Sasamori remembered seeing bodies in the streets, trapped under houses and several thrown into the river she was close to. “I could barely see the water,” she said. Those that could walk were “walking like ghosts,” disoriented and in shock from what had just happened. Some people trapped under collapsed buildings were crying for help, but Sasamori said that most people were so injured that they could not give assistance to those who needed it. “People who have survived many years ago feel guilty that they could not help,” Sasamori said.

From the side of the river where she had fallen after the attack, Sasamori moved to the other side where survivors of the attack had gathered. “I stayed in a school auditorium for five days and four nights,” she said. “I kept saying my address and my name.” There, she stayed without knowing what happened to her family or where they were. After the blast, Sasamori was so badly burned that she was barely recognizable. Her mother would walk the streets all day, calling her name. Eventually her father found her. “I asked my mother ‘How did you find me?’” she said. “She said she looked down at me and she couldn’t recognize me. She heard my voice, saying ‘Here I am.’ That was five days after staying in a place with no food, no medication and little water.”

Sasamori’s injuries sustained from the close range of the blast covered the top half of her body in large, burnt patches. She suffered from painful burns on her face, head, neck, chest and shoulders. “My body looked like a map – a burned place here, not burned place here,” Sasamori said. “Parts of my body were like burnt toast.” Her father treated her wounds without doctors, nurses or medication. “There wasn’t enough medication,” she said.

After Sasamori had recovered, it was many months before she went outside again. “I became a Christian after that,” she said. Sasamori had come to the conclusion that she was given a second chance at life for a reason. Sasamori also decided that she wanted to travel to the United States and become a nurse, which she eventually did. Afterwards, it became Sasamori’s mission to speak out against the injustices of nuclear warfare and weaponry. “That’s the reason God gave me life,” she said. “Radiation is the devil. Sooner or later, the devil will get you.”

Following the bombing, Sasamori has given numerous talks and visited many places in her calling to share her story, speak out against nuclear weapons and speak out against warfare. The goal of her speeches is to spread her message of empathy, not sympathy, through her traumatic experience. “It’s not easy to recall these memories,” Sasamori said. “I’m not asking people for sympathy. I want people to feel empathy. I get to keep going because this is my mission, and it is very important. It makes me very happy to see all of these young people who want to do something and stop the nonsense … war is nothing good. Everybody has a responsibility to keep this Earth beautiful.”