By: Emily Pate Staff Writer
Ed Kawasaki, survivor of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, came to speak at Western this past Wednesday, Oct. 28.
The talk, in conjunction with the Black Rain, Sadako’s Story, Hiroshima Ground Zero, and Never Again art exhibits in Hamersley Library, builds awareness of the aftermath of the bombing.
Kawasaki was born in 1929 in Hawaii to Japanese immigrant parents. When he was 11, his family moved back to Hiroshima, Japan.
On Aug. 6, 1945, when Kawasaki was 16, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He happened to already be in the hospital for a ruptured appendix he suffered prior to the blast.
A few days previously, his father had called a surgeon at Shima Hospital. The call could not connect, so Kawasaki went to a different hospital two miles from the epicenter of the bomb. This move saved his life, as Shima Hospital was ground zero for the explosion.
“What a lucky twist of fate,” Kawasaki said about his survival. “I sometimes feel as though I’m living on borrowed time.”
Will Edwards, a junior Geology major, has always had a passion for WWII history.
Through a reenactment and education group, he has met many veterans, but never anyone who was in Japan during the bombing or, as he called Kawasaki, a “primary source.”
“To be able to know something that happened first hand is pretty cool,” Edwards said. “It definitely puts nuclear war into perspective.”
Juneau Singleton, a first year with an undecided major, also attended to hear a firsthand account.
“I thought it was really unique that a real survivor was coming,” she said. “You never really hear that perspective. You hear that they dropped the bomb, but not that the next time he went to school half his class was gone.”
Kawasaki said that Americans should not be ashamed of their nationality because of the atomic bombs.
“We all have to realize that war is hell,” Kawasaki said. “Yes, we could question ourselves whether it was OK or not OK to have used the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But if you are asked about the atomic bomb by a foreigner, as an American, I would say, ‘I am sorry that it happened.’”
“Let us forgive each other for the war,” he said. “Let us all pray for eternal world peace. And then we should just move on.”
