HIROSHIMA, July 6, 2025
Eyewitness Account Details Horrors of 1945 Bombing
A survivor’s story of resilience and a leader’s call for peace.
- Teruko Yahata, a Hiroshima bombing survivor, shares her experience with Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
- Yahata recounts the immediate aftermath and the long-term effects of the bombing.
- Martin reaffirms Ireland’s commitment to disarmament and denuclearization.
- The meeting highlights the resilience of humankind in the face of unimaginable tragedy.
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima on a sunny August morning in 1945 is a tragic event forever etched in history, and **Teruko Yahata’s survival story offers a powerful glimpse into the immediate and lasting consequences of the nuclear attack**.
Eight-year-old Teruko Yahata was playing in her garden when the U.S. warplane dropped a 4,400kg atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Forty-three seconds later, it detonated 600 meters above the city.
On Friday, Yahata told Taoiseach Micheál Martin that the first sign of the devastation was a blinding “bluish-white” light that suddenly illuminated the sky.
The second indication was the rising black/grey nuclear cloud, which Ms. Yahata described “as if the heavens had become a huge flower.”
The blast, detonated more than two kilometers from her district, knocked her unconscious.
The atomic bomb, dropped by the B-29 warplane Enola Gay, triggered a shockwave that leveled nearly every structure within a 1.5km radius. The heat generated a firestorm that engulfed district after district.
Reports estimate that 70,000 people died immediately, with another 70,000 succumbing to radiation sickness in the following months. More than half the city’s population was wiped out.
A Survivor’s Account Emerges Decades Later
Nearly eight decades later, Yahata recounted her eyewitness testimony. She spoke in English, a language she mastered at 83 to reach a wider audience without translators, showcasing her determination.
After regaining consciousness on Aug. 6, 1945, Yahata heard her mother calling her name. “I noticed that there were fragments of glass sticking out of her back, and her white dress was now stained bloody red,” she recalled.
She saw her father carrying her great-grandmother as they fled their destroyed home. “There was so much smoke in there, that I could barely see the inside of the house. It had been turned upside down, and the shattered glass from the sliding doors was everywhere,” she said.
Yahata remembered her mother praying as they left their ruined family home: “It was silent outside, and virtually all of the houses surrounding ours were destroyed.”
“We thought that there was sure to be a second and, perhaps, a third bombing,” she added, reflecting the terror of the moment.
Fleeing to the Mountains
The Yahata family fled to the mountains, seeking refuge with friends. However, hunger was rampant as societal structures collapsed.
Her testimony of surviving in a nuclear winter deeply affected everyone present, including Martin, who was horrified by her descriptions of radiation burns and starvation.
Yahata told him that she still cherishes a bowl of rice, a reminder of a stranger’s kindness during those desperate times.
Martin said the purpose of his visit to Hiroshima was to express sympathy to victims like Yahata and to reaffirm Ireland’s commitment to disarmament and denuclearization.
Ireland’s Taoiseach Weighs In
Against the backdrop of international tensions, Martin described the world as “a very dangerous place.” He cautioned against nuclear proliferation, particularly in regions like the Middle East.
He reflected on humanity’s paradox: “incredible ingenuity” alongside “profound stupidity,” evidenced by the development of weapons capable of planetary destruction.
“I was at the AI [Artificial Intelligence] summit in Paris… one person spoke about the application of AI to warfare, which would really be on a different level altogether, in terms of the destruction that could be wreaked on humankind.”
During his visit, Martin spent time with Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui. They laid a wreath at the cenotaph, a sculptured arc sheltering the souls of the bomb’s victims.
They also visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, or A-Bomb Dome, which remains standing despite being only 160m from the explosion’s hypocenter.
Martin learned from Matsui about the city’s recovery from the collective trauma. “I think the mayor made a very good point when he said to me… that you have to break the cycle of hate,” Martin noted. “You must learn to stop hating, and if you can do that, then you can build peace.”
He added that speaking with Yahata highlighted “the resilience of humankind. It’s quite extraordinary that she survived.”
In 2013, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs appointed Yahata as Ambassador for Denuclearisation, recognizing her tireless advocacy.
A Personal Connection
Martin revealed: “As it transpires, her daughter married an Irishman living in the United Kingdom, and she has a grandson, Conor. She said [he was] named after a great Irish King… so the world is indeed a small place.”
Indeed, it is a small and vulnerable place, as Yahata has testified for eight decades.
