The haunting ghosts of Hiroshima

When I was living and working in Japan from 2004, before I started my academic research, I was advised to stay away from the atomic-bombed cities because speaking of the atomic bombings was considered "kanashii" "kowai" and "kurushimii" - sad, scary and painful.

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Some Japanese friends even expressed horror when I first went to Hiroshima and Nagasaki to do research.

They seemed to feel it was like an act of self-harm. A young student I met warned me that the ghosts of the victims of Hiroshima rise at night to take over the city.

On my first visit in 2009, I stayed for one night in a youth hostel beside the railway tracks and the Hiroshima Carp baseball stadium. That night, a friend and I went for a drink with a couple, both second-generation hibakusha or “hibaku nisei”.