♪♪ -The war in Ukraine is bringing back Cold War memories for millions of Americans, including a deep fear of a potential nuclear war.

♪♪ -And the rhetoric from Russia's leaders has only poured gasoline on those concerns.

In a not so veiled threat, President Vladimir Putin will warn this week they have all the weapons they need to respond if other countries get involved in the fighting.

-What do you make of the latest threats coming out of Russia?

How concerning are they?

-They are concerning.

The world has not seen a use of nuclear weapons since 1945, and we now have a 77-year tradition of non-use of nuclear weapons.

That is the single most important legacy of the nuclear age.

-What would the United States do once a nuclear weapon went off?

♪♪ -[ Humming ] I keep on telling people no more wars.

♪♪ For a long time I never talked about it.

♪♪ It probably hurts me.

♪♪ Well, now I'm 91 years old.

I feel that when I talk about is not a very happy subject.

However, I think people can learn from it.

I have to tell you like it is.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Birds chirping ] [ Flower pots clicking ] I was born in Hiroshima, Japan.

My father died when I was only six.

So my mother and my grandparents and myself, we lived as a family.

My father was not very strict, but my mother was.

My life was very good, but I was always kind of forward person, kind of rebellious, you know?

But in 1941, as you know, the war started.

♪♪ -Yesterday, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the empire of Japan.

This is war.

♪♪ ♪♪ -I was just in high school then, but we are no longer studying at that time because we have to go to the factory to help war effort.

So I was assigned to this printing shop in Hiroshima.

We are printing things for the government army.

I was 13 years old on August 6th, 1945.

♪♪ It was a fine day, not even clouds in the sky.

♪♪ -We have spent more than $2 billion on the greatest scientific gamble in history and we have won.

It is an atomic bomb.

It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe.

With this bomb, we have now added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction.

We have the bomb.

Now we have to make a decision as to whether we'd use that bomb on Japan or not.

-I left the home, as always.

Unfortunately, I argued with my mother, and I slammed the door and I left the home.

And not knowing that that's going to be my last time I see my mom, and I regret that every day, even now.

♪♪ ♪♪ -We are now prepared to destroy more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have in any city.

Let there be no mistake.

We shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war.

♪♪ -We always have to meet in a courtyard before we go in.

And so I was doing that, then I saw B-29 flying.

We all learned how B-29 makes that, you know, like a sound.

B-29 was like a... [whirring hum] Like that.

Other planes, you know, it has a different sound, so I could identify it, the plane.

♪♪ ♪♪ That's when the bomb dropped.

♪♪ No sound, just a flash.

♪♪ When I saw the flash, I never knew that was, you know, atomic bomb then.

We never heard of it before, right?

[ Fire crackling, people screaming ] I did not feel anything.

We were trained before that we just cover our eyes, push the eyeballs back and cover your ears and open your mouth.

So fell -- fell to the ground.

And I thought to myself, "I'm going to just die here, right?"

But no, luckily I survived.

So I think because I was behind the, uh, wall.

I think that's what saved me maybe.

♪♪ -A short time ago, an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima.

The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.

The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor.

They have been repaid many fold, and the end is not yet.

If they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.

-By that time already, fire was coming from behind you.

So you have to go where there's no fire.

So I kept on running and running.

♪♪ Some people, they are just burned and they are melting literally.

I saw that and the smell is terrible, of course.

And they are screaming, but they are saying -- they all say, "Give me water, give me water."

That's what I heard.

I said, "You can't drink the water.

They are poisoned."

You can't really stop to help them because, you know, you just -- your life is in danger.

So I kept on running, and I ended up in this mountain that's called Koi.

Uh, a lot of my fellow students whom I was with, they -- they died almost instantly.

But in this cave, most of our students who were left got there, and our teacher said that you can leave if your parents will come to get you.

But of course, you know, nobody came because most of the parents are dead, right?

So I was there maybe two days.

After the bombing, I developed some kind of very high fever, but it went away.

Anyways, after teacher said, "Well, you know, you just better go home," so we just came down.

I had to go from one end of Hiroshima to the other end.

♪♪ I saw that some soldiers dead on horseback, and I saw that river was full of dead people.

They were swollen up.

And in a train, people on the train, they're just dead like that, you know?

That's kind of -- it kind of stick to my mind.

The worst scene I have seen was on my way.

I saw this... The child trying to drink milk from mother and mother was already dead.

So I often think about the baby, you know?

Probably the baby died, too.

So finally I reached where my home was, and of course it was -- it was completely gone.

Then I saw one of the men who used to work for us.

So I said, "Have you seen my mother?"

"Oh, I saw your grandparents, but I didn't see your mother."

They told me where my grandparents were, and it was in a shelter in the mountain that's nearby our house, They had about seven holes dug in a mountain.

I went to all of them and I found my grandparents, and that's where I stayed the rest of the time.

♪♪ It was hard to sleep because the mosquitoes, and people who lived in the countryside, they were not bombed.

So they cooked rice bowl and they just came to give it to us.

But it was a summer time, it was so hot.

So they were rotten, you know, already.

But I ate it anyway.

♪♪ I was out every day looking for my mother, and I couldn't find her for a few days.

I really did not know where to look for her though, but in a lot of places they gather all the dead people and the names listed on it.

And so I walked and walked.

Probably a week later I found out she -- she died.

I found her bent over like this.

You know, I identified her by the craft of the wallet and the clothing she had, you know?

Hopefully she died instantly, because I think that where she was, the building fell.

Then my grandfather, his back was all infected.

All the broken glasses was lodged under the shoulder.

Anyways, he did die in that -- in that shelter.

Then my grandmother was very frail, you know?

She died, too.

And so I lost everybody, so... ♪♪ Three days later, they dropped the atomic bomb in Nagasaki.

And, you know, they went through exactly what we went through.

♪♪ -It's official.

It's all over.

It's total victory.

[ Crowd cheering ] -War ended on the 15th of August.

-Arrangements are now being made for the formal signing of the surrender terms at the earliest possible moment.

-Our Emperor spoke on the -- on the radio.

But of course I have no radio, so I didn't hear him.

But then people said that Japan surrender.

[ Speaking in Japanese ] [ Birds chirping ] ♪♪ [ Flower pots clicking ] ♪♪ -[ Sniffles ] ♪♪ Then after the war was over, I applied to come to America to learn English, and I married an American man who was good to me for 60 years.

But the radiation had made me sterile, so that's why my husband and I could not have children.

My husband and I, we went back to Hiroshima seven years ago I think.

♪♪ I'll go to where my home was, but it's all different now.

[ Indistinct conversations, cellphone ringing ] ♪♪ [ Humming ] ♪♪ Atomic war.

I really shouldn't say this to myself, but I think I made a better person out of me.

[ Bowl chimes ] ♪♪ Because whatever I go through now, that's nothing, you know?

I appreciate everything I have.

I said I have a 20-pound bag of rice.

Wow.

I said, how lucky I am.

So, you know, my everyday life is just appreciation.

It could be different, you know?

I just want to make my point that war is not good.

♪♪ So that's my job, you know, to keep the world peace.

That's my job.

I'm not doing a very good job.

When you leave home, hug your family and say "I love you" so you will have no regrets.

And that goes for you, too.

[ Chuckles ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