“Under that mushroom cloud, in a single moment, countless innocent lives were consumed by a catastrophic air blast, heat wave and radiation. Those who survived were ravaged by radiation-borne diseases and are suffering to this day.
I am one of these people.
War is conceived within the hearts of people; thus it can also be prevented by the will of the people.
True peace is not achieved through complicated conventions or ideologies. I wish to cultivate ‘peace within’ through simple gestures of love and kindness.
Please cherish each day that you are alive. Let us all appreciate the peace that we have at present.

Peace Guide, Successor Group Member Mitamura Shizuko”

“I began to tell my story after the death of my daughter, Miwa.

Miwa passed away in June of 2010, at age 39. She was hospitalized in January of that year, but told me over the phone, ‘daijoubu, daijoubu’ – that she was okay. In March, I was notified that she had been hospitalized again, and went to see her right away. But it was too late. By this point, she could no longer speak and the cancer treatment had caused her hair to fall out – my daughter looked completely different. She passed away three months later. ‘Why didn’t I go to see her earlier?’ I have thought about this every single day.

I myself was diagnosed with colon cancer when I was 39. That was when my own mother opened up to me about what had happened on the day of the bombing. I suspect that she had kept it to herself to make sure that I would not face any discrimination. I was three years old at the time of the bombing, so I remembered very little. Thankfully, I overcame the disease, only to be diagnosed with cervical cancer when I was 59.

My second oldest sister was diagnosed with colon cancer, twice. My third oldest sister was diagnosed with rectal cancer and passed away at age 39. Their daughters have also passed away in their 30-40s due to cancer and a brain tumor. These are all members of my household who were exposed to the atomic bomb.

A friend of my daughter’s revealed to me that Miwa feared early on that her illness was caused by the atomic bomb. This was likely why she never told me about her cancer diagnosis. I wish I had been there to console her, to quell her fears. I wanted to tell her a lot of things.”