"It makes me feel like you can't have hope in the government." Yoko Nakano, 64, a resident of Fukutsu, Fukuoka Prefecture, was still an unborn fetus at the time of the Nagasaki bombing, but is classified as a hibakusha, a victim of the atomic bombings. She feels a growing disappointment with the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)'s lack of action on moving out from the U.S. nuclear umbrella, over one year after taking power. Born in 1946, the same year as Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Nakano says, "I have a lot of things I want to say to him."
While Kan was an elementary school student in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Nakano was also attending school at Shiroyama Elementary School in the city of Nagasaki, near the hypocenter of where the bomb went off. At the school, Nakano belonged to a class composed of 20 hibakusha students and 20 non-hibakusha students. She would sometimes be taken by jeep to the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC). There, she would have a blood sample taken from her ear-lobe, and be made to take intelligence tests, like searching for multiples of 3 from a selection of numbers.
"At the time, I didn't know what it was all for," reflects Nakano.
Nakano was happy when she received cookies or chocolate from the ABCC to take home, but her mother would throw them all away. In 2003, Nakano sent to the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (the successor to the ABCC) for records from the time, and finally understood why her mother had acted as she had. Amongst the files, there was one on which was written, "Kihon hyouhon shitsumonhyo" (basic questionnaire for specimens).
"They called us 'specimens.' Sure enough, we were test subjects," says Nakano, biting her lip to suppress her anger.
Kan, after graduating from university, devoted himself to grassroots movements. In 1974 he drew attention for his role in promoting women's rights-supporter Fusae Ichikawa's run for the House of Councillors. Nakano's mother also worked for the advancement of women's social standing through grassroots movements in Nagasaki. When Kan took office, Nakano had high hopes. "Kan might be a person who understands the feelings of the people," she thought.
However, at a press conference on Aug. 6 at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony, Kan made a statement that the power of nuclear deterrence was a necessity for Japan. He also did not condemn the United States' conducting of a subcritical nuclear test.
"The menace of nuclear weapons began with Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even when the hibakusha show what has happened to their bodies and make their pleas, does it not reach (the government's) ears?" says Nakano.
Nakano as a child learned in an elementary school whose buildings still held remnants of damage from the bomb. She gained employment, married, and raised children to come to this day, and she has something she wants to say to the leader who has shared these 65 post-war years with her:
"These 65 years, Japan has avoided war and been peaceful. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, I want you to protect this peace so that nuclear weapons are not used again."
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