The Vow from Hiroshima

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THE VOW FROM HIROSHIMA is an intimate portrait of Setsuko Thurlow, a passionate, 85-year-old survivor of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Her moving story is told through the lens of her growing friendship with a second generation survivor, Mitchie Takeuchi.

Setsuko was miraculously pulled out of a fiery building after the bomb was dropped and unable to save her other 27 classmates who were burned to death alive. That experience shaped her life forever and she endeavored to keep a pledge she made to her friends - that no one should ever again experience the same horrible fate.

The film is a timely exploration of the global dangers of nuclear weapons and provides an insider's perspective as we see Setsuko campaign with ICAN (the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) to draft, ratify and enact the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations.

The Treaty entered into force on January 22, 2021, and has been ratified by 70 nations as of January 2024.

'Highly engaging...At the heart of the film is the electrifying presence of Setsuko Thurlow, who for over 60 years has spoken out about the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons. Second-generation nuclear survivors and the young activists of Nobel Peace Prize awardee ICAN find inspiration in Thurlow's courageous activism. The Vow from Hiroshima is an outstanding resource for courses in history, politics, Asian Studies, environmental studies, ethics, and gender studies.' Ann Sherif, Professor of Japanese, Oberlin College

'Narrated through the experiences of two resilient hibakusha women, The Vow from Hiroshima is a well-researched, poignant and thoughtful work on the humanitarian approach to nuclear weapons. It is a fascinating story of how geopolitics and civil society intersects to influence policy, and how change is possible despite all odds.' Jayita Sarkar, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Boston University

'A beautiful narrative. The Vow from Hiroshima poignantly shows the suffering faced by survivors of nuclear weapons. In telling the stories of Setsuko Thurlow and Mitchie Takeuchi, it demonstrates the agency of hibakusha, to resist the pervasive silencing and stigma associated with the atomic bombs. It offers a clarion call for a world free of nuclear weapons and should be required viewing for students and activists interested in peace and security issues.' Matthew Bolton, Associate Professor, Political Science, Director, International Disarmament Institute, Pace University

'The Vow from Hiroshima is a powerful, deeply moving film, centered on Setsuko Thurlow's quest to rid the world of the nuclear terror that cruelly destroyed her classmates and members of her family in 1945. Determined that the crime should never be repeated, she played a vital role in informing the world about the horrors of nuclear war and in securing the adoption of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Teachers and community organizations will find it a valuable and inspiring educational resource.' Lawrence Wittner, Professor of History Emeritus, SUNY - Albany, Author, Confronting the Bomb

'The Vow From Hiroshima reveals the deep humanity, empathy, and courage of Setsuko Thurlow, one of the most effective campaigners ever in the struggle for nuclear weapons abolition. This film gives us a first-person experience of her passion, emotion, and righteous anger; but perhaps more importantly, it highlights her courage, resilience, determination, and humility. The voice that called out to Setsuko in the rubble in 1945 is the same one that calls out today to everyone working for a nuclear-free world: 'Keep moving. Don't give up!'' Rick Wayman, President and CEO, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

'Vow from Hiroshima an incredibly important film that all Americans should see. Setsuko Thurlow's relentless efforts to ensure that no one on earth ever suffers the unspeakable horrors that decimated Hiroshima and Nagasaki and killed hundreds of thousands of people offers inspiration for the new generation of activists. The movements seeking to eliminate nuclear weapons, avoid catastrophic environmental disaster, and reckon with racial injustice are intimately intertwined and this film will offer hope to those working for peace and justice.' Nancy Parrish, Executive Director, Women's Action for New Directions (WAND)

'Setsuko Thurlow is a true hero, an extraordinary figure in the decades-long effort to ban nuclear weapons. The Vow from Hiroshima tells her story with great compassion. At a time when the nuclear threat is greater than in any other year since the destruction of Hiroshima, the issues this film addresses could not be more timely and important.' Eric Schlosser, Journalist, Author, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

'Well done! Ms. Thurlow is passionate, engaging, and compelling. The Vow from Hiroshima reveals the human side of things - her life and quest to effect change through telling her and her country's story. The documentary is a great vehicle for enlightening a distracted American society, as well as contributing to the discourse on the nuclear threat. This is so inspiring, especially for advocates like myself who teach and research on these issues and are involved with NGOs. This film is a useful vehicle for engaging students and the larger community.' Gregory Hall, Executive Director, Daisy Alliance, Associate Professor of Diplomacy and International Commerce, University of Kentucky

'Setsuko not only found a public voice speaking about the victims of war, but helped build an activist campaign to abolish nuclear weapons that has created a treaty ratified by 39 countries and rising - a campaign focused on educating people about the past victims and potential future victims of war...What if we were to take Setsuko's work and accomplishments not as a freak occurrence to be marveled at, but as an example to be replicated?' David Swanson, World BEYOND War

'A moving, intelligent and perceptive documentary that reveals both the horror of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the gallant efforts of two survivors who have worked to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again.' Martin J. Sherwin, Professor of History, George Mason University, Author, Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis (forthcoming)

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Main credits

Strickler, Susan C. (film director)
Strickler, Susan C. (film producer)
Strickler, Susan C. (screenwriter)
Takeuchi, Mitchie (screenwriter)
Takeuchi, Mitchie (film producer)
Silverman, Renée (screenwriter)

Other credits

Editor, Judd Blaise; director of photography, Jennifer Hahn; original music by Dallas Crane.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

75th anniversary of Hiroshima, Setsuko Thurlow, Hiroshima survivor, hibakusha, Hibausha stories, nuclear weapons, atomic bomb, Mitchie Takeuchi, dangers of nuclear weapons, ICAN, Nobel Peace prize, aftermath of bombing, Red Cross hospital, Hiroshima visit, Jogakuin High School, haiku, Bikini Atoll, Toronto Peace Garden, physicians' role, deterrence, ICAN, Vienna Conference, humanitarian pledge, UN speech, nuclear weapons ban treaty, Oslo, Nagasaki, radiation, radiation sickness, eyewitness account, Showa Emperor, MacArthur, US occupation, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, hydrogen bomb, Jim Thurlow, Lynchburg College, Hiroshima maidens, Mt Sinai hospitals, University of Toronto, samurai, Hiroshima Nagasaki Relived, Reagan, arms race, global peace movement, Central Park demonstration 1982, Reagan Gorbachev meeting, Reykjavik, Toronto Peace Garden, IPPNW, fall of Berlin Wall, anti-nuclear movement, end of Cold War, Peace Boat, disarmament, destruction of planet, Vienna Conference, NPT, Humanitarian Pledge, nuclear weapon ban treaty, Nikki Haley, land mines, cluster bombs; "The Vow from Hiroshima"; Bullfrog Films,doc; history; science; politics; sociss

00:00:00.709 --> 00:00:02.753
(echoed ambient roar)

00:00:09.009 --> 00:00:10.010
(dramatic orchestral music)

00:00:10.010 --> 00:00:11.970
(Setsuko)
Hiroshima.

00:00:11.970 --> 00:00:14.598
That's where I was born.

00:00:18.435 --> 00:00:21.063
(news reporter)
Setsuko Thurlow
was only 13 years old

00:00:21.063 --> 00:00:24.942
when the bomb was dropped
on her hometown.

00:00:24.942 --> 00:00:28.612
(Mitchie)
Setsuko has lived
her entire life

00:00:28.612 --> 00:00:30.656
for nuclear disarmament.

00:00:32.407 --> 00:00:35.202
(Tim)
Setsuko is one of
the most compelling people

00:00:35.202 --> 00:00:36.578
I have ever met.

00:00:36.578 --> 00:00:39.373
She's had a profound impact.

00:00:39.373 --> 00:00:42.251
It's a crime against humanity.

00:00:42.251 --> 00:00:47.506
(Steve)
She is not just
making a emotional appeal.

00:00:47.506 --> 00:00:49.508
Setsuko is very intellectual,

00:00:49.508 --> 00:00:51.426
and she has a strategy.

00:00:52.094 --> 00:00:54.680
This treaty can

00:00:54.680 --> 00:00:56.765
and will

00:00:56.765 --> 00:00:59.226
change the world.

00:00:59.226 --> 00:01:02.396
(Andrew)
She would, without hesitation,
work herself to exhaustion

00:01:02.396 --> 00:01:04.564
to get her message across.

00:01:04.564 --> 00:01:08.402
(man)
People who make
history in a positive way

00:01:08.402 --> 00:01:12.155
all have a sacred stubbornness.

00:01:12.155 --> 00:01:15.075
(Setsuko)
I don't regret
how I have lived,

00:01:15.075 --> 00:01:20.455
but my work demanded
certain sacrifice.

00:01:20.455 --> 00:01:24.376
(Eric)
You think about
her journey from the ashes

00:01:24.376 --> 00:01:28.046
and the devastation
of her hometown

00:01:28.046 --> 00:01:31.967
to Oslo and a Nobel Peace Prize.

00:01:31.967 --> 00:01:34.386
It's an extraordinary
life story.

00:01:36.179 --> 00:01:40.225
(Setsuko)
The dreams of the survivors
of Hiroshima-Nagasaki

00:01:40.225 --> 00:01:41.810
has been witnessing

00:01:41.810 --> 00:01:44.730
the abolition
of nuclear weapons.

00:01:44.730 --> 00:01:48.608
I have a feeling
I may be able to see it

00:01:48.608 --> 00:01:50.485
in my lifetime.

00:02:04.708 --> 00:02:06.710
(crowd)
No more Hiroshimas!

00:02:06.710 --> 00:02:08.712
(male voice)
No more Nagasakis!

00:02:08.712 --> 00:02:11.381
(crowd)
No more Nagasakis!

00:02:11.381 --> 00:02:14.134
(Mitchie)
My name is Mitchie Takeuchi.

00:02:14.134 --> 00:02:16.303
My mother and my grandparents

00:02:16.303 --> 00:02:21.224
survived the atomic bomb
dropped on Hiroshima in 1945,

00:02:21.224 --> 00:02:25.312
but they kept
their experiences secret.

00:02:25.312 --> 00:02:28.190
I didn't learn about
what really happened to them

00:02:28.190 --> 00:02:30.025
until I met Setsuko.

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(crowd)
Peace now!

00:02:31.735 --> 00:02:33.779
(soft piano music)

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(Mitchie)
I'm gonna make a salad.

00:02:39.368 --> 00:02:41.328
(Setsuko)
It's all right.

00:02:41.328 --> 00:02:45.540
(Mitchie)
When we met, I felt
instantly close to Setsuko.

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(Setsuko speaking Japanese)

00:02:48.043 --> 00:02:49.628
We were both expats

00:02:49.628 --> 00:02:53.298
living outside of Japan
for many years.

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We even went to the same
girls' school in Hiroshima,

00:02:56.635 --> 00:02:58.929
though 20 years apart.

00:03:00.430 --> 00:03:02.391
(Setsuko)
This was high school.

00:03:03.141 --> 00:03:05.185
My goodness.

00:03:05.185 --> 00:03:08.063
Yeah, I see myself.

00:03:08.063 --> 00:03:12.401
Here I am standing
next to the teacher.

00:03:13.443 --> 00:03:16.696
This was English class.

00:03:16.696 --> 00:03:18.407
(Mitchie speaking Japanese)

00:03:18.407 --> 00:03:20.867
-You are so cute.
-Yeah.

00:03:22.744 --> 00:03:24.830
(Mitchie)
For all that we had in common,

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Setsuko had one quality
that was missing from my life:

00:03:29.251 --> 00:03:31.253
a willingness
to talk about the tragedy

00:03:31.253 --> 00:03:34.089
that happened
in our beautiful city.

00:03:36.091 --> 00:03:39.761
(Setsuko)
This was my best friend.

00:03:41.513 --> 00:03:44.099
She was in the center part
of the city together

00:03:44.099 --> 00:03:47.436
with several thousand
other students,

00:03:47.436 --> 00:03:49.688
and...

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most of them simply melted,

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vaporized, and all carbonized.

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Those girls,
they just crawled around

00:04:00.657 --> 00:04:03.160
and they couldn't
see each other.

00:04:03.160 --> 00:04:06.413
Their eyes were almost closed,

00:04:06.413 --> 00:04:12.127
but by the voice,
they could identify each other.

00:04:12.127 --> 00:04:17.674
This math teacher suggested,
let's sing some hymns,

00:04:17.674 --> 00:04:21.845
and they sang
"Nearer to Thee, My God."

00:04:24.014 --> 00:04:26.308
Oh, that really
breaks my heart

00:04:26.308 --> 00:04:28.143
when I think of that.

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And as they sang, one by one,

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they just collapsed and died.

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The teacher said,
"Those of you who can stand up,

00:04:41.323 --> 00:04:46.203
let's walk over to
the Red Cross hospital nearby."

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My best friend stood up,

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and the teacher said,
"Hang on to my shoulder.

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I can support you."

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So she put her hand
over the shoulder

00:04:59.382 --> 00:05:02.719
of Miss Yonehara,

00:05:02.719 --> 00:05:06.598
and then the flesh
and skin just came off

00:05:06.598 --> 00:05:09.726
and she could see white bone

00:05:09.726 --> 00:05:12.729
of the teacher's shoulder.

00:05:14.898 --> 00:05:16.399
(Mitchie)
Listening to Setsuko

00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:19.027
awakened the dormant
feelings I had

00:05:19.027 --> 00:05:23.114
about my family's history
as Hiroshima survivors.

00:05:25.033 --> 00:05:27.911
I met Setsuko by pure accident.

