Hiroshima Notes by Kenzaburo Oe (Grove)

In 1965, Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe accepted an offer to write about Hiroshima and its people twenty years after the dropping of the Atomic Bomb. Hiroshima Notes is his thoughts and reactions to the ongoing political situation concerning the nuclear arms race. He would interview and hear testimony of atomic bomb survivors and also the victims of radiation sickness, a new disease that was then unknown to the world. The notes were originally serialized in a monthly journal called Sekai which translates to “world” and were taken over a two year period between August of 1963 through May of 1965. It was first published in Japanese by Iwanami Shoten in 1965. This current English edition was published in 1995 and was translated by David Swain and Toshi Yonezawa. It also includes a new introduction by Oe himself.

Oe’s first trip to Hiroshima was in August of 1963. The Ninth World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs was to be held but was unbelievably disorganized and Oe himself wondered if the conference was going to be held at all. The Directors organizing the event have been holding secret meetings and even the press were kept out. After the end of the war and with the proliferation of nuclear arms, in 1958 anti-nuclear conferences began to appear around the world. One of the main contentions about the Ninth World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs was the use of “any country”. This rift caused a split in the anti-nuclear movement into the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Gensuikyo) and the Japan Congress against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Gensuikin). The dispute was over “whether to oppose nuclear tests by ‘any country’, capitalist or socialist, and over the value of the 1963 Limited Nuclear Test-ban Treaty.”

In these very personal essays, Oe mentions in his Introduction to this edition that he once didn’t believe in an old saying that “One’s whole life can be decided by the events of a few days.” However, as he reminisces about his visits to Hiroshima, he now believes it does. Before going to Hiroshima, Oe became a father. Unfortunately, his son was born with severe disability. The doctors told him, even if they operate, the chances of his son leading a normal life was not likely. It was Oe’s interviews with Atomic bomb victims who gave him the courage to not abandon his child and also changed his way of thinking. Oe often speaks of the “dignity” of the Hiroshima A-bomb victims - as “people who did not commit suicide in spite of everything.”

One of the most disturbing and thought-provoking essays is how Oe says that “people want to erase the memory of Hiroshima”. Oe says it’s not just the Americans but people all over the world want to forget. Oe states references a paper that stated “Hiroshima is the prime example not of the power of atomic weapons but of the misery they cause.”  Oe continues to tell us that “Powerful leaders in the East and West insist on maintaining nuclear arms as a means of preserving the peace.” 

The argument against the use of nuclear power remains relevant today, years after Oe’s collection of essays. In the news, the conservative Japanese government continues to try to revise Japan’s constitution allowing for more military might and of even becoming a nuclear power. It appears many politicians have not learned anything from Hiroshima or Nagasaki. We can only struggle to continue the fight to make the world free of nuclear weapons. ~Ernie Hoyt