In her own words: A Hiroshima bomb survivor learns English to tell her story

Teruko Yahata (85), a World War Two Hiroshima atomic bombing survivor, prepares to present her story of the horrors of Hiroshima in English to foreign visitors at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, western Japan May 9, 2023. REUTERS/Tom Bateman

HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Standing at the front of a dimly lit room in the basement of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Teruko Yahata's voice broke as she recalled the morning her world changed, on August 6, 1945.

"All of a sudden, the entire sky flashed and was illuminated in bluish-white, as if the heavens had become one huge, fluorescent light," the 85-year-old, speaking in English, told an audience of British tourists on a recent Tuesday.