In the years from 1946 to 1985, the six survivors' lives went in several directions. After 1945, the Japanese began to use the word hibakusha, meaning "explosion affected persons" to describe the bomb survivors. Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, often sick from radiation illness, struggled to keep her family alive, sheltered, and fed for many years before the government began to help. Through a series of fortunate events, her life got better. She was able to rent a house for $1 per month and was eventually hired at a chemical company by a compassionate owner who did not discriminate against hibakusha. After working at the chemical company for 13 years, Mrs. Nakamura was able to retire, to see her son become employed, and to see her daughters marry and move away. Forty years after the bombing, she still suffered from the effects of radiation, but she had also learned to take care of herself. She avoided any political displays that were related to the bombing.
Dr. Terufumi Sasaki was haunted for the rest of his life by memories of August 6, 1945. He finished his doctoral degree and married well and because his family was wealthy he could afford to start a medical practice where, for five years, he mainly removed keloid scars from hibakusha. Being ambitious, he eventually left the hospital and opened a private clinic in Makaihara, putting Hiroshima behind him. But a series of tragedies marked the rest of his life. Diagnosed with lung cancer, he underwent surgery to remove his left lung. Then, in 1972, his wife died of breast cancer and he threw himself into his work and built a larger geriatric clinic. He had now distanced himself from Hiroshima. But occasionally he would treat a hibakusha and then be reminded of the "nameless souls" that went to mass graves outside the Red Cross Hospital in 1945.
