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“I was standing by a window on the third floor when I saw a powerful flash. I thought the sun had fallen down in front of my eyes. In a split second I saw rainbow coloured rays everywhere. That was the moment the bomb exploded.” - Fumiko Hashizume
Fumiko was exposed to the A-bomb while working as a student laborer at a branch of the Hiroshima Savings Bank, located 1.5 km from the hypocenter. Her whole body was pierced by glass fragments, and a major artery near her right ear was damaged.
After surviving the night amidst the raging fires in the city, she returned to the site of her home, where she reunited with her severely injured family.
For decades, Fumiko was unable to speak about her experience, but eventually, she began sharing her testimony through poetry and writing, and has since been active in anti-nuclear activities. Her physical condition has not been well for a single day since being exposed to the radiation.
Her experiences of the atomic bombing were made into a short anime film for children, A Hiroshima Girl’s Story of Survival in 2016.
Hashizume’s memoir (under the pen name Bun Hashizume) The Day the Sun Fell (Hiroshima kara no shuppatsu, 2014) is as much about her becoming a writer as it is about her experiences growing up in the aftermath of the atomic bomb.