01-07-2025
A-bomb survivor moved back to Hiroshima determined to share her anti-war message
HIROSHIMA -- Koko Kondo, an 80-year-old Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor, was invited to give a peace studies lecture for students at Komyo Elementary School in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, one week before some of them visited Hiroshima on a school trip in late May.
"It's difficult to watch the news every day. So many children are dying due to the bombs dropped in wars. I've been unable to stop the wars even though I'm one of the adults," Kondo said before a group of about 60 fifth and sixth graders at the school, where her adopted child once attended. After lamenting about the current global situation, she started recounting her own harsh life, choking up with emotion at times.
Kondo's father, Kiyoshi Tanimoto (1909-1986), was a pastor at Hiroshima Nagarekawa Church. On Aug. 6, 1945, Kondo, then 8 months old, was exposed to the atomic bomb at a parsonage about 1.1 kilometers from the hypocenter. She was trapped under a building that collapsed in the blast, but survived because she was in the arms of her mother, Chisa.
After World War II, young women with burns on their faces and other parts of their bodies due to the bomb's heat rays would gather at the church. Kondo said she could barely look at their faces.
"A woman had her eyelids stuck to her forehead and couldn't close her eyes. Another woman had her lips fused to her chin," she reflected.
"When I grow up, I will find out those who dropped the bomb, and I will be the one to take revenge," she once thought. Her resentment toward the United States grew, as a country that hurt women and created orphans.
A major turning point came when she was 10. She and her family traveled to the U.S. to appear on an American TV program featuring her father, who devoted his life to providing relief to A-bomb survivors and peace movements after the war. During the program, the family met Robert Lewis, the former co-pilot of the Enola Gay bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He revealed, with tears in his eyes, that he had written in his flight log at the time, "My God, what have we done?" Kondo realized, "He's not the one I should be hating. The evil in the hearts of those who start wars should be hated."
Kondo has spent many years sharing that realization at lectures and other occasions. Recently, she feels a sense of urgency, as the number of A-bomb survivors, or hibakusha, who can speak about their experiences is dwindling. She herself was diagnosed with a compressed spinal fracture this February and needs to wear a corset. At her talks, she is questioned more often than before, "Are you with someone to assist you?" She said with a wry smile, "I get asked even though I go everywhere by myself."
This January, Kondo began a new chapter in her life. She moved back to Hiroshima, as her husband Yasuo, 80, retired after serving for about 40 years as a pastor at churches in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures. His last stint was at Miki Shijimi Church in Miki, Hyogo Prefecture.
"I'd like to keep on passing down my experience for at least five more years. That's why I've returned to Hiroshima, my original starting point," Kondo said. With the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima approaching this summer, her desire for peace has only grown stronger.
In late May, the sixth graders from Komyo Elementary School in Takarazuka learned about the war during their school trip in Hiroshima, alongside Kondo. When it was time for the students to leave, Kondo hugged them and said, "I'm putting my trust in all of you. Please build a peaceful world."
(Japanese original by Takehiko Onishi, Osaka Photo and Video Department)
