hibakusha—resident in South Korea were formally invited to attend the ceremonies sponsored by the city government in the Peace Park. Nine had been in Hiroshima, one in Nagasaki. I was coerced into the war as a `Japanese.’ After the war, as a foreigner, I was tossed out without any compensation, one of the Koreans told the paper Nagasaki Shimbun. Survivors who live outside Japan do not have their check ups and bomb-related medical bills covered by the Japanese government, as some of the resident hibakusha do.

Kim Soon Gil, now 72, was forced to work in a compulsory labor gang in Mitsubishi’s shipyards here. He has initiated a lawsuit against Mitsubishi and the Japanese government demanding compensation and an apology. We are only seeking the same treatment as the Japanese, he told the Nagasaki Shimbun.

Shigetoshi Iwamatsu, chairperson of Gensuikin, told demonstrators, We must take the first steps to build a new movement to launch a nuclear-free society. Protesters at both rallies emphasized the importance of condemning the planned nuclear tests by the French government at the Moruroa atoll, part of the colony of French Polynesia.

On August 8, both Gensuikyo and Gensuikin organized six workshops to discuss different aspects of the antinuclear struggle. Delegates from France led a workshop on the French nuclear tests. Other workshops discussed the Japanese government’s role as one of the major powers responsible for World War II, the fight against nuclear weapons, building a grassroots movement, and an upcoming demonstration against the U.S. naval base at the nearby city of Sasebo.

At the Gensuikin workshop on Japan’s responsibility for the war and national compensation, Son I Son of the North Korean Hibakusha Peace and Antinuclear Association said, My older brother was killed by the bomb and my younger brother was wounded. There needs to be a formal apology and compensation for the anguish inflicted on the people from abroad.

At the end of World War II, 2 million Koreans were living in Japan, including 60,000 in Nagasaki Prefecture. The Association of Korean Bomb Survivors estimated that 20,000 Koreans were exposed to the Nagasaki atomic bombing and half died as a result.

Five international delegates presented remarks to the workshop on building a grassroots campaign at the Gensuikyo conference. In an article subtitled Workers solidarity stressed, the Nagasaki Shimbun quoted this reporter, a member of the Socialist Workers Party and an auto worker in the United States. [He] said people were killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the nuclear bombs because they were used as guinea pigs. Internationally, working people should join together and build a unified movement to abolish nuclear weapons, the paper reported.

Bombed residential area

The plutonium-core atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki after the B-29 bomber pilots decided the top choice, Kokura, needed to be bypassed due to cloud cover. The ensuing fireball reached several million degrees, instantly killing every human and animal in the area known as Matsuyama, now the site of Hypocenter Park.

The district under the bomb, Urakami, was a congested residential area and home to the Nagasaki Medical College and a large number of schools at the time. The medical college was about 500 yards east of the hypocenter. A total of 892 teachers and students died there from the bombing, as did two-thirds of the 300 patients.

Although there were no students at the Shiroyama Primary School on that day, 1,400 of the 1,500 pupils enrolled died at home.

Washington’s atomic bomb, with a force equivalent to 21,000 metric tons of TNT, obliterated everything within two miles.

On Sept. 5, 1945, the British newspaper Daily Express carried a report about the atomic bomb damage in Hiroshima, informing the world for the first time not only that the city had been destroyed but the horrific fact that survivors of the blast were still dying of the aftereffects.

As soon as the article appeared, however, a special U.S. government inves-tigation group announced that there were no survivors suffering from the effects of radiation. On Sept. 19, 1945, a press code was put in force by the U.S. military command curtailing all further news reports on the damages caused by the atomic bombs.

At the August 9 Gensuikyo rally, Senji Yamaguchi, president of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Sufferers Association, reminded the audience of his continued anguish over the loss of his brothers and friends, including those still dying from cancer. We need to spread the movement to abolish nuclear weapons throughout the entire world, he said.

Yamaguchi appealed for an unrelenting effort of young people to unite together with people from abroad in this fight.