Survivor Remembers Past, Looks to Future

By Paul Crum

Pax Christi Memphis

Whether he is speaking to a group of Japanese school children at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, or addressing a gathering in the basement of an American church, A-bomb survivor Takashi Teramoto says he always ends by quoting the words of Pope John Paul II: "To remember the past is to commit oneself to the future. To remember Hiroshima is to abhor nuclear war. To remember Hiroshima is to commit oneself to peace."

Teramoto, a retired Hiroshima power company executive, now devotes his life to making sure people remember Hiroshima, both in his native land and around the world. With the support of various museums, municipalities, peace foundations and other benefactors, Teramoto and other Hibakusha (A-bomb survivors) speak to college students, church groups, peace activists and others willing to listen. His two recent appearances in Memphis were sponsored locally by Pax Christi Memphis, First Congregational Church and the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center.

Through interpreter Steven Lepert, Chairperson of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, Teramoto told the audience at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception that he was, "… not here to express hatred, grief or my own emotions," he said. "To quote American philosopher, George Santayana, `Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.' Being aware of the past is extremely important to making better decisions for the future."

Teramoto remembered a Japan devastated by months of allied bombing.

"Fire bombing turned cities into huge seas of flames. "On March 10, 1945, 100,000 people died from the bombing of Tokyo," he recalled. "Children in cities were evacuated to the countryside. I remember intensely not having enough food."

"The temple called my mother and she came on August fourth to take me back to a doctor in Hiroshima. I remember her putting on her kimono getting ready that morning, August 6. I was leaning over a desk writing a letter to a friend.

"Suddenly I sensed a tremendous light behind me and I remember looking toward that light," he continued. "I don't remember exactly what happened then, but I do remember that things went completely black, and I remember crouching into a little ball with things falling on me _ hurting me, injuring me very badly.

"Now I know that there was a mushroom cloud 36,000 feet high, and that I was at the bottom of that cloud that blocked out all the light." Teramoto's home was just one kilometer (.06 miles) from the hypocenter of the blast.

He told the group that he also remembered a tremendous wind, estimated at over 1,000 miles per hour, and a very distinctive smell. "I later asked a scientist if radiation has a smell," he said. "He assured me it did not, but I will never forget that smell."

Speaking softly in Japanese, Teramoto continued. "After the darkness, I walked toward the first light I saw. When I came into the light I saw a woman from the neighborhood. She asked me who I was. I said, `I am Takushi.' I didn't understand at the time, but now I know I was completely covered in blood.

"She said, `jump on my back and let's get out of here'. I began shouting, `My mother is not here!' Someone told me they would look for her."

When the young boy and his neighbor reached a riverbank they stopped to rest. Then the "black rain" began to fall.

"The heat from the cloud that had sucked up all sorts of things mixed with the cold air in the atmosphere and it rained down in big black drops exposing everyone to more and more radiation," Teramoto explained. "The woman found a sheet of tin and held it over me. She got very wet, but I wasn't as exposed as her."

He credited the woman with saving his life.

To accompany his lecture. Teramoto projected images of drawings and paintings on to a large screen to illustrate the scene he recalled on the day of the bombing.

The seventy-three year old survivor admits that he knows there is bitterness in the deep recesses of his mind, but he refuses to let it affect him, preferring instead to think about his children, his grandchildren, the life he now cherishes and the future.

Concluding in a reverent tone, he translated into his native tongue the words of Pope John Paul II, "… to remember Hiroshima is to abhor nuclear war."