Mr. Shigenori Takemoto strongly thinks that "his atomic bomb experience in Hiroshima" must be handed down from generation to generation with his own words. He published the memoir on Aug 6 in 1997, and continues his lectures.

The subtitle of the memoir is--"that day" which must be handed down to Japanese mothers and Japanese children--.
I listend to his lecture and read his memoir and appreciated him very much.

I asked him to write them to "The Mellow Denshoukan". He was moved very much deeply to hear it. I got his permission and write this memoir in his substitution.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　Dango posts this in his substitution 　　　　

Prologue

8:15 a.m. 17 seconds on August 6, in 1945 --

By dropping of only one atomic bomb, the town of Hiroshima turned into ruins in an instant. At that time, I were in the thicket of the west side of the building of the Hiroshima city office which located 1km far from the center of the explosion. After the terrible light and noise, "flash and boom", the surroundings became dark as pitch in a moment.

Although many men have been writing or telling about Hiroshima until now, it is not known unexpectedly that the bottom of that "mushroom cloud" becomes so pitch-dark that the point where they are cannot be recognized.

I ran about trying to escape from the inside of the pitch-black darkness for many hours. On the way I saw numerous dead persons and seriously burnt people.

The groan under rubble was also heard. Also now, their voices sometimes revive in the inner part of my ear still now. There are many records on Hiroshima as are well known. However, it cannot be said that all were told in them.

I think that I have to talk further more. It is because I have thought that I have to tell my Hiroshima in my own "words", that is to say by my own "heart". This is a talk cencerning on my real experience on the August 6th.

(To be continued)

　
(1)

I was born on August 22, in 1931 in Kusatsu-cho in the west area of Hiroshima city (now Nishi-ku, Hiroshima). Though my birth town is really inside Hiroshima city now, it is at the west end of Hiroshima and its neighbor is a county area (Saeki-gun). Hiroshima merged surrounding towns and villages and becomes a large area now.

Kusatsu-cho is at the seashore of the Inland Sea (Seto-Naikai) and mountains of its back approach the shore. The San'yo Line of Japan Railway (JR) runs close to the shore.
We could see the mild Hiroshima bay just in front, and went out of our house and were able to go to the sea directly for swimming.

The sound of a steamship could be heard from early every morning.
From the second floor of my house, Miyajima (one of the three most famous views in Japan) could be seen in the distance on fine days.

There was a central fish market of Hiroshima since the ancient times, though Kusatsu-cho was a small town of agriculture and fishing.
Fishes caught in the Hiroshima bay or in the Iyo strait were transported to the central fish market.
Just the Hiroshima bay was a famous place also as a large culture farm of Hiroshima oysters.

Since the sea was shallow to a distance, a culture of laver was possible in winter. We were also able to catch littleneck clams and hard clams.
In those days there were about 130 boiled-fish-paste factories, including small or large ones.

There was only my house in the field.
We kept hens. We wrote the date on laid eggs, left them in chaff and were waiting for eggs to become chickens.
I was able to see the inside of an egg, when I held it up to the sun.
[Oh, blood has not been made yet. I wonder-- when it will become a baby --.]
It was one of my pleasure at that time.

Surroundings of our house were rice fields and farms. While I took a nap during the summer vacation, I could hear grasshoppers crying all over the place.
After I took a nap I used to go to dragonfly fishing or to play for catching frogs.

There were a lot of fun of nature in which rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs, and cats were all kept in our house.
There were also about 30 carrier pigeons. I was absorbed in them with my elder brother, just older, and were often scolded from our mother, saying, "Both you study!."
Our town was blessed with rich nature and was really a calm and peaceful town.

However, in 1931 when I was born, Manchurian Incident broke out in China.
The first Shanghai Incident occurred in the next year, and “Manchukuo” was founded. Thus the continental invasion of Japan started.
Sino-Japanese War started in the summer of the year 1937 when I entered the elementary school.

In that year my elder brother went to war to China, and was marching for the place called Changsha which was 600km or more deep from the coastline.
I remember I sent a letter and a comfort bag to him there.
The Pacific War started at last on December 8 in 1941 when I was a fourth grader of the elementary school.

I remember I heard the news bulletin on the Pearl Harbor attack in the classroom of the elementary school, and was excited very much though I was still a child.

And August 6, 1945 comes on.
When an atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, I was a second grader of the Hiroshima Shudo middle school.

(To be continued)

　
(2) Hiroshima, an important military city since Meiji Era.

On August 6, in the Hiroshima district it was very fine and a truly blue sky was seen from the morning. Our class was due to be mobilized and to act as workers of collapsed houses on that day. In order to gather in the Hiroshima city office at 7:50 a.m., I had lunch and came out of my house. I wore a white short-sleeve undershirt , khaki-color trousers, a coat, and gaiters (they were wound around my legs). I could not get shoes, so my footwear were straw slippers.

My left leg was bandaged since I stepped on the nail accidentally and my leg was injured last evening, I went out in order to collect scrap woods of a collapsed house for heating our bath, with pulling Daihachi-Kuruma (the large two-wheeled hand-drawn cart) together with my elder sister and I carelessly trampled the nail.

Although it was not a great injury, I was afraid that a bacillus might came into my leg, and I bandaged in front of my house when I went out. My middle school was of the old system and then of a five-year system.

Although under the school rule I was permitted to go to school by taking train from the station near my house to the station called Koi, we walked from the Koi station to our school for 45 minutes of one-way in a group, together with from first to fifth graders.

During the war, we walked for training our body. On that day, one class of five classes of our grade had a plan to dig holes in the mountain and another class had a plan to study at school. The rest three class, total 150 pupils, were mobilized to work as collapse workers.

