The first thing that surprised me when I entered university was the fact that Nagasaki Prefecture is the only prefecture in Japan where August 9 is a school day. August 9 was the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. I don't know how it is now, but I was born in 1974, and my generation was subjected to intense atomic bomb education from elementary school to high school. Every summer, we were bombarded with photos, videos, books, and lectures from every possible direction. Ignorance is a sin. There were many horrific photos and images that you would never see unless you went to get information on your own, and I was horrified by them. Summer for me was directly connected to the war, and it was like a black cloud in the sky.
Why were we the only ones who had to go through that? I felt indignant when I heard the stories of my university friends from other prefectures, but I was ready to forget about that time.
When I was in my second year of university, there was a student who returned to Japan from overseas who joined the orchestra club I belonged to. She was Japanese but had grown up in Germany all her life. She was a violinist and spoke German and English better than Japanese.
She first became friends with my boyfriend (now husband) through the band at his part-time job. We then became friends and began to talk about many things. One day, when she learned that I was from Nagasaki, she asked me in a light-hearted manner, “Did you learn about the atomic bomb in school? I learned about Hitler anyway. But that's to be expected."
I was shocked by her statement since I had never thought I would even want to discuss the subject of war. Then I realized the subject was only natural. I had rather resented the way I had been educated, and I was amazed by the way she said it as though it were obvious. I was embarrassed about how I had just kept running away from it.
Even after that, I was still afraid of the atomic bombing, and I had to be careful to keep it out of my sight. Every year, around the date that the war ended, I don't watch news programs because there is a good chance of seeing a mushroom cloud on TV. I am afraid of both oleander and black kites. Oleander was famous as the first flower to bloom in the burnt-out area after the atomic bombing, and black kites somehow often appeared in movies in which second-generation atomic bomb survivors died of leukemia. The striking scenery in the images and books that I was forced to study as a student remain in my mind, and even though they have nothing to do with the atomic bombing, the old wounds ache when I encounter them. However, a turning point came when I was over 30 years old, and I gradually opened my mind. I will tell you the story next time.
We have been exchanging New Year's cards with the girl born in Germany for decades also because she is a friend of my husband, who is good at keeping in touch with others.
I hope someday to visit Germany where she lives together with him.