VIENNA – Eighty years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, one of the world’s most influential voices for nuclear disarmament spoke before an audience of students, researchers, technologists, and peace advocates in Vienna. At 94 years old, Setsuko Thurlow’s presence was a reminder that history is not merely something to be studied. It is something that can still speak directly to the future and inspires action.
The occasion was a special screening of The Vow From Hiroshima, the award-winning documentary directed and produced by Susan Strickler and written and produced by Mitchie Takeuchi, chronicling Thurlow’s life, activism, and central role in the movement that led to the adoption of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. In 2017, that movement, represented by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Hosted by SBA Research and the PeaceTech Alliance of AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, the event brought together people working at the intersection of technology, security, and peacebuilding.
What followed was far more than a film screening. It was a moral challenge.
A Child in Hiroshima
On August 6, 1945, Setsuko Thurlow was thirteen years old. She was attending a military communications assignment with fellow students when a blinding flash filled the room. The atomic bomb had detonated above Hiroshima. In an instant, the city became a landscape of fire, collapse, and unimaginable suffering.
„I remember having the sensation of floating in the air,“ she told the audience. When she regained consciousness, she found herself trapped beneath a collapsed building. A soldier eventually freed her, allowing her to crawl out from under the rubble. Most of the classmates trapped alongside her did not survive. What she witnessed afterward would shape the rest of her life.
Thousands of students throughout Hiroshima were incinerated, vaporized, or burned beyond recognition. Members of her own family perished. The city became a place where the dead and dying lay everywhere, many pleading only for water before succumbing to their injuries. Approximately 140,000 people died as a result of the bombing and its aftermath.
For Thurlow, these were never statistics. One of the most powerful moments of her Vienna presentation came when she displayed a memorial listing the names of 351 girls from her school who died in the bombing. Moments before the explosion, they had been laughing and talking together. Minutes later, they were gone.
„Each one of them meant something to me,“ she explained. „It’s not just numbers.“
Turning Trauma into Action
Many survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remained silent about their experiences for decades. Thurlow chose a different path.
As documented in *The Vow From Hiroshima*, she transformed personal tragedy into lifelong activism. Moving first to the United States and later to Canada, she became one of the most prominent voices of the hibakusha—the survivors of the atomic bombings.
Her activism was never limited to sharing emotional testimony. Colleagues featured in the documentary describe her as both deeply compassionate and strategically minded. She worked tirelessly with diplomats, civil society organizations, educators, physicians, and political leaders to create practical pathways toward nuclear disarmament.
That work eventually culminated in one of the most significant achievements of the modern disarmament movement.
In 2017, after years of advocacy by governments and civil society organizations, the United Nations adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Supported by 122 countries, the treaty established the first comprehensive international legal ban on nuclear weapons. Thurlow was one of the movement’s most recognizable public faces and later jointly accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
Speaking in Vienna, she recalled a previous visit to the Austrian capital in 2014, when Austria played a pivotal role in advancing what became known as the Humanitarian Pledge—a diplomatic initiative that helped lay the groundwork for the treaty. She specifically praised Austria’s leadership and its contribution to the eventual success of the global campaign, singling out Austrian diplomat Alexander Kmentt for his role in advancing the humanitarian initiative that ultimately paved the way for the treaty.
Why Hiroshima Still Matters
For many younger audience members, Hiroshima can feel distant—a tragic event belonging to another century. Thurlow rejects that interpretation. The core message of her speech was that nuclear weapons are not a historical issue. They remain a contemporary threat.
She pointed to the war in Ukraine, rising geopolitical tensions, weakening arms-control frameworks, and growing military expenditures as evidence that the world is entering an increasingly dangerous period. She warned that some governments continue to modernize and expand their nuclear arsenals while simultaneously professing commitment to eventual disarmament.
„The lesson of Hiroshima is not that more countries should seek nuclear weapons,“ she argued. „The lesson is that humanity must urgently turn away from reliance on them.“ Her criticism was not directed at any single nation. Rather, she challenged the logic of deterrence itself.
For decades, many governments have argued that nuclear weapons preserve peace by discouraging attack. Thurlow, like many disarmament advocates, sees the matter differently. Weapons capable of destroying entire cities, she argues, cannot be reconciled with human dignity, human security, or long-term survival.
