80 Years On, Japan Finds Its Memories Of WWII Fading

How Japan remembers its imperial past and the war's influence is a pressing concern

- Walter Sim

TOKYO - As Japan marks 80 years since its surrender in World War II on Aug 15, 1945, the country's collective memory of its role in the global conflagration — and the catastrophic defeat it suffered — is fading fast.

The voices of living veterans, such as 95-year-old Hideo Shimizu, and atomic bomb survivors like 86-year-old Michiko Yagi, are fast disappearing.

How Japan will remember its imperial past and the war's influence on the nation's psyche is now becoming a pressing concern.

Ms Yagi, a hibakusha who experienced the devastation of her native Nagasaki on Aug 9, 1945, counts her family — her mother and four siblings — fortunate to have survived the blast, although they endured prolonged bouts of debilitating diarrhoea in its aftermath.

Hibakusha is the term used to refer to survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"Historically, Japan certainly has made mistakes, and those mistakes are our burden to bear as wartime aggressors," Ms Yagi told The Straits Times.

"It is our responsibility to remember, to convey our experiences, to fight for peace and to lobby for a world without nuclear weapons," she said, expressing her deepest wish for Nagasaki to remain the last city on earth to suffer the horrors of an atomic bomb.

"The youngest hibakusha is now 80, and soon there will not be many of us left. Looking at the perilous state of the world today, I honestly feel really scared."

Ms Yagi is one of just 99,130 remaining hibakusha, whose average age now stands at 86 years, according to official figures released on March 31. For the first time, their numbers have dipped below 100,000.

The atomic bomb was a weapon of unprecedented destructive power that obliterated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.