Kintsugi (Episode 3): Wisdom from the Last Survivors of the Nagasaki Atomic Bombing

This episode of Kintsugi, episode 3, titled Nagasaki, is by far my most favorite piece of documentation I've ever worked on. It was also the hardest piece to work on. Our entire crew in Japan was in tears and or we were deeply affected by this series. Each of the individuals that we interviewed in this particular episode had a special place in all of our hearts and they are so brave, warm, loving. You would never know that they all experienced the hardship and the struggles of war beyond what any of us could ever even imagine. I think why this episode is so important years after we've shot is in deep reflection we can always see that war sadly in our world is inevitable and we should hear their stories and we should learn from our past mistakes so that we do not repeat the destruction and the torment that these Nagasaki survivors have gone through. I urge you to grab a Kleenex and know this episode will help you to learn and grow and hopefully we can send peace and love throughout the world for them to remember that we should never let history repeat itself after we have learned our lessons. Enjoy. On August 9th 1945 at 1102 a.m just a mere 100 miles away from where my family lived the last atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. As the lives of my own family members were spared during the war I felt a duty, a calling, a grounding connection that were shared with the people of Nagasaki and my heritage is also tied to the U.S. military. We are all children of war and what we learn from the survivors of Nagasaki and the survivors of war is that you can't turn back the clock you can only move forward and if we needed to use a metaphor in real life as to what Kintsugi actually is I couldn't have picked a better place other than the city of Nagasaki. Can you remember where you were and what happened to you on August 9th 1945? After that, I don't know what to say, I really don't know what to say. After that, what surprised me even more was the sound of the explosion. But that sound didn't last long. After a while, I couldn't hear anything. The cicadas were crying like, shaw, shaw, shaw, shaw. They were crying like, shaw, shaw, shaw, shaw. They were crying like, shaw, shaw, shaw. So I looked inside the room and saw the door was blown open. The glass was broken. The children who've experienced the bombing of Nagasaki are now in their 80s. We had the incredible opportunity and honor of being able to meet with them. On that day, they were all young, innocent children watching the world ending through their own eyes. I didn't know what was going on. But when I got home, I realized it was my mother. I was a second-year student at this school on the 9th. At that time, the school was shut down from the end of June 1920. So when the atomic bomb was dropped on August 9, 1,450 children lost their lives at home with their families. This is my older brother. I don't know what happened to him. I don't know what happened to my mother. This is my oldest sister. Her white bones were found only after she was burned. There was nothing else. There were seven of us in my family. After the atomic bomb was dropped, 12, 13, and 25 of us died. My mother, who I loved the most, died on the last day, the 25th. I was the only one in the shelter. I was saved. I was asked, What was the saddest thing about the atomic bombing? At first, I thought I was the only one who was exposed. There were so many things. There were painful and sad things. There were so many things that happened. That's what I thought at first. But when I thought about it, it wasn't like that. The saddest thing in my life was that I lost my family. What makes us more human is when we share stories with empathy and compassion and we learn where other people are coming from. It wasn't only the bomb dropping that was traumatic, but it was the post-war trauma that many of these survivors endured. Some of them are still dealing with the effects of the atomic bomb to this day. When I was exposed to the atomic bomb, I was the first one to get cancer. When I was exposed to the bomb, my parents said, I can't marry you. I didn't tell them about the atomic bomb. In my opinion, I regret the most that I married and gave birth to a child. When our grandchildren get married and a new life is born, we still don't know if the child we gave birth to has any disability. When I was exposed to the atomic bomb, I thought, if the child I gave birth to has any disability, then I should have married and given birth to a child. Why? I should have left something good for the child, but I left something bad for him. In my life so far, I thought I had been saved because I lost my child. I thought I was safe. However, young children get cancer very quickly. One day, I was exposed to the bomb and passed out. At that time, it was my fourth surgery. At the same time, I lost my child. I lost my child in the middle of the war. I'm really sorry. I think I've ever met in my life not deserving of one thing that happened to them, but rather having to overcome something absolutely traumatic that is something of almost a masterpiece in watching. Nagasaki is the home of two camphor trees that were so badly scorched and thought to be dead after the atomic bomb. Like living poetry, the trees did not give up on life. New life came after the bomb. The camphor trees serve as a living memorial now and they can be a breathing, living example that you can live through anything and survive and thrive. That's how many survivors came. Only a few survived. There are people who say it's okay to let bygones be bygones, but that's not the case. If you don't know your past, it's going to be the same thing over and over again. It's going to be a difficult thing. I've lived my life please don't go to war again and please abolish nuclear weapons as soon as possible. I'm