Three days after the first US A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima, the US bomber, named “Bock’s Car”, was scheduled to drop a second A-bomb on Japan. That day, the city targeted was under cloud cover. The city of Nagasaki was second on the pilot’s list and on August 9, 1945 at 11:02 a.m, the sun was shining in Nagasaki. The explosion of the A-Bomb, named “Fat Man”, instantly killed 75 000 people. In Nagasaki, the US Bomber’s mission was to destroy the port and industrial sites where Mitsubishi warships were being built. But the pilot mistaked the ordonnance and dropped the A-bomb 3 kilometers before, on Urakami. This residential neighborhood was mainly occupied by the social minorities of the city but also Christians, Koreans, and a penitentiary. Everything was destroyed. Since then, at least 150 000 people died from radiation wounds and radiation-linked diseases. The victims of these two A-bombs became “Hibakushas”: “survivors”. They endured severe psychological as well as physical sufferings, as there was no adapted treatment. Inside their own country, they were rejected, isolated. They had to put up with discrimination in the professional field, suffering from high unemployment. Worse, the Japanese were scared of “atomic-linked diseases” being hereditary. So, nobody wanted to marry a man or woman of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. In 2003, 85 000 “Hibakushas” were living in Japan.
Anabet edition
45 euros
29×38,5cm, 48 pages
