Nobel Laureate Setsuko Thurlow Recalls Hiroshima

SETSUKO THURLOW, HIROSHIMA SURVIVOR: I remember everything vividly. What was I doing? I was a 13-year-old, grade 8 student in junior high school. And Japan was losing badly. They had to recruit us, the young children, to do the work for the army. We were in the huge wooden building on the second floor one mile away from the ground zero. And then at 8:00, we started the morning assembly, and one day (INAUDIBLE) were speaking to us, giving us a cheer pep talk. Then suddenly I saw the bluest white flash, and I still have the sensation of floating up in the air. And when I regained consciousness, I found myself in total darkness and total silence, and I tried to move my body, but I couldn’t. So, I knew I was facing death. Then I started hearing faint voices of my friends around, and they were asking for help from their mothers, from their God. And then somebody strong, male voice said, don’t give up, don’t give up, keep pushing, keep kicking. I’m trying to free you. So, this man in the dark, I was rescued. I was able to come out of the building. But most of the 30 girls were burned to death alive.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: It sounds awful, Setsuko. I mean, of course, now we know what a terrible, terrible situation that was back then, 75 years ago. Do you remember being afraid? I mean, all this happened to you obviously and to all your friends around you. But do you remember how you felt and were you in pain?

THURLOW: That’s a very good question you’re asking, because I have often wondered why I did not feel any fear at that time. And later on, American psychiatrists from Yale University did the psychological study of the survivors. He came to (INAUDIBLE) and interviewed about 100 survivors, and we must have all said similar kind of experiences. You see, in a situation like that, stimuli is so grotesque, and our psyche closes it off to prevent such massive, grotesque stimuli to affect us.