00:05:27.911 --> 00:05:30.372
(Mitchie speaking Japanese)

00:05:30.372 --> 00:05:32.582
One day,
I got a call from my friend,

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urgently looking
for a Japanese interpreter.

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Without knowing
what the meeting was about,

00:05:39.256 --> 00:05:40.340
I agreed to go,

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and that's where I met Setsuko,

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and became a part
of Hibakusha Stories.

00:05:47.597 --> 00:05:49.599
(soft ambient music)

00:05:57.232 --> 00:05:58.525
(audience applauding)

00:05:58.525 --> 00:06:00.193
Good afternoon,
ladies and gentlemen.

00:06:00.193 --> 00:06:01.611
My name is Kathleen

00:06:01.611 --> 00:06:04.656
and I'm part
of Hibakusha Stories.

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Hibakusha is the Japanese word
for atomic bomb survivor,

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and it is my deep privilege
to bring to you today

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Setsuko Thurlow from Hiroshima.

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(audience applauding)

00:06:19.462 --> 00:06:21.923
(Kathleen Sullivan)
Hibakusha Stories'
mission is to bring

00:06:21.923 --> 00:06:25.135
the firsthand witness
of those survivors of Hiroshima

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and Nagasaki into classrooms

00:06:27.554 --> 00:06:29.514
so that young people
can understand

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why nuclear weapons
are still a risk to this day.

00:06:33.643 --> 00:06:36.146
(Setsuko)
My most important role

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is to share
survivors' experiences.

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What actually happened.

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Over 30,000 young people
have heard us.

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(conversing in Japanese)

00:06:50.660 --> 00:06:53.038
(Mitchie)
Shortly after we met,

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Setsuko developed knee problems

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and needed a little
extra help getting around,

00:06:59.169 --> 00:07:01.671
so I invited her to stay with me

00:07:01.671 --> 00:07:03.840
whenever she came
to New York City

00:07:03.840 --> 00:07:06.343
to work with Hibakusha Stories.

00:07:09.804 --> 00:07:12.140
(Setsuko)
What I will speak would be

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what I personally experienced,

00:07:15.268 --> 00:07:18.647
and it could happen again
in a larger scale,

00:07:18.647 --> 00:07:21.066
so we gotta
do something about it.

00:07:21.066 --> 00:07:23.485
(Kathleen Lawand)
Setsuko and the other Hibakusha,

00:07:23.485 --> 00:07:27.656
they are the first witnesses
of what happened

00:07:27.656 --> 00:07:32.869
and they are the victims
of these weapons.

00:07:32.869 --> 00:07:35.163
Their voice is
extremely important

00:07:35.163 --> 00:07:37.666
to remind the world
why this weapon

00:07:37.666 --> 00:07:40.335
must be eliminated.

00:07:40.335 --> 00:07:43.296
(Setsuko)
I was 13 years of age
at that time,

00:07:43.296 --> 00:07:45.924
I was in grade eight.

00:07:45.924 --> 00:07:49.969
And we students were
mobilized to decode

00:07:49.969 --> 00:07:53.264
top secret messages.

00:07:54.724 --> 00:07:56.685
That morning,

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we had the assembly.

00:08:00.772 --> 00:08:05.318
The man in charge,
he was giving us a pep talk.

00:08:05.318 --> 00:08:10.407
"Girls, this is the day
you dedicate for the emperor.

00:08:10.407 --> 00:08:12.617
Do your best."

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We said, "Yes sir,
we will do our best."

00:08:16.162 --> 00:08:19.332
And at that moment
in the window,

00:08:19.332 --> 00:08:22.460
I saw a bluish-white flash,

00:08:22.460 --> 00:08:24.587
just a blinding flash.

00:08:24.587 --> 00:08:26.589
(ominous music)

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Then the next sensation I felt

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was just flying up in the air,

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and when I regained
consciousness,

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I started hearing faint voices

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of my classmates around me.

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"Mother, help me."

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"I am here."

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"God, help me."

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All of a sudden,

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somebody's strong hand
from behind

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shaking my left shoulder,

00:09:00.749 --> 00:09:02.250
and the man's voice said,

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"Don't give up, keep moving,
keep pushing.

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I'm trying to free you.

00:09:07.338 --> 00:09:11.134
And you see the sun ray
coming through that opening.

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Crawl toward it
as quickly as possible."

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So, I managed to come
to the opening of the rubble.

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I looked back
and I could still hear

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my classmates' voices,

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but it was already
engulfed in flame.

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Most of the 30 girls

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who were with me
in the same room

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were burned to death alive.

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By the time I came out,
it was very dark,

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and as my eyes adjusted,

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I started seeing
a procession of ghosts.

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They simply did not look
like human beings.

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People covered with blood
and burnt skin, blackened.

00:10:11.653 --> 00:10:16.866
And the skin and the flesh
were hanging from their bones.

00:10:21.621 --> 00:10:24.249
And some people
simply walking

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with their eyeballs
in their hands.

00:10:34.300 --> 00:10:35.927
(Kathleen Lawand)
At the end of August,

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the Red Cross
arrived at Hiroshima

00:10:39.931 --> 00:10:42.433
and our doctors witnessed
something that was

00:10:42.433 --> 00:10:46.479
just beyond comprehension
and beyond imagination.

00:10:47.605 --> 00:10:50.441
The city had been wiped out.

00:10:52.527 --> 00:10:53.945
The city center had been

00:10:53.945 --> 00:10:56.990
completely incinerated
and destroyed.

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Beyond that,
there was severe damage

00:11:01.286 --> 00:11:03.538
from the firestorms.

00:11:05.748 --> 00:11:10.253
And they noticed
a mysteriously serious illness.

00:11:10.253 --> 00:11:14.340
Persons who appeared to be
recovering from their injuries

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all of a sudden
were becoming sick again.

00:11:17.385 --> 00:11:19.304
We know now this was the effect

00:11:19.304 --> 00:11:22.807
of radiation sickness
and radiation exposure.

00:11:24.017 --> 00:11:26.019
(eerie music)

00:11:40.992 --> 00:11:44.203
(Setsuko)
We escaped to the foot
of the hillside.

00:11:44.203 --> 00:11:49.208
There was a huge
military training ground,

00:11:49.208 --> 00:11:53.421
about two football fields
combined.

00:11:53.421 --> 00:11:55.131
By the time we got there,

00:11:55.131 --> 00:11:58.384
the place was packed
with the dead bodies,

00:11:58.384 --> 00:12:02.722
dying people,
and injured people.

00:12:04.474 --> 00:12:07.268
They simply said in a whisper,

00:12:07.268 --> 00:12:10.355
"Give me water.
Water, please."

00:12:11.898 --> 00:12:18.237
But there were no buckets
or no containers to carry water.

00:12:18.237 --> 00:12:21.157
So we found a stream nearby

00:12:21.157 --> 00:12:24.535
and we went there
to wash our bodies

00:12:24.535 --> 00:12:28.081
covered with blood
and so on,

00:12:28.081 --> 00:12:32.085
and then,
we tore off our blouses

00:12:32.085 --> 00:12:34.963
and soaked them
in the water,

00:12:34.963 --> 00:12:39.592
and with much water in it,

00:12:39.592 --> 00:12:43.513
we rushed back
to the dying people,

00:12:43.513 --> 00:12:47.976
with dripping over the mouth
of those injured people.

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They desperately
sucked the moisture.

00:12:50.937 --> 00:12:52.438
(makes sucking sound)

00:12:52.438 --> 00:12:53.815
Like that.

00:12:53.815 --> 00:12:58.903
And then, they looked at you
and said, "Thank you."

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I looked around
and see if there were

00:13:01.447 --> 00:13:03.366
any doctors or nurses.

00:13:03.366 --> 00:13:04.617
There was none.

00:13:04.617 --> 00:13:09.288
I didn't see one single
healthcare professional.

00:13:09.288 --> 00:13:13.334
(Kathleen Lawand)
270 doctors that were
in Hiroshima were killed,

00:13:13.334 --> 00:13:16.004
and many of the others
were wounded.

00:13:16.004 --> 00:13:17.380
How could you possibly cope

00:13:17.380 --> 00:13:20.466
with only a handful
of doctors and nurses?

00:13:22.468 --> 00:13:26.848
(Mitchie)
My mother lived
in the suburbs of Hiroshima.

00:13:26.848 --> 00:13:28.850
When the atomic
bomb was dropped,

00:13:28.850 --> 00:13:31.227
her father was the head

00:13:31.227 --> 00:13:34.272
of the Red Cross hospital

00:13:34.272 --> 00:13:37.984
and he never returned home.

00:13:37.984 --> 00:13:39.569
Three days later,

00:13:39.569 --> 00:13:44.073
she decided to walk
over three miles

00:13:44.073 --> 00:13:47.994
across the city
of Hiroshima to look for him.

00:13:49.620 --> 00:13:53.875
Was he alive or wounded,
or even dead?

00:13:53.875 --> 00:13:55.251
Without knowing,

00:13:55.251 --> 00:13:59.672
she set off by herself
into the devastated city center.

00:14:02.508 --> 00:14:05.344
What horrors
she must have witnessed.

00:14:08.139 --> 00:14:11.476
And how much radiation
was she exposed to

00:14:11.476 --> 00:14:14.062
so soon after the bombing?

00:14:16.147 --> 00:14:17.482
When she got there,

00:14:17.482 --> 00:14:22.070
she found her father alive
but seriously injured,

00:14:22.070 --> 00:14:24.739
his body pierced
with shattered glass,

00:14:24.739 --> 00:14:27.742
and he had
multiple fractured bones.

00:14:28.951 --> 00:14:30.870
Confined to his bed,

00:14:30.870 --> 00:14:33.414
my grandfather continued
to give directions

00:14:33.414 --> 00:14:37.335
to the medical staff
seeking his advice.

00:14:37.335 --> 00:14:40.505
My mother stayed at the hospital
for a few weeks

00:14:40.505 --> 00:14:42.465
taking care of him.

00:14:44.092 --> 00:14:47.220
My mother told me this story
very casually

00:14:47.220 --> 00:14:50.181
when I was about 10 years old.

00:14:50.181 --> 00:14:54.435
We were sitting side by side
staring into a campfire

00:14:54.435 --> 00:14:56.729
after a long hike.

00:14:56.729 --> 00:14:59.482
I could tell
she was very proud of him.

00:15:00.733 --> 00:15:03.903
It was only years later
that I found out

00:15:03.903 --> 00:15:07.573
I was the only one
who knew this story.

00:15:07.573 --> 00:15:11.244
She hadn't even told
my three brothers.

00:15:13.329 --> 00:15:15.790
I told Setsuko
that I didn't know much

00:15:15.790 --> 00:15:18.876
about my grandfather's
experience.

00:15:18.876 --> 00:15:26.134
Your grandfather lived through
a very, very significant time.

00:15:26.134 --> 00:15:28.845
The hospital played
a key role

00:15:28.845 --> 00:15:33.182
in looking after
atomic bomb victims.

00:15:33.182 --> 00:15:37.103
(Mitchie)
I wish I had asked
my mother more

00:15:37.103 --> 00:15:39.480
when she was alive, but...

00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:41.732
(Setsuko)
Well, that happened
to many of us.

00:15:41.732 --> 00:15:44.861
We were too busy
with our own growing up.

00:15:44.861 --> 00:15:46.028
Yeah, that's true.

00:15:46.028 --> 00:15:49.448
She urged me
to find out more about him.

00:15:49.448 --> 00:15:51.075
(soft music)

00:15:51.075 --> 00:15:53.161
What I do know
about my grandfather

00:15:53.161 --> 00:15:55.955
is that he was
a military surgeon

00:15:55.955 --> 00:15:58.416
and a scientist.

00:15:58.416 --> 00:16:01.878
He was also a poet
and an artist.

00:16:05.965 --> 00:16:09.552
He was kind
and devoted to his family.

00:16:10.553 --> 00:16:12.430
My grandfather was transferred

00:16:12.430 --> 00:16:15.725
from Tokyo
to Hiroshima in 1938

00:16:15.725 --> 00:16:19.520
to establish the new
Red Cross hospital there.

00:16:20.980 --> 00:16:23.858
Growing up
after the war was long over,

00:16:23.858 --> 00:16:27.737
I wondered why we continued
to live in Hiroshima

00:16:27.737 --> 00:16:31.866
when the rest of our
extended family lived in Tokyo.

00:16:31.866 --> 00:16:34.410
Why did my family stay?

00:16:34.410 --> 00:16:36.704
I felt like an outsider,

00:16:36.704 --> 00:16:38.706
but somehow I knew

00:16:38.706 --> 00:16:42.126
I wasn't supposed
to ask about this.

00:16:42.126 --> 00:16:44.128
(solemn music)

00:16:50.426 --> 00:16:54.305
For the 70th anniversary
of the atomic bombing,

00:16:54.305 --> 00:16:56.807
Setsuko and I traveled to Japan

00:16:56.807 --> 00:16:58.601
to attend the memorial service

00:16:58.601 --> 00:17:01.103
for the alumnae
at our girls' school,

00:17:01.103 --> 00:17:03.856
Hiroshima Jogakuin.

00:17:03.856 --> 00:17:07.902
(Setsuko)
Boy, things have changed.

00:17:07.902 --> 00:17:13.532
This was the first school
building rebuilt in Hiroshima.

00:17:13.532 --> 00:17:19.038
That was the beginning
of a normal life for us.

00:17:19.038 --> 00:17:20.915
When I think about Hiroshima,

00:17:20.915 --> 00:17:26.671
certain people's images
stand out clearly.

