{"id":16614,"date":"2025-08-06T08:16:40","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T15:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=16614"},"modified":"2025-08-06T08:16:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T15:16:42","slug":"hiroshimas-pacifist-cause-is-losing-believers-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=16614","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Hiroshima\u2019s Pacifist Cause Is Losing Believers&#8221;, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Eighty years after the atomic bombing, some Japanese think that peace for peace\u2019s sake is no longer enough.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Listen to this article\u00a0\u00b7 18:02 min\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/help.nytimes.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/24318293692180\">Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>By&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/hannah-beech\">Hannah Beech<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/hisako-ueno\">Hisako Ueno<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Visuals by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/chang-w-lee\">Chang W. Lee<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reporting from Hiroshima, Japan<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Aug. 6, 2025<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a Peace Boulevard, a Peace Bell and a Peace Memorial Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On a recent summer afternoon, at the Children\u2019s Peace Monument, near the Flame of Peace, elementary school students in cotton hats and crisp uniforms folded origami cranes. They were honoring a little girl who had tried to overcome the effects of Little Boy, as the atomic bomb used in the world\u2019s first nuclear attack was code-named, by folding a thousand paper birds, a Japanese tradition for good fortune. She died of radiation poisoning anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hiroshima was&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/08\/05\/world\/asia\/hiroshima-nagasaki-japan-nuclear-photos.html?searchResultPosition=1\">bombed by the American<\/a>&nbsp;military on Aug. 6, 1945, causing the deaths of about 140,000 residents by the end of the year and bringing to a close Japan\u2019s imperial rampage across Asia and the world\u2019s deadliest war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, the Japanese city stands synonymous with peace. From the ashes of nuclear devastation, Hiroshima \u2014 along with the city of Nagasaki, which was bombed three days later \u2014 was rebuilt and regenerated. Burned and sickened by radiation, many of Hiroshima\u2019s survivors forgave. They wove pacifism into their DNA, the vanguards of a vanquished nation that cast off decades of imperialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-1-01-jpzb\/05int-hiroshima-1-01-jpzb-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"A rainbow-colored peace sign on display in a window.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Origami cranes are on display at the Children\u2019s Peace Monument at Hiroshima\u2019s Peace Memorial Park.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/05int-hiroshima-02-zhkq-cover\/05int-hiroshima-02-zhkq-cover-verticalTwoByThree735.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People ringing the bell and praying at the Children\u2019s Peace Monument.CreditCredit&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Ever since 1949, when the Peace Memorial City Construction Law was enacted, Hiroshima has hosted conferences, concerts, musicals and mime performances, all in the name of peace. In 2024, a group representing Japanese atomic bomb survivors was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, to honor its campaign to eradicate nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But 80 years after the world\u2019s only nuclear attacks, Japan is not entirely at peace. Three of its closest neighbors possess nuclear weapons: China, Russia and North Korea. The world at large, from Ukraine to Gaza, is cleaved by conflict. In the Pacific, China is flexing its power, just as American influence seems to be waning. Time is running out, too. The last major arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/02\/21\/world\/europe\/putin-new-start-treaty.html\">set to lapse<\/a>&nbsp;early next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bound by an American-imposed Constitution that renounces war and prevents it from having a military except for defensive purposes, Japan is fractured between those who defend pacifism as a national virtue and those who think the country must abandon its submissive stoop. Even the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize last year felt like an anachronism, a vestige of a time when a world without nuclear weapons could be imagined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are now at a turning point,\u201d said Noriyuki Kawano, the director of the Center for Peace at Hiroshima University, referring to a growing feeling in Japan, particularly among young people, that peace for peace\u2019s sake is no longer enough. \u201cHiroshima is Hiroshima, but if Japan is to face reality, Hiroshima may become isolated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The number of Japanese students who believe in nuclear deterrence \u2014 the notion that countries with nuclear weapons are less likely to wage war on each other \u2014 has increased in recent years, according to surveys by the Center for Peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-1-05-jpzb\/05int-hiroshima-1-05-jpzb-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"A man waits at a tram stop as tram comes along in the opposite direction.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hiroshima\u2019s tram system still has old signs and trains at Honkawa-cho station near the Peace Memorial Park.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-1-08-jpzb\/05int-hiroshima-1-08-jpzb-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"Children in school uniforms seen walking down a busy shopping street.