On August 6, 1945, 80 years ago, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Three days later, another bomb hit the city of Nagasaki. The war between the United States and Japan came to a tragic and cruel end with the use of these modern weapons of mass destruction, which instantly killed hundreds of thousands of children, women, and the elderly. The use of atomic bombs not only constituted a change in the war strategies of the great powers; it represented and represents a great danger to all humanity, given the material possibility of destroying our entire planet.
The Pacific War, which had been initiated by Japan with its attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, brought a period of suffering, sacrifice, and hardship to the Japanese people. By the beginning of 1945, the population no longer had the strength to continue the demands of the Japanese army. The imperial forces themselves were also in no physical condition to defend Japanese territory, occupied since April of that year during the US army's landing on Okinawa. Although Japan was on the verge of capitulation, the US military high command decided to test these new weapons to demonstrate to their future enemies that they had established themselves as the most powerful power in the world.
The fact that tens of thousands of Japanese settled in various countries in the Americas did not mean they were immune to the effects of the war. Japanese immigrants had arrived since the beginning of the 20th century; over the course of these four decades, they created numerous communities in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Peru. As part of the long trail that led to Pearl Harbor, the immigrants were stigmatized and persecuted from the moment they arrived, as the U.S. government considered them part of the Japanese army and an advance guard, a "fifth column," of the Japanese invasion of the continent.
Many of the immigrants and their descendants suffered and even witnessed the atomic bombs. Such is the case of Concepción Hiramuro and Yasuaki Yamashita, who currently live in Mexico. Telling the story of these hibakusha who survived the horror left by the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki means not only showing what they endured, but also warning of the great dangers humanity currently faces, as nine countries possess atomic weapons, still a thousand times more powerful than those dropped on Japanese cities.
Toraichi Hiramuro, Concepción's father, was one of the Japanese pioneers who arrived in Peru in 1907 in search of work. Due to the difficult working conditions faced by immigrants, Hiramuro chose to move to Mexico in 1912. In the state of Sonora, Toraichi found work as a gardener at the Southern Pacific railroad station in Empalme, Sonora. The company had already expanded its rail network from the United States to Guadalajara. Over time, Toraichi trained at the Southern Pacific hospital, where he took over the radiology department.
In the 1930s, Toraichi married Kiyoko, an immigrant from Hiroshima, and had three children: Clara, Fernando, and Concepción. In late 1940, Kiyoko and her three children moved to Hiroshima with the intention of educating the children in Japan. When war broke out the following year, the family was stranded across the ocean, unable to communicate.
Daily life for Kiyoko and her three children in Japan became more difficult by the day, as the shortages were part of the sacrifices the Japanese government imposed on the entire population to support rapidly increasing military spending. The Hiramuros no longer had the support of Toraichi, as relations between Mexico and Japan were severed. With the money the family had saved in Mexico, Kiyoko was able to buy a house, which she rented, in downtown Hiroshima.
In 1945, all of the country's resources were being used to sustain a war that was already lost. The situation was desperate for the population, as shortages were widespread. In particular, the scarcity of food available led to increased malnutrition among children, and metal utensils used to prepare food were used to make weapons.
On the morning of August 6, 1945, the atomic bomb fell on the city center. Kiyoko and little Concepción were at a neighborhood meeting. Clara, despite her young age, worked with her high school classmates in a factory because the students were called up to participate in the war effort. Fernando, along with all the students from the third grade onward, had been transferred to a temple on the outskirts of the city, to be protected from the American air force bombers, which were now flying in the open air, given the Japanese artillery's inability to reach the altitude of the enormous B-29 bombers.
