NEW YORK (Kyodo) Clothing designer Issey Miyake, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, expressed hope in a New York Times article Tuesday that U.S. President Barack Obama will visit the city Aug. 6 for the annual commemoration of the bombing.
Miyake, 71, said Obama's pledge to seek a nuclear-free world in an April speech in Prague awakened "something buried deeply within me, something about which I have until now been reluctant to discuss."
"I realized that I have, perhaps now more than ever, a personal and moral responsibility to speak out as one who survived what Mr. Obama called the 'flash of light,' " the designer said in the newspaper's opinion page.
When the first atomic bomb was dropped on his hometown on Aug. 6, 1945, "I was there, and only 7 years old. When I close my eyes, I still see things no one should ever experience: a bright red light, the black cloud soon after, people running in every direction trying desperately to escape — I remember it all. Within three years, my mother died from radiation exposure."