A collapse work means the evacuation of houses. The house evacuation was to destroy houses with width of 80m in a fixed zone of a town, to carry out woods, and to make a vacant lot. If there are many houses when we receive the attack by a firebomb, we have danger that fire may spread one after another. We made a firebreak, a vacant lot where nothing to burn exists, and then even if any fire broke out, we had no fear of spreading of it. In this way, some fire prevention divisions were made in the east, west, north and south areas of the town.

It was not only we that were mobilized. The pupils of other middle schools or a girls' high school, the elderly men, the mothers whose children were in their belly, grandmothers, etc., that is to say, all the people that could not perform heavy works but could do light ones were mobilized to work.

Some person came here in one hour or more of trip from a distant place, and the city was more crowded in people than usual. Besides, there were persons who came out in daily work as usual and persons who finished breakfast and were relaxing at home, etc. Therefore it is guessed that there would have been probably 270,000 to 280,000 persons in Hiroshima as of 8:15.

(To be continued)

　
(3)

From around spring, the number of airplanes which came flying over Hiroshima increased gradually. When the day broke, the radio said "Western army area headquarter’s announcement ...... Now, enemy aircraft carriers are present , on the ocean far from the Tosa bay."

If enemy planes approached over the Tosa bay as it is, they said, "enemy planes are now flying on the sky of the Tosa bay, to Shikoku now." and then an air defense alarm was announced.

Enemy planes came across Shikoku and were north to the Iyo-Nada in the In-Land sea between Ehime Prefecture, Hiroshima Prefecture, and Yamaguchi Prefecture. Then, an air-raid alarm came out to Hiroshima. The siren of all elementary schools in the city resounded to all over city.

Furthermore, when the radio announced "Eenemy planes invaded over the Hiroshima bay", we could see the formation of several tens of ship airplanes like deep-black cloud, which were coming to fly over the far distant islands.

Most formation consisted of from ten to twelve or thirteen ship planes. They came repeatedly, carried out nose diving toward Etajima and the Kure naval port on the other side of Ninoshima just visible in our view , dropped bombs and depth charges, and then returned back.

Since Hiroshima was a military city where western army area headquarters were placed during the war, it was also a fort base. In order to meet enemy planes, many anti-aircraft gun and machine gun were arranged at the islands inside the bay.
On the othe side, since Kure very close to Hiroshima was the greatest naval port in Japan, the main warships of the Japan navy had almost entered the port. If a formation came, an artillery shell would be showered all at once from warships and also from the ground.

Airplanes flying at high speed were not hit easily. However, some airplanes were occasionally hit and crashed. They could be seen dropping down with all the fire. Although it was usual that we had air raids almost every day, I felt why there was no large-scale air raid in Hiroshima, which some other cities suffered very much.

The air raids to the Japan mainland by the U.S. Forces started in 1944. In 1945, in March, there was the big air raid to Tokyo by the large formation of 334 planes of B29. And then all the big cities such as Nagoya and Osaka became exposed to air raids.

Near Hiroshima, Kure, Iwakuni and Tokuyama, etc had suffered air raids with large-scale. Hiroshima was a town which had the history. The Imperial Headquarters were placed not only during the Pacific War but also in the Meiji era when already Nissin and the Russo-Japanese War occurred. It was also a very important city for military use and had many military men.

The horse was also one of the important arms in those days. Hiroshima was also one of large military bases from which they carried out military men, horses, arms and foods. The harbor called Ujina is located in present Minami-ku. And in the evening every day, military ships went out emitting smoke from this harbor, cruising from Hiroshima to Yamaguchi, crossing the Bungo channel toward China and the south direction, and across the Kanmon strait,to the Korean Peninsula or old “Manchuria”. The military ships which were running in the Hiroshima bay could be seen also from my house.

Etajima with the old famous Naval Academy can be seen over the Hiroshima bay just opened in front, and on the opposite side is Kure, where the base of the Maritime Self Defense Force is located still now.

Since Hiroshima was such an important military city, I felt that it was a city exposed to bombing more easily than any other cities. I wondered that there was no large-scale air raid. The reason was clarified after the War.

In order to clarify the effect of an atomic bomb, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States had forbidden bombing with iron bombs or firebombs to four cities, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Kokura and Niigata, which would be atomic bombing targets later.

I had another thing which I understood later. I had collected a leaflet for U.S. Army’s propaganda before atomic bombing. When I went to sea near my house to get short-necked clams, then I got the leaflet which included a map of Japan having the mark of "?" around Hiroshima. I felt something strange and it has worried me ever since then. However, I have never imagined that "?" meant an atomic bomb.

(To be continued)

　
(4)　Flash! Boom!, Terrible light and noise

After roll call finished, we, all pupils of 150 became a four-row length party, and began to walk to the place of house evacuation. Since I was comparatively tall, I was walking along the second row from the top.

In 200m or 300m walking, Mr. Iwasaki, a teacher of charge, called me to stop. "Takemoto , you, return from here to the watch of lunch", he said. I thought, "The watch of lunch is not interesting. It is more interesting to work going together with everybody". However, since it was a command, I had to return.

Although everybody was walking to the working place, I returned back alone to the city office with my disappointment. I did not understand why my teacher said to me "return". He might have thought that he saw the bandage in my leg and my working would be impossible.

I regretted that I had rolled the bandage exaggeratedly, though it was not a great injury. There was another reason which was known for me later. Other classes left two pupils for watching their lunches, but our class left only one. The teacher was maybe noticed of it on the way to work.

