Memoir of Hiroshima survivor describing horrors of atomic bomb found after 79 years

70,000 people were killed instantly in Hiroshima (Picture: Bettman Archive)

When the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945,70,000 people were killed instantly in Hiroshima. By the end of the year,more than 150,000 deaths were recorded in total from radiation poisoning and injuries.

Now,the memoir of a man who narrowly avoided dying in Hiroshima has been rediscovered more than 80 years after the unthinkable attack.

Kiyoshi Tanimoto witnessed the destruction of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. He had been out of town on the day the bomb dropped,but rushed back to help after hearing news of the horror.

His 230-page memoir,written in 1947,remained unpublished until it was recently rediscovered at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale.

It was sitting amongst the papers of reporter John Hersey,who became friends with Tanimoto after visiting Hiroshima months after the bomb went off.

Kiyoshi Tanimoto (right) gave shelter to 25 girls in his church with severe injuries (Picture: Bettman Archive)

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Start your day informed with Metro's News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.Tanimoto passed away in 1986 at the age of 77,after detailing what he witnessed on the ground in Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped.His daughter,Koko Tanimoto Kondo,said his father struggled to put what he witnessed into words,but decided a memoir was necessary.‘The whole city was covered with dark clouds,and conflagrations were breaking out in various directions,’ Tanimoto recalled.‘Could all of this have happened at once? It was then that black drops of rain,as big as blackberries,began to fall – rain caused by the atomic bomb.‘I wondered what had happened to my home and church. With a pale face,I ran down the Koi highway.’Tanimoto’s daughter said he recounted the days and months after the bomb to ensure ‘no one experienced it ever again’.Less than 100,000 survivors of the bombings are alive today (Picture: Getty)Roughly 100,000 survivors of the atomic bombings are still alive today. Last year marked 80 years since the atomic bomb was dropped.On the anniversary,Florian Eblenkamp,advocacy officer with The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), told Metro: ‘It’s more important than ever that we listen to the remaining survivors,’‘Their message is clear: these weapons must be abolished. If we want to honour their legacy,that’s what we should focus on. We can’t continue to gamble with the fate of humanity.’One of the forgotten details of the bombings in Japan is that of the thousands killed,38,000 were children.Nuclear weapons and the threats they carry are seen by most as an abstract idea – a far-fetched,last-ditch option in conflict.Florian argues the most significant message to remember on the 80th anniversary was that these weapons are not abstract,deterrents or political pawns.Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at .For more stories like this,check our news page.