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The number of Japanese students who believe in nuclear deterrence has increased.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The phrase in Japanese used to explain why the country needs to rearm is \u201cshoganai,\u201d roughly translated as \u201cit can\u2019t be helped.\u201d It can\u2019t be helped that China is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/09\/23\/world\/asia\/china-sea-philippines-us.html\">acting assertively<\/a>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2023\/11\/16\/world\/asia\/south-china-sea-ships.html\">regional waters<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2024\/09\/15\/world\/asia\/south-china-sea-philippines.html\">claiming territory<\/a>&nbsp;and flaunting a powerful navy. It can\u2019t be helped that the U.S.-Japan security partnership feels frayed, particularly as President Trump has called upon Japan to shoulder more of its defense. It can\u2019t be helped that memories of Hiroshima\u2019s horrors are fading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The survivors of the atomic bombings \u2014 Aug. 6 at Hiroshima and Aug. 9 at Nagasaki \u2014 are now 80 years old or more. This anniversary will likely be the last major remembrance to include firsthand accounts of what splitting uranium and plutonium atoms wrought: flayed flesh, irradiated babies, maggot-infested burns and decades of radiation-induced disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even as Hiroshima sells peace-branded mochi treats and hand towels, the nearby port town of Kure exists in counterpoise. Once home to the largest Imperial Navy base and arsenal, Kure is a beneficiary of Japan\u2019s current military expansion. The country\u2019s largest warship docks here, and a former steelyard is slated to become another naval facility. At a military history museum, origami cranes from Hiroshima\u2019s Peace Memorial Park are recycled into paper fans emblazoned with the Yamato, Japan\u2019s \u201cunsinkable\u201d World War II battleship, which was eventually torpedoed by the Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPeople are realizing that peace will not come just by praying,\u201d said Masanari Tade, the son of a Hiroshima survivor who died at 50. Like many who suffered, Mr. Tade\u2019s father refused official status as an atomic bomb victim. Mr. Tade is now the Hiroshima head of Nippon Kaigi, an ultranationalist political bloc that wants to revise the constitutional clause banning a conventional military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe lack of peace, the lack of nuclear nonproliferation, in and of itself, this is proof that the symbol of Hiroshima as a peace city has failed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"link-8f5d1aa\"><strong>The Fallout<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Eighty years ago, Chieko Kiriake was a high school student in Hiroshima, drafted to work in war factories, cleaning old guns and military uniforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the hot and cloudless morning of Aug. 6, Ms. Kiriake, dressed in a thick army canvas top hanging down to her knees, was cooling off under the eaves of a building when a searing brightness exploded over Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. The city went dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the time Ms. Kiriake pulled herself out of the wreckage, every landmark she knew in Hiroshima had disintegrated. For days, she tended to fellow students seared by the atomic explosion. One after another, they died. She sifted through their cremated remains, a Japanese ritual. The shards of one friend\u2019s bones shined a soft pink, like early cherry blossoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBack then, I was ashamed that my life was saved,\u201d Ms. Kiriake said. \u201cI thought, \u2018How much easier it would have been if we died together.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-2-02-kbzj\/05int-hiroshima-2-02-kbzj-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chieko Kiriake, a survivor of the atomic bomb, at her home.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-2-01-kbzj\/05int-hiroshima-2-01-kbzj-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Folded origami cranes, a symbol of peace, at Ms. Kiriake\u2019s home.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On Aug. 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito went on the radio to announce Japan\u2019s exit from the war. (The monarch later said he was not, in fact, divine, the kind of deity who could compel soldiers to die on his behalf.) He spoke in a courtly Japanese so removed from everyday speech that Ms. Kiriake and most civilians could barely understand him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like most hibakusha, as the atomic bomb survivors are known, Ms. Kiriake, now 95, is fervently pro-peace. Some victims hid their trauma and their keloids, the painful scar tissue from burns, for fear that their marriage or job prospects would be diminished. But Ms. Kiriake has spent years teaching subsequent generations about the consequences of war and nuclear attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHiroshima now values peace above all else, and they say, \u2018We must abolish nuclear weapons,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cBut 80 years ago, it was a military capital until the atomic bomb was dropped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEveryone was invaded by militarism,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/02\/05int-hiroshima-05-wfkc-cover\/05int-hiroshima-05-wfkc-cover-videoSixteenByNine1050.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A simulation of the dropping of the atomic bomb at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.CreditCredit&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-2-04-kbzj\/05int-hiroshima-2-04-kbzj-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"A man with silver hair stands among greenery in his garden.