The voice of 94-year-old anti-war cartoonist Susumu Nishiyama on the phone was filled with frustration as he couldn’t draw anymore because his hands couldn’t move as he wanted, despite his strong anger as a bombing survivor Nagasaki atomic bomb in Russia for hinting that it might use nuclear weapons in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
The four-picture comic “Orizuru-san,” which Nishiyama had serialized for 42 years in the Japanese Confederation of A- and H-bomb Victim Organizations’ monthly newspaper, had to be discontinued after its 501st issue in May 2021.
Nishiyama underwent surgery for stomach cancer six years ago, and his lung and kidney function also deteriorated. He can no longer walk and now lives in a nursing home in Fukuoka City. “My hands are not good. It’s a shame that I can’t draw,” he said, his voice shaking.
“President (Vladimir) Putin does not understand the horror of nuclear weapons,” Nishiyama told the Mainichi Shimbun. A day after the US military dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki 77 years ago, Nishiyama was ordered by his superiors at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd shipyard. from Nagasaki, where he worked, to go to a factory near the hypocenter to save the victims. On the way, he saw five children who had been burned to the ground as they covered their eyes, and a mother and her child who had been completely charred and fallen.
When he arrived at the factory, Nishiyama found a body lying on the ground, swollen with shards of glass piercing him everywhere, both hands pointing skyward and white grease oozing from the wounds. He tried to move the body of a female student who had been drafted to work at the factory, but the heavy machine tools there refused to move. A day passed without Nishiyama being able to do anything about the “rescue” mission, as he was just confused by the countless bodies.
“It’s hell. Only those who have been through it can really understand it,” Nishiyama commented. For several decades, until he entered the nursing home two years ago, he traveled to schools and other places with cartoons and stories of “kamishibai” picture boards he had drawn, and shared his experiences.
One day, Nishiyama, who was depressed because he no longer knew how to draw cartoons, received encouraging news. A “successor” to tell his atomic bomb stories had been found. Hitomi Shirabe, 60, leader of the citizens’ group Peace Baton Nagasaki, who had known Nishiyama for years, became the person to testify in place of the A-bomb survivor whom the city government had trained.
On May 10, Shirabe, whose parents are A-bomb survivors, was invited to a peace study class for sixth graders at Iizuka Higashi Municipal Elementary School in Iizuka, Fukuoka Prefecture. Coincidentally, the area around Iizuka is where Nishiyama spent several years as a coal miner soon after the war ended.
After the atomic bombing, Nishiyama returned to his parents’ home in Oita Prefecture, but suffered from what was called “bura bura disease” – unexplained physical problems caused by radiation exposure. His illness caused him to have a strained relationship with his family, so he ran away from home and came to the Iizuka area. Young Nishiyama drew cartoons for children in the coal mine housing complex and became their playmate.
Shirabe performed a picture board show for children at Iizuka Higashi Elementary School, depicting Nishiyama’s own experience of the atomic bombing. She then shared her thoughts with the children: “It is important to imagine what would happen if a war broke out. After listening to Shirabe’s speech, 11-year-old Sora Ogino said, “If an atomic bomb is used, anyone could die. I want to create a future without nuclear weapons.
Nishiyama was thrilled to hear about Shirabe’s telephone peace study course.
A few days after Mainichi Shimbun’s interview, Nishiyama sent a single-frame cartoon to a reporter. Residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are yelling at a large bird holding a nuclear weapon and watching them from the sky. The text, “Kakuheiki, Yamero!” (Stop nuclear weapons!) was written in shaking letters.
(Japanese original by Takehiro Higuchi, Nagasaki Office)