‘I thought the sun had fallen’: What a nuclear bomb survivor taught me

“There was a blinding flash of light before my eyes,” says survivor Seiichiro Mise, recounting the moment the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. “I thought the sun had fallen in front of my house.”

It was 11.02am 80 years ago, on August 9, 1945 when the plutonium-based bomb – codename Fat Man – was detonated by the United States, killing at least 40,000 people immediately, and almost that number again from radiation poisoning.

“Later, I heard voices coming from the school gymnasium, crying – give me water, give me water,” says Mise, who was 10 years old at the time. “It was a terrifying picture of hell.”

Entering the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, with its displays of burnt clothing and poems by grieving parents, is a different shade of hell. Who knew that bodies could be vaporised or human shadows scorched onto pavement? Or that today, the global inventory of nuclear warheads stands at more than 12,000?

It’s day six of our 15-day Far Eastern Horizons cruise from Hong Kong to Tokyo aboard Viking Venus; while some guests have chosen to visit the old town or learn about Arita pottery, I’ve joined a half-day excursion to learn more about this pivotal moment in world history.

Days before docking in Nagasaki, I attended lectures by Viking’s resident historian on topics as diverse as the “nuclear weapons race in the lead-up to World War II” and “America’s foreign policy in action”. Billed as the “thinking person’s cruise”, it’s reassuring to see that Viking holds a mirror to the hardest truths.

It had all felt so distant, until Mise steps to the podium and demonstrates how he’d jammed his thumbs in his ears and shielded his eyes with his fingers. “The smell of people burning has never left me,” he says.

While most 90-year-olds are taking it easy, Mise – alongside other survivors known as hibakusha – continue to show up every day, sharing with visitors stories about what they’d endured. “We are activists,” he says. “Our goal is to see a world free of nuclear weapons.”

At the Nagasaki Peace Park, the cherry blossoms are in flower, their delicate blooms a timeless symbol of survival and transformation. From the Ground Zero monolith, we stroll past monuments received as gifts from various countries – the Tree of Life from the city of Fremantle, Infinity from Ankara, Turkey, and O’ Bird of Mine from Bangladesh – before stopping at the dove-shaped Fountain of Peace. The breeze sweeps a fine spray of mist across my face, a tangible reminder of those who died begging for water.

Sailing from Nagasaki, via Kagoshima and Beppu, we have two nights in the port of Hiroshima, a former castle town on the delta of the Ota River. It was here on the morning of August 6, 1945, just three days before the bombing of Nagasaki, that the US dropped a uranium, gun-type atomic bomb known as Little Boy.

“It detonated 600 metres above Shima Hospital,” says our guide Mayumi Okura, whose father was also a hibakusha. “In that instant, more than 70,000 people were killed across the city.”

Okura leads us past the skeletal ruins of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, now a UNESCO-listed site known as the A-Bomb Dome, and onwards to the Peace Flame. “It will continue to burn until all nuclear weapons are eliminated,” she says.

But it’s the Children’s Peace Monument, surrounded by thousands of paper cranes sent from all around the world, that moves me the most. Built initially to commemorate a young girl who died from leukaemia caused by radiation poisoning, it now stands as a symbol of peace and hope for all children.

“This is our cry. This is our prayer. For building peace in this world.” These words, inscribed under the monument, invite us all to stand up for a nuclear weapons-free future.

The details

Cruise
Viking’s 15-day Far Eastern Horizons cruise from Hong Kong to Tokyo (or reverse) is priced from $10,795 a person, based on double occupancy, flights not included. All meals, beer, wine and soft drinks with onboard lunch and dinner, one shore excursion in every port of call, Wi-Fi, gratuities and speciality dining are included. See viking.com

Fly
Qantas flies daily direct from Sydney and Melbourne to Hong Kong. See qantas.com

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The writer was a guest of Viking Cruises.