00:17:26.671 --> 00:17:30.258
(birds singing)

00:17:30.258 --> 00:17:32.885
(soft music)

00:17:44.730 --> 00:17:46.983
(Setsuko speaking Japanese)

00:17:49.735 --> 00:17:54.282
I feel that weight
of the memory.

00:17:54.282 --> 00:17:57.785
After the bombing,
when we lost everything,

00:17:57.785 --> 00:18:01.789
you begin to wonder,
what is this all about?

00:18:01.789 --> 00:18:04.166
What is life? What is death?

00:18:05.960 --> 00:18:08.838
I questioned many things.

00:18:11.924 --> 00:18:14.635
I hardly knew anything
about Christianity

00:18:14.635 --> 00:18:16.095
when I first arrived here,

00:18:16.095 --> 00:18:19.515
because I came from
the Buddhist background.

00:18:21.225 --> 00:18:25.271
But at this school,
we had Christian teachers.

00:18:25.271 --> 00:18:27.064
They weren't imposing,

00:18:27.064 --> 00:18:29.525
but they were guiding us.

00:18:29.525 --> 00:18:32.069
Finally,
I decided I wanted

00:18:32.069 --> 00:18:35.197
to be part of that church,

00:18:35.197 --> 00:18:40.077
and that was really
the motivating foundation

00:18:40.077 --> 00:18:42.496
for my future activism.

00:18:44.373 --> 00:18:48.961
My church minister,
Reverend Tanimoto, he said,

00:18:48.961 --> 00:18:51.130
"Christian faith without action

00:18:51.130 --> 00:18:54.634
is not the Christian faith
to me."

00:18:54.634 --> 00:18:58.220
Choosing the profession
of social work,

00:18:58.220 --> 00:19:03.100
choosing to do the work
for anti-nuclear peace movement,

00:19:03.100 --> 00:19:06.270
all this comes from this school.

00:19:14.362 --> 00:19:16.364
(Japanese PA announcement)

00:19:18.282 --> 00:19:20.326
(Mitchie)
While I was in Hiroshima,

00:19:20.326 --> 00:19:24.163
I decided to research
my family's history.

00:19:24.163 --> 00:19:27.083
My first stop was
the Red Cross hospital.

00:19:28.250 --> 00:19:29.627
(crowd shouting)

00:19:29.627 --> 00:19:33.589
In 1947, the Showa Emperor
came to Hiroshima

00:19:33.589 --> 00:19:36.717
for the first time
after the bombing,

00:19:36.717 --> 00:19:39.345
and my grandfather
had a meeting with the emperor

00:19:39.345 --> 00:19:43.349
to report on the condition
of the survivors.

00:19:43.349 --> 00:19:47.144
A local artist was present
to paint the meeting.

00:19:48.479 --> 00:19:49.855
Before the war,

00:19:49.855 --> 00:19:53.943
the emperor was considered
to be like a god.

00:19:53.943 --> 00:19:57.738
After the war,
everything changed.

00:19:57.738 --> 00:20:00.324
There was a sense
of shame about anyone

00:20:00.324 --> 00:20:03.828
involved with the military
and the government.

00:20:03.828 --> 00:20:05.830
So although
my brothers and I knew

00:20:05.830 --> 00:20:08.958
that our grandfather
had met with the emperor,

00:20:08.958 --> 00:20:10.918
it was something
we never mentioned

00:20:10.918 --> 00:20:14.505
outside of the family.

00:20:14.505 --> 00:20:16.966
The only reminder
of the event

00:20:16.966 --> 00:20:20.469
was a small black-and-white
photocopy of the painting

00:20:20.469 --> 00:20:23.180
that I found
in my father's study

00:20:23.180 --> 00:20:25.141
after he passed away.

00:20:26.851 --> 00:20:31.188
It was time for me
to see the real painting.

00:20:31.188 --> 00:20:32.857
Over the next few years,

00:20:32.857 --> 00:20:36.026
I met with various
staff members at the hospital

00:20:36.026 --> 00:20:39.655
who tried to help me locate
the missing painting.

00:20:41.449 --> 00:20:45.286
Eventually, it was found
buried in the storage room.

00:20:45.286 --> 00:20:48.122
(gentle music)

00:20:48.122 --> 00:20:52.501
The painting was larger
than I thought it would be.

00:20:52.501 --> 00:20:54.420
It was surprisingly bright

00:20:54.420 --> 00:20:57.548
with chartreuse green
as the background.

00:20:59.383 --> 00:21:03.345
We have a specific word
for that color in Japanese,

00:21:03.345 --> 00:21:05.097
wakakusa iro,

00:21:05.097 --> 00:21:07.016
which is used
to illustrate the color

00:21:07.016 --> 00:21:09.435
of young grass in the spring.

00:21:11.770 --> 00:21:14.732
But interestingly,
this meeting with the emperor

00:21:14.732 --> 00:21:18.444
took place in December.

00:21:18.444 --> 00:21:20.154
Then I remembered,

00:21:20.154 --> 00:21:22.615
people feared that nothing
would grow in Hiroshima

00:21:22.615 --> 00:21:27.995
for 75 years,
because of the radiation.

00:21:27.995 --> 00:21:31.624
Maybe the color
was meant to symbolize hope.

00:21:34.293 --> 00:21:36.587
I had taken the first step

00:21:36.587 --> 00:21:40.299
towards recovering
my family's lost history.

00:21:47.097 --> 00:21:48.808
(soft music)

00:21:48.808 --> 00:21:53.646
(Setsuko)
1945 to 1954,

00:21:53.646 --> 00:21:59.735
that was the period
of rebuilding our lives,

00:21:59.735 --> 00:22:03.197
healing our lives.

00:22:03.197 --> 00:22:06.992
Life was still very difficult.

00:22:06.992 --> 00:22:09.787
Poverty, near-starvation,

00:22:09.787 --> 00:22:14.458
and children
who lost their parents.

00:22:14.458 --> 00:22:17.461
But step by step,

00:22:17.461 --> 00:22:20.965
the community started
coming back.

00:22:22.591 --> 00:22:25.010
Three days after the bombing,

00:22:25.010 --> 00:22:28.222
streetcars were running.

00:22:28.222 --> 00:22:29.473
That's amazing.

00:22:29.473 --> 00:22:33.018
That exemplified
how determined people were

00:22:33.018 --> 00:22:34.937
to rebuild the city.

00:22:36.146 --> 00:22:39.108
Occupation forces arrived.

00:22:40.442 --> 00:22:43.487
One of the first things
General MacArthur did

00:22:43.487 --> 00:22:47.992
was he started censorship
of Japanese press...

00:22:49.827 --> 00:22:52.746
...because they wrote
about Hibakusha,

00:22:52.746 --> 00:22:55.332
the survivors' suffering.

00:22:56.959 --> 00:23:02.423
Diaries, correspondences,
anything personal like that,

00:23:02.423 --> 00:23:06.844
that creates negative
impression of Americans,

00:23:06.844 --> 00:23:09.138
have to be confiscated.

00:23:10.723 --> 00:23:13.350
Japan was occupied
for seven years,

00:23:13.350 --> 00:23:16.478
until 1952.

00:23:16.478 --> 00:23:20.149
Until then,
we lived blindfolded.

00:23:20.149 --> 00:23:23.235
(insects chirring,
birds singing)

00:23:23.235 --> 00:23:27.072
(Mitchie)
When I learned about
the U.S. occupation censorship,

00:23:27.072 --> 00:23:29.283
I wondered if it played a part

00:23:29.283 --> 00:23:34.038
in my family's self-imposed
code of silence.

00:23:34.038 --> 00:23:36.373
(somber music)

00:23:36.373 --> 00:23:40.044
My grandfather had diligently
kept daily journals

00:23:40.044 --> 00:23:43.464
with his own sketches
for his entire life.

00:23:45.215 --> 00:23:47.217
As I went through them,

00:23:47.217 --> 00:23:50.929
I could find nothing
that related to his work

00:23:50.929 --> 00:23:53.557
a couple of years
after the bombing.

00:23:54.683 --> 00:23:57.561
That seemed strange to me.

00:23:59.146 --> 00:24:02.441
I went to the Hiroshima
Peace Memorial Museum

00:24:02.441 --> 00:24:05.235
to see what I could find.

00:24:06.654 --> 00:24:09.490
None of his missing
journals were there,

00:24:09.490 --> 00:24:12.076
but I did discover
a magazine article

00:24:12.076 --> 00:24:15.287
written by my grandfather
in 1946,

00:24:15.287 --> 00:24:18.874
exactly a year
after the A-bomb was dropped.

00:24:20.250 --> 00:24:23.796
Despite the censorship,
my grandfather had managed

00:24:23.796 --> 00:24:28.133
to describe in detail
the devastation of the bomb

00:24:28.133 --> 00:24:32.137
and the strong connection
he felt with other survivors.

00:24:33.806 --> 00:24:36.100
My grandfather
ended the article

00:24:36.100 --> 00:24:39.186
with a poignant haiku.

00:24:39.186 --> 00:24:42.189
(Mitchie speaking Japanese)

00:24:44.983 --> 00:24:47.194
Summer grass is growing,

00:24:47.194 --> 00:24:49.571
standing in the ruins,

00:24:49.571 --> 00:24:51.782
impossible to leave.

00:24:54.201 --> 00:24:57.162
I finally realized
why my grandfather

00:24:57.162 --> 00:24:59.957
had stayed in Hiroshima.

00:24:59.957 --> 00:25:04.712
He felt a deep connection
to the people and to the city.

00:25:07.506 --> 00:25:10.342
(birds chirping)

00:25:10.342 --> 00:25:15.055
(Setsuko)
I was in Hiroshima until
I graduated from university.

00:25:16.390 --> 00:25:19.226
My third year
at the university,

00:25:19.226 --> 00:25:23.522
I decided to devote
my summer vacation

00:25:23.522 --> 00:25:26.150
for something useful.

00:25:26.150 --> 00:25:27.735
So I traveled

00:25:27.735 --> 00:25:30.195
to an international
Christian work camp

00:25:30.195 --> 00:25:34.700
in small coal mining town.

00:25:34.700 --> 00:25:39.329
They invited university
students and teachers

00:25:39.329 --> 00:25:40.873
from around the world

00:25:40.873 --> 00:25:44.042
to build a community center.

00:25:44.042 --> 00:25:46.962
Every day,
with our own hands,

00:25:46.962 --> 00:25:50.841
we cut the trees,
carried the lumber,

00:25:50.841 --> 00:25:53.343
and mixed the cement.

00:25:53.343 --> 00:25:56.972
At that camp, I did meet Jim.

00:25:56.972 --> 00:26:00.392
(acoustic guitar music)

00:26:00.392 --> 00:26:04.605
He told me
that when he saw me coming in,

00:26:04.605 --> 00:26:08.275
he said, "Hey,
life is looking up."

00:26:08.275 --> 00:26:11.111
He said that to me later.

00:26:11.111 --> 00:26:14.531
I found him attractive
as a human being.

00:26:14.531 --> 00:26:17.493
Very gentle, quiet, caring,

00:26:17.493 --> 00:26:21.121
yet a very steely conviction.

00:26:21.121 --> 00:26:24.708
We got to know each other
very well,

00:26:24.708 --> 00:26:27.461
and we had fun together.

00:26:28.921 --> 00:26:30.589
By the end of the summer,

00:26:30.589 --> 00:26:35.010
he wrote to his parents
in Canada about me.

00:26:35.010 --> 00:26:38.096
They sent a very happy response.

00:26:38.096 --> 00:26:39.598
Well,

00:26:39.598 --> 00:26:43.310
if their son chose the woman,

00:26:43.310 --> 00:26:47.147
she must be a fine person.

00:26:47.147 --> 00:26:51.819
But things didn't work that way
with my family.

00:26:51.819 --> 00:26:54.363
My parents were traditional.

00:26:54.363 --> 00:26:57.533
They just couldn't think
of allowing their daughter

00:26:57.533 --> 00:27:01.662
to be married
to non-Japanese man.

00:27:03.372 --> 00:27:05.123
(Mitchie)
Unlike Setsuko,

00:27:05.123 --> 00:27:06.708
when the time came,

00:27:06.708 --> 00:27:10.420
my mother was destined
for an arranged marriage.

00:27:10.420 --> 00:27:13.423
My grandfather would look
for a good match for her,

00:27:13.423 --> 00:27:18.136
which was still commonly
practiced in Japan at that time.

00:27:18.136 --> 00:27:20.889
But my grandfather was worried.

00:27:20.889 --> 00:27:25.686
There was a stigma associated
with surviving the atomic bomb.

00:27:25.686 --> 00:27:28.856
People believed
that exposure to radiation

00:27:28.856 --> 00:27:32.484
would lead to cancer
and birth defects,

00:27:32.484 --> 00:27:35.946
so my grandfather suggested
that my mother not talk

00:27:35.946 --> 00:27:40.492
about being in the city right
after the bomb was dropped.

00:27:40.492 --> 00:27:44.663
He didn't want her
to have limited options.

00:27:44.663 --> 00:27:48.584
My mother studiously observed
my grandfather's advice,

00:27:48.584 --> 00:27:52.087
and in 1953,
she married my father,

00:27:52.087 --> 00:27:53.630
who was chosen for her

00:27:53.630 --> 00:27:55.674
because he was
a promising surgeon

00:27:55.674 --> 00:27:57.843
and a compassionate man.

00:28:03.724 --> 00:28:06.351
(explosion)

00:28:06.351 --> 00:28:09.897
(Setsuko)
In March 1954,

00:28:09.897 --> 00:28:12.482
United States started testing

00:28:12.482 --> 00:28:17.654
the most powerful hydrogen bomb
up to that date.