At the moment the bomb exploded, at 8:15 a.m., Fernando was standing in a group with all the students in the courtyard of the Tsuta Temple. The first thing he felt was a very intense light, and then, in the distance, he saw a huge column of smoke, followed by an explosion that shattered the temple's windows. At that moment, the students were unaware of the city's destruction because the temple was surrounded by mountains that protected it. In the afternoon, reports that the city was in ashes began to arrive from the burned-out farmers themselves, who reported it. The city was completely destroyed, as the shock wave reached up to 10 kilometers from the hypocenter. A huge wave of fire, heat, and wind, more powerful than a hurricane, consumed the city and instantly killed 70,000 people.
We will never know exactly how many people died at that time, but unfortunately, the death toll increased over time due to the release of X-rays, gamma rays, and neutrons generated by the atomic explosion, which passed through the bodies of thousands of people who apparently suffered no physical damage. The deaths of civilians constitute the most tragic fact. By the end of that fateful year, 140,000 people in Hiroshima had died. In other cities that had been attacked with conventional bombs, nearly 200,000 people died.
Fortunately, the Hiramuro family managed to survive, but the years following this massive destruction were so terrible due to the lack of food, medicine, and clothing. The entire country collapsed, with more than 60 cities destroyed, and the lack of materials of all kinds rendered factories and agriculture unable to function. Hunger reached such desperate levels that the American occupation authorities, led by General Douglas MacArthur, demanded that his government import food supplies in anticipation of an imminent revolt.
In Nagasaki, 6-year-old Yasuaki Yamashita lived 2.5 kilometers from the hypocenter of the bomb explosion. He was the youngest son in a family of six. The older boys had been drafted into the army, and only his two sisters and his parents lived at home. From a very young age, Yasuaki was responsible for fetching water for his home due to the lack of running water. He also went with other children to collect coal waste from the Mitsubishi shipyard, the factory where warships were built.
On that sunny, clear morning of August 9, at 11:02 a.m. when the bomb exploded, Yasuaki was playing outside his house. The first thing he felt was an intense light that blinded him, followed by an explosion that knocked him to the ground, along with his mother, who shielded him with her body. The little boy managed to escape the direct blast, unlike his friends, who had gone hunting for insects and dragonflies on a mountainside near their home.
Yasuaki felt thousands of objects flying over his head, his house had been destroyed, and from the community shelter he went to with his sister and mother, he was able to see how the fire consumed his city.
Without food, the Yamashitas headed to the outskirts of the city to obtain whatever food their peasant relatives provided, without any luck. Unfortunately, they had to pass through the hypocenter of the bomb's explosion, seeing the thousands of bodies scattered about. Radioactive contamination spread due to the rain, black rain, that fell after the bomb exploded. The contaminated water and radioactivity in general would eventually cause diseases such as cancer in various parts of the body and leukemia.
The temperature generated by the bomb melted the metal, leaving only shadows of the people at the hypocenter, etched into the stone. Yasuaki rightly claims that the images he saw could not have been imagined even in hell itself. It is estimated that 30,000 people died at the moment of the explosion, but by the end of the year, a total of 70,000 had died in Nagasaki alone. Yasuaki's father was one of them.
The Hiramuro family managed to return to Mexico in 1950. Yasuaki came to work in Mexico during the Olympics in 1968. In search of oblivion and to avoid the discrimination to which the hibakusha were and are subjected, Yasuaki would not return to Japan.
Concepción Hiramuro currently lives in Guadalajara, and Yasuaki Yamashita in San Miguel de Allende. Both are exemplary in the struggle for peace and against the production and use of atomic weapons. In 2024, the Japanese organization that represents survivors of the massacre, Nihon Hidankyo, received the Nobel Peace Prize. The Committee that awarded the prize recognized the ongoing struggle of all the hibakusha who share their testimonies and are a living example of the horror left by the use of atomic bombs.
Today, there are more than 14,000 nuclear bombs, hundreds of them available to be launched right now by any country that possesses them. It is a great joy that Mexico has Concepción and Yasuaki, and that at their age they have been recognized with the Nobel Prize and that they share their testimonies: Never again Hiroshima and Nagasaki!
© 2025 Sergio Hernández Galindo
