Yamaoka-san and the responsibility of survivorship.
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BY BRYAN GARMAN
ver the past weeks, I have been remembering Michiko Yamaoka (1930–2013), an extraordinary person affectionately known to the Sidwell Friends community as Yamaoka-san. Born in Hiroshima, the 15-year-old Yamaoka-san found herself trapped beneath rubble located 800 meters from the hypocenter of the atomic explosion that decimated her birthplace and reshaped the world. She endured and witnessed
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unspeakable horrors, struggling for her own life while casualties from the history-altering blast approached 100,000. “I suffered the pains of burns and of growing up in a world of tears as a result of constant confrontation with the dark face of death,” she reflected. “It was like being in hell while still alive.” Disfigured and scarred, Yamaoka-san traveled to the United States in 1955 with 24 other survivors: the Hiroshima Maidens.
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