When we gathered, the sun of summer was already scorching. Our lunches and coats which they took off were placed in the thicket of the west side of the building of the city office which was protected from the sunshine.

When I returned, Mr. Yoji Saito, one of my classmates was watching lunches there. "Oh, Takemoto. Did you come back?" "Oh Saito. I came back. Let's watch our lunched by us two." I sat down beside him. We had nothing special to do, as watch of lunch was only to keep looking at lunches.

We had too much time till our classmates would come back to eat lunches here. We had to find something to spend our time. We decided to compare each other for our memory of the textbook of military training in which the imperial message was written at first. The textbook of the drill had to be surely mastered during the first two years of the middle school.

At any rate, since we thought that we would become a military man in the future, therefore, we had many things to be kept in mind. When I said, "now let's begin", terrible light and noise came with “flash and boom”.

It was terrible light. And,
It was terrible noise.
Furthermore, it was terrible heat.

When we had a photograph taken in a photograph store in old days, magnesium was burnt instead of the stroboscope. Even if we recognized it would shine soon from the cameraman’ s signal, we were surprised at flashing.

However, the strong light of 1000 times, or 10,000 times, or 100 million times shined just in front of us. At the same time, we heard terrible noise. We were wrapped by terrible hot air as soon as we felt our body swung unsteadily.

We had enough training of how to do when we suffered an air raid. The training taught us that we should thrust thumbs of the hand into our ears so that the eardrums might not be damaged, and press our eyes by the rest fingers so that our balls of eyes might not come out, and then we should lie down.

We covered our ears and eyes instinctively and threw down our body on the shade of the thicket. Though we did not know yet whether the air raid was received at that time, our body reacted against a terrible light and terrible noise reflectively.

8:15:17 a.m. It was an occurrence of an instant.

(To be continued)

　
(5) Dark as pitch in an instant

I did not know how much time I spent. I fell down in the thicket without consciousness for a while. My surrounding was dark as pitch when I was noticed. I remember it was a deep-blue sky without any cloud till then. It became pitch-dark in an instant. I thought that I might see a dream at first. In darkness, I looked around my own body confusedly. The figure of Mr. Saito who must have been next to me was not in my sight. It seemed not to be a dream somehow. I came out of the thicket and jumped down on the ground.

I did not know what happened and what I should do. However, I began to walk forward the direction of the house evacuation to meet with my classmates in any way. Then I just found Mr. Saito, who was beside me a while ago, was coming in this direction. I went close to him and said, "Hey! Saito.", but I could not speak anything. My throat seemed to be stuck and the voice did not come out from me.
Mr. Saito did not notice me since it was dark as pitch. I saw him disappearing into the darkness without meeting each other.

I had no memory where and how I walked along. In a while, I returned back again in front of the door of the city office. The surrounding was still darkness. There was a large porch in front of the city office, and in front of the porch there was a street for the city street car. However, all the wires and telegraph poles of the street car felt down and blocked the road , and then I could not walk. Of course, the street cars had stopped. When I went to the porch of the door, I met many people running and coming out of the city office, raising screams, "Uhoh, Uhoh", which I could not recognize.

I looked around the surroundings. Many people were coming and gathering to the city office from all the directions. I also heard voices, "Damaged Ah and damaged Ah". At that time, for the first time I understood I was damaged by the air raid. However, the siren of the air-raid alarm, which should resound far and wide to the whole city if it was normal, did not sound only on this day. It was natural that I did not know the reason why, since we were suddenly bombed.

Two young women came to me, shook my shoulder and asked, "Are we injured?" I saw that fragments of glass were pierced everywhere of them and their blood was flowing down through their faces and bodies in drops. However, since it was dark, red blood did not look red. "You are seriously injured" I answered. They disappeared into the crowded, saying, "We are already hopeless."

As for not only two women but also all the people that were in the surroundings, the fragments of glass were stuck in all over their bodies. There was a grandmother accompanied by her small child. She grasped her child's hand firmly and began to pray "namu-amida-butsu, namu-amida-butsu" soon.
I united my hands involuntarily, praying, " God help me. God help me." Neighboring darkness did not still clear up. I felt fear suddenly. I thought, "It is bad for me to stay here, so I have to escape somehow."

(To be continued)

　
(6) There were those who were still alive under rubble.

I began to walk toward the northeast along the street-car street in front of the city office. Going straightly on the way, there was the west parade ground of the Hiroshima part II party. It was around the present Hiroshima castle park and the present Hiroshima prefecture office.

I thought that I would not be burnt to death even if I were surrounded by fire, since the parade ground was a large open field. Another reason why I went to that direction was that there was a Hiroshima branch of the Bank of Japan where Reiko of my elder sister worked.

My elder sister must have been in the bank at that time. I thought she had surely tried to escape in pitch-darkness. I discovered my elder sister and thought that we would escape together. However, a pitch-dark trouble did not clear up.
Although I understood that I received bombing, it was not understood for me that the surroundings were in darkness continuously.

I walked and walked, but I was still in darknesst. In the darkness, when I looked around carefully, I could see the wires of the street car hung down over the stone pavement of the street car, and street cars were fallen sideways. The neighboring houses which I could see were all destroyed completely.

When I walked through two stations of the street car, I saw that fire went up suddenly in the direction. I gave up going to my elder sister's place and tried to escape to the direction of the city south. However, fire went up also in the direction, and people were coming to me, crawling. I thought that I would go back together with people coming.

However, I thought over that I would be burnt to death if I would not overcome that fire once. Then I retraced my steps and I improved my feeling and began to walk in the direction of fire.

