"My Family Turned Into Black Lumps": A 16-Year-Old Girl's Hell, a 96-Year-Old Grandmother Takes Up the Keyboard [Japan Insider]

Born in 1929, Morita Fumiko
Nagasaki atomic bombing survivor
Gains attention on X by sharing her story
Calls for opposition to war and adherence to non-nuclear principles

The Liberal Democratic Party scored a landslide victory in Japan's House of Representatives election. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's plan to turn Japan into a country capable of waging war through constitutional revision is also gaining momentum.

In contrast to the focus on the so-called "Takaichi dominance," a different current was detected on social media. On Twitter (formerly X), the activity of a 96-year-old grandmother stood out. She is Nagasaki atomic bombing survivor Morita Fumiko, born in 1929.

Ms. Morita has been continuously appealing online to people, saying, "Japan must not become a country capable of waging war." Today, we share the story of Nagasaki atomic bombing survivor Ms. Morita.

96-year-old Morita Fumiko (left) and daughter Morita Kyoko. Photo by Nittere.

Ms. Morita is active on X with an account named "I am 90 years old." That was her age when she created the account. Since then, she has updated it every year, and it now reads "I am 96 years old."

At age 16, on August 9, 1945, she lost her parents and three younger brothers to the atomic bomb. The trauma was so severe that she did not speak about this for a long time. When she turned 90, she began posting on X the stories she had buried in a corner of her heart, saying, "It is pathetic that I have kept silent until now." Although she is elderly, she is familiar with various online terms, so when you read her posts, they feel like those of Millennials & Gen Z netizens. When reactions from followers slow down, she posts things like, "Many people have declared account freezing (a phrase used when announcing that they will not log in). Is everyone all right?" She is also adept at using emoticons and emojis. As more netizens came to listen to her story, the number of followers of Ms. Morita’s account eventually reached 90,000.

Based on these stories, she and her daughter published a book last year titled "I Am 96, Against War." The book reveals why Ms. Morita so strongly opposes war. It describes in detail how her house vanished without a trace in the atomic bombing, how her family members left at home remained only as unrecognizable black lumps, and how the neighbor’s pride, a medical student older brother, had his spine broken by the blast and died after only crying out, "I don't want to die." Most of the victims were civilians.

Morita Fumiko's X account. Morita Fumiko X.

In this House of Representatives election, however, voices contrary to Ms. Morita’s wishes gained strength. Prime Minister Takaichi has said that if she secures a sufficient number of seats to enable constitutional revision, she plans to review Japan’s Three Non-Nuclear Principles of "not possessing, not producing, and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons." She has also presented a vision of transforming Japan, which has been under the postwar pacifist constitution, into a "country capable of waging war."

During the campaign, some in the far-right camp even made remarks reminiscent of militarism, such as, "The people may have to sweat, and in some cases, may have to shed blood." Ms. Morita criticized these comments, saying, "People say such things because they do not know what happened in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and because they do not even try to know."

On the 6th, with the main vote just around the corner, Japanese media outlets one after another reported projections of a sweeping victory for the Liberal Democratic Party. Yet on X that day, the phrase "Mom is going to stop the war (ママ、??止めてくるわ)" rose to the top of the real-time search rankings. Posts began to appear with hashtags such as "Dad is going to stop the war" and "Uncle is going to stop the war." Ms. Morita shared these posts in solidarity.

Ms. Morita Fumiko writing a post on X. Nippon TV.

She insisted, "The Three Non-Nuclear Principles must be upheld unconditionally," and criticized, asking, "How can the claim that a country that has suffered atomic bombings wants to possess nuclear weapons again be logically possible?"

With the Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide victory, discussions on constitutional revision are now likely to accelerate. Some predict that the postwar peace framework, maintained for 80 years, may be approaching a watershed moment. Judging by the election outcome alone, it might appear that Japanese society as a whole is looking in the same direction. However, Ms. Morita and the hashtags vowing to stop the war showed that there are other views within Japan.

Prime Minister Takaichi is moving toward a future of a strong Japan. And the time of 96-year-old Ms. Morita remains frozen in 1945. As these different times intersect, Japan now stands at yet another turning point.