彼らが皆原爆で死んでいたら、今の私は存在しない。被爆後も精一杯生き残ってくれたおかげで「私」という存在があることに、先人への敬意や感謝を抱く。

　「光の肖像」プロジェクトでは、被爆体験はもちろんだが、被爆後どのように生きてこられたかということにも重点を置いている。生命のリレーのバトンをもらった私自身もある意味その後のひとつであり、原爆を通して自身における「生命のリレー」「流転」の具現として、プロジェクト作品とは別に自分、姉、その子供をモデルにした作品も制作している。それらもこの後ここに紹介する。

Portrait No.10

Born: 1914. Age at time of painting: 92. Hometown: Hiroshima (Higashi-Hiratsuka-cho). Daughter of a fisherman, she had two brothers and was the sixth of seven daughters.

She was 32 at the time of the atomic bombing. At her home in Higashi-Hiratsuka-cho, she had just carried some dry laundry indoors when she was sent flying by the blast wave. Her home was completely destroyed. Although she was buried underneath the house, she miraculously was not seriously injured and managed to crawl outside under her own power. Separated from her parents, she fled to Hijiyama Hill while carrying a seriously injured child from her neighborhood. Afterward, she headed to the home of some relatives in Shimane Prefecture, where her four children had been evacuated earlier. She then lived there for a while. Her husband, who was a fireman and had engaged in rescue operations in the city after the bombing, passed away in the line of duty one month after the attack.

Later she became remarried to a man she came to know in Shimane. She thus moved to Hiroshima and, while working in a school lunch program job, raised her four children in an atmosphere in which the institution of "family" was highly cherished.

"We are so blessed to have ordinary, commonplace lives. We seem to take such things for granted." Through eyes filled with vibrant energy, she speaks from personal experience of this fundamental truth, which those of today tend to lose sight of. Having overcome immense grief, she now lives a quiet life in her second son's home, surrounded by a warm and loving family.

Her interests include listening to music and reading.

Here it is in translation

Portrait No.9

Born: 1927. Age at time of painting:      Hometown: Hiroshima (Miyoshi City). 

　1927年（昭和2）生。広島県三次市出身。

救護看護養成学校２年（１７才）のときに被爆。学徒動員にて広島赤十字病院（広島市千田町）に勤務中、医療器具を多く保管している部屋で爆風に遭い、器具の下敷きとなり意識を失うが、昼過ぎに目覚めて自力で這い出る。自身も怪我をしていたが、１０月に帰郷するまで、患者さんや怪我をした人の救命、たくさん運び込まれてくる死体の処置を行う。

　「足の動く人はみんな逃げていったが、看護婦は逃げることが出来ない。自分達の身が、危険にさらされても、救命という自分達の使命を果たした。」

　「あの時のヒロシマが、現在のようにこんなに復興するなんて夢みたいです。」とその表情には力強さとやさしさが滲み、たくましさに溢れていた。

　看護婦を定年後、第二の人生として身につけてきた剣舞の指導者となり、平和の舞なども講演している。また、大学や短大などで、看護に関する講義も行い、幅広く活動している。

「光の肖像」展2005

Here it is in translation

Portrait No.33

Born: 1929. Age at time of painting:     Hometown: Hiroshima (Mitaki-cho, Nishi-ku). 

　1929年（昭和4）生。広島市西区三滝町出身。日本銀行広島支店に勤める父、農業や家事を行う母、祖父母、妹の六人家族で暮らしていた。

　広島県立第一高等女子学校4年生（17歳）の時に被爆。当時は学徒動員であったが、6日は第二司令部へ行く配置換えのため、学校はお休みで、三滝町の自宅にいた。

家は壊れたものの、自宅を含む一筋の数件の家が奇跡的に形を残した。市内へ救助にいく甲山町からの青年団や近所の人々が、残った家屋の片付けを手伝ってくれた。足に怪我をしたため、自宅にて静養する。復興のための団体、家を失った近所の人々や、行くところを失った人々などが家に出入りし、しばらくは多くの人々と生活をともにした。多くの人々を助けたその実家は、形を変えて今も尚、その場所で一家族の歴史を刻み続けている。

　戦後は、県庁に勤めていた主人と結婚。一男一女をもうけた。現在は4人の孫にも恵まれ、幸せな毎日を過ごしている。

　「二度とあってほしくない、ただそれだけです。」

やさしさに満ちた微笑は一瞬消え、今に対する想いを俯(うつむ)きながら一言静かに語る。

「光の肖像」展2006

Portrait No.65

Born: 1942. Age at time of painting: 66. Hometown: Hiroshima (Kawara-machi,Naka-ku). During the war, she was evacuated to Hiroshima, Nishi-ku, Koiue, and she lived in a family of seven in her grandparents' house – together with her parents and her two elder brothers.

She was at home, aged three, when the bomb fell. She had been helping her mother with the laundry, pumping water for her. Her mother hugged her right away and sheltered her inside. Her grandfather, who had been shaving, was stabbed in one eye by flying glass and was blinded. Although all members of the family were subjected to the bomb – her father in the basement of City Hall where he worked, her eldest brother in the Hiroshima Technical Vocational School, her second brother, who was a student at the Hiroshima Middle School No. 2, at the East Drill Ground – the entire family was fortunate enough to survive. She still remembers her father covered in blood, and her second brother with burns all over his body, when they came home.