00:28:17.654 --> 00:28:23.160
And a Japanese fishing boat
happened to be around.

00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:26.663
All the tuna fish
had to be thrown away,

00:28:26.663 --> 00:28:29.499
and one crew member died.

00:28:29.499 --> 00:28:32.210
That was big news in Japan,

00:28:32.210 --> 00:28:36.256
and overnight
it was the birth in Japan

00:28:36.256 --> 00:28:41.929
of unprecedented
protest movement.

00:28:41.929 --> 00:28:46.725
Imagine, 20 million signatures
were collected

00:28:46.725 --> 00:28:49.561
to abolish nuclear weapons.

00:28:49.561 --> 00:28:51.897
That's huge in number.

00:28:51.897 --> 00:28:53.190
(gentle music)

00:28:53.190 --> 00:28:54.691
At the university,

00:28:54.691 --> 00:28:57.569
I volunteered as an interpreter

00:28:57.569 --> 00:29:01.365
and I met a professor
from Lynchburg College

00:29:01.365 --> 00:29:03.825
in the United States.

00:29:03.825 --> 00:29:09.164
So I had the opportunity
to receive the scholarship.

00:29:09.164 --> 00:29:11.208
I wanted to be social worker.

00:29:11.208 --> 00:29:15.295
Japan didn't have
appropriate training program.

00:29:15.295 --> 00:29:18.423
So after careful consideration,

00:29:18.423 --> 00:29:21.718
I decided to leave Japan.

00:29:21.718 --> 00:29:26.390
It was difficult
to be away from Jim.

00:29:26.390 --> 00:29:29.768
Jim was still teaching in Japan.

00:29:31.561 --> 00:29:34.648
A couple days
after my arrival,

00:29:34.648 --> 00:29:37.609
there was a press conference,

00:29:37.609 --> 00:29:40.654
because they never had
Japanese student

00:29:40.654 --> 00:29:43.198
in that college town.

00:29:43.198 --> 00:29:46.576
The first question was
about what happened

00:29:46.576 --> 00:29:48.537
at the Bikini Atoll.

00:29:48.537 --> 00:29:50.539
They wanted my thought,

00:29:50.539 --> 00:29:53.000
and my opinion was,

00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:56.962
they simply have to stop
that kind of testing.

00:29:56.962 --> 00:30:00.757
And next day, I started
receiving the hate letters,

00:30:00.757 --> 00:30:02.843
unsigned letters.

00:30:02.843 --> 00:30:04.803
They're telling me, "Go home."

00:30:04.803 --> 00:30:08.557
I can't go home;
I just came here.

00:30:08.557 --> 00:30:12.686
It was a temptation
to shut my mouth.

00:30:12.686 --> 00:30:15.063
No. That's not the way
I want to live.

00:30:15.063 --> 00:30:21.194
I want to be honest
with my experience, integrity.

00:30:21.194 --> 00:30:23.780
It was a very lonely time.

00:30:25.490 --> 00:30:26.992
A year later,

00:30:26.992 --> 00:30:29.953
Jim's teaching contract was up.

00:30:29.953 --> 00:30:31.288
By that time,

00:30:31.288 --> 00:30:34.875
my parents gave us consent.

00:30:34.875 --> 00:30:37.127
I was studying in Virginia,

00:30:37.127 --> 00:30:38.837
but we learned

00:30:38.837 --> 00:30:45.427
that a person
with a darker color of skin

00:30:45.427 --> 00:30:51.475
was not eligible for marriage
to a white man

00:30:51.475 --> 00:30:52.726
in Virginia.

00:30:54.394 --> 00:30:59.024
So we went to Washington, D.C.

00:30:59.024 --> 00:31:06.073
Jim's parents and brother
traveled down from Canada.

00:31:06.073 --> 00:31:09.618
That was
a tremendous experience.

00:31:11.870 --> 00:31:13.330
To my surprise,

00:31:13.330 --> 00:31:17.667
my own church minister,
Mr. Tanimoto, showed up.

00:31:17.667 --> 00:31:19.419
He was in Washington

00:31:19.419 --> 00:31:24.508
because he was bringing
25 Hiroshima Maidens,

00:31:24.508 --> 00:31:28.637
the girls who were badly
disfigured by the burns,

00:31:28.637 --> 00:31:31.973
to Mount Sinai Hospital.

00:31:31.973 --> 00:31:34.351
Scars all over their face.

00:31:34.351 --> 00:31:37.104
That's a disaster
for young girls

00:31:37.104 --> 00:31:39.439
in marriageable age.

00:31:39.439 --> 00:31:41.483
They couldn't appear in public,

00:31:41.483 --> 00:31:43.110
they hid themselves,

00:31:43.110 --> 00:31:46.863
and discrimination
was a real issue.

00:31:46.863 --> 00:31:50.367
So he was in Washington
to assist those girls,

00:31:50.367 --> 00:31:53.537
so he decided to attend.

00:31:53.537 --> 00:31:57.040
Imagine, my own minister
from Hiroshima

00:31:57.040 --> 00:32:00.210
jointly officiated the wedding.

00:32:00.210 --> 00:32:03.046
It was very nice.

00:32:03.046 --> 00:32:07.384
After the wedding,
Jim and I moved to Canada,

00:32:07.384 --> 00:32:11.221
and our student life
started again.

00:32:11.221 --> 00:32:16.309
We were poor students
in a basement apartment.

00:32:16.309 --> 00:32:19.146
It was painfully difficult.

00:32:19.146 --> 00:32:21.481
But I hid my tears.

00:32:21.481 --> 00:32:23.817
I didn't want to hurt Jim.

00:32:23.817 --> 00:32:29.489
Such poverty was not part
of my notion of marriage,

00:32:29.489 --> 00:32:34.911
and I could never tell him
how the situation upset me.

00:32:34.911 --> 00:32:38.790
I completed my graduate work
in social work

00:32:38.790 --> 00:32:41.126
at University of Toronto.

00:32:41.126 --> 00:32:43.003
Jim was teaching,

00:32:43.003 --> 00:32:48.508
and the way we lived
was getting better.

00:32:48.508 --> 00:32:53.305
And then one day,
I learned that I was pregnant.

00:32:54.764 --> 00:32:58.059
That was a frightening time
for me.

00:32:58.059 --> 00:33:01.062
Would I have...

00:33:01.062 --> 00:33:02.772
deformed babies?

00:33:03.732 --> 00:33:06.735
That was a real concern I had.

00:33:06.735 --> 00:33:12.365
Some women who were pregnant
at that time did.

00:33:12.365 --> 00:33:15.577
I called Hiroshima
Atomic Bomb Hospital

00:33:15.577 --> 00:33:17.746
and consulted with a doctor.

00:33:17.746 --> 00:33:20.248
She said,
we just have to take a chance.

00:33:20.248 --> 00:33:21.416
(soft piano music)

00:33:21.416 --> 00:33:23.627
I was fortunate.

00:33:23.627 --> 00:33:26.630
I had two sons,

00:33:26.630 --> 00:33:29.090
healthy babies.

00:33:29.090 --> 00:33:32.260
I just count the blessing
each day.

00:33:33.762 --> 00:33:35.222
(giggling)

00:33:35.222 --> 00:33:37.307
We settled in Toronto,

00:33:37.307 --> 00:33:41.144
and my main job
was to raise the children.

00:33:41.144 --> 00:33:45.065
Very domesticated life.

00:33:45.065 --> 00:33:48.693
My father was
a high school history teacher.

00:33:48.693 --> 00:33:52.155
We often went on long trips,
especially in Europe.

00:33:52.155 --> 00:33:56.243
He was always able
to make it interesting.

00:33:56.243 --> 00:34:00.121
(Setsuko)
Traveling with Jim
is wonderful.

00:34:00.121 --> 00:34:04.042
We enjoyed discussing
current issues,

00:34:04.042 --> 00:34:06.336
and I learned a lot.

00:34:09.256 --> 00:34:11.216
I have to organize this.

00:34:11.216 --> 00:34:14.094
(soft music)

00:34:14.094 --> 00:34:17.430
-This is gorgeous.
-Oh, that's in Paris.

00:34:18.473 --> 00:34:20.725
This is my father.

00:34:20.725 --> 00:34:24.062
He went to Northern California,

00:34:24.062 --> 00:34:26.231
made money, and went back.

00:34:27.607 --> 00:34:31.987
My family was
old samurai family,

00:34:31.987 --> 00:34:36.032
and they had
the highest status.

00:34:36.032 --> 00:34:38.994
I'm the youngest
of the seven children,

00:34:38.994 --> 00:34:41.454
privileged life, I should say.

00:34:42.622 --> 00:34:46.376
So when I started taking
social work lessons,

00:34:46.376 --> 00:34:49.296
I really didn't realize
until then

00:34:49.296 --> 00:34:52.590
I was so class prejudiced.

00:34:52.590 --> 00:34:55.719
I was looking down
on the people

00:34:55.719 --> 00:34:57.679
who didn't have as much.

00:34:57.679 --> 00:35:00.223
That was a real struggle for me,

00:35:00.223 --> 00:35:04.936
to learn to accept human beings
regardless of background.

00:35:07.147 --> 00:35:08.648
This is Ayako.

00:35:08.648 --> 00:35:11.401
She was my favorite sister.

00:35:11.401 --> 00:35:12.986
She was a funny woman.

00:35:12.986 --> 00:35:14.863
She was in the States.

00:35:14.863 --> 00:35:16.531
After she came
back to Hiroshima,

00:35:16.531 --> 00:35:19.701
she dressed like
an American woman,

00:35:19.701 --> 00:35:23.330
and I just watched everything
my sister did.

00:35:23.330 --> 00:35:24.622
(somber music)

00:35:24.622 --> 00:35:27.459
She died in the atomic bombing.

00:35:29.169 --> 00:35:31.963
My sister
and her four-year-old child

00:35:31.963 --> 00:35:33.882
were in the center
part of the city,

00:35:33.882 --> 00:35:37.594
so they were burned
beyond recognition.

00:35:37.594 --> 00:35:42.182
Their bodies were twice
larger than normal.

00:35:44.184 --> 00:35:47.687
We could identify them
by their voice,

00:35:47.687 --> 00:35:51.024
by the special hairpin
she had in her hair.

00:35:52.525 --> 00:35:57.155
And they just kept on asking
for water.

00:35:57.155 --> 00:36:02.702
And we had no medication,
no food or anything.

00:36:02.702 --> 00:36:07.290
Um, after several days
of agonizing suffering,

00:36:07.290 --> 00:36:09.751
they finally died.

00:36:10.794 --> 00:36:13.880
When they died,
the soldiers came,

00:36:13.880 --> 00:36:16.299
dug up the hole in the ground,

00:36:16.299 --> 00:36:21.179
threw the dead bodies in there,
poured the gasoline,

00:36:21.179 --> 00:36:24.057
threw the lighted match.

00:36:24.057 --> 00:36:26.351
(fire crackling)

00:36:26.351 --> 00:36:28.895
There I was, 13-year-old girl,

00:36:28.895 --> 00:36:33.066
just standing and my parents
were standing there.

00:36:33.066 --> 00:36:35.819
We just, in a stunned way,

00:36:35.819 --> 00:36:40.281
just kept watching
while they were cremated.

00:36:40.281 --> 00:36:44.244
There was no human dignity
or anything.

00:36:44.244 --> 00:36:49.666
They were just being treated
like insect or animal.

00:36:51.584 --> 00:36:57.173
That memory was
one of the most painful for me.

00:37:01.928 --> 00:37:03.930
(dark music)

00:37:16.401 --> 00:37:18.278
(soft music)

00:37:18.278 --> 00:37:20.947
(Mitchie)
When I was growing up,

00:37:20.947 --> 00:37:24.284
all of us
had a very normal life,

00:37:24.284 --> 00:37:28.246
as if nothing ever happened
in Hiroshima.

00:37:29.622 --> 00:37:31.249
When I was a teenager,

00:37:31.249 --> 00:37:35.044
I really wanted to leave
to go to the United States

00:37:35.044 --> 00:37:37.464
to study psychology,

00:37:37.464 --> 00:37:40.300
and my mother,

00:37:40.300 --> 00:37:42.802
even though she felt
really sad

00:37:42.802 --> 00:37:46.097
about letting me go...

00:37:48.141 --> 00:37:51.060
...she supported me.

00:37:53.146 --> 00:37:55.440
Then, right before I left,

00:37:55.440 --> 00:37:59.944
we discovered that my mother
had a serious heart condition.

00:37:59.944 --> 00:38:02.572
My father changed his mind.

00:38:02.572 --> 00:38:06.326
For my mother's sake,
he did not want me to leave...

00:38:07.535 --> 00:38:10.497
...but she insisted that I go.

00:38:10.497 --> 00:38:13.082
She felt
that she had spent her life

00:38:13.082 --> 00:38:16.377
fulfilling the expectations
of her family.

00:38:16.377 --> 00:38:19.506
She wanted me to follow
my own desires

00:38:19.506 --> 00:38:23.510
and make my own life
for myself.

00:38:23.510 --> 00:38:28.598
She wanted to live
her life through me,

00:38:28.598 --> 00:38:30.642
in some ways.

00:38:31.893 --> 00:38:35.188
I really wanted to try
my young adult life

00:38:35.188 --> 00:38:36.606
in New York City,

00:38:36.606 --> 00:38:39.526
which represented to me
the freedom

00:38:39.526 --> 00:38:43.238
to pursue anything
that I set my mind to.