I walked forward the direction of the fire which was coming, because I heard the talk on how to escape fire from my friend who came to school from Kure. Kure was damaged in the air raid before two weeks when the atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima.

My friend was a navy lieutenant general's son and heard the way of the air raid of the U.S. Forces from his father. He talked to me in detail about it. According to it, first, B29 dropped the firebombs circularly to surround the circumference of a town. They surrounded the circumference by fires so that people inside the city could not escape outside. Then the town was burnt in all the directions shortly -- it came out and carried out.

Therefore, if I stayed in the central part of the town as I was, I would be burnt to death. I thought, at any my risk, that I should pass once through the fire which enclosed the surroundings, and I had to escape in any how. I tried to progress but I could not find the way out.

All the buildings were collapsed and hided all the roads. I went up unavoidably on the crushed roofs toward the southern direction from the street-car street. I stepped on the tiles, making tiles sound, and I heard voices from the bottom of the tiles, " help me --. help me --".

There were those who were still alive under rubble. They became an underlay of the crushed houses and could not escape. However, I could do nothing.

I experienced "back hair having been pulled"(feel it very hard to leave there) of the proverb. Also now, their cries at that time remain in the inner part of my ear clearly. At that moment, I felt my powerlessness and I considered that I wanted to get off to a safe place. I was going to south contrary to the direction aimed at first unawares. I thought and think that it was impossible that only one pupil of the middle school had removed rubble. Furthermore, I would be soon burnt to death, if I remained there.

I was asking to myself many and many times, ”However, However… You”.
I escaped, at every time saying, "It was unavoidable." and shaking off the thought.

However, “Could I not really help them at that time?” Even now, such thought does not go out of my head.

(To be continued)

　
(7) The pillar of strangely huge clouds

I did not remember progress of time and progress of the way. It seemed that it did not clear since it was dark, but I came to the place where we were before, the place where everybody in class went out to make the firebreak for structure. When I wondered what happened on everybody, suddenly two middle school pupils came to cling to me and said, "-- please take us with you -- please take us and escape --". Both of them are naked with only belts at their waists left.

Their skin was burnt and festered, and drooped as dust cloth was hung down. Their feet were bare. I thought that I might see the ghost. I asked, "At what school are you studying?" They answered, "We are in a first grader of the Hiroshima San-yo middle school." So, they were pupils of the younger classes than mine.

I thought that I would take them to a safe place. I said. "I understand. Let’s escape together." We came out to the place of a large pond. Since we were going in the darkness, I worried missing our way. However, I believed that we were progressing south.

Soon, several tens of schoolgirls came from the direction toward which we wanted to walk. Although I thought that they wore monpe (women's work pants, gathered at the ankles), they were almost in stark-naked state like the middle school pupils. Their hairs were burnt and cut, and their skins were boiled and drooped.

Since they were escaping from the direction which I thought was safe, I asked them, "Why are you escaping in this direction?", They answered, "Fire began to burn in that direction".

For a moment I wavered in judgment of whether I should go back together with them. Since it was found that the fire was going up in all over the place, I had a doubt that this air raid might be different from that which was heard from my friend of Kure.

However, I decided that I would not be safe, if I did not overcome the fire and go out of the town. We parted from the schoolgirls and began to walk to the southern direction already aimed at.

The fire was approaching us gradually. It was terrible heat, the heat which could not be expressed as others except heat itself. Two middle school pupils who escaped together shouted, "hot, hot." Since two persons were burning themselves to the whole body, they met too much heat and began to cry, "Oh, I feel very painful". I regretted them as pitiful. However, if I would not pass through fire, I would die.

I exceeded the fire desperately, encouraging two pupils who did not want to enter the fire. The women came out of the fire, and they cringed to me.
Even if I tried to detach hers, they held my clothes firmly and did not release them. They said, "There is my child in the fire. Please! Help me! ". Hearing about the child, I sympathized them very much. However, although I sympathized very much, if we remained there, we would also die in the flames. We again had to shake off the mother's hand and had to escape. Even now, I remember the sad shout of the mother at that time.

It became soon somewhat bright and I could see our front view of 10m ahead. I looked around. The pillars and walls of houses all vanished like a Daruma omission game, and the roof covered over the rubble. Although I saw fires going up in many directions, any new fire was not seen around me. I thought we were saved in any case and I looked behind me. I could not find two pupils behind. I had parted from the middle school pupils unawares.

As a result, it was good luck that I escaped toward the fire. The schoolgirls who escaped toward the central part, I think, probably would die in the flames. When I progressed for a while, there was a hand pump which could pump up well water, on the left-hand side of the way.
The man of the middle age was sitting before the pump, and said, "Please kindly push the pump and draw water from well "

The man's head was divided to two parts. His body faced to the front, but one part of the divided head turned to me, standing on the side of him. He said, "I could not see any longer ". Much blood was flowing from the head. His body was full of blood. The blood flew into his eyes, and he could not see and walk. He wanted to wash his eyes and asked me to draw water. After I drew water to him I progressed aiming at south further.

I came out to the river soon. Although seven big rivers were flowing in Hiroshima, the river was Hijisan-gawa (kyoubashigawa).
Coming there, I looked back upon the way where I escaped.
I did not understand what time it was -- it was before noon in practice.
But, there was only brightness of the same grade as a twilight front.

I saw a grotesque scene such that many clouds were coming out here and there from the ground. There were a could of red color, a cloud of black color and also a cloud of purple color. I raised my eyes looking after the clouds. An extraordinarily giant pillar of cloud, climbing on the sky, was recognized. "I see. Since I was under that cloud, then I was in the darkness as pitch," I understood finally.

