A Lost Hiroshima Memoir Finds Hope Amid the Ruins

‘Hiroshima, 815: The Lost Memoir’By Kiyoshi TanimotoRandom House, 240 pagesOn August 6 1945 at 8:15 in the morning, Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a Methodist minister living in Hiroshima, Japan, was running errands for his parishioners. The city had been on high alert for an Allied air raid, and he was helping members of his congregation prepare. Standing on the front porch of a parishioner’s house, a strange flash prompted him to jump between two large rocks. Even though he had no idea what had just happened, this gesture saved him. He had, in fact, been expecting machine gun strafing from an American plane. Instead, he felt an enormous blast of wind and heat sweep over him.What Tanimoto could not understand was that the first atomic bomb in military warfare had just been dropped over Hiroshima. A destructive force unlike anything he had ever witnessed had just been unleashed. After a few minutes, Tanimoto struggled to his feet to witness the damage. In the place of the once bustling city, collapsed buildings and fires spread as far as he could see. Dazed, he walked towards ground zero, only to encounter a firestorm so intense the draft lifted him into the air. Walking back, he encountered countless wounded stumbling about in complete shock, while other survivors cried out from under collapsed buildings. Tanimoto had no way of comprehending the scope of the damage. 70,000 to 80,000 people were killed almost instantly. Later, when the city center had been consumed, dark clouds would cover the sky, followed by miasmal black rain with drops “as big as blackberries” filled with ash and debris.This is the beginning of Tanimoto’s account of Hiroshima, an extremely rare firsthand document released this year to coincide with the bombing’s 81st anniversary. The memoir was part of the archive of writer and journalist John Hersey, who famously penned the “Hiroshima” issue of the New Yorker. That issue, which devoted the entirety of an edition in August 1946 to Hersey’s meticulous 31,000-word account, introduced the general public to the firsthand testimony of survivors for the first time. Based on extensive interviews with six eyewitnesses, it described the horrors of atomic warfare in detail. Tanimoto, one of the six people whom Hersey spoke with, provided his verbal and written account. It remained obscured and undiscovered in Mr. Hersey’s papers until recently. “Hiroshima, 8:15: The Lost Memoir” is the entirety of Tanimoto’s written recollection, with a foreword by his daughter Koko Tanimoto Kondo. Written in straight forward, unvarnished prose, it effectively conveys his firsthand experiences in a manner so unassuming its impact is amplified. It remains matter-of-fact, even when Tanimoto recounts horrors that border on the surreal. He recalls a “procession of ghosts,” a line of completely silent survivors, eyebrows and hair burnt away, covered with patterned burns and skin “hanging in strips.” He comes across the bodies of several men carbonized the instant they were attempting to push a boat into water, turned into blackened statues of ash. He notes the eerie silence of the wounded, even those with devastating injuries, painting a portrait of a population completely benumbed with devastation.Tanimoto is benumbed as well. Already weakened by years of wartime rationing, he pushes himself out into the blighted landscape and helps however he can. He leads the wounded to medical care, sources fresh water for the thirsty, lifts up debris and digs for survivors. There are moments of joy, such as when he inexplicably manages to find his wife, relatively unscathed, holding their infant daughter, who is also unhurt. Tanimoto cannot rest, however, and refuses to flag. Only at one point, exhausted to the point he can no longer move, does he lie down among the wounded, one imagines for a moment before forcing himself up again.Remarkably, it becomes clear from his account that he has taken the sheer hellishness of the situation as a sign, a “seed” of hope. He concludes that what has happened is so unfathomable it can only signal a turning point. Just as an addict’s rock bottom signals the start of sobriety, firmly believes Hiroshima is the springboard for a new peace movement, when the depredations of war become impossible to accept. His notion of a peace center, which now occupies what was ground zero, is already manifesting in his mind as he tends to survivors mere days after the event.‘Hiroshima, 8:15: The Lost Memoir,’ by Kiyoshi Tanimoto. Modern LibraryThis is the spirit in which the memoir was written. Tanimoto continuously repeats his deep regret he cannot care enough for those affected by the bomb, and works tirelessly to help them in whatever way possible. His impulse to serve begins mere minutes after the blast, and carries on relentlessly to his concern about women disfigured by burns years later (he would secure them surgery with the best plastic surgeons in the US, free of charge). He refuses to assign blame to the US despite the devastation, understanding that war is war, and in fact enlists US politicians and donors continuously in his bid to build his peace center, spread his message, and further help survivors.In short, Tanimoto displays a type of character that has become nearly obsolete in today’s social media-driven, performative activism. Rather than wallow in resentment, he is forgiving; rather than display entitlement, he is devoted to service. Rather than demand retribution or reparations, he builds bridges and relationships. Instead of demonizing the perpetrators, he honors everyone’s common humanity. When introduced to Captain Robert A. Lewis, co-pilot of the Enola Gay, on American television, he is civil, and later the two later kept up a correspondence.In her introduction Tanimoto’s daughter Koko recalls her father’s unique disposition, one that allowed him to be a pivotal figure in the war’s aftermath. A Methodist minister educated and trained in the United States, he was already imbued with a unique understanding of the American perspective. His unyielding devotion to service based on his unshakeable belief in human dignity serves as an example in today’s increasingly divisive climate, where accounts of horror serve as a goad for indiscriminate hatred and harassment rather than reconciliation.The memoir is by no means an easy read. The details are harrowing and unrelenting. But it is also the testament of a remarkable individual, one who showed resilience in the face of incomprehensible horror and nevertheless emerged as a powerful force for peace.

A Lost Hiroshima Memoir Finds Hope Amid the Ruins

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