hibakusha

Annji Kinoshita

1. name: Kenichiro Kinoshita
   DOB: 09/06/35
   eyes: brown hair: black
   weight: 162 lbs.
   height: 5 ft 1 inches

2. Mom? Why is Daddy so short?
   because he was very sick as a little boy.
   Her cheeks tense, eyes focused
   on the takuan she was chopping.

I never asked or even thought
about it again.
The silver tip of her knife embedded
in the yellow turnips enough.

3. 1995--my dad channel
   surfs between the HSN and
   a "Hiroshima: For Fifty Years
   We Remember" special. I watch
   to see when he flips Hiroshima
   to something else--every time
   something about America comes on --
   FLIP -- military strategists -- FLIP
   -- explanations from gunners --
   FLIP -- airplanes -- FLIP
   -- then came the children,
   all those sick children, and my dad
   starts to cry, I didn't know
   not to drink the water. I only knew
   I was thirsty, looking at me,
   It made me short and I've made you
   short. I hug him
   for a moment until his hands
   push me away. He
   changes the channel and never
   goes back to Hiroshima.
4. name: Annji Kinoshita
   DOB: 04/13/73
   eyes: brown hair: brown
   weight: 105 lbs
   height: 5 ft 1 inches
5. My dad thinks I am hibakusha
   too, that his stunted cells
   leaked into my blood, but
   I look back and see
   small women on both
   sides, short woman after
   short woman.
   Only my mother reaches
   5' 6 1/2" --she is all
   my father sees.
6. "He told me that his father, who had been in Hiroshima at the time the atom bomb fell, had
   seemed well and worked in the fields as usual. In July, this year, he fell ill from some
   unknown cause and had to be confined to bed. After giving him a careful examination, the
   doctor said that his white blood corpuscles had greatly decreased in number and that he
   was obviously a victim of radiation sickness."

--Shintaro Naito, 1995
7. Kenichiro Kinoshita,
   my father,
   is hibakusha.
   We hold our breath and wait.

©Copyright Annji Kinoshita