Forged by Fear and Fate

When the atomic bombs fell in Japan during World War II, Chiyeko Hamada was a young woman whose world had already been destroyed.  She was an American citizen, but her freedom had been taken away.  Because of her Japanese ancestry, she had been forced from her home in Auburn, Washington and sent to a war relocation camp in Tule Lake, California.  Three years of living behind a barbed wire fence were difficult for Chiyeko and her family. When World War II ended in 1945, there was nothing left for them in the United States.  The family moved back to Japan. There they started a new life only miles away from the devastated city of Hiroshima and the site of the atomic bomb.  Chiyeko lived through the unthinkable aftermath of nuclear destruction. Now eighty-three years old, she has seen a lifetime of changes in the world because of the atomic bomb.  Strengthened by the difficult experiences of her earlier life, she openly shares her thoughts.

When the bomb dropped, I was still only twenty or twenty-one, so what little information that we got through the radio, it’s kind of hard to remember what had happened.  But because there was no newspaper, it was only the little news inside the camp.  Probably a lot of people listened to the radio and got more information through the radio.  I know my father probably listened to most of it.

We arrived in Japan January 13, 1946.  My father wanted to go back, so we all decided to go back.  That’s when my time in Japan started.  We lived in a little town called Kuchitamura about four, five miles away from the civic center of Hiroshima.  When I got there, there were a lot of people who had already died.   I knew there were a lot of people who had radiation sickness.  I think the radiation made them have a headache and their color would be bad.   They look bad because a lot of them have leukemia and other cancer.
 

I know that when there was a little baby that was born around the time after the atomic bomb dropped, that the baby got sick.  The kids were exposed with all the radiation and they sometimes got leukemia and other kinds of cancer.  They don't get sick right away, sometimes they don't get sick until they are older.  

I saw a lot of school girls when they had to catch the train or tram to go to school.  These young girls were burned pretty bad and there were a lot of scars and everything on them.  I think the most who were burned a lot probably didn’t survive. They probably all passed away.  As the years went by, you don’t see that many people who have had the effects of the atomic bomb.  They either passed away or whatever toward the end.

I worked for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in the administrative section called the bio-statistics department.  Because of the after-effect of the atomic bomb, they had a section called patient contacting.  They would go and pick up the injured people and bring them to ABCC.  There’s a doctor office and they would check each patient to see the result after the bomb.  They kept records of all the patients.  I met my husband there and we got married.  After I got married, I quit my job there.
 

My sister-in-law and her parents lived in Hiroshima city and they had a little store.  Both her parents perished in the atomic bomb.  By working in Hiroshima, she had all the glass of broken windows embedded in her skin.   Japanese people usually shave a lot, even women.  When she used to, it got caught on a piece of glass.  I felt it on her arm, several little pieces of glass still embedded in her.  It was never taken out. 

I don't think anyone really knew about what had happened after the atomic bomb.  Everyone in our village was poor.  We didn't have enough to eat.  Jichan used to make the most money in the village, but then we only had enough money to buy food for two weeks. 

I think people in the world didn't know about it for a long time.  Even if you read about it, you don't know how bad it really is.  I think people were afraid and they didn't want that to happen to them.  I think the United States showed how much power it has by dropping the atomic bomb on Japan.  It makes the other countries afraid of them.
 

I think everyone is afraid of a nuclear attack, but some countries like Russia wanted to have much power in the world.  I remember that there was Russia making nuclear weapons too and I think that's what the Cold War was about.  Japan was not really involved in that.  They signed something with the United States that said they would not go to war again.  Because Japan lost the war, Japan was not going to make nuclear weapons.  They didn't want any more nuclear bombs.
 

There were countries that were stockpiling nuclear weapons.  If everyone got rid of all the atomic bombs, then someone would still have them.  I think I heard or read someplace that even if we get rid of most of the nuclear weapons on the earth, there is still enough to kill everyone. 
 

I think that terrorists would use an atomic bomb to kill a lot of people and they want to kill a lot of people. All terrorists would have to do is to get just one atomic bomb and use it.  Then they can start a nuclear war.
 

I read something about nuclear medicine.  I think that nuclear technology made the world better.  Before the atomic bomb was dropped, nobody knew about cancer and radiation.  I read about cancer and how they find out about tumors.  They can find out a lot about cancer.  Now, I think that there's a machine that looks inside your body.  They talk about MRI or something like that.
 

Also, I know that there is nuclear energy.  When we go to San Diego to take Lisa to school, there is a place called San Onofre.  It's right by the ocean.  There's two big domes on the beach.  I think that it makes a lot of electricity.  It makes a lot of energy because you see all the electric lines going up the hillside.  They make nuclear power there.   

The bomb really changed our life, changed the way we live. 

Interviewed by Lauren Hamada