00:38:45.240 --> 00:38:47.242
(soft piano music)

00:38:48.910 --> 00:38:53.498
(Setsuko)
1975 was the 30th anniversary

00:38:53.498 --> 00:38:55.959
of Hiroshima-Nagasaki.

00:38:55.959 --> 00:38:59.295
There were commemorative events
in Japan,

00:38:59.295 --> 00:39:02.632
but in United States and Canada,

00:39:02.632 --> 00:39:06.553
those special days was ignored.

00:39:06.553 --> 00:39:09.764
I thought,
"We have to break the silence.

00:39:09.764 --> 00:39:13.518
We have to make
this issue visible."

00:39:13.518 --> 00:39:17.522
I thought,
photographic exhibition.

00:39:17.522 --> 00:39:22.318
I asked the mayors
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

00:39:22.318 --> 00:39:25.738
They started sending me
all these materials.

00:39:25.738 --> 00:39:29.284
(soft music)

00:39:29.284 --> 00:39:31.327
So we had this presentation

00:39:31.327 --> 00:39:34.163
at the University of Toronto,

00:39:34.163 --> 00:39:37.041
and that was the birth
of the organization.

00:39:37.041 --> 00:39:41.045
The organization was called
Hiroshima-Nagasaki Relived.

00:39:41.045 --> 00:39:44.299
The intent was
to provide general education

00:39:44.299 --> 00:39:46.259
on the threat
of nuclear weapons

00:39:46.259 --> 00:39:49.012
and nuclear war.

00:39:49.012 --> 00:39:52.932
(Joe)
I remember Jim and Setsuko
speaking at Quaker House

00:39:52.932 --> 00:39:54.601
here in the city of Toronto,

00:39:54.601 --> 00:39:57.729
and they were
so gentle with each other

00:39:57.729 --> 00:40:01.190
and yet so clear
and so unambiguous

00:40:01.190 --> 00:40:06.154
about their commitment
to peace and justice issues

00:40:06.154 --> 00:40:07.989
confronting our world.

00:40:07.989 --> 00:40:12.285
(Setsuko)
We started going to schools
as speakers.

00:40:12.285 --> 00:40:17.707
We organized marches, lectures.

00:40:17.707 --> 00:40:19.459
I didn't realize

00:40:19.459 --> 00:40:24.130
how hard it's going to be
to go public.

00:40:24.130 --> 00:40:26.299
It was really painful

00:40:26.299 --> 00:40:30.970
to talk about
my survivor experience.

00:40:30.970 --> 00:40:34.474
Press are not always
very sensitive.

00:40:34.474 --> 00:40:37.393
They can be rude, hurtful.

00:40:37.393 --> 00:40:38.394
"Where were you?

00:40:38.394 --> 00:40:40.104
How old were you?"

00:40:40.104 --> 00:40:42.023
Very superficial

00:40:42.023 --> 00:40:46.194
so-called
"human interest story."

00:40:46.194 --> 00:40:48.404
I felt very strongly,

00:40:48.404 --> 00:40:53.701
I did not wish
just to talk about suffering.

00:40:53.701 --> 00:40:56.245
What I really wanted them
to write about

00:40:56.245 --> 00:40:58.957
was this nuclear arms race

00:40:58.957 --> 00:41:01.834
and what change
needs to take place

00:41:01.834 --> 00:41:04.587
in policy making.

00:41:04.587 --> 00:41:07.632
I'm not interested in sympathy.

00:41:07.632 --> 00:41:09.342
I want your commitment.

00:41:09.342 --> 00:41:10.718
I want your action.

00:41:10.718 --> 00:41:15.014
That's why I'm still speaking
about this.

00:41:15.014 --> 00:41:18.142
I've called for
whatever it takes

00:41:18.142 --> 00:41:21.104
to be strong enough
that no other nation on Earth

00:41:21.104 --> 00:41:23.272
will dare violate the peace.

00:41:23.272 --> 00:41:24.691
(applause)

00:41:24.691 --> 00:41:28.152
(Joe)
Ronald Reagan
got to power in 1980.

00:41:28.152 --> 00:41:30.571
Reagan's policy
was the United States

00:41:30.571 --> 00:41:33.116
could actually fight and win
a nuclear war,

00:41:33.116 --> 00:41:38.037
and so the arms race was given
a fresh start at that time.

00:41:38.037 --> 00:41:40.915
We're already in an arms race.

00:41:40.915 --> 00:41:45.169
A global peace movement
just erupted.

00:41:45.169 --> 00:41:47.755
There were tens of thousands,
even hundreds of thousands,

00:41:47.755 --> 00:41:51.426
and in some places,
millions of people rallying.

00:41:51.426 --> 00:41:54.804
Setsuko and Jim were
very active here in Toronto.

00:41:54.804 --> 00:41:57.265
We would demonstrate
along Yonge Street

00:41:57.265 --> 00:41:58.433
or University Avenue

00:41:58.433 --> 00:41:59.892
or go out
to one of the factories

00:41:59.892 --> 00:42:03.271
that was producing parts
for the cruise missile.

00:42:03.271 --> 00:42:06.024
(intense music)

00:42:06.024 --> 00:42:09.193
(Setsuko)
I remember 1982,

00:42:09.193 --> 00:42:12.613
one million people
came to New York.

00:42:12.613 --> 00:42:17.034
We walked together through
the streets of Manhattan.

00:42:17.034 --> 00:42:20.788
We ended up at Central Park.

00:42:20.788 --> 00:42:23.833
We couldn't even get in,
it was so packed.

00:42:23.833 --> 00:42:27.378
That was an amazing experience.

00:42:27.378 --> 00:42:30.590
(Joe)
We had busloads of Canadians
going down there.

00:42:30.590 --> 00:42:32.133
Rome had a million.

00:42:32.133 --> 00:42:33.384
London had a million.

00:42:33.384 --> 00:42:35.094
Berlin had half a million.

00:42:35.094 --> 00:42:38.431
It was just unbelievable
global effort.

00:42:38.431 --> 00:42:40.850
(Eric)
In 1982, in Central Park,

00:42:40.850 --> 00:42:43.478
at that time was the largest
political demonstration

00:42:43.478 --> 00:42:45.188
in American history.

00:42:45.188 --> 00:42:47.815
And Ronald Reagan
took notice of it,

00:42:47.815 --> 00:42:52.445
and the worldwide revulsion
towards nuclear weapons

00:42:52.445 --> 00:42:54.238
is what empowered
Ronald Reagan

00:42:54.238 --> 00:42:55.865
and Mikhail Gorbachev

00:42:55.865 --> 00:42:58.242
to seriously discuss
at Reykjavik

00:42:58.242 --> 00:43:00.203
abolishing nuclear weapons.

00:43:02.371 --> 00:43:04.457
(Setsuko)
In 1984,

00:43:04.457 --> 00:43:09.420
we got involved with the opening
of the Peace Garden.

00:43:09.420 --> 00:43:12.423
(Joe)
This Peace Garden to this day
really is an important symbol

00:43:12.423 --> 00:43:16.177
of what Toronto tries to be
in its best moments.

00:43:16.177 --> 00:43:21.307
This is Prime Minister Trudeau
ground-breaking ceremony.

00:43:21.307 --> 00:43:22.975
The idea was,

00:43:22.975 --> 00:43:27.855
in order to memorialize
the spirit of Hiroshima,

00:43:27.855 --> 00:43:29.357
a flame of peace

00:43:29.357 --> 00:43:32.151
would be brought
from Hiroshima Peace Garden

00:43:32.151 --> 00:43:36.823
and water
from the river in Nagasaki.

00:43:36.823 --> 00:43:39.575
It became a very big thing.

00:43:39.575 --> 00:43:43.746
We asked the Pope to come
give us the official blessing.

00:43:43.746 --> 00:43:46.624
(crowd roaring)

00:43:46.624 --> 00:43:50.086
(applause, cheers)

00:43:50.086 --> 00:43:54.048
The Pope put my hands
into his palm

00:43:54.048 --> 00:43:57.051
and said a prayer
for those who perished

00:43:57.051 --> 00:43:58.845
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

00:43:58.845 --> 00:44:01.889
and for those who survived.

00:44:01.889 --> 00:44:05.935
Queen Elizabeth came
a couple months later.

00:44:05.935 --> 00:44:09.647
We all long for lasting
international peace.

00:44:09.647 --> 00:44:11.023
When man is...

00:44:11.023 --> 00:44:13.067
(Setsuko)
It was a great event
for our goal--

00:44:13.067 --> 00:44:16.904
that is, the abolition
of nuclear weapons.

00:44:16.904 --> 00:44:19.574
(Andrew)
Being a survivor
certainly gave my mother

00:44:19.574 --> 00:44:22.201
a lot of instant credibility.

00:44:22.201 --> 00:44:24.912
That made her somebody
who was in demand.

00:44:24.912 --> 00:44:26.873
She had a message to deliver

00:44:26.873 --> 00:44:29.750
and the eloquence
and the background

00:44:29.750 --> 00:44:31.586
and the knowledge
to deliver it.

00:44:31.586 --> 00:44:35.923
Every speech I gave,
Jim checked.

00:44:35.923 --> 00:44:39.176
Jim and I shared the ideals,

00:44:39.176 --> 00:44:45.099
and he gave all the energy
and time and help I needed.

00:44:45.099 --> 00:44:49.145
But there were many moments
when I couldn't take it

00:44:49.145 --> 00:44:50.396
emotionally.

00:44:51.939 --> 00:44:56.444
Sometimes, writing speeches
late at night,

00:44:56.444 --> 00:45:00.197
I just start
uncontrollable sobbing.

00:45:00.197 --> 00:45:04.869
The only person
who has seen me do that is Jim.

00:45:04.869 --> 00:45:06.245
(gentle music)

00:45:06.245 --> 00:45:09.207
I just couldn't have coped
by myself.

00:45:10.207 --> 00:45:13.794
He was always there for me.

00:45:16.631 --> 00:45:19.842
(Mitchie)
As I traveled with Setsuko
to various events

00:45:19.842 --> 00:45:22.553
and met many other activists,

00:45:22.553 --> 00:45:25.139
I was struck
by what a significant role

00:45:25.139 --> 00:45:26.515
doctors have played

00:45:26.515 --> 00:45:30.728
in the movement
to stop the nuclear arms race.

00:45:30.728 --> 00:45:34.440
I can only imagine
how frustrating and infuriating

00:45:34.440 --> 00:45:37.109
it must have been
for my grandfather.

00:45:37.109 --> 00:45:41.155
He was on the front line of
this first atomic devastation

00:45:41.155 --> 00:45:44.992
and was unable to treat
the streaming masses of victims

00:45:44.992 --> 00:45:48.704
after the bomb was dropped.

00:45:48.704 --> 00:45:51.874
(Josefin)
Physicians have been involved
in nuclear disarmament

00:45:51.874 --> 00:45:53.501
for many years.

00:45:53.501 --> 00:45:56.712
In the '80s, they realized
that, as a physician,

00:45:56.712 --> 00:45:59.966
they had no power
to do anything

00:45:59.966 --> 00:46:02.927
if a nuclear war would happen.

00:46:02.927 --> 00:46:08.516
So the only option for them
was to prevent nuclear war.

00:46:08.516 --> 00:46:10.893
They started to organize.

00:46:10.893 --> 00:46:13.729
International Physicians for
the Prevention of Nuclear War

00:46:13.729 --> 00:46:15.523
was founded.

00:46:15.523 --> 00:46:19.276
(Eric)
The antinuclear movement was
extraordinarily effective

00:46:19.276 --> 00:46:21.529
30, 35 years ago,

00:46:21.529 --> 00:46:23.739
but people assume
that the threat went away

00:46:23.739 --> 00:46:25.616
when the Cold War ended.

00:46:25.616 --> 00:46:27.702
(cheering)

00:46:27.702 --> 00:46:29.245
(hammers clinking)

00:46:29.245 --> 00:46:31.747
(Josefin)
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell

00:46:31.747 --> 00:46:35.001
and everyone thought
that nuclear weapons

00:46:35.001 --> 00:46:37.211
would just disappear
and solve itself,

00:46:37.211 --> 00:46:39.755
so engagement
in nuclear disarmament

00:46:39.755 --> 00:46:43.342
-lost its force.
-After the Cold War,

00:46:43.342 --> 00:46:45.219
enormous progress was made

00:46:45.219 --> 00:46:46.929
between the United States
and Russia,

00:46:46.929 --> 00:46:49.348
reducing the sizes
of their arsenals

00:46:49.348 --> 00:46:52.935
by 80, 85% since their peak.

00:46:52.935 --> 00:46:56.522
The nuclear issue
was essentially forgotten.

00:46:56.522 --> 00:46:59.567
(announcer)
As the United States meets
treaty obligations

00:46:59.567 --> 00:47:01.694
by making significant reductions

00:47:01.694 --> 00:47:03.779
in its nuclear weapons
stockpile,

00:47:03.779 --> 00:47:06.157
disassembly
and disposal operations

00:47:06.157 --> 00:47:08.117
are taking place.

00:47:08.117 --> 00:47:09.535
(Setsuko)
The general public,

00:47:09.535 --> 00:47:13.330
when the Cold War ended,
they went back to sleep,

00:47:13.330 --> 00:47:16.542
thinking the problem
disappeared.

00:47:16.542 --> 00:47:19.587
I did continue my activism,

00:47:19.587 --> 00:47:23.174
but in those days,
I spent most of my energy

00:47:23.174 --> 00:47:27.178
as a social worker,
and also

00:47:27.178 --> 00:47:32.516
Jim's physical condition
began to deteriorate.