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Takashi Hiraoka, a former mayor of Hiroshima, is angry that Japan has never signed the global Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Takashi Hiraoka, a former mayor of Hiroshima, is 97 and says he is angry that Japan has never signed the global Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. He reserves special ire for Fumio Kishida, the former prime minister, whose family is from Hiroshima. Mr. Kishida supported nuclear disarmament, but in 2022 he signed off on a plan to dramatically increase defense spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Japan, Mr. Hiraoka said, is \u201cleaning to the right and becoming militaristic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Tade, of the ultranationalist bloc, thinks that Japan needs to move on from a war that ended 80 years ago \u2014 even as others condemn Japan for a lack of contrition for the atrocities committed by its Imperial Armed Forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like other nationalists, some of whom have a growing voice in Japan\u2019s ruling party, Mr. Tade dismisses documented war crimes by Japanese forces \u2014 from the Nanjing Massacre and the enslavement of women sexually as so-called \u201ccomfort women\u201d to biological warfare experiments \u2014 as concocted by a Western-supported intelligentsia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a Japanese guilt theory, that Japan started the war because it was bad and so it had to suffer damage,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a sad reality, a logic used to justify the bombing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In mid-June, Mr. Tade turned out in Hiroshima to see Emperor Naruhito of Japan, the pacifist grandson of the monarch in whose name the Imperial Japanese forces invaded and attacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The crowd of about 5,000 people, among them an energetic core of nationalists, held paper lanterns and yelled \u201cbanzai,\u201d the cheer still tainted by Japan\u2019s military past. They looked up at the building where Naruhito and Empress Masako were staying. Suddenly, two glowing orbs appeared by the window, lanterns held by the Emperor and Empress to acknowledge their devotees below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"link-7d156320\">Defending a Nation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To eradicate Japanese imperialism, the Americans oversaw the drafting of a constitution in which Japan forever renounces war. The United States promised to defend Japan if it came under attack; more than 50,000 American\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/18\/world\/asia\/us-marines-japan-okinawa.html\">soldiers are still stationed<\/a>\u00a0in the country. The security treaty, which put Japan under the American nuclear umbrella, is a bedrock of the postwar Pacific order and has allowed Japan to promote peace. But the terms of the alliance are being questioned, both by Japanese and American politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Japan\u2019s military is called the Self-Defense Forces, its formation in 1954 hastened by an American wish for Japan to serve as a bulwark against communism prompted by the Korean War. Last year, the Japanese Parliament approved a 9.7 percent increase in the defense budget for 2025, bringing Japan\u2019s annual military outlays to about $57 billion, putting it on course to rank among the world\u2019s top spenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-2-08-kbzj\/05int-hiroshima-2-08-kbzj-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"A naval ship in a dry dock.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Kure, the birthplace of Japan\u2019s once \u201cunsinkable\u201d warship, the Yamato, is now a pilgrimage site for military buffs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-2-05-kbzj\/05int-hiroshima-2-05-kbzj-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"Two men seen working inside a maritime military base.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Japan\u2019s military is called the Self-Defense Forces, but there is a growing debate about whether it should play a more proactive role in the region.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The buildup has come to Kure, the port city neighboring Hiroshima. This year, it was named the command center for a maritime transport network serving Japan\u2019s southern islands, including the approach to Taiwan and the South China Sea, two potential flash points with China. The 320-acre steel factory conversion is slated to include an ammunition depot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kure is now a pilgrimage site for military buffs. The museum honoring the Yamato, the World War II battleship, is undergoing a $33 million renovation. Naval spotters can view modern-day attack submarines, a stealth frigate that was commissioned in May, and Japan\u2019s largest warship, the Kaga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/05int-hiroshima-03-zhkq-cover\/05int-hiroshima-03-zhkq-cover-verticalTwoByThree735.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Japan\u2019s largest warship, the Kaga, is docked in Kure.CreditCredit&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-2-07-kbzj\/05int-hiroshima-2-07-kbzj-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"A marine on board a Japanese Navy ship.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cWar was a long time ago,\u201d said Lt. Yusuke Murakami, who serves aboard the Kaga.