Last week, two activists and scholars visited DePaul to discuss the dangers and anxieties of nuclear fallout. Both of them have experienced the effects, first and second hand.
On Wednesday, Oct. 29, journalist Satoshi Tanaka, and author of “Nuclear Nuevo México” Myrriah Gómez, spoke to an audience at the DePaul Student Center about how their lives were scarred by nuclear radiation and the surrounding trauma from Hiroshima, Japan — Aug. 6, 1945 — and New Mexico — July 16, 1945 — respectively.
In her speech, Gómez discussed the content of her book released in 2022, which details the direct and indirect effects of both the controversial WWII Manhattan Project and the corresponding Trinity test, the first nuclear explosion in history.
“There were actually communities nearby,” Gómez said. but because of who those communities were, we don’t hear about that very often, and so the approximately 70% of the private property that was purchased for Project wire site wide was essentially stolen by the federal government.”
Gómez included several details about the pollution of water, agriculture, even the air in numerous towns around New Mexico, who had received absolutely no warning about the project prior to its start.
“It took the federal government 80 years to acknowledge the Trinity downwinders — the people who were downwind of that first plutonium bomb,” Gómez said. “It’s a weapon, because they weaponized this device against their own people and never made them aware.”
The second half of the evening was dedicated to Satoshi Tanaka, who spoke in anecdotes about how his childhood was torn apart by the Hiroshima bombing and its aftermath. At 1 and a half years old, Tanaka personally saw the fateful flash of light that destroyed his home and his city.
“We didn’t know about the radiation that was filling the atmosphere because of that bomb,” Tanaka said. “And so the following day, along with these military people, I was going into the center of town where people had to start dealing with the many, many, many corpses.”
Norma Field, professor emerita at the University of Chicago, was Tanaka’s vocal translator from Japanese to English.
His speech detailed several memories of his childhood after the bombing, from stealing dried fish from the post-bombing Black Market to surviving off of condensed milk donated by charities from overseas.
Tanaka now spends his time attempting to reverse the effects of the nuclear bomb, but he wasn’t always fighting on the front lines. After the bombing, he felt self conscious about having survived the attack, and tried to distance himself from the event.
But after hearing stories from other survivors of nuclear attacks — who are called “Hibakusha” in Japanese — Tanaka became a journalist, choosing to dedicate his time to the preservation of life and the elimination of nuclear weapons.
“My life as a journalist made me close to many Hibakusha — I learned many stories,” Tanaka said. “Sometimes listening to their stories, I teared up, so I couldn’t continue to take notes.”
In January 2024, Tanaka and the anti-nuclear organization Nihon Hidankyo won the Nobel Peace Prize — an achievement Tanaka said he feels embarrassment from.
Instead of being able to celebrate his lifetime of spreading awareness and change, Tanaka feels that his work has amounted to nothing. Though every country possessing nuclear weapons, including Japan, has repeatedly promised to establish peace, they still cling to the weapons.
“None of the atomic weapons holders have joined this movement, have acknowledged or ratified this treaty, even Japan has failed to ratify it,” Tanaka said. “We’re coexisting with over 12,000 nuclear weapons that could kill us many, many, many times over money. Digital exchange.”
As multiple wars are currently being fought in Ukraine, Russia, Israel and Palestine, activists like Tanaka and Gómez are trying harder than ever to make their voices heard and their work acknowledged.
The audience at DePaul this Wednesday exemplified that their voices and work are having an impact. The post-speech Q&A saw a substantial line of visitors, students and non-students.
“A really important thing they talked about is downstream genetic or epigenetic effects,” said Gia Valdez, a DePaul neuroscience graduate student. “[The survivors’] cancers are really a result of their exposure.”
Less than a day after the event, President Donald Trump authorized the military to resume nuclear testing efforts on U.S. soil, demonstrating the urgency of the issue.
Tanaka ended his speech by addressing the Doomsday Clock, which is closer to nuclear devastation than ever.
“I asked to meet with the leaders of the nuclear powers,” Tanaka said. “I said to them, ‘We only have 89 seconds left. You may all end up being Hibakusha.’”
Related Stories:
The DePaulia is DePaul University’s award-winning, editorially independent student newspaper. Since 1923, student journalists have produced high-quality, on-the-ground reporting that informs our campus and city.
We rely on reader support to keep doing what we do. Donations are tax deductible through DePaul's giving page.
Support Student Journalism!