Throughout the two World Wars, a disruption between humankind and the standards of conduct inaugurated by the Enlightenment was observed, legitimizing violence as something intrinsic to modern society. This change in values was followed by the increasing scientific and technological investment, which reached a high development during the twentieth century and brought, as one of its results, the greatest genocides carried out by the authoritarian States on behalf of their political and economic interests. The barbarism leads us to consider an element for reflection: the witnesses. They embody the need for redemption of humanization and the resumption of the moral values, both lost in the trivialization of violence. Thus, the testimony confronts history and shows that technological development is not a synonymous for human development. On the contrary, they allow us to question the true intent of the nations that, in their quest for domination, massively destroy entire populations. In this context, the following questions arise: what is the testimony and what is its importance to modern society? Historically, what had led to the appearance of witnesses? What is the historical context that provided the development of the atomic bomb? Why was there the need, by the nations at war, to exterminate thousands of people, mainly civilians? What is the consequence of breaking the rules of civility by the two World Wars? To answer these questions, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum was investigated regarding its permanent exhibition, its goals regarding the struggle against forgetting the atomic disaster and the gathering of testimonies. After this first stage of the research, it was proceeded the study of the historical context that culminated in the atrocities committed during the two Great Wars, the results for modern society of the mass exterminations and finally, the study of trauma and testimony regarding the survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bombing.
Hiroshima; Second World War; Atomic bomb; Trauma; Testimony
