POINT OF VIEW/ Sumiteru Taniguchi: Keeping hope alive for an end to atomic warfare

I will deliver a speech on behalf of hibakusha (atomic bomb victims) at the United Nations during the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, which begins Monday. I will bring a photo of myself showing how my back was badly burned by the atomic bomb blast that leveled much of Nagasaki. The photo was taken by the U.S. military about six months after the bombing.

On Aug. 9, 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, I was 16. I was burned by the heat rays from the bomb, which exploded 1.8 kilometers behind me while I was delivering mail on my bicycle.

The skin from my shoulder and left arm dangled, and my back, which was hideously burned, was all slimy. I staggered around trying to escape until I was rescued by relief workers on the morning of the third day.

I lay face down for the first year and nine months that I was in the hospital. My burned flesh rotted and seemed to drip off me. My chest also rotted from bedsores. In my suffering, my only thought was "When will I die?" I did not get out of hospital until three years and seven months after the bombing.

Since that day more than 60 years ago, I have never for a single moment forgotten that I am a hibakusha. My back and left arm are still covered with keloid scars. They hurt every day and, because they do not perspire, in summer it feels as if they are burning. I can't turn over in bed, so at most I only get two hours of sound sleep. I have had repeated operations on an unexplained growth, which forms like a rock in my back.

In 1985, I met face to face on French national television with Isidor Rabi, a scientist who participated in the U.S. nuclear bomb development program.

He made an irresponsible comment to the effect that the hibakusha have done well to live this long. I take the view that I have not so much lived as have been kept alive to tell the story of the horror.

The Japanese government, representing the nation that experienced a nuclear attack, has a duty to tell the world the facts about the bombings. However, sheltering under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, it has rather taken the position of defending such arms.

Under secret agreements with the United States, it permitted atomic weapons to be brought into Japan and it has not enshrined the three non-nuclear principles in law. There are times when I am tired and want to do nothing at all, but until the government behaves in such a way that I don't need to do anything, I feel that I have to take action.

I went to the United States for the NPT Review Conference five years ago. It was a very disappointing situation under the administration of President George W. Bush. This time, we have to bring about real progress.

The United States and Russia signed a new nuclear disarmament agreement on April 8, but they are still allowed to have 1,550 strategic nuclear weapons each. These weapons are far more powerful than the ones used against Japan 65 years ago.

The United States is now led by President Barack Obama. There has been a change of government in Japan, too. They must show leadership to rid the world of nuclear weapons. The hibakusha want to see the abolition of nuclear weapons in their lifetimes.

Some people turn away when they see my photo. I don't show it because I want to. I want people to understand what really happens when nuclear weapons are used. Some young Americans burst into tears and apologize when they hear my story, even though they are not responsible.

Considering my age, I expect that this will be my last trip to America, but I will deliver my appeal so that the tragedy that I experienced is never repeated.

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Sumiteru Taniguchi is chairman of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council.