Finally, I know that suffering of mine has led me where I am now.
“Natsu-no-zanzou”(Persistent Vision of Summer), an A-bomb comic on Nagasaki has been launched nation-wide. A Nagasaki newspaper carried this news and two A-bomb victims phoned me up.
They sounded like they were in 80s and said, “Would you send us a copy?”
Then they spoke calmly about their own A-bomb experiences and the fact that even today they carry the glass pieces the blast had brought in their bodies.
I was so thankful and happy to receive that call and my hand holding the receiver was shivering. Honestly, I had never imagined one year before that such a day would come true.
4 publishers had turned down this A-bomb comic and the 5th publisher finally agreed and published it.
Publishing business is going through a difficult time and publishers cannot be venturous taking up a risky comic book. I understand it now. However, when I received letters of declination they simply said “We found your comic pictures too old-fashioned.” “We wish you to continue making efforts.” I was disheartened as I felt my own self had been denied. I had a night I wept with a towel in my mouth to muffle my voice.
Finally, I know that suffering of mine has led me where I am now and God has not wasted my tears I shed at that time.
My favorite writer Shusaku Endo said, “Everyone will have a day when his or her sufferings can be looked back as a time of one’s life.”
“Mr. Endo, your words are true.” I’m sending the following words inscribed on the grave of Father Marco Marie De Rotz in Sotome, the stage of your novel “Chinmoku” (Silence) to people with distress and suffering together with my own thought.
“My chosen ones’ labors shall not be in vain.”
Yuka Nishioka
Translation by Yoshio Hida
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