Nihon Hidankyo’s Nobel Prize: Voices for Peace / Sueichi Kido Calls A-Bombs ‘Absolute Evil’; Sees Message In Award: ‘Don’t Run Away’

The Yomiuri Shimbun

7:00 JST, December 7, 2024

A delegation of 30 people from Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations), which has been chosen as this year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate, will attend the award ceremony in Oslo on Tuesday. This is the first in a series of interviews held with hibakusha atomic bomb survivors and others on what they want to tell the world at a time when the threat of nuclear weapons is growing.

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Interview with Sueichi Kido

Nihon Hidankyo Secretary General

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When an atomic bomb was dropped in Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, I was near my house, about 2 kilometers from the hypocenter. I was 5 years old.

I was thrown into the air by the blast and suffered burns to half my face from the accompanying wave of heat. I cannot forget the sight of blackened bodies lying by the roadside near the hypocenter, or the many injured people seeking water.

I always worried that I might develop leukemia someday. When I was in high school, I was told by a teacher that I must never talk about being an atomic bomb victim anywhere other than Nagasaki. I also learned that some people had their engagements broken off because they were hibakusha, and rumors spread that “A-bombs are contagious.”

I moved out of Nagasaki Prefecture when I started university. For a long time, I was unable to reveal that I was a hibakusha. I got married and had a daughter. After it became known I was a hibakusha, my daughter was called “dirty” at school.

Nihon Hidankyo has been campaigning for the recognition of four categories of atomic bomb damage: life, body, livelihood and mind. I think that the issue of mental harm, which is invisible to others, was the biggest challenge for hibakusha.

In July 1990, more than 100 hibakusha gathered at a consultation meeting held by Gifu Prefecture and Nihon Hidankyo when I was a junior college teacher in the prefecture. There was no chapter of the organization in the prefecture at that time, and I learned for the first time that there were many hibakusha who were unable to speak out about their experiences.

I established the Gifu prefectural chapter of Nihon Hidankyo the following year.

In 2017, I became the secretary general of Nihon Hidankyo. Since then, I have spoken at various international conferences, saying that atomic bombings are “weapons of absolute evil that do not even allow people to live like human beings.”

In my lectures and on other occasions, I often say I became a hibakusha four times: when the atomic bomb was dropped; when I saw a photo magazine reporting on the damage caused by the atomic bomb at the age of 12 and realized I was different from other people; when I established the Gifu prefectural chapter of Nihon Hidankyo and joined the movement against nuclear weapons; and in recent years when I decided to devote the rest of my life to my “final task” of ensuring that nobody will ever become a hibakusha again, even as the international situation regarding nuclear weapons has been deteriorating.

I felt like the winning of the prize was a message: “Don’t run away.” I want to continue my efforts as long as I live.

I now need a cane to walk, and developed cerebral sclerosis this year. But I have no hesitation about going to Oslo to attend the ceremony to fulfill my responsibilities as secretary general. My daughter will come with me.

I will bring photos of the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima devastated by the atomic bombings to Oslo. I want to convey the reality of the atrocities.

I hope that everyone will know about the wish that hibakusha have for nuclear weapons to be eliminated, and that everyone will face up to the danger these weapons pose for all human beings.

– Interviewed by Yomiuri Shimbun Stadd Writer Kyoko Mine