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is a vast Pacific Ocean surrounding Japan,\u201d said Capt. Shusaku Takeuchi, the commanding officer of the Kaga, adding that \u201cJapan has to defend the sea area around Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lt. Yusuke Murakami serves on the Kaga, a helicopter carrier. He did not grow up playing soldier. His great-grandfather died at Iwo Jima, one of the most punishing battles in the Pacific, and he is from Hiroshima. But Lieutenant Murakami loves planes and helicopters, machines that soar like cranes and doves, birds of peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJapan is a peaceful country,\u201d he said. \u201cWar was a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The military expansion in Kure has angered some residents, who note that the city was bombed 14 times by the Americans during World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRevitalizing the military industry would be strangling ourselves,\u201d said Takashi Koretsune, a member of a citizens\u2019 group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"link-122d8a3c\"><strong>The Remembrance<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Little Boy destroyed nearly 70 percent of the buildings in Hiroshima. The hypocenter, the point below the midair detonation, is now a small parking lot for a medical clinic. Few tourists come to see the unassuming sign marking the spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Around the corner, one building miraculously survived: the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotional Hall, its dome stripped to its steel skeleton but its foundation largely unscathed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-3-09-zhvm\/05int-hiroshima-3-09-zhvm-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"Flowers, including a white wreath, lay in front of an arched monument.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Flowers left at the Hiroshima Victims Memorial Cenotaph, with the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotional Hall visible in the background. The hall has been preserved in its damaged state as a perpetual reminder of the bombing.<br><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-3-03-zhvm\/05int-hiroshima-3-03-zhvm-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"A light shines on an image of a man\u2019s scarred skin in an otherwise darkened room.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A photo of a scarred survivor at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A museum nearby tells of Hiroshima\u2019s suffering. Tourists emerge hushed, parents gripping their children\u2019s hands. Across the city, there are signs of a peace industrial complex, drawings of doves and \u201cno nukes\u201d bumper stickers and garlands of origami cranes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The legacy of the bombing infuses the city\u2019s art scene. Shinji Okoda, a hardcore punk rocker, headbangs to lyrics that push denuclearization and condemn violence in Ukraine and Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPunk rock has always been political in the West,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing from Hiroshima, I felt like I should do my part.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-3-02-zhvm\/05int-hiroshima-3-02-zhvm-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"A man in a cap is illuminated by a shaft of light inside a record store.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Shinji Okoda is a punk rocker who uses his music to push for denuclearization and to condemn the violence in Ukraine and Gaza.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-qhjb\/05int-hiroshima-qhjb-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"People sit at tables eating inside a bookstore.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A bookstore and cafe near the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum regularly hosts survivors of the bombing, who speak about the war and social issues.Credit&#8230;Chang W. Lee\/The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there is elision in Hiroshima, too, a passive voice used in the official explanation of what transformed the city: the bomb was dropped. People often describe the nuclear attack as if it was a natural disaster devoid of human intervention. Only at the end of one exhibit is it made clear how the United States pursued atomic weapons and how the race against the Soviet Union may have hastened President Harry S. Truman\u2019s decision to order the second bombing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2016, President Barack Obama came to Hiroshima. He was the first sitting U.S. president to visit, but he did not apologize for the attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOn a bright, cloudless morning,\u201d Mr. Obama said, \u201cdeath fell from the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Hiraoka, the former mayor of Hiroshima, has campaigned for decades for denuclearization. He wants no more war. Unlike some other Japanese politicians, he recognizes Japan\u2019s responsibility for its brutal wartime record. But he also says there is another nation that needs to face its history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe must hold America responsible,\u201d he said. \u201cIn other words, the first step in eliminating nuclear weapons is making them acknowledge that America\u2019s strategy of dropping bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Isamu Nakakura, now 100, began his Imperial Navy training at 14 and became a draftsman at Kure, rendering tiny submersibles used at Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe were taught that the Americans were red demons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the war, Mr. Nakakura worked with American researchers for 20 years, documenting the uptick in diseases associated with radiation, such as leukemia and breast and lung cancers. While the initial blast of radiation dissipated quickly, victims of the blast suffered from illnesses that sometimes showed up decades later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once a designer of war machines, he now frets about the durability of Japan\u2019s pacifism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere hasn\u2019t been a very thorough discussion with people who bravely raise their hands for peace diplomacy,\u201d he said. \u201cPeace is not just the absence of war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-3-05-zhvm\/05int-hiroshima-3-05-zhvm-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"A man in a wheelchair sits in the middle of a large room.