ABSTRACT
Ozaki Tomei’s testimony and the stories of Mine Toru, Nakamura Kazutoshi and Fukahori Shigemi speak to their varying experiences of hope and public engagement. The survivors’ interpretation of memory is understood through a specific cultural lens. Ozaki’s story of victimisation by the bomb has not achieved the level of fame of better known narratives of the atomic bombing captured in cartoon form, such as Hiroshima’s Barefoot Gen. Themes of redemption and hope show continuity within Ozaki’s life story. In the immediate aftermath as he emerged from the tunnel factory, Ozaki’s beliefs were sorely tested. Ozaki and Mine’s stories after their orphanhood revolve around a nearby Catholic monastery established by Polish monks in the 1920s, known as seibo no kishi. One and a half months later, Ozaki took a political and outward stance in doubly ‘fissured’ Nagasaki, deciding to become a monk himself.
