Sunao Tsuboi does not remember seeing the explosion, or feeling anything, despite being just 1 kilometer away from Ground Zero over 70 years ago when the Americans detonated an atomic bomb in the sky over Hiroshima, only that his body was severely burned and covered in blood.
Still, at 20 years of age, Tsuboi was one of the lucky ones as half of all individuals who were within a 1.2-km radius of the epicenter of the explosion did not survive the attack, having died that day. The bomb killed an estimated 140,000 people, including some who lived through the initial blast but perished soon after due to severe radiation exposure.
Tsuboi, 90, who has undergone 12 operations since, said he had a hard time landing employment or getting married due to die-hard discrimination against hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors). Yet the retired school principal said that most hibakusha, including himself, hold no grudge against the United States.