00:47:32.516 --> 00:47:33.684
(gentle piano music)

00:47:33.684 --> 00:47:36.103
-That's pretty, isn't it?
-Yeah.

00:47:36.103 --> 00:47:38.814
(Andrew)
Mid-'90s, he had
his bypass surgery.

00:47:38.814 --> 00:47:42.193
Gradually, at that point,
he was becoming weaker.

00:47:42.193 --> 00:47:44.653
He was still able to help
with her speeches,

00:47:44.653 --> 00:47:47.948
but he wasn't able
to travel with her.

00:47:47.948 --> 00:47:51.577
But he certainly encouraged her
not to slow down.

00:47:51.577 --> 00:47:53.412
He said to her
that she's gonna have to work

00:47:53.412 --> 00:47:56.165
for both of them.

00:47:56.165 --> 00:48:00.127
(Setsuko)
I became involved more
on an international level.

00:48:00.127 --> 00:48:04.423
I was invited to participate
in the Peace Boat,

00:48:04.423 --> 00:48:06.383
to go around the world

00:48:06.383 --> 00:48:10.221
and help spread
the message of peace

00:48:10.221 --> 00:48:14.850
with 100 survivors
from Hiroshima-Nagasaki.

00:48:14.850 --> 00:48:17.645
I hesitated to accept it.

00:48:17.645 --> 00:48:22.316
There were some health concerns
about Jim.

00:48:22.316 --> 00:48:24.485
(Kathleen Sullivan)
When Setsuko was
on the global voyage,

00:48:24.485 --> 00:48:27.571
Jim was not well, she was
looking after him at home,

00:48:27.571 --> 00:48:31.575
and he went
into a nursing facility

00:48:31.575 --> 00:48:34.495
for those three months.

00:48:34.495 --> 00:48:36.664
He understood
the importance of her work

00:48:36.664 --> 00:48:38.124
as a disarmament activist

00:48:38.124 --> 00:48:39.625
from the moment he met her

00:48:39.625 --> 00:48:42.336
and supported her
100% of the way.

00:48:42.336 --> 00:48:47.299
So, they had
a real deep partnership.

00:48:47.299 --> 00:48:50.469
The ship arrived in Tahiti,

00:48:50.469 --> 00:48:54.932
and Jim's health had hit
a bump in the road,

00:48:54.932 --> 00:48:59.687
and she said, "I'm outta here,
I gotta go back to Canada

00:48:59.687 --> 00:49:01.856
and be with my husband."

00:49:01.856 --> 00:49:07.278
(Setsuko)
I flew home just in time
for his birthday.

00:49:07.278 --> 00:49:12.199
I must admit,
I had some sense of regret

00:49:12.199 --> 00:49:18.122
that I took a lot of time away
from my husband.

00:49:18.122 --> 00:49:20.749
When he retired,

00:49:20.749 --> 00:49:22.877
we wanted to write together,

00:49:22.877 --> 00:49:24.962
and he waited for me too long,

00:49:24.962 --> 00:49:29.133
and I feel guilty
that I made him wait.

00:49:29.133 --> 00:49:33.637
You know, even after I retired,
I had so much to do.

00:49:33.637 --> 00:49:37.808
So we could have started
a new chapter with him,

00:49:37.808 --> 00:49:43.189
but that chapter never came,
and I feel guilty about that.

00:49:43.189 --> 00:49:47.067
(soft music)

00:49:47.067 --> 00:49:51.071
Jim and I shared 56 years.

00:49:52.573 --> 00:49:56.076
What you call it? Soulmate?

00:49:56.076 --> 00:50:01.290
So you can imagine the void
I felt when he passed.

00:50:19.141 --> 00:50:22.061
(Mitchie)
As long as I lived
in the United States,

00:50:22.061 --> 00:50:26.106
I carried a sense of guilt
about leaving my mother.

00:50:26.106 --> 00:50:31.070
In 2007, when I learned
that she had pancreatic cancer

00:50:31.070 --> 00:50:33.572
and only a few months to live,

00:50:33.572 --> 00:50:38.410
I decided to go home
to be with her till the end.

00:50:38.410 --> 00:50:42.706
(Kathleen Lawand)
We know today that those
who were exposed to radiation

00:50:42.706 --> 00:50:45.251
after the atomic bombs
were used

00:50:45.251 --> 00:50:47.002
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

00:50:47.002 --> 00:50:49.171
and in fact,
their children as well,

00:50:49.171 --> 00:50:52.341
suffer from cancer rates

00:50:52.341 --> 00:50:55.511
that are far higher than
the general population,

00:50:55.511 --> 00:50:57.846
and so this is
the continued impact

00:50:57.846 --> 00:51:01.016
of those bombs
70-plus years on.

00:51:02.726 --> 00:51:05.896
(Mitchie)
My mother was so relieved
that I had no deadline

00:51:05.896 --> 00:51:08.816
to return to New York City.

00:51:08.816 --> 00:51:13.529
One day, I apologized to her
for moving so far away.

00:51:13.529 --> 00:51:17.199
She said,
"Oh, Michan, don't cry.

00:51:17.199 --> 00:51:19.994
That happened many years ago.

00:51:19.994 --> 00:51:22.204
I was happy
that you got to pursue

00:51:22.204 --> 00:51:25.082
the life you wanted."

00:51:25.082 --> 00:51:29.211
Those last days together
were very special for us.

00:51:29.211 --> 00:51:32.965
I had so many questions
that I wanted to ask her,

00:51:32.965 --> 00:51:35.884
but she was getting
weaker and weaker.

00:51:36.885 --> 00:51:39.388
I had missed my chance.

00:51:39.388 --> 00:51:42.599
My questions
would never be answered.

00:51:46.562 --> 00:51:49.815
I have witnessed
hell on Earth,

00:51:49.815 --> 00:51:54.361
but the horrible
catastrophic destruction

00:51:54.361 --> 00:51:59.491
was caused
by a very primitive bomb.

00:52:00.951 --> 00:52:04.121
Over the past 70 years,

00:52:04.121 --> 00:52:07.875
the world kept on
piling up nuclear weapons.

00:52:09.001 --> 00:52:11.795
16,000 of them,

00:52:11.795 --> 00:52:13.672
and a lot more powerful.

00:52:13.672 --> 00:52:16.759
(rockets roaring)

00:52:16.759 --> 00:52:20.095
Nuclear weapons
are viewed as a status symbol.

00:52:20.095 --> 00:52:23.015
They should be seen
as badges of shame,

00:52:23.015 --> 00:52:24.808
as the markers of rogue nations

00:52:24.808 --> 00:52:28.520
who are putting
the entire world at risk.

00:52:28.520 --> 00:52:30.522
(Setsuko)
And some people think
it's a good thing

00:52:30.522 --> 00:52:33.692
to have that dangerous,
powerful nuclear weapon,

00:52:33.692 --> 00:52:38.030
because we can use them
as deterrence.

00:52:38.030 --> 00:52:44.203
And that argument is
totally illusion and delusion.

00:52:44.203 --> 00:52:47.956
And when you look very closely
at what deterrence is,

00:52:47.956 --> 00:52:50.292
it's the threat to annihilate

00:52:50.292 --> 00:52:54.671
millions and millions
of innocent civilians.

00:52:54.671 --> 00:52:57.549
Deterrence could fail
an hour from now

00:52:57.549 --> 00:53:01.762
simply because a leader decides
to use nuclear weapons.

00:53:01.762 --> 00:53:04.223
The threat in many ways
is the greatest it's been

00:53:04.223 --> 00:53:06.392
in decades.

00:53:06.392 --> 00:53:09.353
(Setsuko)
If we start using those weapons,

00:53:09.353 --> 00:53:14.233
it certainly is going to be
the end of the world,

00:53:14.233 --> 00:53:17.653
end of the civilization,

00:53:17.653 --> 00:53:20.364
the destruction of the planet.

00:53:20.364 --> 00:53:22.408
I can't stand that very thought.

00:53:22.408 --> 00:53:23.700
Can you?

00:53:26.453 --> 00:53:28.414
We either get rid
of these weapons

00:53:28.414 --> 00:53:30.749
or they will be used.

00:53:30.749 --> 00:53:32.918
So, about 10 years ago,

00:53:32.918 --> 00:53:34.753
we formed
an umbrella group called

00:53:34.753 --> 00:53:37.923
the International Campaign
to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

00:53:37.923 --> 00:53:39.550
(Beatrice)
ICAN was founded

00:53:39.550 --> 00:53:42.219
to broaden our movement

00:53:42.219 --> 00:53:44.430
to include new actors,

00:53:44.430 --> 00:53:46.223
bringing younger people.

00:53:46.223 --> 00:53:48.392
On the staff,
we're just a few people.

00:53:48.392 --> 00:53:49.935
We're not the campaign.

00:53:49.935 --> 00:53:52.688
It's the partner organizations.

00:53:52.688 --> 00:53:56.775
We have 468 organizations

00:53:56.775 --> 00:53:58.861
associated with ICAN right now.

00:53:58.861 --> 00:54:00.237
It's in about 100 countries.

00:54:00.237 --> 00:54:03.407
It's really
a bottom-up campaign.

00:54:03.407 --> 00:54:07.327
Most of the groups
are from the grass roots.

00:54:07.327 --> 00:54:10.914
(Setsuko)
I was so delighted
that young people

00:54:10.914 --> 00:54:15.752
provided the major leadership
in that organization.

00:54:15.752 --> 00:54:18.839
That was something
I never experienced.

00:54:18.839 --> 00:54:20.841
(uplifting music)

00:54:20.841 --> 00:54:23.093
(Ira)
This campaign began
to attract the attention

00:54:23.093 --> 00:54:24.887
of a number of governments
around the world

00:54:24.887 --> 00:54:28.390
and began a series
of international conferences

00:54:28.390 --> 00:54:31.977
on the humanitarian
impact of nuclear war.

00:54:31.977 --> 00:54:35.355
(Tim)
The conferences
really put the focus on

00:54:35.355 --> 00:54:37.357
what these weapons
do to people,

00:54:37.357 --> 00:54:40.486
and this was strangely absent

00:54:40.486 --> 00:54:41.820
from so many discussions

00:54:41.820 --> 00:54:46.116
on nuclear disarmament
previously.

00:54:46.116 --> 00:54:48.243
(Mitchie)
Setsuko was thrust
onto the world stage

00:54:48.243 --> 00:54:50.412
at the Vienna Conference.

00:54:50.412 --> 00:54:53.499
I had heard
her testimony many times,

00:54:53.499 --> 00:54:54.791
but it was here

00:54:54.791 --> 00:54:57.169
that I saw
her tremendous impact

00:54:57.169 --> 00:55:00.964
on the global debate
about nuclear weapons.

00:55:00.964 --> 00:55:04.176
(soft instrumental music)

00:55:04.176 --> 00:55:06.345
(Setsuko)
So, have a good look.

00:55:06.345 --> 00:55:09.014
Here are 351

00:55:09.014 --> 00:55:11.683
schoolmates of mine.

00:55:11.683 --> 00:55:14.311
Each one had a life,

00:55:14.311 --> 00:55:18.023
had a name, and was loved.

00:55:18.023 --> 00:55:20.442
Until recently,
we have been talking

00:55:20.442 --> 00:55:24.488
about military deterrence
and balance of power,

00:55:24.488 --> 00:55:26.281
and I am relieved,

00:55:26.281 --> 00:55:29.535
finally, we are talking
about human beings,

00:55:29.535 --> 00:55:33.205
what the nuclear weapons
do to human beings.

00:55:33.205 --> 00:55:36.875
All these friends
of mine are gone.

00:55:36.875 --> 00:55:41.129
They're wiped out
from the face of the planet.

00:55:41.129 --> 00:55:44.550
This is something
we want to prevent.

00:55:44.550 --> 00:55:46.718
We have to stop it,
we have to...

00:55:46.718 --> 00:55:49.888
(Tim)
One of the things
that I admire about Setsuko

00:55:49.888 --> 00:55:51.848
is her fearlessness,

00:55:51.848 --> 00:55:54.101
the fact that she's willing

00:55:54.101 --> 00:55:57.312
to really speak truth to power.

00:55:57.312 --> 00:56:00.732
(Kathleen Sullivan)
In Vienna,
the Japanese ambassador

00:56:00.732 --> 00:56:02.568
said something
along the lines of,

00:56:02.568 --> 00:56:04.278
"Let's not be
so pessimistic

00:56:04.278 --> 00:56:09.032
about how we might
respond to a nuclear attack,"

00:56:09.032 --> 00:56:12.077
and Setsuko was like,
"I can't believe he said that."

00:56:12.077 --> 00:56:16.373
She went over and said,
as a survivor of Hiroshima,

00:56:16.373 --> 00:56:18.834
that opinion
was very offensive to her.

00:56:18.834 --> 00:56:23.088
Really putting it to him
in no uncertain terms.

00:56:23.088 --> 00:56:25.382
She essentially said,

00:56:25.382 --> 00:56:29.344
"You cannot talk
about survivability

00:56:29.344 --> 00:56:31.597
or, quote, 'pessimism,'

00:56:31.597 --> 00:56:36.310
around what these
nuclear weapons can do,"

00:56:36.310 --> 00:56:38.270
and boy, was her picture
on the front page

00:56:38.270 --> 00:56:41.315
in Japan that next morning.

00:56:41.315 --> 00:56:45.068
(Akira)
Because Setsuko
was so strong and powerful,

00:56:45.068 --> 00:56:47.738
many governments
thought that they have

00:56:47.738 --> 00:56:49.531
to do something new,

00:56:49.531 --> 00:56:53.327
and that led
to the Humanitarian Pledge.

