Chieko Watanabe (Nagasaki, 1928–1993) In the summer 1945, Chieko Watanabe (age 16) was mobilized to work at Mitsubishi Electric as a member of Student Patriotic Corps. She was trapped under a fallen beam of the factory, which paralyzed the lower part of her body. Whenever she gave in to despair, it was her mother, also a hibakusha, who always encouraged and inspired her to live on. We should be the last to suffer from atomic bombs. I ask you, people of the world, please make joint efforts to abolish all atomic and hydrogen bombs. And with your help, we hope to achieve a world without these weapons as soon as possible, when we can say, “We are glad to have survived till today.” — Quoted from the appeal by Ms. Watanabe Chieko, at the Second World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, 1956. Chieko joins in the World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs with her friend’s help in Nagasaki, August 1975. Photograph by Kikujiro Fukushima, Courtesy of Kyodo News. Chieko distributes leaflets in a downtown area: “Let us make Nagasaki the last victim city of atomic bombing.” Photograph by Haruo Kurosaki, 1984. Shigeko Sasamori (Hiroshima, 1932–) As a first year student in a women’s high school, she was mobilized to clean a building that was empty after evacuation. She was about 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) away from the blast center when the bomb fell and experienced serious burns on her face and upper half of her body. When she was nineteen, she participated in Bible classes for young female atomic victims that the Rev. Kiyoshi Tanimoto started. After undergoing several operations in Tokyo, she met Norman Cousins, a journalist who started a campaign named “moral adoption” to collect money for children who had been orphaned by the bomb. Supported by Mr. Cousins and others, she went to the United States as a member of a group of 25 young female atomic victims for another operation. Later, she was adopted by Mr. Cousins, became a nurse, and worked in a hospital. She continues to describe her experiences after her retirement. Ms. Shigeko Niimoto (Ms. Sasamori’s maiden name) arrived in New York accompanied by the Rev. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, May 9, 1955. Photograph from Bettmann Collection/Getty Images. Shigeko speaks of her experience at a high school in New York City, April 30, 2015. Photograph by Kyodo News. Shigeko in front of the painting of Mr. & Mrs. Cousins, her adoptive parents, in her living room in Marina del Ray, California. Photograph by Keiko Fukuda.
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