(To be continued)

　
(8) A fearful spectacle like hell, as far as one can see

When I was crossing a bridge over the Hijisan river and looking down the river, I saw naked people going down the bank and entering into the river rapidly. The river was full in people who were going to escape from heat. However, just as they touched water, they would die. They were still entering into water. It seemed to me that the river had inhaled men.

I escaped toward the south, bypassing the Hijisan park, a small mountain foot (The Atomic bomb research institute was built here after the war). All the people who I met on the way had pitiable figures. All the people were in stark nakedness or a state close to it. The women gathered the thing which has not been burnt, then hid the portion in front of her, and walked.

I met a mother holding her young child. When I came to the reverse side of Hijisan, I found a private house which had not suffered damage. " Grandmother, give me a cup of water", I asked the grandmother of the house and I got. I drank water and regained composure.

Then, I looked at my own body. My body was unhurt although I passed along the bottom of fire. My body did not have a burn, either. I did not realize that my feet became bare unawares. I did not step any nail on my feet, though I had escaped frantically.

It was supposed that I was fortunate, However, I was not yet safe. Although I passed through the bottom of fire, I had escaped in the direction opposite of my own house.

The siren of an air-raid alarm was continuing to sound. The enemy's ship airplanes flew and repeated machine-gun mopping-up. The ship airplanes had flown at a low altitude. The face of the pilot could be seen. The machine gun was shot from the ship airplanes, and I heard the sound of flying bullets such that a wind might be sliced through.

Every time I felt fearful, I ran for a while into the air-raid shelter. After I tool a rest for a while, then I progressed again. I could not go ahead so much though I would go back to my house as soon as possible. All the air-raid shelters were full in the men and the injured who could not do much movement.

There were almost fire in the town and at the places without fire all were pressed and fallen completely. I was looking at a fearful spectacle like hell all the time. I approached the familiar Miyuki bridge soon. The Shudo middle school was near the bridge.

The school was located in the place of about 2500m from the center of then explosion. I wanted to make sure of how the school was and then went to the school yard. But I could find nobody there. Although only one school building made of reinforced concrete remained, the school buildings made of wood were all crushed. There was no crying of cicadae which were usually crying noisily, but the school was quite quiet. I was able to hear no sound. It was uncanny silence.

It seemed to me that I experienced a momentary occurrence, but it was already 3:00 in the afternoon. Only the clock of the school building of the steel rod, though I thought it had stopped, minced the time calmly.

After for a long time darkness continued, it became bright at last. And the sunlight of midsummer was returning. The sand of the playground shone in strong sunlight and looked to me like the whiteness of dazzling. Although I used to see the schoolyard, I felt that I was standing on the completely different unknown place.

I went to the place around where my classroom was. The big beam fell down and I found a pupil was crushed between the desks. I was surprised and returned there. Though the pupil seemed to be already dead under the beam, I felt fear and I could not go close to him.

Later, it turned out that the dead pupil was called Mr. Hosokawa who came to school for study at that day. Only his class was open for study.
Other pupils entered under the desk at the moment of coming of the big noise of the A-bomb, then they were safe.

I crossed the bridge over the Motoyasu river. The next was the Ohta river ( called the Hon river). Since the bridge over the Ohta river was wooden, it had been burnt down. Then I tried to walk and cross the river. I found many people who could not move in the river.

(To be continued)

　
(9) Write a name on the naked body in India ink

When I went down to the bank of the river, somebody was calling as "Takemoto" and "Takemoto" in my neighborhood. I looked around, thinking who was calling me. There were many people in my surrounding and I could not find the man who called me. Finally I could find him but he was a man whom I did not know. I asked him , “Who are you?”, he answered, “Me. Me. I am Kawabata.” I was surprised. Mr. Kawabata was the best friend of the same class, who was together with me till this morning.

However, his face had changed much, so I could not recognize him even if I looked him in the face. "Takemoto! I'm Kawabata! I'm Kawabata!” he still shouted. Though he sat just behind me in the classroom and we met together every day, I could not recognize him. His face became about two times large. I was not able to consider him as the same person. I looked at his shoes unintentionally and found the name "Kawabata" written on them. I recognized him at last.

We should be at the Enami town after we would cross the river. There was the house of our close friend Nobuyuki Masumoto. "I understand you are Kawabata. If we cross this river, there is a house of Masumoto. We will go there. Do your best to go there!" I encouraged him and carried Mr. Kawabata on my back, and began to cross the river.

We crossed the river and climbed on the bank of the opposite side. I asked the place and knew luckily his house was close to the river. His mother and elder sister were in his house. I asked them whether Masumoto was safe or not. They answered, "He returned home before noon but he had the whole body serious burnt, so we took him to the army hospital." I needed to take Kawabata to the hospital immediately. I borrowed the bicycle trailer from Masumoto’s house, got the help from Masumoto's elder sister, and took him to the army hospital.

The way in front of the hospital was blocked by the fallen people, a lot of people.
Some people who lied on straw mats or doors were lucky. Other people lied directly on the ground. Some were already dead with their bodies expanded to red. Some were still alive with their eyes open, though they could not speak already. Some were crying again and again "Give me water! Give me water!"

A name of “Yamanaka” or “Ohmachi” was written on a piece of tile or a piece of wood on the side where the person lied. It was the name of the person. The names of some persons were written on their naked bodies in India ink.

As persons in charge of relief were lacking, many persons could not get relief. So, at least, their names should be heard and be written on their bodies directly while they were able to speak their names. There were also many people who died with their names unknown. Those who had a white plaster or cooking oil applied were still fortunate. Most persons unluckily lied on all the ways in front of the hospital without any care. So, we were not able to arrive at the hospital.

