The Story of a Nuclear Test Veteran
In an interview with ICAN, US nuclear test veteran George Coleman speaks up about the nuclear trials carried out by the U.S. military and his life and health after the nuclear weapons testing conducted in Nevada
Hear the stories
Hibakusha testimonies at Nayarit Conference reveal lasting legacy of nuclear attacks
In a programme full of eye-opening and compelling presentations at the recent Nayarit Conference (13, 14 February 2014), one that stuck in the memories of many of the attendees and those following the proceedings online was the testimony of the Hibakusha – the survivors of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At the Nayarit conference we heard first-hand accounts of the horror of the detonations over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the testimonies of Setsuko
Yasuaki Yamashita
When the A-Bomb fell on Nagasaki, August 9, 1945, I was 6 years old and living there with my family in a typical Japanese-style wooden frame house with sliding interior partitions (shoji) and exterior glass windows. Normally on a hot summer day I would go to the mountain with friends of my age to catch dragon flies and cicadas. However, on this day I was playing at home. Nearby my mother was preparing the mid-day
Setsuko Thurlow
I turned around and saw the outside world. Although it was morning, it looked like twilight because of the dust and smoke in the air. People at a distance saw the mushroom cloud and heard a thunderous roar. But I did not see the cloud because I was in it. I did not hear the roar, just the deadly silence broken only by the groans of the injured. Streams of stunned people were slowly shuffling
Sumitero Taniguchi
He saw big stones flying through the air and a child totally blown away. As he picked himself off the ground he felt the that the skin and flesh of his left arm and back was slimy.
Karipbek Kuyukov
Forty-four-year-old Karipbek was born without arms, but he hasn’t let the obstacles he faces limit his success. Perhaps most extraordinarily, Karipbek is a renowned artist who paints using his legs and his mouth
Yami Lester
Yami Lester was just 10 years old when the United Kingdom began testing nuclear weapons near his home in Australia. A major test, named Totem 1, was detonated in the early morning of 15 October 1953, sending a thick, oily, radioactive cloud through his town of Wallatinna – around 100 miles from where the bomb was detonated at Emu Junction. “A few hours after the black smoke came we all got crook, every one of
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