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Once a draftsman of machines used in war, Isamu Nakakura now wonders if Japan\u2019s pacifism will last.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/05int-hiroshima-04-zhkq-cover\/05int-hiroshima-04-zhkq-cover-verticalTwoByThree735.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A tree that survived the atomic bombing at Hiroshima Castle.CreditCredit&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The peace celebrated in Hiroshima suffers from other omissions. The Japanese Empire annexed the Korean Peninsula in 1910, dispossessing many. Landless Koreans labored in Japan, including about 85,000 in Hiroshima who dug air raid shelters or collected wood for charcoal. Up to 30,000 Koreans died from the atomic bombing on Aug. 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe pain of moving and working here, and then the atomic bomb, this was a double hardship,\u201d said Kwon Joon Oh, whose father survived the detonation but died of lung cancer at 47.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Kwon said that Japan\u2019s government for years did not provide official support to document the Korean dead. Nor, he said, have the awardees of the Nobel Peace Prize acknowledged the full extent of Korean suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Submerging memories was what many Japanese families did for decades. Toshinori Tetsutani never met his brother, Shinichi, who died at age 3 from the blast, nor his two sisters, who were also killed. After Shinichi died, his parents couldn\u2019t bear to give his body for mass burial. They secretly interred him in their garden, along with a neighborhood girl. Next to the children, they nestled a tricycle, Shinichi\u2019s prized toy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Forty years later, the parents, with their sons born after the war, dug into the ground. They found tiny skeletons holding hands, just as they had been placed. The tricycle was unearthed and donated to the Hiroshima peace museum. From Shinichi\u2019s skull, covered in a helmet, the roots of a fig and a pomegranate tree grew. The boys born after the war had eaten fruit from those trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/multimedia\/05int-hiroshima-3-07-zhvm\/05int-hiroshima-3-07-zhvm-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"A man and his adult daughter stand looking at an exhibit of a tricycle and an enlarged old photograph of two children.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Toshinori Tetsutani and his daughter, Yoshiko Konishi, looked at the tricycle that once belonged to Mr. Tetsutani\u2019s brother, Shinichi, who was killed in the bombing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/05\/05int-hiroshima-01-zhkq-cover\/05int-hiroshima-01-zhkq-cover-verticalTwoByThree735.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mr. Tetsutani performs a ritual in the garden of his home, where the remains of his brother and a girl from the same neighborhood were interred after the atomic bombing.CreditCredit&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Yoshiko Konishi, Mr. Tetsutani\u2019s daughter, now tells the tale of Shinichi to children like her own. Some schools in Hiroshima have stopped commemorating the anniversary of the bombing. Fewer survivors are alive to share their memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt feels a little strange saying this in Hiroshima, but I worry that we might forget,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ms. Kiriake, the 95-year-old survivor of the bombing, remembers how no one expected anything to grow again in Hiroshima\u2019s scorched soil. But the next spring, seedlings pushed through the earth. Pink oleander flowers bloomed. Years later, Ms. Kiriake planted in her garden a cutting from an oleander tree growing near the point of the bomb\u2019s greatest impact. It blossoms every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was happy that the plants grew,\u201d she said of the sight of green in a charred city 80 years ago. \u201cI thought, this will be fine, and I will be able to live.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A correction was made on<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aug. 6, 2025:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A picture caption with an earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to a treaty that Japan has not signed. It is the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, not the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:nytnews@nytimes.com\">nytnews@nytimes.com<\/a>.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/explain\/2022\/new-york-times-journalism\">Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/hannah-beech\">Hannah Beech<\/a>&nbsp;is a Times reporter based in Bangkok who has been covering Asia for more than 25 years. She focuses on in-depth and investigative stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/hisako-ueno\">Hisako Ueno<\/a>&nbsp;is a reporter and researcher based in Tokyo, writing on Japanese politics, business, labor, gender and culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/chang-w-lee\">Chang W. Lee<\/a>&nbsp;has been a photographer for The Times for 30 years, covering events throughout the world. He is currently based in Seoul. Follow him on Instagram&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nytchangster\/\">@nytchangster<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eighty years after the atomic bombing, some Japanese think that peace for peace\u2019s sake is no longer enough. Listen to this article\u00a0\u00b7 18:02 min\u00a0Learn more By&nbsp;Hannah Beech&nbsp;and&nbsp;Hisako Ueno Visuals by&nbsp;Chang W. Lee Reporting from Hiroshima, Japan There is a Peace Boulevard, a Peace Bell and a Peace Memorial Park. On a recent summer afternoon, at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16615,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16614\/revisions\/16615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}