HYDE PARK — Satoshi Tanaka has survived six types of cancer. At 81 years old, he’s an elder member of Hibakusha, the group of people who survived the United States’ atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Standing in a white suit Saturday in front of Henry Moore’s Nuclear Energy monument at the University of Chicago’s campus, Tanaka called for President Donald Trump to retract his announcement that the U.S. will resume nuclear weapons testing. Tanaka was joined by a crowd of about 18 people, including professors and anti-nuclear activists, who huddled around the sculpture commemorating Chicago Pile 1, the name for the nuclear reactor which kicked off the atomic age from the UChicago campus. “This is an outrageously reckless act,” Tanaka said through University of Chicago professor emerita Norma Field, who acted as his translator Saturday. “It comes at a time when we, sharing the urgency of the message of the Doomsday Clock, born in Chicago, indicating that we have 89 seconds left to midnight, have been listening to the experiences of Hibakusha and intensifying our efforts to achieve a world without nuclear weapons by listening to their experiences.” While the U.S. military tests missiles that could carry nuclear warheads, the government has not detonated a weapon for testing purposes since 1992, according to the Associated Press. In an announcement late last week on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis.” The Department of Defense, now dubbed the “Department of War” under Trump, does not test nuclear warheads. Instead, the Department of Energy conducts nuclear explosive testing. Russian President Vladimir Putin shot back that Russia would respond with its own testing if the U.S. resumed, stoking fears that Trump’s suggestion could reignite Cold War tensions. Satoshi Tanaka speaks in front of the sculpture commemorating the Manhattan Project at University of Chicago on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. Credit: Leigh Giangreco for Block Club Chicago The timing of Trump’s social media post gave Tanaka the chance to ring the alarm once again over the threat of nuclear weapons and power, an issue that has receded from much of the public mind since the end of the Cold War. Tanaka was already visiting Chicago this week as part of a speaking tour advocating for nuclear disarmament and marking the 80th anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the Trinity test in New Mexico. Yuki Miyamoto, director of DePaul University’s Humanities Center, organized the anniversary event. Miyamoto, whose mother was 6 years old when the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb, grew up in Hiroshima. She recalled going to school yearly on Aug. 6, which was not a normal school day but a commemoration day of the anniversary of the bomb dropping, to hear stories from her teachers about the aftermath of the attack. Many Hiroshima residents still had scars on their skin resulting from the radioactivity. “I want Chicago people to know what this ‘great invention’ did, like the human toll,” Miyamoto said. “And also, it’s not just a distant past.” When asked about the relevance of nuclear war today, Tanaka points to the waning time on the Doomsday Clock. In 1945, two University of Chicago scientists who participated in the Manhattan Project created the metaphorical clock, which measures existential threats to humanity, like climate change and nuclear weapons. The time of the clock relative to midnight is meant to illustrate how grave the threat is of world destruction. “There are people who say we maintain peace by having nuclear weapons,” Tanaka said. “But look, it’s been 80 years and you’ve gone from seven minutes to 89 seconds [to midnight]. So it’s a huge lie to say that nuclear weapons preserve our peace and people have to know that. We have to take on this sense of crisis.” University of Chicago Professor Emerita Norma Field translates a speech by Hiroshima survivor Satoshi Tanaka. Credit: Leigh Giangreco for Block Club Chicago Tanaka knows the crisis of nuclear weapons firsthand. He was a little over 1 year old when his mother, who was living on a military base outside of Hiroshima, carried him on her back into the city in search of her family members after the bombing. The bomb killed four in their family immediately. Another 11 have died since then and at least one was never found, he said. The exposure to radiation as a young child damaged Tanaka’s health into adulthood. By his 50s, he contracted six types of cancers. He no longer has an esophagus after battling throat cancer. “I’ve gotten used to it, and things have improved, but what it means is that I can’t eat a lot at once,” Tanaka said. “So, you know, as you’ve noticed, when I’m eating with all of you, I can only eat about half of what normal people eat.” After graduating college, Tanaka returned to Hiroshima and worked as a journalist at a major newspaper there. Among his countless interviews with Hiroshima’s Hibakusha were those who suffered from microcephaly, a condition which causes a smaller head than is expected for an infant, after they were exposed to radiation as a fetus. He noted that even when those children grew up, their heads had not developed. He said that he couldn’t take notes during the interviews because his eyes were tearing up so much. Tanaka concentrated on interviewing Hibakusha and by sharing both their joy and grief, he realized he wanted to join them in action. He also shared in the Hibakusha’s sense of isolation that resulted from the discrimination they faced. While taking a communal bath at college in Tokyo, another student asked him “You’re from Hiroshima, is your radiation catching?” He was so shocked that he decided to keep his identity as a survivor secret for years. In August 1956, a group of survivors founded the Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations. Nihon Hidankyo’s founding statement declared the group wanted to “save humanity from its crisis through the lessons learned from our experiences, while at the same time saving ourselves.” Tanaka said reading that made him realize “how small-minded he had been” by hiding his identity. Shortly after, he “came out” as Hibakusha. Tanaka emphasized that he not only opposes nuclear weapons but also nuclear power, which he said can also expose people to radiation. He added that uranium mining exposed Native Americans who worked in mills in the southwest United States. “What [I’m] opposing is nuclear civilization,” he said. * * * **Keep Local News Going!** While we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished this year, we want to do more —a lot more — in 2026. **We’ve set a goal ofraising $30,000 to support the growing costs of operating a nonprofit newsroom with reporters living and working in Chicago’s neighborhoods.** As an added bonus, all donations up to $30,000 will be matched — that means every dollar you donate will be doubled! **Chip in today.** **Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:** Listen OnApple PodcastsListen OnGoogle PodcastsListen OnSpotify Can Judges Curb ICE’s Operation Midway Blitz? Episode play icon Can Judges Curb ICE’s Operation Midway Blitz? Episode play icon Why Are Chicago Men So Afraid To Go To The Doctor? Episode play icon What’s Up With The Obama Presidential Center? 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