00:56:53.327 --> 00:56:55.621
(Steve)
This pledge says
we should have

00:56:55.621 --> 00:56:57.581
some kind of legal instrument

00:56:57.581 --> 00:57:00.167
to make it very clear
to everyone

00:57:00.167 --> 00:57:02.544
that we consider
nuclear weapons illegal.

00:57:02.544 --> 00:57:05.964
This was a hugely
significant moment.

00:57:05.964 --> 00:57:09.926
Country after country adopted
this Humanitarian Pledge

00:57:09.926 --> 00:57:11.928
and expressed their readiness

00:57:11.928 --> 00:57:13.680
to start negotiations

00:57:13.680 --> 00:57:15.641
on a treaty
banning nuclear weapons.

00:57:15.641 --> 00:57:18.644
The only way to guarantee
the security that you all seek

00:57:18.644 --> 00:57:21.229
is through the total
elimination of nuclear weapons

00:57:21.229 --> 00:57:22.939
and their prohibition.

00:57:22.939 --> 00:57:26.234
(Setsuko)
The Humanitarian Pledge
has received

00:57:26.234 --> 00:57:31.865
the signature from 121 nations.

00:57:31.865 --> 00:57:35.202
That is tremendous momentum.

00:57:35.202 --> 00:57:37.329
I feel so empowered,

00:57:37.329 --> 00:57:41.458
so...gratified.

00:57:41.458 --> 00:57:43.502
(Mitchie)
It was during
this trip to Vienna

00:57:43.502 --> 00:57:46.296
that I finally made
my first public speech

00:57:46.296 --> 00:57:48.674
about my grandfather.

00:57:48.674 --> 00:57:51.134
It was in front of 50 delegates

00:57:51.134 --> 00:57:55.222
from the International Red Cross
and Red Crescent movement.

00:57:55.222 --> 00:57:58.725
Setsuko even helped me
to practice my speech.

00:57:58.725 --> 00:58:02.646
I received a warm response
for providing them

00:58:02.646 --> 00:58:05.148
with some of their
missing history.

00:58:07.401 --> 00:58:11.029
After the success
of the Humanitarian Pledge,

00:58:11.029 --> 00:58:13.824
negotiations began
at the United Nations

00:58:13.824 --> 00:58:15.033
on a treaty

00:58:15.033 --> 00:58:19.454
to categorically
prohibit nuclear weapons.

00:58:19.454 --> 00:58:21.790
(indistinct remarks)

00:58:21.790 --> 00:58:23.333
(Kathleen Sullivan)
Right now,

00:58:23.333 --> 00:58:28.004
the antinuclear movement has
an opening like never before.

00:58:28.004 --> 00:58:31.049
ICAN has been working
very closely

00:58:31.049 --> 00:58:33.969
with those governments
that want to see a ban,

00:58:33.969 --> 00:58:36.805
and I believe
that the tide is turning.

00:58:36.805 --> 00:58:39.057
(Beatrice)
When I first heard
the idea about a treaty

00:58:39.057 --> 00:58:41.476
that would be done
without nuclear-armed states,

00:58:41.476 --> 00:58:44.062
I was like, "Nah,
that doesn't sound like

00:58:44.062 --> 00:58:45.439
the right thing to do."

00:58:45.439 --> 00:58:46.857
If the nuclear-armed states
aren't there,

00:58:46.857 --> 00:58:48.650
then what does it mean?

00:58:48.650 --> 00:58:52.112
(Ray)
When we started pursuing
a nuclear weapon ban treaty,

00:58:52.112 --> 00:58:54.823
we were really
looking to the lessons

00:58:54.823 --> 00:58:58.034
that we had learned
from prohibiting landmines

00:58:58.034 --> 00:58:59.661
and cluster bombs.

00:58:59.661 --> 00:59:01.872
We learned that you don't need

00:59:01.872 --> 00:59:04.458
all of the so-called big powers

00:59:04.458 --> 00:59:06.585
to transform international law,

00:59:06.585 --> 00:59:10.297
and to stigmatize these weapons
by outlawing them.

00:59:10.297 --> 00:59:12.591
So we knew going in
we didn't have any

00:59:12.591 --> 00:59:15.177
of the nuclear-armed states
supporting this,

00:59:15.177 --> 00:59:17.387
but it wasn't necessary.

00:59:17.387 --> 00:59:23.351
These countries couldn't control
the discourse anymore.

00:59:23.351 --> 00:59:27.689
(Setsuko)
The world's attention is focused
at the United Nations.

00:59:27.689 --> 00:59:32.903
For the first time in 70 years
of the United Nations' life,

00:59:32.903 --> 00:59:39.367
we had the negotiation
for the ban treaty.

00:59:39.367 --> 00:59:41.661
(Beatrice)
It's tough having
over a hundred countries

00:59:41.661 --> 00:59:44.748
trying to hammer out the text.

00:59:44.748 --> 00:59:47.876
It was a very intensive
lobbying effort going on.

00:59:47.876 --> 00:59:49.169
We were surprised

00:59:49.169 --> 00:59:51.922
with the extremely
aggressive pressure

00:59:51.922 --> 00:59:54.007
from the nuclear-armed states.

00:59:54.007 --> 00:59:55.842
On the opening
of the negotiations,

00:59:55.842 --> 00:59:58.053
quite dramatically,
the U.S. ambassador,

00:59:58.053 --> 01:00:00.138
Nikki Haley,
and some of her allies

01:00:00.138 --> 01:00:03.642
staged a protest
press conference.

01:00:03.642 --> 01:00:05.602
You are gonna see
almost 40 countries

01:00:05.602 --> 01:00:08.313
that are not
in the General Assembly today,

01:00:08.313 --> 01:00:10.607
and that's 40 countries
that are saying,

01:00:10.607 --> 01:00:13.151
"We would love to have
a ban on nuclear treaty--

01:00:13.151 --> 01:00:14.861
on nuclear weapons,

01:00:14.861 --> 01:00:16.571
but we have to be realistic."

01:00:16.571 --> 01:00:18.073
(Beatrice)
It was really
quite a big sign

01:00:18.073 --> 01:00:20.742
that we were on to
something very important,

01:00:20.742 --> 01:00:22.911
if the U.S. government
would have to protest

01:00:22.911 --> 01:00:25.288
outside the negotiating room.

01:00:25.288 --> 01:00:26.706
In this day and time,

01:00:26.706 --> 01:00:29.626
we can't honestly say
that we can protect our people

01:00:29.626 --> 01:00:33.129
by allowing the bad actors
to have them

01:00:33.129 --> 01:00:35.757
and those of us that are good
trying to keep peace and safety

01:00:35.757 --> 01:00:37.342
not to have them.

01:00:37.342 --> 01:00:39.928
(Beatrice)
This is intended
as a distraction.

01:00:39.928 --> 01:00:43.390
I think it's quite unusual
that the U.S. ambassador

01:00:43.390 --> 01:00:46.142
and her colleagues are
standing outside protesting

01:00:46.142 --> 01:00:48.895
while the rest of the world's
inside negotiating.

01:00:48.895 --> 01:00:50.939
Setsuko and the Hibakusha,

01:00:50.939 --> 01:00:52.941
they are the real experts
on nuclear weapons.

01:00:52.941 --> 01:00:55.110
The survivors know more
about nuclear weapons

01:00:55.110 --> 01:00:56.862
than anyone else,

01:00:56.862 --> 01:00:59.155
and they have been
so instrumental

01:00:59.155 --> 01:01:00.991
in the treaty negotiations.

01:01:00.991 --> 01:01:05.245
(Setsuko)
Madam President and delegates,

01:01:05.245 --> 01:01:09.749
whenever I remember Hiroshima,

01:01:09.749 --> 01:01:14.421
the first image
that comes to my mind

01:01:14.421 --> 01:01:18.383
is my four-year-old nephew

01:01:18.383 --> 01:01:20.886
who was transformed

01:01:20.886 --> 01:01:24.306
into an unrecognizable,

01:01:24.306 --> 01:01:26.850
blackened, swollen,

01:01:26.850 --> 01:01:29.436
melted chunk of flesh...

01:01:30.312 --> 01:01:33.356
who kept begging for water

01:01:33.356 --> 01:01:35.775
in a faint voice

01:01:35.775 --> 01:01:41.031
until his death
released him from agony.

01:01:42.699 --> 01:01:45.327
This little boy's image

01:01:45.327 --> 01:01:48.788
has come to represent in my mind

01:01:48.788 --> 01:01:52.000
all the innocent
children of the world,

01:01:52.000 --> 01:01:54.794
threatened as they are

01:01:54.794 --> 01:02:00.383
at this very moment
by nuclear weapons.

01:02:00.383 --> 01:02:02.218
I want you to feel

01:02:02.218 --> 01:02:05.972
the spirit
of the dead witnesses

01:02:05.972 --> 01:02:09.726
from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

01:02:09.726 --> 01:02:13.063
Please do your job well

01:02:13.063 --> 01:02:19.027
and know
that we Hibakusha, survivors,

01:02:19.027 --> 01:02:23.490
have no doubt
that this treaty

01:02:23.490 --> 01:02:28.536
can and will change the world.

01:02:28.536 --> 01:02:29.913
Thank you.

01:02:29.913 --> 01:02:32.207
(tense music)

01:02:46.137 --> 01:02:50.266
We're on the last leg
of the negotiations.

01:02:50.266 --> 01:02:52.769
The text that we have
is good text.

01:02:52.769 --> 01:02:57.190
It's a categorical prohibition
on nuclear weapons.

01:02:57.190 --> 01:02:59.192
This is a big deal.

01:02:59.192 --> 01:03:03.196
(female delegate)
My delegation requests
a formal recorded vote.

01:03:03.196 --> 01:03:05.657
(indistinct chatter)

01:03:05.657 --> 01:03:08.618
(man)
Oh my God,
they're all green.

01:03:08.618 --> 01:03:10.412
(cheers and applause)

01:03:10.412 --> 01:03:12.747
(Mitchie)
In July 2017,

01:03:12.747 --> 01:03:15.709
the United Nations
voted to adopt

01:03:15.709 --> 01:03:19.754
the Treaty on the Prohibition
of Nuclear Weapons.

01:03:19.754 --> 01:03:24.009
(Setsuko)
I never thought
I would see this moment.

01:03:24.009 --> 01:03:28.763
I've been waiting for this day
for seven decades,

01:03:28.763 --> 01:03:31.558
and I am overjoyed

01:03:31.558 --> 01:03:35.895
that it has finally arrived.

01:03:35.895 --> 01:03:41.276
This is the beginning
of the end of nuclear weapons.

01:03:41.276 --> 01:03:44.320
To the leaders
across the world,

01:03:44.320 --> 01:03:47.407
I beseech you:

01:03:47.407 --> 01:03:50.952
If you love this planet,

01:03:50.952 --> 01:03:54.539
you will sign this treaty.

01:03:54.539 --> 01:03:58.334
Nuclear weapon
has always been immoral.

01:03:59.794 --> 01:04:02.589
Now they're also illegal.

01:04:02.589 --> 01:04:05.050
(cheers and applause)

01:04:05.050 --> 01:04:08.970
(Mitchie)
However, adoption
was only the first step.

01:04:08.970 --> 01:04:13.099
The treaty still needed
to be ratified by 50 nations

01:04:13.099 --> 01:04:15.977
to become international law.

01:04:15.977 --> 01:04:21.524
(Setsuko)
It's such a profoundly
historic occasion.

01:04:21.524 --> 01:04:23.026
When I think of it,

01:04:23.026 --> 01:04:25.904
I almost tremble.

01:04:25.904 --> 01:04:34.120
Why? I am so--more
than grateful and humble.

01:04:34.120 --> 01:04:38.583
I can shout and scream
with joy and happiness,

01:04:38.583 --> 01:04:43.046
but it's a lot more serious
than that, really.

01:04:45.924 --> 01:04:50.887
Because I cannot
have this time

01:04:50.887 --> 01:04:55.475
without including
all the people

01:04:55.475 --> 01:04:58.561
who shared that fate with me

01:04:58.561 --> 01:05:01.689
in that city
on that day.

01:05:01.689 --> 01:05:04.317
(indistinct chatter)

01:05:04.317 --> 01:05:07.403
(Beatrice)
Today, we finally ban
nuclear weapons.

01:05:07.403 --> 01:05:08.947
This is an issue
that we're not always

01:05:08.947 --> 01:05:10.365
used to winning,

01:05:10.365 --> 01:05:12.242
and it feels really good
to win today.

01:05:12.242 --> 01:05:14.160
It's just the beginning.

01:05:14.160 --> 01:05:17.622
So my plea to all of you is,

01:05:17.622 --> 01:05:20.834
you media people, do your part.

01:05:20.834 --> 01:05:23.086
Is New York Times here?

01:05:23.086 --> 01:05:24.796
Washington Post here?

01:05:24.796 --> 01:05:27.215
I don't think so.

01:05:27.215 --> 01:05:29.300
We have to pressure them.

01:05:29.300 --> 01:05:33.346
And I want more people
to become motivated

01:05:33.346 --> 01:05:35.223
to act with us.

01:05:35.223 --> 01:05:38.226
That is--
is a shared responsibility.

01:05:38.226 --> 01:05:40.395
Yours and ours.

01:05:43.523 --> 01:05:45.608
(Mitchie)
At that time,
there was an event

01:05:45.608 --> 01:05:47.360
at the United Nations

01:05:47.360 --> 01:05:52.490
where several Hibakusha
gave testimony.