As their house was left standing, many of their relatives and acquaintances fled there from the city for shelter. She was three at the time, and so was very happy so many people had come over – but the fact that many of them perished, and the memory of the big carp floating on the pond, all dead from the black rain, left powerful memories in her child’s heart.

After marrying in 1965, she had one son and two daughters. At the time of the marriage, only survivors who had been within 1km of the hypocenter were provided with certificates to prove they had been victims of the bomb; in 1966 this changed to include those who had been within 2km of the blast, and they were provided with the same certificates. When applying for the certificate, her husband and mother-in-law found out for the first time she was a survivor of the bomb, and she was very shocked at their surprise. She says, "After the war, many people were discriminated against when they tried to marry and it was known they had experienced the bomb, they all suffered a lot. Many hurtful things and rumors were spread through ignorance, and the people who experienced this invisible hurt on top of their injuries from the bomb will not talk about it. This is not a problem that can be solved with money." She adds, "There is too much greed in the world today. If people took one step back, away from that greed, it would be one step towards peace."

Currently she is in good health and lives with her husband. Among her hobbies are the tea ceremony and travelling. She is also active sharing with audiences her painful memories for peace.

Portrait No.101

Born: 1939, Age at time of painting: 76. She comes from Higashi-hiratsuka-cho, Hiroshima City. Her father worked as a firefighter; she was the eldest daughter (with three brothers).

Before the bomb, the children of the family had been evacuated to Shimane Prefecture. But soon after the bomb was dropped, when she was six years old, they entered Hiroshima City to search for their father, aunt, and other relatives whose safety had not been confirmed. This was when the children were exposed to radiation. In addition, she had been suffering from a kidney disease but could not receive treatment in the village where the children had taken refuge, so she also came to Hiroshima to see the family doctor at a clinic. However, they could not find the doctor, nor could they find their aunt (who worked at the Hiroshima First Army Hospital) anywhere; her remains and bones were never found.

On August 6, their mother and father were hit by the A-bomb while at home in Higashi-hiratsuka-cho and in Nagarekawa-cho, respectively. The mother (No. 10) survived and subsequently traveled to Shimane to see her children. But the father, who was a firefighter, suffered severe burns to his back on his way home from a fire station after a night shift. Still active immediately after the bombing, he started to work on rescue operations right away, and stayed in the city for some time. He won an award a few days later for rescuing many people, but then died in the line of duty on August 31 due to disease caused by the bomb, 25 days after it was dropped. She remembers how her father died: maggots were breeding in the flesh and the whole body was rotting.

After the war, the children returned to Hiroshima from the village where they had taken refuge, but the bomb had destroyed every trace of their house in Higashi-hiratsuka-cho. During the reconstruction, she changed schools in the city from Funairi Elementary School to Kanzaki Elementary School, and remembers how numerous bones would emerge whenever she slightly disturbed the surface of the playground.

“I hate war because it suddenly killed my family and took away our happiness.”

She got married at the age of 24 and had two daughters. She worked for the Hiroshima City Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Promotion Center for nearly 30 years. Currently, she lives with her husband and enjoys hobbies (gardening and listening to music).

Portrait No.116

Born: 1927. Age at time of painting: 87. Hometown:Hiroshima(Misasa-cho, Asa-gun / Current-day Kusunoki-cho, Nishi-ku, Hiroshima City). She was raised as the sixth of eight girls. Her father passed away early, and her mother raised the whole family by herself.

She experienced the atomic bombing at 17 years of age as she was put on her shoes in the front corridor of her house to go to her workplace at the Chugoku Shimbun Newspaper Company. The instant the light flashed, she grabbed her nephew who was nearby and tried to flee to a small, self-made air-raid shelter, but the second she ducked down to get inside, she became trapped under its broken tin roof. Shards of glass from the window came raining down from the blast, but the tin roof protected them.

Those who were indoors were not burnt, but her oldest sister and the baby who were outside suffered great burns. When she went outside, there were flames coming out of the charcoal shop at the back of their house, and not understanding what had happened, she fled to Oshiba Park. After a night had passed, no trace of the house she had lived in could be found on the burnt field. At night she slept on the embankment, and even though it was summer, it was cold after dark. While out to search for the fourth daughter, who was pregnant, she saw scenery consisting of nothing but people lying on the ground dying and pleading for water. She remembers seeing many corpses of people who, seeking water in the heat, went so far as to immerse themselves in the cesspool on a field. Later on, her family was able to rent a house near Oshiba Elementary School. During the nights, the corpses piled in the school like mountains were burned and the smell was revolting. The husband of her sister, the fourth daughter, was still not to be found and the husband’s father passed away a week afterwards, so they went to burn him at the elementary school. She still feels the sadness of seeing large amounts of corpses burnt and the many deceased persons, like her missing brother-in-law, who had no one to tend to their graves.

After the war and until turning 65 years of age, she worked for 50 years at the Chugoku Shimbun Newspaper Company. At 27, she married and had two daughters. Now, she has five grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Traveling and sharing her daily life through haiku were her hobbies from 70 to 83 years of age.

“War is just awful. We don’t need or want it, already!”