Hiroshima Expresses Anger, Fear Over Nuclear Plant Crisis

March 28, 2011

Hiroshima bomb survivor Keijiro Matsushima in the shadow of the A-bomb (atomic bomb) dome

Fears over the potential fallout from the crisis at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant have triggered painful memories in Japan of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings at the end of World War II. More than any other nation, Japan is only too familiar with the horrors of nuclear radiation. But survivors of the bombings fear the legacy of 1945 is being forgotten.

Lasting reminders

Keijiro Matsushima takes a walk in the evening sunshine along the banks of the Ota River in Hiroshima - pausing to look up at the A-bomb dome that is one of the few reminders of the horrors that took place in this city.

Keijiro was a 16-year-old student at a school in Hiroshima when, on August 6, 1945, he remembers looking up and seeing two American bombers over the city.

"I just thought, ‘Beautiful planes shining in the morning sun’. But the next moment there was a very strong flash and a very strong shockwave and heat wave attacked me," he recalled.

Matsushima describes the people he saw as he made his way out of the city.

"Many of them had been so badly burned from head to feet. Their charcoal-grey skin was peeling from their faces, their arms, their necks," he said.

Lingering consequences