We entered the courtyard of the hospital. We were not able to go on from there, I handed Kawabata to someone at the entrance of the hospital.
However, I did not remember the person whom I handed him. I have not remembered whether the person was a nurse or a military man. Only this portion is not in my memory clearly. Later I tried to trace back my memory desperately, but it can never be remembered. I am very sorry to Mr. Kawabata, but I parted from him there and after all it became the last time when I met Mr. Kawabata.

In the case of Mr. Saito with whom I watched lunches together, I thought that he would die. However, Mr. Saito appeared on the class reunion party held in Shinjuku in Tokyo about 40 years later after that time. He thought also that I would die, so our reunion is really a miraculous reunion.

(To be continued)

　
(10) Oh, you are alive!

I had and ate two rice balls after I came back to Mr. Masumoto's home from the army hospital once again. And I went across the Tenma and Ohta rivers. I arrived at the national highway No. 2 line (the road which leads to Shimonoseki from Hiroshima) with suffering troubles. The distance from here to my house was about 4 km.

10 hours already passed from the moment of atomic bombing, and it was 6:00 o’clock in the evening. The national highway No. 2 line was also much crowded. There were persons who were going to the city for help, those who were escaping from the city with bedding or household goods and those who had fallen on the road. It was really a serious bustle.

When I was pushing way through the crowd, I heard the man on a bicycle shouting, "Shigenori!" It was my father. I said, "Oh! Father". He said, "You are alive. I think you are dead." He was very surprised to find me. He supposed that I had died already, because he heard that the Hiroshima city office where the three classes of the second grade of the Hiroshima Shudo middle school were was completely destroyed. Then he thought I was not alive any longer and he had almost given up me.

Since he thought that he would confirm whether his daughter working at the Bank of Japan was alive, he was moving by the bicycle. The father explained me what and how to do later and he started by the bicycle to the ruined city still burning briskly. I went back home in a hurry and took out a bicycle trailer.

I put down bedding on the bicycle trailer. I went back to the place which was decided by my father, with another elder sister who was married and lived in the neighborhood. The place is at the west of Hiroshima and 3km apart from our house. Around 9:00 o’clock at night, the father brought back my elder sister, picking up on the rear seat. I heard that the elder sister was in the underground of the Bank of Japan.

I placed my elder sister on the bedding of the bicycle trailer immediately. I ran 3km distance desperately to our house. Although, as for me, my breath became going out repeatedly, I only wanted to make the elder sister easy on the tatami mat. I knew even in the darkness that my elder sister was in a severe condition. The position of the Bank of Japan was only 500m apart from the center of the explosion.

The elder sister was laid in the drawing room. I looked at my elder sister's body anew and found she undertook the serious burn in the whole body and she was in a pitiable situation.

My father went away again, after he laid the elder sister. He was acting as a chairman of the town association. He had to act as the person in charge of the relief squad. People who had escaped from Hiroshma were accommodated in the elementary school. They escaped desperately from many places and died one by one there.

Those who died had to be transported from the classroom to the playground soon one after another. Otherwise, those who were still alive could not be given their allowance. Even if he had his daughter who was dying soon, the father had to go out. Instead, I had been sticking near my elder sister. The elder sister's consciousness was solid and she began to say after a while, "I want to go to a rest room".

Although it seemed that she had still energy to try to stand up by herself, since a bedpan was prepared, I said, "A situation may be sufficient. I recommend you to carry out here". She wanted to go to the rest room by herself, and never agreed with me. Since it was unavoidable, I lent the hand to her and took her to the rest room as the elder sister said me. And I made her pee, holding her from back. Across the passage, a bathroom was on the other side of the rest room. A full-length mirror was in the dressing room of a bathroom. It was a keepsake of our mother who passed away four years before when I was a fifth grader in the elementary school.

I realized the mirror was there. I was careless. But recovery was impossible. The elder sister caught herself reflected in the mirror.
She saw that not only she undertook the burn to the whole body, but also that about three holes were opened on her head.
It could be seen neither as a 20-year-old daughter, nor as a figure of man. What kind of thing I did?

I had shown an ugly figure to the dying elder sister who must be encouraged no matter there may be what.... The elder sister who had caught her own sight said, "This is not man. It is not man's face", and began to shed tears.
"This is not man. I do not want to be alive in such a figure."
Though till then, she had power to try to stand up by herself, she lost her energy after catching her sight.

If that mirror did not exist .... If I did not take her to the rest room .... the elder sister would not catch her ugly sight. .... When I thought so, I was quite regretful, It was too late for me to be regretful.
I could not bear that. I could not bear that. It was an imprudence of my lifetime.

The father came back once midnight, but he went out immediately. The elder sister was being nursed all the night by myself, another elder sister, the grandfather, and the wife of the oldest brother who had a new born baby.

(To be continued)

　
(11) The last tomato

My father came back a little past five o’clock next morning. Maybe he was tired with all-night work and he sat cross-legged on the wooden floor of the kitchen for a while. He sat straight suddenly after a while and summoned me. And he said to me, "Shigenori, Go to the field and take and bring a tomato." I noticed his mind. His eyes were gazing only at one point intently, keeping sitting straight. As for it, although I was still only a second grader of a middle school, I understood that the father opted for preparedness.

I took a tomato and handed it to him. The father squized the tomato into the teapot and began to make juice. The tomato was one of my elder sister's favorite foods. “Since Reiko is a child who likes a tomato very much ...." The father, whispering so, finished making juice, came to the head side of the elder sister and put the exit of the teapot to her mouth.