A Message for Technologists
The event’s title—*Hiroshima’s Message for Tech Students and Innovators Today*—reflected a deliberate choice. This was not simply a discussion about twentieth-century history. It was a conversation about the future.
The event was expertly moderated by communications strategist and peace advocate Heather Wokusch, who repeatedly encouraged the audience to reflect on the relationship between technological innovation and human responsibility. Throughout the evening, she helped bridge the historical lessons of Hiroshima with contemporary debates surrounding artificial intelligence, dual-use technologies, and peace technology.
During the question-and-answer session, a participant involved in peace technology initiatives asked what advice Thurlow would offer to those designing technologies intended to support peace and security. Her answer was remarkably concise: „Remember our humanity.“
She elaborated by urging innovators to imagine the human consequences of technological systems capable of causing mass destruction. Technology, she suggested, should never become detached from the people whose lives it affects.
In an era increasingly defined by artificial intelligence, autonomous weapons, surveillance technologies, cyber capabilities, and dual-use innovation, her response resonated far beyond the subject of nuclear weapons.
The challenge she posed was fundamentally ethical: technical capability alone cannot determine whether a technology should be developed, deployed, or scaled. Human consequences must remain at the center of decision-making.
For an audience composed largely of researchers and innovators, it was a powerful reminder that technological progress and moral responsibility must advance together.
The Importance of Witnesses
One theme appeared repeatedly throughout both the film and the discussion that followed: time is running out. The generation that directly experienced Hiroshima and Nagasaki is disappearing. Soon, there will be no living survivors able to provide first-hand testimony.
Thurlow acknowledged this reality herself. The responsibility for carrying forward these lessons now increasingly falls to younger generations. Students, she argued, do not need to become experts in nuclear strategy to contribute. What matters is refusing indifference and remaining engaged in the issues that shape humanity’s future.
The documentary’s director, Mitchie Takeuchi, whose own family survived the atomic bombing, echoed this theme through her exploration of inherited memory and intergenerational responsibility. The film demonstrates how stories that were once hidden or silenced can become powerful tools for education and action.
A Warning and a Hope
As the evening drew to a close, the discussion expanded beyond Hiroshima itself. Speakers addressed the ongoing humanitarian consequences of more than 2,000 nuclear tests conducted around the world, from Kazakhstan to the Marshall Islands, and highlighted the continued suffering of affected communities. The audience also heard renewed calls for broader international support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Yet despite discussing some of humanity’s darkest capabilities, the event was not defined by despair. Throughout her life, Setsuko Thurlow has insisted on the possibility of change. She witnessed the destruction of a city. She witnessed decades of political paralysis. She witnessed the creation of a global treaty once thought impossible. And she witnessed the awarding of a Nobel Peace Prize to a movement that many had initially dismissed as unrealistic.
Her message in Vienna remained consistent with the one she has delivered around the world for decades: history is not predetermined.
The future depends on choices.
For those building the technologies that will shape the twenty-first century, perhaps the most enduring lesson of the evening came from Thurlow’s simple response to a young innovator’s question.
Remember our humanity.
Because the ultimate measure of any technology is not what it can do. It is what it does to people—and whether it ultimately serves humanity rather than threatens it.
On a personal note
After her talk, I had the privilege of speaking with Setsuko Thurlow personally. What struck me most was not only her testimony, but her kindness. Despite carrying memories that few people could imagine, she met everyone with warmth, patience, and genuine curiosity.
As we spoke, I found myself saying, „Your courage reminded me that I am not doing enough.“ It was the only honest response I could give. Meeting someone who has dedicated nearly eight decades to ensuring that the horrors of Hiroshima are never forgotten and never happen again inevitably raises the Irene Question (as described by Henry Mintzberg in Rebalancing Society) for the rest of us: What can I do?
Perhaps that is Setsuko Thurlow’s greatest legacy. She does not ask us to admire her courage. She asks us to find our own.
Information about the documentary „The Vow From Hiroshima“: https://www.thevowfromhiroshima.com/
ICAN International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons: https://www.icanw.org/
