Westminster Friends mark Hiroshima Day
Westminster Meeting welcomed Seishi Morikawa, a campaigner against nuclear weapons and second generation ‘Hibakusha’, to mark Hiroshima Day
The Quaker Socialist Society (QSS) welcomed a ‘Hibakusha’ to Westminster Meeting House earlier this month. Seishi Morikawa, a campaigner against nuclear weapons, is a second generation ‘Hibakusha’, which is the name for a survivor of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Seishi originally came to London in July to speak at a meeting in parliament planned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which was cancelled because of the general election. This prompted QSS to invite Seishi to publish his undelivered speech on QSS’s website.
The talk describes the problems suffered by second generation bomb victims. ‘One of the definitive characteristics of the nuclear disaster,’ he writes, is that it causes ‘pain and suffering across multiple generations’. In 1945, his father was exposed to the atomic bombing when he was at the NHK Hiroshima Central Broadcasting Station of Japan Broadcasting Corporation – only one kilometre away from the hypocentre. ‘Most of the people in that area died immediately or within a few days,’ he writes. ‘Many who appeared uninjured developed disorders and died days or months later, due to acute radiation sickness. However, my father miraculously survived, and lived until 95 years old though he suffered from a lot of illnesses.’
Elsewhere Quakers marked Hiroshima and Nagasaki Days on 6 and 9 August with vigils and witnesses, including the annual Hiroshima Day Service at Coventry Cathedral.
