本文选自《经济学人》8月1日刊文章。1945年8月6日,美国向日本广岛投放原子弹“小男孩”,随后8月9日,向日本长崎投放另一颗原子弹“胖子”,这是迄今为止唯一用于战争的2枚原子弹,75年已过,那些原子弹爆炸的亲历者陆续去世,人们对原子弹灾难的恐惧记忆也逐渐淡化,全球范围内核不扩散的努力举步维艰。我曾经在东京看过一个广岛原子弹爆炸后的纪录片,整个纪录片没有声音,但即使隔着屏幕,你都能感受到无声的恐怖。日本将经历过广岛原子弹灾难幸存下来的人称为“被爆者”,75年过去了,“被爆者”陆续去世,当原子弹爆炸的“第一手”陈述的声音越来越弱,谁来接替他们讲述那场至今仍在影响很多人生活的核灾难呢?
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Hiroshima, 75 years on 75年后的广岛Atomic-bomb survivors seek new ways to keep their memories aliveAround the world, non-proliferation efforts are falteringAug 1st 2020 | HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKIFOR SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD Takeoka Chisako, August 6th, 1945 was supposed to be a day off. She had planned to meet two girlfriends at 8:15 that morning, at a train station on the west side of Hiroshima. She was running late, and as she stepped outside her house she lifted a pocket mirror to her face. Then she saw a flash and heard a bang. When she regained consciousness she found herself lying in a potato field 30 metres away, a mushroom cloud rising in the sky. People with charred skin dangling from their arms came rushing over a nearby hillside. They cried for help, but were too feeble to speak their names and too weak to drink the water Ms Takeoka brought them. “Then one by one, they died,” says Higashino Mariko, Ms Takeoka’s daughter.- dangle from someplace: 悬挂在某处
对于17岁的Takeoka Chisako来说,1945年8月6日应该是休息日。她计划在早上8点15分在广岛西部的一个火车站和两个女朋友见面。她快迟到了,当她走出家门时,她举起一面袖珍镜子照了照自己的脸,接着她看到一道闪光,听到砰的一声。当她恢复知觉时,她发现自己躺在30米外的一块土豆地里,天空中升起了一朵蘑菇云。人们冲过附近的山坡,晃晃悠悠的走来,手臂上挂着烧焦的皮肤。他们求救,但虚弱得连自己的名字都说不出来,也虚弱到不能喝Takeoka给他们的水。Takeoka的女儿Higashino Mariko说:“接着他们就一个接一个地死去。”Ms Higashino tells this tale with the precision of an eyewitness. Yet she was born eight years after American forces flattened Hiroshima with Little Boy, the first atomic bomb used in combat. For decades survivors such as Ms Takeoka, known in Japan as hibakusha, or bomb-affected people, have told their stories publicly. Now their ranks are “declining drastically”, says Takigawa Takuo, director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. So the city government in Hiroshima has recruited scores of volunteers like Ms Higashino to become denshosha, or “legacy successors” who take on the job of recounting their experiences. (Ms Higashino is unusual in that she inherited her own mother’s story; most take on a stranger’s.) Nagasaki, which was bombed on August 9th, has created a similar group.Higashino精确的描述这一切,就好像是一个目击者。然而,她在美国军队用“小男孩”原子弹荡平广岛的八年后才出生,“小男孩”是第一颗在战争中使用的原子弹。几十年来,像Takeoka女士这样的幸存者,在日本被称为“被爆者”,即“受核弹危害的人”,他们公开讲述他们的故事。广岛和平纪念博物馆馆长Takigawa Takuo说,现在他们的队伍“急剧下降”。因此,广岛市政府招募了大量像Higashino一样的志愿者,成为“传承者”,负责讲述自己的经历。(Higashino与众不同的地方是她讲述的是她母亲的故事,而大多数人讲述的是陌生人的故事。)8月9日被(原子弹)轰炸的长崎也成立了一个类似的组织。