Report on Meeting with Etsuko Nagano

As I sat waiting to meet Etsuko Nagano I was scared and nervous, I had meet Hibakusha before but never one to one. I felt humbled and honoured; I had no idea what to say. Nagano was very gracious and she had a beautiful smile, she reminded me of my grandmother which made the stories she had to tell even harder to hear.

Nagano apologised that she was a little late as she had been to get her hair done. Once introduced she began to tell her story of the day the bomb dropped in Nagasaki. She was working in a factory 3km from the epicentre of the blast and described in detail the harrowing pilgrimage she made to what was left of her home. On the way she found her father who was badly injured. When she reached where her home had been there was nothing left but the charred body of what she thought was her mother. On their escape from the ruins of a city they found a disfigured body, barely moving at a shelter he moaned to the cry of her brother’s name ‘Sei-chan’ but it was only by his id tag that they could tell that it was him. As they left the shelter wandering in the darkness they found her mother and sister.

Only now reunited as a family could her brother finally died in peace, he passed away on August 11th. Nagano describes this as good fortune as most of Nagasaki’s victims had to die among strangers without their families, I struggle to find any good fortune in her brother’s death. Sei-chan loved to catch dragonflies and was nine when he died. A month after the bombing on September 10th Nagano’s sister died from atomic poisoning, she was thirteen years old. Nagano herself displays no sickness from the bombing, sometimes she curses herself for surviving when her brother and sister where not so fortunate.

The grace and passion with which she told her story left me dumb and empty. I did not know what to say to lady who had seen and suffered so much. She smiled and said I should not be sad for her as she had grown to see her healthy grandchildren. That she told these stories so that maybe just one more person would understand the horror of war and the value of peace. Nagano said she does not have to wait for death to see hell; she has seen it and will never forget.

I wondered how she could tell these stories over and over but when she spoke of her brother and sister the happiness of her memory made me understand. Regaining some of my powers of speech I asked Nagano what she would say to the leaders of my country who had these of such grief and devastation, “Never do this again”. I asked her about her grandchildren and there again was that beautiful smile, she told me their names and showed a picture of some them playing.

Soon our time was up and she had to go, she gave a copy of her story and a map of her pilgrimage from factory to home, marked with little crosses were where her brother and sister had died. Nagano’s family, and ultimately Nagano herself, must be kept alive in our memories.

The world cannot be allowed to forget.

Iain Naughton

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