{"id":1930,"date":"2015-11-01T07:29:03","date_gmt":"2015-11-01T15:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=1930"},"modified":"2015-11-01T07:29:03","modified_gmt":"2015-11-01T15:29:03","slug":"the-story-of-a-hiroshima-bomb-survivor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/the-story-of-a-hiroshima-bomb-survivor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story of a Hiroshima Bomb Survivor"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Emily Pate\r\nStaff Writer<\/pre>\n
Ed Kawasaki, survivor of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, came to speak at Western this past Wednesday, Oct. 28.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Kawasaki was born in 1929 in Hawaii to Japanese immigrant parents. When he was 11, his family moved back to Hiroshima, Japan.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a lucky twist of fate,\u201d Kawasaki said about his survival. \u201cI sometimes feel as though I\u2019m living on borrowed time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will Edwards, a junior Geology major, has always had a passion for WWII history.
\nThrough 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.”
\n\u201cTo be able to know something that happened first hand is pretty cool,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cIt definitely puts nuclear war into perspective.”<\/p>\n
Juneau Singleton, a first year with an undecided major, also attended to hear a firsthand account.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was really unique that a real survivor was coming,\u201d she said. \u201cYou 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kawasaki said that Americans should not be ashamed of their nationality because of the atomic bombs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all have to realize that war is hell,\u201d Kawasaki said. \u201cYes, 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, \u2018I am sorry that it happened.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us forgive each other for the war,\u201d he said. \u201cLet us all pray for eternal world peace. And then we should just move on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ed Kawasaki, survivor of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, came to speak at Western this past Wednesday, Oct. 28. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":825,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-life"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}