Japanese atom bomb survivors urge ceasefire in Gaza, call for global nuclear disarmament
Cape Town - Japan-based NGO Peace Boat's “Pacific World” docked at the Cape Town Cruise Terminal and hoisted a banner which read “Stop Killing Gaza”. This, as one of the most intense bombing campaigns in world history, has continued unabated for nearly eight months.
On board the ship, on one of the largest vessels at the port, were three survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atom bombs which were detonated by the US on August 6 and August 9, 1945, during World War II, the first and only instance atomic bombs were used in combat.
In Gaza, an estimated 45 000 bombs are believed to have been dropped on the predominantly refugee civilian population in three months since October 7, 2023.
The survivors, known as Hibakusha, left Japan on April 13 on a voyage that will see them travel to 21 ports in 18 countries, calling for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza, Palestine, and for the immediate supply of services and humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip.
The Peace Boat voyages in cooperation with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and forms part of a broader movement advocating for global nuclear disarmament. Over 170 Hibakusha have participated in the “Global Voyages for a Nuclear Free World: Peace Boat Hibakusha Project” since 2008.
According to ICAN, nine countries possess over 12 000 nuclear weapons, including Israel. While the number of warheads in Israel remains unconfirmed, it is estimated that Israel has enough fissile material for up to 200 individual weapons, with an estimated 90 existing warheads.
The current voyage is the 117th Global Voyage for Peace and Sustainability, with the “Stop Killing Gaza” banner raised since October 2023,
including in Greece,Türkiye, Egypt and Japan. After departing from the port of Cape Town on Saturday night, the ship was scheduled to dock at the port of Walvis Bay, Namibia on Tuesday. Previous stops included China, Singapore, Malaysia, Seychelles, and Port Elizabeth. In the Seychelles, the anti-war and anti-nuclear peace activists met with President Wavel Ramkalawan and First Lady Linda Ramkalawan.
The docking in Cape Town was to commend South Africa for initiating the lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to end the genocide in Palestine, apartheid conditions and illegal occupation by Israel, while calling on Israel to comply with the provisional measures set out by the ICJ.
The visit was also in recognition of South Africa's move towards nuclear disarmament through voluntary relinquishment of its nuclear arsenal and apartheid-era nuclear weapons programme, and as a signatory to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The three Hibakusha provided testimonies at an event co-hosted with Equiano Institute at Bertha House in Mowbray on Saturday.
Terumi Tanaka, a Nagasaki atomic bomb survivor, was 13 years old at the time of the explosion and subsequently lost five family members.
“I witnessed so many people killed in Nagasaki and Hiroshima by nuclear weapons and I witnessed it by myself, by my eyes. That is the reason I strongly believe humans can do these kinds of very inhumane and horrific things. So, I have been believing since I was 13 years old, this is something that we should not do as humans. Since then, I have been working in order to have a world without nuclear weapons.”
Nearly 80 years have passed since the use of atomic weapons in warfare, as a result of the widespread and lifelong devastation caused by the two bombings.
Terumi, however, said recent escalation in global violence has created fear that this could change.
“A world class war started from a very small conflict, but it ended up as World War I and II. So this kind of development, from a very small conflict to a world war, can happen. I personally feel it is a very dangerous situation, the current international situation,” he added.
Not many photos were taken after the WWll bombings due to wide censorship in Japan. The survivors were also not allowed to speak of their experiences, Terumi said.
“The whole city of Hiroshima was destroyed by only one nuclear weapon. And by the end of that year, 140 000 people were dead. And in Nagasaki, again, the whole city was destroyed with only one bomb and by the end of that year, 70 000 people were dead.
“So that is the scale and consequences of only one nuclear weapon detonated over one city. So I would like to say that nuclear weapons are inhumane, it's not co-existing with humanity.”
Toshiko Tanaka, from Hiroshima City, was exposed to the atomic bomb at the age of six while on her way to school, 2.3 km from the hypocentre. She covered her face with her right arm and subsequently suffered burns to her head, right arm and neck.
“As other hibakusha, the atomic bomb survivors said, nuclear weapons are really inhumane, which we know from our own experience. So appealing and speaking up is something we feel is our own mission so we are speaking up little by little even though our voices are not really loud enough,” she said.
“I am 85 years old at the moment, but I don't want to give up because I don't want any of the people of the world to experience a similar experience that we did. So that is the reason and the motivation that we're having to keep up and keep going.”
Ogawa Tadayoshi was exposed to the Nagasaki atomic bomb at the age of one. His family evacuated the city prior to the bombing, but was exposed to radiation upon their return one week later to check on their home.
While he does not have any recollection of exposure to the bomb and its after effects, he participates in Peace Boat voyages to share testimonies from other survivors as well as to make sure the incident and its lifelong trauma is not confined to history books alone.
As an amateur photographer, Tadayoshi photographs and collects pictures taken on August 9 at 11:02 every year, the time of the bombing, for the personal project “Lest We Forget” launched in 2009.
He has called on people from across the world to photograph anything they value and deem significant which will then be exhibited from October 8 to November 4 at the Nagasaki Peace Museum.
“Today in Gaza, as in Ukraine, war is being committed and Japan too has faced the experience of great destruction. It's important for people, whether in Gaza, Ukraine, or elsewhere, not to lose hope and know that rebuilding their communities and their nation is possible… and that it is something which we can do.”
shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za