In Nagasaki, atomic bombed trees still survive.
In Nagasaki, 50 "hibakujumoku," or atomic bombed trees, still grow today, having survived the bomb's blast and heat.
The Nagasaki Kusunoki Project preserves and protects these hibakujumoku.
It is a project that, through encouraging greater awareness of it, conveys memories surrounding WWII and states facts about atomic bomb radiation so that it can pass down a message about life's resilience and hopes for peace to future generations.
Fifty a-Bombed Trees in Nagasaki City are mapped.
The center of those circles is hypocenter of the Atomic Bombing. (It exploded at about 500m above that.)
You can see these trees' pictures and explanations for more details when you click the number.
Masaharu Fukuyama, a singer-songwriter and actor from Nagasaki, released "Kusunoki," a song about atomic bombed kusunoki, or camphor trees, in 2014.
Mr. Fukuyama donated the entirety of the monies that were raised through the song along with related live shows throughout Japan as well as through Kusunoki Donations to the official website (the donations were addressed to Amuse, his management agency) to the city of Nagasaki with the wish that the money be used for preservation of Sanno Shrine's atomic bombed camphor trees and other trees that survived the atomic bomb.
Spurred by this donation, the city of Nagasaki established the Kusunoki Foundation in December 2018 to further preservation and use of the trees that survived the atomic bomb.
Many trees that retain the scars of the atomic bomb still stand throughout Nagasaki, and these include the Giant Camphor Trees of Sanno Shrine, which symbolize the hopes for peace and the resilience of life. Currently, including these two camphor trees, there are 50 trees within a four kilometer radius of the atomic bomb hypocenter that are being preserved.
Before setting up a foundation for the atomic bombed trees that are privately owned, Nagasaki City covered three fourths of their maintenance charges, but this is now paid for by funds from the Kusunoki Foundation thanks to its creation. Donations through the Furusato Nozei, or Hometown Tax, were also added. The monies that were donated by many considerate people were directed not only at the preservation of these trees that survived the atomic bomb, but as of February 2019, have been used for a project that conveys these hibakujumoku as symbols of peace to Japan and the world.
- Why is it important to preserve the bombed trees?
- Once nuclear weapons including atomic bombs are used they wreak irreversible damage upon people, localities and communities. This fact has been relayed to us by the many hibakusha who have told us about the courageous experiences that they went through. However, as over 78 years have now elapsed since they were exposed to the bombing it is becoming increasingly difficult to directly hear about those experiences.
The bombed trees cannot of course speak to us or show us anything. But I believe that when we find the scars the bombing left on the trees, when we encounter the sentiments of the people who have carefully protected them, it is possible for those looking at the trees to feel something about the existence of these bombed trees. It is precisely because of the difficulty of hearing directly from the hibakusha about their bombing experiences that there is a meaning in preserving the bombed trees.
- What I would really like people to feel when viewing the bombed trees
- Please use all five senses when viewing the trees. Perhaps instead of just observing the colors and textures of the trunks, you could if possible touch them and try to take in their smell. Some of the trees show the marks of having undergone tree surgery. In contrast to sensing this pain, when you see the verdantly luxuriating leaves you will probably feel the vitality of the trees that go on living despite everything.
Furthermore, don't look only at the trees themselves but carefully cast your eyes over their surrounding environment. When you look at the trees facing towards the direction of the hypocenter, you might be able to imagine what it was like during the instant that they were exposed to the bombing. There are testaments from some hibakusha that they were saved by hiding in the shadows of the bombed trees. It might be worth actually trying to hide in their shade yourself. And if you look around widely and carefully, your thoughts will surely turn to the owners of the trees and local people who protected them. Try to consider the fact that these great trees, looking after the people who just happen to walk past them, are in fact the witnesses of heroic scenes and you may be able to look at them in a different way. Looking at the trees for a second time at a different time of the day is also worthwhile. The bombed trees at dawn, sunset and when the midday sun is high above them, what time of day they are at their most impressive according to the locations in which they are growing – you may be able to find the best moment for viewing each of them
- What is done in order to protect the bombed trees
- The owners of the trees keep a watchful eye on them. In Nagasaki City, arborists who act as doctors for the trees are asked to take a patrol around the trees once each year. On these patrols the arborists take a professional look at the state of each and every tree, check for the presence of harmful insects and whether or not there are any places requiring tree surgery. In the event that tree surgery is found necessary during these tree patrols, discussions with the owners are held and treatment provided using the funds of the Kusunoki Foundation. The treatments include methods such as soil improvement, installation of supporting poles, coating with medicine and special pruning, and the method is chosen together with the arborists.
- Why have the bombed trees survived?
- There is a very large range of interconnecting factors behind how the bombed trees have been protected up to the present day. Whether or not trees lived or died depended upon the particular features of where they grew, their position in relation to the hypocenter, and whether or not they were caught up in the surrounding fires. There is an array of elements behind the possibility that surviving trees were lost: they may have been felled for use as fuel, construction materials and the extension and widening of houses and roads, or died from natural causes such as typhoons, floods or just old age. It is those trees that overcame all these possibilities that survive to the present day. Thinking about the trees in this way you will surely understand why the owners have a sense of devotion towards these trees, and tend them so carefully.
Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Musesum Curator