Entrevistas

1. Nisei Parents

2. His family Traveled to Japan in 1940

3. His Memory of August 6, 1945

4. Immediately after the bombing

5. Escape from Hiroshima

6. Other family members not as lucky

7. Returning to Hiroshima in ruins

8. His parents had little hope that he had survived the atomic bomb

9. Reuniting with parents in America

10. Adjustment to American life

11. The moment he realized he identified as an American

12. Overcoming trauma and speaking about his A-Bomb experience

13. On telling his wife he had radiation sickness and his son’s cancer

14. His views on nuclear weapons

Howard Kakita

(n. 1938) Nipo-americano. Sobrevivente da bomba atômica de Hiroshima

Overcoming trauma and speaking about his A-Bomb experience

After I came back from Japan, this is back in 1948, my mother would tell me that I used to wake up in the middle of the night screaming—nightmares. And I had difficulty with some of the food items. Anything that had a tinge of red like spaghetti with marinara sauce, a pink orange or pink grapefruit, I had trouble with that, rare meat. Anything that reminded me of the carnage that I witnessed as a child. So I had trouble eating and swallowing those items.

But as time went by, by 1955, 10 years after the A Bomb, things seemed to have dissipated. Since then, I've been able to talk about it. Although some subjects I get into sometime gets me a little bit choked up. But I could discuss this things, perhaps with less emotion than some of the people in the audience because I've done it so often and maybe I’ve become hardened to it. So yes there’s some difficulty, but it’s not unbearable.

bomba atômica sobreviventes da bomba atômica hibakusha Hiroshima (cidade) Província de Hiroshima Japão trauma Segunda Guerra Mundial

Data: September 3, 2019

Localização Geográfica: California, US

Entrevistado: Masako Miki

País: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Entrevistados

Howard Kakita nasceu em 1938 em East Los Angeles, Califórnia. Sua família o levou para o Japão em 1940. Seus pais e o irmão mais novo voltaram para os Estados Unidos em 1940 para cuidar dos negócios da família, mas Howard e um irmão mais velho, Kenny, ficaram no Japão.

Quando a guerra eclodiu, sua família nos EUA foi encarcerada em Poston, AZ. Em 6 de agosto de 1945, a bomba atômica foi lançada em Hiroshima. Howard estava a 1,3km do hipocentro e sobreviveu. Ele e Kenny voltaram para os EUA e reuniram-se com sua família em 1948.

Howard seguiu carreira em Engenharia da Computação. Após sua aposentadoria, ingressou na American Society Hiroshima-Nagasaki Survivors Bomb Atomic (ASA) e tem compartilhado ativamente sua experiência com a bomba atômica. (Setembro de 2019)

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