The elder sister drank, raising sound and said, "Delicious and delicious". As for man, he will be thirsty if he is burnt or largely injured. People dying due to the atomic bomb were also dying, asking "The soldier, give me water. The soldier, give me water". However, if water is given, he will die. So nobody gives water, saying, "If you drink water, you will die. So you do not drink water".
They asked, "The soldier, give me water. The soldier, give me water. It does not matter that I will be dead.” praying to the soldiers with their hands joined.

Although my elder sister also wanted water, I did not give water, since it was known that she would die if I gave. I soaked cloth with water, and made a lip of the elder sister wet. The elder sister regained the lull state.
Then the father again went to the elementary school for the activity of the relief squad. Around nine o’clock the elder sister's breath became confused.

The father did not return yet. Close to the head side of the elder sister were there myself, the grandfather, the other elder sister, my elder brother's bride with her newborn child embraced. She called, “Father. Father.” in despite of absence of her father. We looked into her face by our turns and encouraged her. However, it seemed she could not notice us. Probably, her eyes could not see already. She said, "Mother will come to pick up me soon." I thought that the elder sister was ready for dying.

In a while, she said, "Father, I am going to die. Allow me to die before you."
The grandfather encouraged her, "What do you say?. Be brave. I would die instead of you if it is possible.... Although….." but his voice became tearful from the way. So I could not hear it.

I said "Elder sister -- be brave. I will become a pilot of navy airplane and revenge for you absolutely. Therefore, elder sister, hold out! ". However, our words of encouragement were also vacant and my elder sister took over her breath.
9:40 p.m. on August 7 .... It was the quiet last moment.

(To be continued)

　
(12) The cruelest thing

Although people died, of course, there was no coffin etc. We made the coffin with ready trees. We dedicated the elder sister's body into the coffin and only covered it with white cloth. It was shouldered to the mountain with all the family. The hole was dug in the mountain, firewood was placed into the hole, the coffin was put on the firewood, and the body in the coffin was cremated. There was almost no family who had no victim in the town. Though any family was in a similar situation, I suppose how regretful it was that the father had to burn his child by his own hand.

I made and brought up my own child later. When I imagine the feeling of my father at that time, I am very sad and regretful as if my breast were got blocked. There were many, many cruel things in the atomic bomb and in the war. However, it seemed the cruelest thing to me that there were people like my father who had to burn their children by their own hand. I begin to think that my elder sister might have been more fortunate, because she could return to her house, received the allowance, and passed away with watch of the blood relation. Tens of thousands of people died without meeting anybody of their relatives.

I attended the memorial service of my mother school, the Hiroshima Shudo middle school in summer of Heisei 7 (1995, 50 years later after the atomic bombing). There was a big natural stone on the surface of which was written a letter “IREI” (memorial). On the back face of the stone were written 136 names of the teachers and pupils who passed away by the atomic bomb. Following and reading every person's name with my finger, I remember the faces of my teachers and the faces of my friends of 50 years before on the reverse side of my eyelid clearly. However, most ashes of these people have not been found yet. And I think that they will never be found also in the future. Where they were dead will never be known.

The town of Hirosima continued burning for about two weeks. When I saw the sky of the city from my house, it changed to a crimson sky at night. I entered inside the Hiroshima city repeatedly after the atomic bomb. There were bodies rolling across the town. There were also those who were dead sitting down in the fire prevention tank, those who were dead entering half into the tank and those who are dead upside-down in the tank. When there was a river, people asked for the river, and they asked for the water of the tank, when they could not find a river in the neighborhood.

Not only men but also horses fell and cows were upset. Bellies of the horses swelled extremely. Cars and street cars had been also upset. Since it was midsummer, decomposition of bodies also progressed. There was a terrible smell, as they began to rot. Without taking care of it, everybody was searching in quest of his family and acquaintance.
In the town, I saw the figure of the mother who was searching in quest of her child everyday. It is partial insanity wholly. When she saw the body which was floating in the fire prevention tank, she turned over it to see whether it was her child or not. Every river was full of bodies who were floating in proneness, and of pieces of woods which burned. With the flow of tide, they were flowing upstream and downstream the river. And they were remaining for two or three weeks as they were. If the body was seen from on the bridge, people went into the river, and turned the prone body inside out and checked it. The form of the face of the body was already deleted as several days had passed after the death, so it was difficult to recognize whether he was their blood relation or not. But they could not do but turning inside out and confirming the body. Who can do such a thing but his parents?

When the day broke, they asked and walked along the concentration camps yesterday and today also, and they said, "I found nothing today. I found nothing today again" for five or six days, and although they checked most of the concentration camps, they were still asking and walking there. There is the word "battlefield psychology." At present time we will think that we feel fearful only by seeing a man break down from a traffic accident. Hiroshima after atomic bombing was the same as the battlefield, and even if they looked at a body, they used to feel nothing to the body at all, while they were continuing to walk along inside many bodies laid for many and many days. Though it is terrible, man has such a strange character.

Thus, many people passed away without meeting their blood relation. There was no method to do but that those bodies were accumulated like a mountain and were burnt by gasoline. Since, even if bodies were burnt, there was no place where ashes could be buried, they were put into air-raid shelters. However, the air-raid shelters became full of ashes soon. Of course, there were many ashes whose names could not be recognized. I thought repeatedly and repeatedly that such a tragedy was not allowed to happen, and that such a hell was not allowed to exist. Moreover, having considered such a thing, I thought that my elder sister was still more fortunate.

We shall not repeat the evil.

