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Stories from Japanese atomic bomb survivorspublished at 11:12 British Summer Time
11:12 BST
Image source, Getty ImagesThe city of Hiroshima was left in ruins
Chieko Kiriake remembers seeing a blinding light at 08:15 on 6 August 1945.
“It felt like the sun had fallen – and I grew dizzy,” she recalls.
The United States had just dropped an atomic bomb on Chieko’s home city of Hiroshima – the first time a nuclear weapon had ever been used in warfare.
Chieko was a student, but like many older pupils, had been sent out to work in the factories during the war.
She staggered to her school, carrying an injured friend on her back. Many of the students had been badly burnt. She rubbed old oil, found in the home economics classroom, onto their wounds.
“That was the only treatment we could give them. They died one after the next,” says Chieko.
“Us older students who survived were instructed by our teachers to dig a hole in the playground and I cremated [my classmates] with my own hands. I felt so awful for them.”
Estimates put the number of lost lives in Hiroshima, by the end of 1945, at about 140,000. In Nagasaki, which was bombed by the US three days later, at least 74,000 were killed.
It has been 80 years since the atomic bombs were dropped, and time is running out for the surviving victims – known as hibakusha in Japan – to tell their stories.
Many have lived with health problems, lost loved ones and been discriminated against because of the atomic attack.
They are now sharing their experiences, documenting the past so it can act as a warning for the future.