‘THIS CAN NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN’

After surviving the bombing of Hiroshima 80 years ago, Setsuko has made it her mission to ban nuclear weapons

- Harry Mulholland

August 6, 1945 is a day that Setsuko Thurlow vividly remembers 80 years on.

On that clear and calm summer morning, she was 13-years-old and starting her first day as a decoding assistant for the Japanese Imperial Army at their headquarters in Hiroshima.

"At 8am we were having our morning assembly where the Major was giving us a pep talk, and in that moment I saw a bluish-white flash outside the window and I suddenly felt like I was floating," Setsuko, now 93, tells Woman's Day.

What Setsuko didn't realise until much later was that intense flash was the first atomic bomb ever used in armed combat by the US, and the weightlessness she felt was the building collapsing around her.

"When I regained consciousness I found myself pinned under the building and I couldn't move. It was totally dark and silent, and I knew I was faced with death."

With the help of a solider, Setsuko and two other young women nearby were freed from the building, only to find their city had become a hellscape.