Hibakusha

We know that men are harmed by radiation.

But what came out after 2006 and the publication of 60 years of data from the lifespan study that was started in 1950 amongst the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, known as the Hibakusha, the people who saw the bomb, who lived through it because they were shielded.

That data set includes the exposure of people from birth, literally infants who survived that day, August 6, 1945, August 9, 1945, Hiroshima, Nagasaki.

It turns out that the exposure of children is far more damaging from the same type of radiation, the same exposure that they all shared on those days.

All the women from ICANN, who have come from all over the world.

Weeping.

And then Kathleen Sullivan, who's from the Hibakusha stories.

Robert Kroonquist, who's also from Hibakusha.

ICANN brought in affected communities to talk about their stories, about what they have suffered.

And when you think about the bravery of these nuclear survivors, many of them having been children at the time, for instance, the hibakusha in Japan, time of the bombings, the surviving Hibakusha are elderly, but they were children at the time of the bombings, you know, that every time they tell their story, they are effectively reliving that childhood trauma.

And so it's incredibly courageous of these survivors to do this, but they do this because they're motivated by this very passionate belief that these weapons should never be used again, should never cause that harm to anyone else again.

And last year I had the honour of attending the 80th anniversary commemorations, not only of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, but also the very first nuclear weapon detonation, which was, of course, in New Mexico.

It's really considered a pioneering work of narrative journalism.

There are obviously accounts of the bombings from the Hibakusha or atomic survivors, including one we published recently in English called The Bells of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai.

But I think Hershey's book is very readily available.

You can find it online.