We met Ms. Lois Yagi, a ninety-eight-year-old woman, on a cloudy summer day. Yagi-san is a beautiful and gentle woman with a calm but confident aura. As we sat down, we knew Yagi-san was no ordinary woman. Yagi-san starts her experience with a compelling quote, “It was so long ago… however, even though I may be forgetting many things, those horrific images are branded in me forever.” Just by hearing this one sentence, we could tell that Yagi-san holds many sorrowful memories.

Like many children, Yagi-san was one of the war orphan who lost all her families during World World II. On August 6th, 1945, Yagi-san was hiding in an underground shelter, fear for the on and off bombing in Hiroshima. While Ms. Yagi was sheltering herself in the bunker, the atomic bomb wiped the surface and radiated the city. After recovering her hearing from the blast of atomic bomb, she stayed with a few others in the bunker for about ten days before exiting. Once reaching the surface, she was horrified by the sight of people covered with burns and injuries. Even though she didn’t feel the immediate consequences of the atomic bomb, like some other survivors, Yagi-san later suffered from the black rain which caused her to lose all her hair at once. Black rain was known to contain radioactive materials. Some people who were exposed to black rain over time have sadly developed cancer.

By listening to Ms. Yagi’s personal story, we learned that the aftermath of being an atomic bomb survivor is not just experiencing the physical suffering, but also remembering the frightening sights of the horrific event. Yagi-san states, “We must make sure to prevent such horrific events from ever happening once more.”