I went to the Atomic Bomb Commemoration Hospital in Hiroshima a long time after the war. The map of the Hiroshima city was stuck in the hospital. The point that this map differed from the ordinary one was that small needles of red and yellow were stuck everywhere on the map. The countless small needles were stuck. A red needle was the person who passed away and a yellow one was the person who did a big injury. The closer to the center of the explosion, the more the number of needles. Inside the circle of a 1km radius where I was contaminated were almost only red needles. However, I was unhurt and saved inside there. The doctor of the hospital told me that I was a very rare case with probability of one to hundred. Data show that 96.5% of people died inside a 500m radius of the explosion and 83% died inside 1km.

In Hiroshima about a hundred and several tens of thousands “lives” were removed at the moment of atomic bombing. 65% of them were children, old persons, and women. After then, the people who suffered from illness caused by atomic-bomb radiation passed away one after another. But, why was I saved though I was in the place of only 1km from the center of the explosion? I did not have even a burn and did not suffer from illness caused by A-bomb radiation with which many people were troubled a long time after that.

I think that one of my luckiness was that I changed the direction on the way and escaped toward the south of the city. I did not necessarily think that the south was safe. I was interfered by the rubble which became like a mountain, and could not advance any more, and the direction of my escaping was changed. Black Rain (rain which was written in Mr. Masuji Ibuse's novel "Black Rain" and became well known) fell down to the city region of about 2/3 around the half of the north of the city after atomic bombing. Since this rain included very high-concentration radioactivity, most of people who were struck by the Black Rain were dead. In the south half where I escaped, the Black Rain did not fall down fortunately.

Another fortune was that I adhered to the surface of the wall of the building of the city office at the moment of dropping. The atomic bomb was exploded 570m above on the sky. I would be burnt in my whole body, and be blown and thrown away to somewhere by the direct heat rays, if I were not in the shade of the building. It was lucky that I was in the west side of the building with avoiding the strong sunshine from the morning. Probably I would have moved to the place where I would receive direct rays of light, if it were afternoon.

(To be continued)

　
Epilogue

The Co-op Kobe, a chairperson of which I am, asked the mothers (the members) and staffs to contribute 100 yen respectively. With the money, we have bought medical equipment and have contributed for the atomic bomb hospitals in Hiroshima and Nagasaki all the time. Since money was not enough in the Atomic Bomb Commemoration Hospital, it was troubled that it could not have so new medical equipments. Even if the amount of money which each person gives is never large, when many people gather their power, considerable money can be obtained. We have continued to gather money, hoping that the hospital can introduce at least one medical equipment every year and use it for improvement in medical treatment.

When I was inaugurated as a union president in Heisei 3 (1991), I was invited from the director of the hospital, "Please come to see our hospital once.” and I went to visit the hospital. On that day I had warm welcome from the staffs as well as the director and was shown everywhere inside the hospital. The building of the Atomic Bomb Commemoration Hospital is of the Hiroshima Japanese Red Cross Society hospital which was built in Showa 12 (1937). It was located about the middle point between the Hiroshima city office where I was contaminated, and my mother school, at 1500m distant from the center of the explosion, but it remained without collapsing. Though the tiles of the door are in the same state as at the time of contamination, they remain still now without any sheet exfoliating. I found the medical equipment we had presented. The plate where a date and "donation by the Nada Kobe co-op" were written was stuck on the equipment. The Nada Kobe co-op was an old name of the Co-op Kobe.

Medical equipments cannot be mass-produced. Even if it is a small apparatus, the price of it is expensive, five or ten million yen. However, even if it is small, since it was presented by the contributions of the members and staffs of the co-op, so all the people of the hospital were very much appreciated.

I saw the transparent plastic baskets of 2850 after I went up to the roof at the end of inspection of the hospital. 2850 contamination patients passed away after they were hospitalized in this hospital from Showa 20 (1945) to that year (1991). The internal organs of all the people are saved in formalin liquid. The plate on which his death date, his age and his name were written is stuck on each basket. The clinical history and the dissection view are boiled and recorded in the drawers. In order to save them, formalin liquid has to be replaced every year. The work can be supported by the volunteers of hundreds of people, such as medical students. Though 80 million yen per year is necessary for maintenance, no support comes from a country or a prefecture. They have to carry it out of the expense which manages the hospital. It is serious to keep precious data left.

One doctor who was in charge of the medical treatment of illness caused by A-bomb radiation all the time after the war, said “When we use these internal organs as a material of research, even if it is one piece, we use it very carefully, with appreciating God. This is eternal precious property for human beings. It can be never made anymore and must be never made.” That's right. I also thought anew "it is really serious if human beings might make this once again." In order to hand down the solemn problem of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to future generations, these should be saved eternally. For the present sake and for the sake of the next generation, I think that we must appreciate that these are being saved with much care.

On the monument built in Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima is written the following.

Let all the souls here rest in peace,
for we shall not repeat the evil.

Hiroshima sees the 53rd summer in this year (1998). Although the day of atomic bombing was just before my birthday of 14 years old, I, now, exceeded 60 years old already. Those who know Hiroshima of that day also are decreasing gradually. It is necessary that every person consider this "phrase" deeply. I have read the text of asking, "Who said this “Phrase” to whom?

However, I think that we had better read obediently.
For example, it is a “phrase” of mine that lost my elder sister. No, it should be my own “phrase”. At the same time, it is better to be considered as my own "heart". I think that it must continue to be told as my own “words” and my own “heart”.

My elder sister, Reiko -- please sleep peacefully.
Since human beings, including myself, shall not repeat such a thing, the bad thing of war, please allow us.

Please sleep peacefully.

This "word" is a wish common to human beings, a shout, and a “word” from my sincere heart.

(The end)