01:05:52.490 --> 01:05:56.411
Until I heard this woman
from Nagasaki speak,

01:05:56.411 --> 01:06:02.083
I used to think that
my mother was kind of chicken

01:06:02.083 --> 01:06:07.797
not to be able to talk about
what has happened to her,

01:06:07.797 --> 01:06:12.594
because she was probably
too emotionally fragile,

01:06:12.594 --> 01:06:16.431
while Setsuko was courageous

01:06:16.431 --> 01:06:19.309
to speak about
what has happened to her

01:06:19.309 --> 01:06:23.188
and give the testimony
many, many times.

01:06:24.480 --> 01:06:26.316
Then Mrs. Kimura said something

01:06:26.316 --> 01:06:28.818
that caught me
completely off guard.

01:07:04.854 --> 01:07:07.899
So now we have
some moments for questions

01:07:07.899 --> 01:07:09.817
and comments from the floor.

01:07:09.817 --> 01:07:13.529
As a second-generation
Hibakusha myself,

01:07:13.529 --> 01:07:16.241
listening to you talking
about how you wanted

01:07:16.241 --> 01:07:19.911
to protect your children
by not talking about it,

01:07:19.911 --> 01:07:23.873
now, I really appreciate
what my mother must have felt.

01:07:23.873 --> 01:07:26.501
(melancholic music)

01:07:26.501 --> 01:07:29.045
(Setsuko)
I have lots more, please eat.

01:07:31.339 --> 01:07:34.676
(Mitchie)
Finally, when I heard
Mrs. Kimura's speech,

01:07:34.676 --> 01:07:37.553
something clicked in my mind,

01:07:37.553 --> 01:07:39.973
and I said, "Ah...

01:07:39.973 --> 01:07:42.308
my mother didn't
maybe talk about it

01:07:42.308 --> 01:07:45.186
so that we won't
be discriminated."

01:07:45.186 --> 01:07:46.854
-She could have said...
-Do you think she wanted

01:07:46.854 --> 01:07:48.356
to protect the children?

01:07:48.356 --> 01:07:49.857
(Mitchie)
I think so.

01:07:49.857 --> 01:07:52.026
So, when I heard Mrs. Kimura

01:07:52.026 --> 01:07:56.531
talking about her experience
of discrimination,

01:07:56.531 --> 01:08:01.244
that really made me
want to cry,

01:08:01.244 --> 01:08:04.580
because I could
really understand.

01:08:04.580 --> 01:08:06.249
(soft piano music)

01:08:06.249 --> 01:08:10.586
All those years I grew up
surrounded by unspoken anxiety,

01:08:10.586 --> 01:08:13.506
thinking that
my mother was weak.

01:08:13.506 --> 01:08:15.925
I finally got it.

01:08:15.925 --> 01:08:17.552
I had always thought

01:08:17.552 --> 01:08:19.804
that my grandfather
was the heroic figure

01:08:19.804 --> 01:08:22.181
in our family's story.

01:08:22.181 --> 01:08:25.435
But now, I grasped
what strength it took

01:08:25.435 --> 01:08:30.231
for my mother to maintain
a lifetime of silence.

01:08:30.231 --> 01:08:32.650
(solemn music)

01:08:36.404 --> 01:08:40.908
In 2017, ICAN
and the nuclear ban movement

01:08:40.908 --> 01:08:44.412
was nominated
for the Nobel Peace Prize.

01:08:44.412 --> 01:08:46.873
As one of their
major campaigners,

01:08:46.873 --> 01:08:48.833
Setsuko was excited to see

01:08:48.833 --> 01:08:51.127
if their work
would be recognized.

01:08:53.087 --> 01:08:55.590
(Nobel representative)
Good morning, everybody.

01:08:55.590 --> 01:08:58.926
The Norwegian Nobel Committee

01:08:58.926 --> 01:09:01.763
has decided to award

01:09:01.763 --> 01:09:05.683
the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017

01:09:05.683 --> 01:09:10.980
to the International Campaign
to Abolish Nuclear Weapons,

01:09:10.980 --> 01:09:13.649
ICAN.

01:09:13.649 --> 01:09:17.028
The organization is
receiving the award

01:09:17.028 --> 01:09:20.406
for its work
to draw attention

01:09:20.406 --> 01:09:24.869
to the catastrophic
humanitarian consequences

01:09:24.869 --> 01:09:27.663
of any use of nuclear weapons

01:09:27.663 --> 01:09:32.085
and for its groundbreaking
efforts to achieve

01:09:32.085 --> 01:09:36.589
a treaty-based prohibition
on such weapons.

01:09:36.589 --> 01:09:39.092
Oh, what delight!
I quiver with delight!

01:09:39.092 --> 01:09:40.343
Let's scream.

01:09:40.343 --> 01:09:42.720
(laughter)

01:09:42.720 --> 01:09:44.305
Ahh!

01:09:44.305 --> 01:09:47.642
(Ray)
Thank you very much, everyone,
for joining us today

01:09:47.642 --> 01:09:51.813
at what I think is ICAN's first
Toronto press conference ever.

01:09:51.813 --> 01:09:55.358
So, today we're honored
to announce formally

01:09:55.358 --> 01:09:56.943
that Setsuko Thurlow,

01:09:56.943 --> 01:10:01.614
who is an atomic bomb survivor
from the age of 13 in Hiroshima,

01:10:01.614 --> 01:10:04.700
will be jointly accepting
the Nobel Peace Prize

01:10:04.700 --> 01:10:07.537
on ICAN's behalf
in Oslo in December.

01:10:07.537 --> 01:10:11.457
(applause)

01:10:11.457 --> 01:10:13.000
(Setsuko)
Often, the peace movement

01:10:13.000 --> 01:10:16.212
is considered to be
anti-government.

01:10:16.212 --> 01:10:20.341
But now,
with this recognition, hey,

01:10:20.341 --> 01:10:23.344
this is perfectly all right,
legitimate.

01:10:23.344 --> 01:10:26.139
University presidents are
writing to me, you know?

01:10:26.139 --> 01:10:27.557
Right, right.

01:10:27.557 --> 01:10:29.475
I'm looking forward
to this trip

01:10:29.475 --> 01:10:34.522
but with a certain degree
of anxiety,

01:10:34.522 --> 01:10:37.358
because I'm going to be
so busy.

01:10:37.358 --> 01:10:39.402
-Yes.
-It's possible

01:10:39.402 --> 01:10:43.156
I'm going to want
to buy new clothes.

01:10:43.156 --> 01:10:46.242
I really have to wear
something special.

01:10:46.242 --> 01:10:49.620
Not this.

01:10:49.620 --> 01:10:51.664
(Mitchie)
So this is beautiful.

01:10:51.664 --> 01:10:54.208
(upbeat music)

01:10:57.753 --> 01:11:00.256
(bright piano music)

01:11:06.512 --> 01:11:07.930
(Setsuko)
Time to go.

01:11:09.724 --> 01:11:13.019
(Mitchie)
She's speaking
at the Nobel Peace Prize,

01:11:13.019 --> 01:11:14.896
in Oslo.

01:11:14.896 --> 01:11:18.900
So she has to make it
to the plane.

01:11:18.900 --> 01:11:21.027
(Setsuko)
And where are we meeting Andrew?

01:11:24.780 --> 01:11:26.407
Hey, this is nice!

01:11:26.407 --> 01:11:27.992
This is fun!

01:11:34.499 --> 01:11:37.835
(Mitchie)
We arrived in Oslo
just before Christmas.

01:11:45.384 --> 01:11:49.472
I really enjoyed seeing Setsuko
treated like a rock star.

01:11:53.559 --> 01:11:58.856
(Setsuko)
I never expected this kind
of passionate support.

01:11:58.856 --> 01:12:02.068
(lively music)

01:12:02.068 --> 01:12:04.487
The world has come
to understand

01:12:04.487 --> 01:12:07.532
what we have been saying
for years and years.

01:12:26.133 --> 01:12:28.678
(majestic trumpet music)

01:12:32.557 --> 01:12:35.268
(applause)

01:12:44.819 --> 01:12:48.573
(applause)

01:12:51.033 --> 01:12:53.202
Every second of every day,

01:12:53.202 --> 01:12:58.416
nuclear weapons endanger
everything we hold dear.

01:12:59.500 --> 01:13:02.128
When I was a 13-year-old girl

01:13:02.128 --> 01:13:06.716
trapped in
the smoldering rubble,

01:13:06.716 --> 01:13:08.134
I kept pushing.

01:13:08.134 --> 01:13:12.388
I kept moving toward the light.

01:13:13.264 --> 01:13:16.017
And I survived.

01:13:17.476 --> 01:13:21.856
Our light now is a ban treaty.

01:13:22.857 --> 01:13:24.859
I repeat those words

01:13:24.859 --> 01:13:28.738
that I heard
in the ruins of Hiroshima.

01:13:28.738 --> 01:13:30.072
"Don't give up.

01:13:30.072 --> 01:13:32.825
Keep pushing, keep moving.

01:13:32.825 --> 01:13:34.869
See the light.

01:13:34.869 --> 01:13:36.912
Crawl towards it."

01:13:38.456 --> 01:13:41.542
Tonight,
we march through

01:13:41.542 --> 01:13:44.712
the streets of Oslo

01:13:44.712 --> 01:13:47.506
with torches aflame.

01:13:47.506 --> 01:13:50.259
Let us follow each other

01:13:50.259 --> 01:13:52.887
out of the dark night

01:13:52.887 --> 01:13:56.057
of nuclear terror.

01:13:56.057 --> 01:14:00.645
No matter what obstacles
we face,

01:14:00.645 --> 01:14:04.523
we will keep moving

01:14:04.523 --> 01:14:07.568
and keep pushing

01:14:07.568 --> 01:14:12.615
and keep sharing
this light for others.

01:14:12.615 --> 01:14:15.534
This is our commitment

01:14:15.534 --> 01:14:22.041
for our one precious world
to survive.

01:14:22.041 --> 01:14:25.336
(applause, cheers)

01:14:25.336 --> 01:14:28.756
(inspirational music)

01:14:36.806 --> 01:14:39.225
(cheers, shouting)

01:14:39.225 --> 01:14:42.603
I was so gratified.

01:14:42.603 --> 01:14:45.439
I kept having tears.

01:14:45.439 --> 01:14:47.817
Tears of joy.

01:14:50.194 --> 01:14:54.281
This is going
to change the world.

01:14:54.281 --> 01:14:56.450
I believe that.

01:14:56.450 --> 01:14:59.662
(all chant "Yes, ICAN")

01:15:06.752 --> 01:15:11.841
(applause)

01:15:11.841 --> 01:15:14.969
(Andrew)
My mom wants to keep going
as long as she can.

01:15:14.969 --> 01:15:17.138
Being an activist
is extremely important to her,

01:15:17.138 --> 01:15:18.681
and I think she realizes

01:15:18.681 --> 01:15:20.683
that she has a limited
number of years left,

01:15:20.683 --> 01:15:22.601
and she wants to do
as much as she can

01:15:22.601 --> 01:15:24.645
in that time.

01:15:24.645 --> 01:15:26.564
(Beatrice)
This is a campaign
where there's a role

01:15:26.564 --> 01:15:28.858
for everyone to play.

01:15:28.858 --> 01:15:30.151
And the most important

01:15:30.151 --> 01:15:33.070
is just to admit
and declare to yourself,

01:15:33.070 --> 01:15:34.530
"I don't believe
in these weapons.

01:15:34.530 --> 01:15:37.825
I think they're illegitimate
and unacceptable."

01:15:37.825 --> 01:15:40.870
And just saying that
contributes to removing

01:15:40.870 --> 01:15:44.498
some of the legitimacy
of these weapons.

01:15:44.498 --> 01:15:48.210
(Setsuko)
This is only the beginning

01:15:48.210 --> 01:15:52.048
of a real, hard struggle.

01:15:53.591 --> 01:15:57.970
When 50 nations
sign the treaty

01:15:57.970 --> 01:16:00.806
and ratify it,

01:16:00.806 --> 01:16:04.393
then this treaty
becomes effective,

01:16:04.393 --> 01:16:06.604
coming to force.

01:16:06.604 --> 01:16:09.523
That would be the day

01:16:09.523 --> 01:16:14.445
I wish I could be
alive to witness.

01:16:14.445 --> 01:16:18.199
(soft piano music)

01:16:25.289 --> 01:16:27.583
(bright orchestral music)

01:16:35.382 --> 01:16:40.095
I am certainly so grateful
to all those people

01:16:40.095 --> 01:16:43.265
who worked with us
around the world.

01:16:46.977 --> 01:16:48.729
Seventy-five years.

01:16:56.320 --> 01:16:59.323
All of us have a job to do.

01:16:59.323 --> 01:17:01.700
We have to work
with our own government,

01:17:01.700 --> 01:17:06.914
especially our governments
are reluctant to sign, ratify.

01:17:06.914 --> 01:17:10.543
We have to work harder.

01:17:10.543 --> 01:17:15.339
The inscription
in the Peace Park in Hiroshima

01:17:15.339 --> 01:17:19.510
says, "Rest in Peace.

01:17:19.510 --> 01:17:23.597
This error
will not be repeated."

01:17:23.597 --> 01:17:28.352
This became the vow
and prayer of survivors.

01:17:28.352 --> 01:17:31.480
Certainly, it is mine.

01:17:33.482 --> 01:17:37.736
I do believe
that we can fulfill our vow.

01:17:44.535 --> 01:17:47.079
(dramatic music)

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The Vow from Hiroshima

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