Nature Immersion in an Extreme Environment: Hiroshima Survivors’ Personal Emergence Following Their Atomic Bomb Experience

Misako Nagata (), Mio Ito, Ryutaro Takahashi, Chie Nishimura and Patricia Liehr
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Misako Nagata: Research Institute for Next-Generation Nursing Education, 3-26-1-702 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Mio Ito: Graduate School of Health Sciences, Gunma University, 3-39-22 Showa-machi, Maebashi 371-8514, Japan
Ryutaro Takahashi: Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, 35-2 Sakae-cho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-0015, Japan
Chie Nishimura: St. Luke’s Clinic-Ala Moana, 1141 Kapiolani BLVD #2000, Honolulu, HI 96814, USA
Patricia Liehr: Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL 33431, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 23, 1-14

Abstract: Introduction: Nature immersion is defined as multidimensional connecting with earthy materials to generate personal emergence. Personal emergence is an embodied healing force observable via synchronization of bodily rhythms. Research has revealed positive effects of green space for healing. However, little is known about healing of survivors in the space impacted with radioactive nuclear energies. Purpose: To use the theory of nature immersion to guide exploration of the concepts of connecting with earthy materials , personal emergence and space-time expansion in a sample of people who had experienced the catastrophic nature upheaval of the Hiroshima bombings on 6 August 1945. Method: A descriptive exploratory design with directed content analysis was used with existing qualitative data consisting of 29 Hiroshima atomic-bombing survivors’ description of their experience. Results: Self-healing empirically manifested through 23 survivors’ connection with earthy materials. There was synchrony between recuperating natural space and healing of survivors. Conclusions: Synchrony, as a dimension of human connection with nature, transcended the disharmony of bombing upheaval. Although further exploration is necessary, these findings serve as evidence about the essence of healing as related to nature for those in extreme environments.

Keywords: nature immersion; green space; natural space; self-healing; healing; extreme environments; radioactive nuclear energy; Hiroshima atomic-bombing survivors; A-bombing survivors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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