ABSTRACT
Families had been divided by the war, and one special agony for hibakusha was that the members of their families who had remained in the United States refused to understand their plight. Misery loves company, and the hibakusha often banded together to seek solace in their indifferent surroundings. The children of older hibakusha made little effort to empathize with the unbearable feelings their parents were experiencing. Going public with their A-bomb experience would not relieve the trauma branded onto the souls and bodies of the hibakusha. The slightest problem with their health, however, caused the hibakusha great anxiety. If the hibakusha were to gather together in an association, it would be with the hope that they might obtain sympathetic and effective medical treatment for their bomb-related ailments and psychic stress. A total of thirty hibakusha came to the meeting. The Hiroshima Prefectural Society of Southern California for the first time voiced support for the group.
