A-bomb survivor tells of torments, appeals for peace
TOKYO, Aug. 2 Kyodo - A survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Wednesday told of the torments she suffered as a result of the bomb and issued an appeal for peace ahead of the 55th anniversary of the A-bomb attack on Sunday.
Seiko Ikeda, executive vice president of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organizations, told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan how she survived the attack by the ''devil's weapon'' and called for world peace.
The atomic bomb attack claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people, the vast majority of whom were civilians.
Ikeda, who suffered serious burns and lost her original appearance at age 12 after the bomb hit the ground 1.5 kilometers away, said she can remember the scene 55 years ago ''more clearly than a dream she had this morning.''
''No artists could correctly depict the color of blood and the victims' screams seen and heard under the mushroom cloud,'' she said, adding that the city of Hiroshima, with its population of 350,000, was instantly reduced to ashes and that bodies were piled up in the city ''like roasted fish.''
Ikeda received medical treatment at the time and was reunited with her father later on Aug. 6. But she hovered between life and death immediately after the bombing -- her skin had peeled off and she suffered such symptoms as nausea, diarrhea and high fever.
Even after her condition improved, Ikeda suffered mental agonies over her completely changed face, which now had thick scars, and she thought about committing suicide. But with support from her family, she gained the strength to live and underwent plastic surgery as many as 15 times.
''Even today, people die from the aftereffects of the atomic bombing. The threat of death always haunts me,'' said Ikeda, who is now a grandmother of five children, none of whom suffered any birth defects.
Ikeda said that she does not hate the United States for dropping the atomic bomb but rather detests war which destroys humanity, and that as a Japanese citizen she feels remorse for the pains inflicted by Japan on people in other Asian countries before and during the war.
Ikeda, who has been engaged in peace activities for about 45 years, has traveled overseas to spread her peace message. Among the countries she has visited are the U.S., China, India and Pakistan, all of which possess nuclear weapons.
She also said that nowadays victims of exposure to radiation can be found not only in Hiroshima and Nagasaki but in other sites such as the former Soviet nuclear test site Semipalatinsk in Kazakstan, and called for global action to bring about peace.
==Kyodo
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