From the August 6, 2020, Chicago Tribune "A-bomb survivors make urgent plea" by Mary Yamaguchi, AP.
For nearly 70 years, until he turned 85, Lee Jong-keum hid his past as an atomic bomb survivor, fearful of the widespread discrimination against blast victims that has long persisted in Japan.
But Lee. 92, is now a fast-dwindling group of survivors, known as hibakusha, that feels a growing urgency -- desperation even-- to tell their stories. These last witnesses to what happened 75 years ago Thursday want to to reach a younger generation that they feel has lost sight of the horror.
The knowledge of their dwindling time -- the average age of the survivors is more than 83 and many suffer from long-lasting effects of radiation -- it is coupled with deep frustration over stalled progress in global efforts to ban nuclear weapons.
--GreGen
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