With their eyes closed, students from John Bowne High School in Flushing were instructed to imagine the most beautiful place on Earth.
“Now think that in an instant it all disappeared and everything around it,” said Robert Croonquist, an activist with Hibakusha Stories, an organization that has assumed responsibility for passing on the legacy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to a new generation.
Two Hiroshima survivors, Reiko Yamada and Toshiko Tanaka visited with John Bowne students and shared their own stories of what it was like to be in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
Yamada was 11-years-old and lived two miles from the epicenter of the blast that created heat measuring 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit, winds measuring 625 miles per hour and was equivalent to 13,000 tons of trinitrotoluene (TNT). She was at school playing in a sandbox when she was able to spot an American B-29 bomber in the sky.
“All of a sudden, there was a flash and I couldn’t see anything,” said Yamada, who spoke through an interpreter. “At that time the sun disappeared and black rain fell from the sky.” Yamada was able to escape any major injuries but recalled seeing children returning to destroyed homes and black smoke engulfing the city. Her older sister was also badly burned.
“I wanted to tell you what one nuclear bomb can do,” said Yamada, speaking to about 25 students who followed up with questions.
Another 25 students listened to Toshiko Tanaka, who still suffers from the effects of the Hiroshima bombing, which happened when she was just six-years-old. Her family had re-located from what would have been Ground Zero to the outskirts of the city, just six day prior to August 6. But, that was still not far enough to be safe from the blast.
“My mother did not recognize me when I came home from school,” said Tanaka, whose skin was peeled and hair singed from her head. “Sure, scars on my body have faded with time, but emotional scars never will.”
Hibakusha Stories, an initiative of Youth Arts New York, launched in May in an effort to contribute to the goal of nuclear disarmament. Since then, 40 survivors have shared their stories in all five boroughs reaching more than 3,000 students.
“They came such a long way not to have people pity them, but to express their concern for the world and our future,” said senior Wendy Joseph. “It leaves me speechless.”
For Croonquist, who founded Youth Arts New York, the message that nuclear weapons are morally irresponsible is at the heart of each presentation.
“I can’t change the world but, I can make a statement with my life,” said Croonquist.
For more information about Hibakusha Stories, visit www.hibakushastories.org.
