Hibakusha Series

Yoshitoshi Fukahori (Mainichi)

The Hibakusha keep telling their stories. As Hiroshima and Nagasaki prepare for the upcoming 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing, Hibakusha all over the country continue to talk about that day, and to press for a nuclear ban. It was good news when the leader of the one nation in the world that has used the atomic bomb spoke of America's moral obligation and declared that he "seeks a world where there are no nuclear weapons." But the Hibakusha are wary of lapsing into an easy optimism. After all, nuclear weapons continue to spread to all corners of the world.

In both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there are ongoing projects to recreate their Ground Zeros as they were before the bombs exploded, by means of computer graphics. Hibakusha are taking active part in the projects, seeing them as a way to communicate the extent of the catastrophe. "Hibakusha: Summer 2009" reports on these projects, in addition to relaying messages from Hibakusha who refuse to lapse into silence, even while fighting the inevitable advance of old age.

The following is the first story in the latest series.

Hibakusha: Handing down knowledge for a nuclear-free future

(From left to right) Maeda, Professor Jun, Fukahori and Uchijima work on a three-dimensional computer graphic reconstruction of the city of Nagasaki before the bomb, at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum on June 29, 2009. (Mainichi)

"It seems to me, the cross on that belfry should be thicker." We are in a training room at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, where the Photo Documentation and Survey Division (photo division) of the Nagasaki Foundation for the Promotion of Peace meets to work. Professor Jun Byungdug, 48, of the Faculty of Education at Nagasaki University examines a photo of Urakami Cathedral before the bomb and advises his students as they work. "Nowadays it's so easy to do something like this. Amazing!" says Yoshitoshi Fukahori, 80, head of the photo division, as he watches the revisions being made on the computer screen.

Professor Jun's research group is working on a three-dimensional computer graphic reconstruction of the city of Nagasaki before the bomb. In 2008, Jun created three-dimensional images of Ground Zero by combining a three-dimensional map of Nagasaki with aerial photos taken of the city immediately after the bombing. However, 3D glasses were required to view these images. When bomb survivors came to ask if they could use the images for their "storytelling" activities, he began to work on images that did not require such glasses.

"Aerial photos show the destructiveness of the bomb quite well, but three-dimensional images tell the story even better. I hope they will be useful in handing down the experience of the atomic bombing," says professor Jun. Kanoko Maeda and Yurika Uchijima, both 21-year-old seniors, have taken on the project for their graduate theses. They hope to complete by December a reconstructed image of the area around Ground Zero within a 500-meter radius.

The brick-walled Urakami Cathedral sits on a hill, in this computer graphic image provided by Professor Jun Byungdug at Nagasaki University.

The photo division has come out in full support of the project, providing photos where it can. Personal advice from people like Fukahori, who actually knew the city as it was, is also valuable. "They used cedar planks for the walls." "The roof tiles weren't tortoise-shell types. They were ordinary Japanese tiles." With the help of advice like this, the computer graphic project gradually works toward completion.

The problem is that very few photos remain of pre-war Urakami. Fukahori has been hunting for photo albums taken to evacuation sites in the countryside, in the hope that a few may have survived.

The students suffer a constant dearth of reference material, but say they have learned more from talking with bomb survivors than they ever imagined possible. "We have their valuable testimony for only a while longer. This began as a graduation project, but the feeling that we must never go to war again is the main motive now," says one of the girls. The students have given up their holiday to work on the project.

It delights Fukahori to watch the young people at work. He used to speak of "retiring," but now says: "seeing the youngsters so hard at work, I feel that I have to keep going, too." His smiling face is full of youthful vigor. (By Noriko Tokuno, Photo Department, Kyushu Head Office)

(Profile)

Yoshitoshi Fukahori: Fourth year student at Nagasaki Industrial High School at the time of the bombing. Fukahori was 3.5 kilometers from Ground Zero, working as a mobilized student at the Nagasaki Prefecture Evacuation Bureau.