Throughout Sumiteru Taniguchi's life, the scars he bore were a living testament to the international community about the harsh reality of the atomic bombings. 

Taniguchi, who died in 2017 at age 88, was among the many hibakusha who carried a powerful message to the world.

Taniguchi was 16 when he was exposed to the atomic bomb in Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, on a street 1.8 kilometers from the hypocenter.

While delivering mail by bicycle, he was knocked to the ground by the powerful blast.

Taniguchi was photographed by a U.S. service member while he was hospitalized for his severe injuries. His entire back was burned, blood was oozing from the wounds, and his eyes were closed.

After Taniguchi was discharged from the hospital, he engaged in anti-nuclear and victim relief activities for the Nagasaki Atomicbomb Survivors Council and other organizations.

He preferred to work behind the scenes and didn't speak of his own experiences for many years.

When Taniguchi was 41, he was inundated with requests to give lectures after a photograph of a boy with a horrifically scarred back found in the United States was identified as him.

Holding up the photo of the boy with the reddish injured back, Taniguchi told audiences, “Please don’t look away. I want you to look at this again. Please let me be the last hibakusha.”

He gave up to 280 lectures during a year. He went abroad 25 times, never resting his aching back against the seatback even on long flights.

Isabelle Townsend, 63, an actor living in France, first met Taniguchi in 1985.

After Taniguchi finished filming for a TV program, her father, who was a friend of his, asked Taniguchi if he would take off his shirt.

The scars on his skin were still fresh and his chest had a gaping wound.

“It was shocking to see how the atomic bombing had damaged his body,” Townsend said.

In May 2019, a theater play based on Taniguchi's life was performed in a Paris suburb. The play was created by Townsend after she received a request from a local school.

In October 2024, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), of which Taniguchi had served as a co-chairperson, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Townsend expressed joy and told reporters that, “I am moved that Taniguchi and all other hibakusha have been rewarded for the relentless activities and testimony that they have devoted their lives to.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, in its announcement awarding the prize, explained that, “The hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons.”

INJURED HIBAKUSHA BECOMES SYMBOL

Chieko Watanabe, who died at age 64, in 1993, was paralyzed in the atomic bomb blast when she was 16. She was working in a factory where she was mobilized for the war effort as a student, about 3 km from the hypocenter in Nagasaki.

She was pinned under a fallen steel frame and became bedridden.

Watanabe attended the World Conference against A and H Bombs held in Nagasaki in 1956.

As her mother carried Watanabe in her arms and walked to the podium, many flash bulbs went off among the news photographers covering the conference. 

In the midst of the clamor, Watanabe spoke to the audience.

“I hope that everyone in the world will take pictures of me and never create a person like me again,” she said. 

This event transformed Watanabe into a symbol of the hibakusha’s movement. She traveled around Japan and abroad in her wheelchair, calling for nuclear abolition and continued these activities into her later years.

SPREADING HIBAKUSHA'S WORDS

Another hibakusha, Yasuo Nagano, 81, composed a choral suite titled “Heiwa no Tabi e,” meaning "to a journey of peace," based on Watanabe’s words.

The musical piece depicts how she found hope in her peace activities as a storyteller, after days of suffering and despair. The suite has been performed in Japan and abroad, with approximately 153,000 people having listened to it.

At the end of October, Nagano gave an online lecture to a high school in Gifu Prefecture from Nagasaki where he lived.

“Your future will be a peaceful world without nuclear weapons,” he told the students. “I’m sure we can change the world. It is you who will make it happen.” 

(This article was written by Mami Okada and Takashi Ogawa.)