\u201cI was at home in Nagasaki when the explosion happened. My home was 3.23 kilometers away from the hypocenter. I was 13,\u201d the co-chairperson of the anti-nuclear weapons group says in a sharing session with students of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The date was August 9, 1945. Tanaka heard the roar of a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber carrying out its mission flying over Nagasaki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI never expected it to drop such a terrifying weapon\u2026Suddenly the whole world turned completely white. I could not see or hear anything. I ran to the first floor. Then an intense shock wave passed through our entire house,\u201d the 93 – year – old survivor recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI lost consciousness when I got to the first floor. When I woke up, I found that my home was flattened. The wind was very hot. Two large pieces of glass pressed against me. It was a miracle that I was somehow spared from injuries,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Tanaka, a former associate professor at Tohoku University’s School of Engineering, explains that the energy from the explosion can cause damage through intense heat from the flash of light, radiation, and scorching winds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThree days later, I went to find families of my two aunts who lived near the hypocenter. I hiked up a small hill with my mother\u2026There I saw the destruction of Nagasaki. All houses were burnt and corpses scattered around. Many people were badly injured. They were still alive, but nobody could help them. I had no emotions\u2026not even sympathy. I just kept walking to find my aunts,\u201d Tanaka recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI found the burnt-out body of one aunt at the ruins of her house which was 400 meters away from the hypocenter, and the body of her grandson, who was a student from Tokyo University. Her grandson travelled back home to Nagasaki in hope of having food to eat. Food was scarce during war time. He was killed by the atomic bomb before heading back to Tokyo. My grandfather also died because of severe burns all over his body,\u201d he shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnother aunt’s house collapsed and the whole place became a pile of wood. It took us a long time to figure out where the house was. My aunt was severely burned, and died just before we arrived. We then cremated her remains with our own hands. When we picked up some unburned bones, I felt sad and was in fear. Then I began to wail. My mother didn\u2019t say a word. She was desperately suppressing her emotions,\u201d Tanaka sighs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tanaka says everyone lived in terror and anxiety, as they did not know if they had internal injuries which could take their lives any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy uncle, after staying a few days at a relative\u2019s home, suddenly had a fever and died ten days later because of the visceral injury caused by radiation,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe deaths I witnessed after the explosion were horrible. I think even during war time, nuclear weapons should not be used and must be banned forever,\u201d the survivor says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and 70,000 people died in Nagasaki from August to December 1945, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite all the hardship, Tanaka was determined to resume his study. \u201cI had to work for five years to save up money for my university studies. I managed to be admitted to a university and my major was physics,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He began reading more about social science when he was back in school. \u201cThe terrible condition that we suffered made me think, me and my family did not do anything wrong, why we were so unfortunate. I then realised that I must do something to push for changes,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The devastating experience paved the way for Tanaka to embark on his lifetime career of pushing for peace, while he worked as an academic at the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was quite healthy at that time. I also had a job with a stable income. So I have the capacity to help other atomic bomb survivors,\u201d Tanaka says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, also known as Nihon Hidankyo, was founded in 1956. Tanaka offered help to the organization in Miyagi Prefecture. Later, he was invited to become a member of the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/PHOTO-2025-11-13-16-08-09-2-1024x768.jpg\")
\u201cMy duty was to understand the situation of the survivors in different places and help them. I also led atomic bomb survivors to testify at the United Nations, and held an atomic bomb exhibition at the UN every five years,\u201d he shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI believe all these efforts led to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017, and we were at last awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2024,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/acbfaaab-1ac9-4e6a-bec4-726801b1a5fe-1-1024x768.jpg\")
Tanaka stresses maintaining peace requires dialogue and cooperation between different countries: “I hope everyone will talk more about peace rather than war – how to maintain peace and create peace, rather than discussing possible wars or what to do when war happens.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edited by Suan Yeon & Daniel Paek <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sub-edited by Erica Hwang<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Atomic bomb survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate organisation co-chairperson Terumi Tanaka warns of the growing nuclear threat and calls for peace. By Della Qing in Tokyo Atomic bomb survivor Terumi Tanaka, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2024 on behalf of Nihon Hidankyo, shares his story of struggles with university students, as wars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":25678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2281,2279,2118,2280,2229,128],"class_list":["post-25677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-periscope","tag-2281","tag-a-bomb","tag-japan","tag-nobelpeaceprize","tag-peace","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25677"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25715,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25677\/revisions\/25715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}