Toshiko Tanaka was 6 years old on the day she saw the sky vanish in a white flash between the branches of the cherry tree where she waited for a classmate before school. "Then everything went black," she recalled. The US had just dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people on August 6, 1945, a few days before bombing Nagasaki, which would claim 70,000 lives. With a mouth full of dust and her face, neck and right arm burned, she nearly lost her life that day, but the little girl managed to find her way home.

For 65 years, she remained silent, bearing the memory of August 6 alone and never confiding in anyone − not even her children. "I tried to forget that day," Tanaka, now 86, explained in the days leading up to the commemoration of the bombings, which took place 80 years ago.

Today, Tanaka, who has suffered from chronic fatigue caused by radiation since childhood, has shared her story on every continent and advocates for a world without nuclear weapons. In New Zealand, the US and Japan, she recounted her memories, accompanied by her daughter, Reiko Tashiro, 60, who works in intercultural management in Kobe and, on these occasions, translates questions from English to Japanese for her mother. "Reiko's support has strengthened our relationship," Tanaka said when interviewed, along with her daughter, via video call.

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