A Fading Memory – A Rising Threat

Yui Fujiki is a Project Ploughshares Research Assistant. Read her bio here.

As a renewed threat of nuclear war intensifies, survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki offer their ultimate warning.

On July 21 of this year, in a quiet auditorium at Simon Fraser University (SFU), one of the living witnesses to nuclear war offered a plea that was at once personal and profoundly political. Nagasaki hibakusha and peace advocate Ms. Terumi Kuramori spoke with measured urgency about what she had endured and what the world must avoid repeating.

Her testimony, delivered at a public event co-hosted by SFU’s International Studies program, Peace Boat, and Mines Action Canada to mark the 80^th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, brought the distant horror of atomic warfare uncomfortably close. The event had three urgent themes: the long shadow of nuclear violence across generations; the global advocacy role of groups like Peace Boat; and the time-limited opportunity to act on disarmament with survivors like Ms. Kuramori.

Ms. Kuramori’s words are more than historical reflection; they are a warning rooted in lived experience. A warning for the time we are living in now. Arms control frameworks are crumbling. Major powers are modernizing their arsenals of nuclear weapons. Some, like Russia, openly brandish the nuclear threat.

Testimony Rooted in Silence and Stigma

Terumi Kuramori was a year old when the atomic bomb fell on her home city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. She and her family evacuated to an air raid shelter behind their home, located 5.8 kilometres from the hypocentre of the explosion.

In the quiet auditorium, Ms. Kuramori spoke of how, at the time, doctors were unaware of the long-term effects of radiation exposure. Many illnesses, such as cancer, went undiagnosed or were misunderstood. She said that the survivors “were not told it was cancer until later” and many died without adequate treatment.

“I don’t want anyone else to experience what I did. Nuclear weapons and human beings cannot co-exist.”

Nagasaki hibakusha Terumi Kuramori

She also emphasized the discrimination faced by hibakusha, particularly when seeking employment or marriage. Because of public fears about the effects of radiation on human genetics, survivors were often seen as unsuitable marriage partners. Women who did marry often experienced social stigma when they were pregnant, could not conceive, or miscarried. As Ms. Kuramori’s testimony shows, these struggles were experienced even by those who lived outside the officially recognized radiation zones.

Ms. Kuramori spoke frankly about the lack of public awareness and the pain of being excluded or silenced; her testimony served not only to recreate the past but to prevent the recurrence of such suffering. She showed clearly that the consequences of nuclear violence are not limited to the immediate destruction caused by a bomb but extend to often invisible, long-lasting damage to human bodies, reproductive health, and the ability of individuals to participate in society.

Her closing remark was simple and powerful: “I don’t want anyone else to experience what I did. Nuclear weapons and human beings cannot co-exist.”

Peace Boat: Testimony in Motion, Global Solidarity in Practice

Ms. Kuramori was a participant in Peace Boat’s international speaking tour, which has brought hibakusha voices to communities around the world. She joined Peace Boat when she was 60 years old and had come to recognize the importance of sharing not only personal experience but the collective memory and responsibility of hibakusha. It is noteworthy that the average age of hibakusha now exceeds 85 years.

But the broader mission of Peace Boat goes beyond the facilitation of storytelling, to building transnational awareness, action, and solidarity. Peace Boat integrates survivor testimony into its work on disaster recovery, peace education, and global justice. It supports humanitarian aid efforts in Iraq and Gaza, delivers wheelchairs and medical supplies, and connects youth across Asia and the Pacific for disarmament initiatives. In all these activities, Peace Boat links nuclear memory with international action.

Peace Boat collaborates with global networks such as the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict network of peacebuilders in Northeast Asia (GPPAC), and the Global Network of Victims and Survivors to End Wartime Sexual Violence (SEMA), as well as the Tehran Peace Museum. By so doing, it connects hibakusha voices to broader dialogues on human rights, sustainability, and armed conflict.

During the event at SFU, the audience witnessed the playing of the “A-Bombed Violin,” a preserved instrument that has been played around the world to call those who hear it to remember. They also learned about the “Time for Peace Project,” which links survivor testimonies to today’s unstable global environment, in which nuclear escalation remains a constant threat.

The event pointed to the need for greater media attention to those survivors of nuclear activity who live outside the official nuclear exposure zones and for education on past and ongoing nuclear injustice. 

A Personal Reflection on Responsibility

As I listened to Ms. Kuramori’s testimony, I was struck by not only the depth of her message but the urgency of her quiet conviction. And I thought about Canada’s recent peace efforts.

Canada often presents itself as a proponent of peace, yet it refuses to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Despite noting the devastating impacts of nuclear weapons in its international statements, Canada has not aligned its policies with the appeals of survivors like Ms. Kuramori. Such inaction reflects a continued reliance on NATO’s nuclear posture, one that undermines Canada’s credibility on disarmament. I believe this contradiction must be addressed openly, especially by those of us working in education, research, and public engagement.

I particularly valued Ms. Kuramori’s insistence that people outside recognized exposure zones continue to suffer, even though media and public discourse rarely acknowledge them.

Ultimately, Peace Boat’s transnational work shows that hibakusha testimony does not belong to Japan alone. It belongs to the world, and especially to countries like Canada, which still have the power to shape global norms on disarmament.

As the number of living hibakusha declines, we are left with a choice: we can let their testimonies fade into history or we can enshrine them as a foundation for policy, education, and international cooperation.

Hibakusha voices challenge all of us — in Canada, in Japan, and elsewhere — to reconsider how policy is shaped, whose suffering is recognized, and what kind of world we are building. I believe that it is our collective responsibility — across  institutions, governments, and communities — to ensure that these values inform our political choices. Acting on the testimony of hibakusha is not a sentimental but a just response. And the time to act is now, while witnesses are still speaking and the world still has a choice.

Photo: Nagasaki hibakusha and peace advocate Terumi Kuramori speaks at “Survivors of the Atomic Bomb – The Path to a World Without Nuclear Weapons,” a public event held at Simon Fraser University on July 21, 2025. Photo by Yui Fujiki