“I will never forget the image nor the smell of death,” are the words of Jack Dairiki, survivor of the attack on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. In my long career as a reporter, I will never forget the opportunity I had to speak to Dairiki at the San Francisco home he shares with his wife Jun. There, he told me his life story as an American, detained in Japan when war broke out. He spoke of his eventual return to the Bay Area, of his attendance at Cal and his enrollment in a free drawing class. “This is what came out,” he said, holding his depiction of a mushroom cloud. In 2024, Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese confederation of organizations recognizing A and H-Bomb sufferers, also known as the, hibakusha/survivors, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Since the bombings, Dairiki has worked for peace in our time. It is with great appreciation and thanks to Karen Kai and the Dairikis that I once again offer this remembrance of all who perished from the blasts and live with the trauma of being forced into US concentration camps The full interview with atomic bomb survivor Jack Dairiki is available at this link. Thanks for remembering.
(photo by Kevin Hume)
Filed under: anti-racist, anti-war, anti-nuclear, hibakusha, Hiroshima, Nagasaki
Jack Dairiki is an old-time Californian: His maternal grandfather was a hotelier and grocer in Sacramento. But in 1941, as a firstborn son, he was called with his father to the rural village outside of Hiroshima where his father was originally from.
Denise Sullivan 