happy to have met you. It's our duty to let many people know about us. There is a term in Japanese, Gaman. It means with great resilience, honor and humility. Gaman serves as a Japanese tradition that honors our lineage with grace. And while this beautiful practice is admired from afar by so many of us all over the world, my studies brought me to writing back in Nagasaki as I thought these stories would forever become lost if remained untold. It's been over 75 years since the bomb dropping on Hiroshima and on Nagasaki. It's time for us to hear what they have endured, the struggles they have gone through so we can make sure we never repeat this kind of history again. Nice to meet you. This should never happen again. We educate the peace educational program. But all those peace educational program is not against the United States. It's only against. I'm so sorry. What you do every day is powerful. It's so important for us to keep sharing the knowledge and the history. And you are doing that. We have to touch the new generation. We have to tell the new generation all over the world. I was exposed to the atomic bombing. After that, I was left here for 50 years. The children of this school asked me what I would do for peace. A lot of people cooperated and I stayed here forever. Here, in 2018, a committee came here to explain to the visitors. For a year, 359 days were held here. During that time, we had two shifts, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. A member of the committee stayed here and guided the visitors. When I come to school, I can hear the voices of the children. I feel energized. While we went to visit the present-day children of Nagasaki so that we could share through different generations that have experienced the war, we try to teach and educate as much as we can with compassion and love because truly love is the polar opposite of war and it's the one thing that we all could use a little bit more of. I get a lot of energy from the children who guide me and make me feel alive as a human being. It's my heart that makes me feel alive. That's why I tell my children to go out to the world and make friends with the people of the world. My mother said, you shouldn't take away the lives of others. You shouldn't let yourself be taken away. You shouldn't take away the lives of others. You shouldn't let yourself be taken away. If you have a good heart and compassion, you will never go to war. I urge you to look inside of your heart because it is so much bigger than anything else and to find a little bit more love and compassion and empathy. You should never involve your children. It doesn't matter where you live. It doesn't matter if you are a man or a woman. You should value the lives of your children. I have never seen or experienced anything like this and we hope and pray that this is the last time an atomic bomb will ever be used. If we learn about where we come from, if we learn of our past, if we speak about things that are hard to talk about, if we hear things that are difficult to discuss, maybe even the mistakes that we've made, we can certainly become better and pass that knowledge down to future generations. It is so important for us to embrace our flaws, our cracks, our trauma, the things that we've gone through that have made us who we are. It might be best that we take the trauma and the hard times, the endurance and the gum on that we've been through and we turn those cracks into kintsugi. This series is dedicated to those who have been affected and have lost their lives through war. We thank with deep gratitude each Nagasaki survivor and their families for sharing with us their personal stories. We will continue to spread your message to practice peace, to share love, to end war. I hope you enjoyed this episode and you can learn from all of the Nagasaki survivors how to take a little bit more love and peace through your every day, knowing there are thousands of individuals, if not millions, all over the world that are deeply affected by war to this day. We remember the souls who have been lost through the years, who have had unfortunately passed away because of war. I think their greatest wish was that we continue to pass on their work and their words. You can please visit Shiroyama Elementary School along with the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Museum in Nagasaki. I also wanted to let you know that all of the awards that we've won for this series are because of Episode 3 Nagasaki. They're because of the incredible crew that we had. Rumi, Jeff, Bilal, Carlos, my mom, Hanako, and a few others, forgive me if I forgot. You guys are awesome. There are so many individuals who are part of this series that made it really brilliant. It was quite difficult also because there was an individual at one of the networks that asked me to remove this entire episode from the series, and I absolutely refused to do so. Sometimes in life we have to face terms and come face to face with the hardships, have hard conversations, watch hard things, and we can learn from them. When you are asked to do hard things or to go through a challenging time in your life, it is important for you to look deep inside of yourself, mature with grace and love and kindness, and try to move forward in the best way possible. There is no one better than the Nagasaki survivors that can show us how to do that. Please keep them in mind and in your heart every time you go to work, every time you go through hardship, every time you go through suffering and pain, and know that war is still going on in our world today. And as a team and a crew, we deeply and profoundly pray and think of all of you when we are doing our work. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you on episode four. You can follow our work at CandiceKumai.com, follow me on social, and also check out my podcast, Wabi Sabi, and my newsletter. Thank you for watching.