Narration activities and survey of A-bomb suffer of the alumni
After I was graduated from senior high school, I entered Monopoly Corporation and worked for it until my retirement at the age of 57. When I was retired, the company was called Japan Cigar Corporation. Then, at the age of 63 or 64, I started to participate narration activities, but I was not involved in any of testimony activities for a few years after my retirement. Before my retirement, I have always thought that I must talk about it and write it down….. as they are important thing. I was pressed with work and was frequently assigned to move to different cities for work, and so I was unable to do so. Every year when August 6 comes close and see A-bomb related articles in the newspaper, I always remember “oh, the season comes” once a year but I have not talked about it to anyone. Last year, I was interviewed and when my A-bomb experience was released to a newspaper, it was also put in JT’s retired employees’ bulletin. At that time, I was told “I was surprised to know that you have had gone through a lot” by my human resources department colleague who entered the company in the same year and knew everything about us employees. I really did not tell my A-bomb experience to anyone.
My A-bomb experience is not something to be proud of. If someone asks me, I would answer only. Most of people do not know that I am an A-bomb victim. It was my colleague MS Kuwahara who offered me a chance to participate narration activities. I do not take part in peace movement, but I always felt how terrible the exposure to A-bomb is and thought that such thing should not happen again. Always. So I was looking for some opportunity to present what the A-bomb did to us with my experience. And I always wanted to write this down in somewhere. To start narration activity is not something that suddenly comes up into my mind.
10 years ago, for the 50th anniversary of A-bomb explosion, many articles featuring A-bomb were released; I felt like visiting my school and attended a memorial service at Sutoku Gakuen. When I attended the ceremony, people were surprised to know that the survivor from the A-bomb was still alive. Since it was the 50th memorial service, after the ceremony, a symposium was held and around one hundred of the bereaved family attended it. After senior alumni gave some speech, teachers requested me to talk as the last speaker. The bereaved family told me that they only could know their loved ones died near Hacchobori but nothing else. They did now know where exactly they were or what the situation was like at that time until they heard my story. After the symposium, four or five bereaved family people ran up to me. All of them told me that they were a bereaved family of the student who belonged to a class of who at what graders. Probably all these students were still missing. They wanted to know how their loved ones were upon A-bomb explosion. Knowing how it was did not bring their loved ones back to the life, but the bereaved family would like to know. It is really desperate. Knowing the last of the deceased does not bring them back to the life but it is not the point. They are desperate to know it and remember the loved ones who passed away. The four or five bereaved family people were all brothers. They said that the person whom they would like to inquire is their elder brother. I told them that I was the newly-entered 7th grader at that time and I am so sorry that I could not remember too many people with my 4-month school life by then. The teacher who observed us talking came to me and said, “It was impressive to see that the bereaved family ran up to you right after your talk was finished.” He showed me the list of the victims that the school put together in Sep, 1945. I got the copy of the victims list and I decided to investigate how my alumni passed away with the list.
At first, as the narrator of A-bomb experience, I wanted to tell the real stories to the children. I started my testimony for this. I wanted to describe how not only myself but also the others were at that time or what made some of the victims survived until today. I started my survey on these points with the list I got from the school.
At that time, the students at Sutoku Junior High School consisted of those who were from Hatsukaichi, Ohno, Miyajima and Ohtake. I contacted those people, went to see them and asked them how they were and had been. While I was doing this, I came to think to documentate what I heard from these survivors is more descriptive to present how wretched the A-bombs was than to talk my own experience to groups of people as a narrator. I wanted to publish my survey. There were almost nothing left as record of Sutoku Junior High School. On August 6 of last year, at Sutoku Junior High School, I was interviewed by a writer from Chugoku Newspaper. At that time, I told him that I would like to record how my alumni suffered though it had been so many years since the incident and so it is not easy. This comment of mine was put up in the article and it pushed me to work on it seriously. However, it is really difficult to find the bereaved family. I requested NTT to send me the phone number directories, checked the possible contacts, called them up and asked how the alumni were and had been.
I took so much notes though they are not in finalized shape. I investigated how our teachers passed away and now working on the alumni in different location: the 9th graders instead that I investigated how it was only around Hacchobori, where I was.
But it is really hard. As next year is already the 60th anniversary, I would like to complete them anyhow, however, it is so difficult. I can not make complete one but would like to make some level of the survey record. I really would like to keep a record of this officially. I would like organize the information with decent level of investigation and keep a record of those with solid information. The A-bomb museum also would like me to share this record with them, but I am not done with it yet.
The most effective way to describe how it was at that time is the time of death. And the place of death. For example, this person passed away at Tokiwa bridge or at home or Shukkei-en. Investigating the place of deaths, I came to know there were a few people who managed to return home on their own. There were many friends who crossed Tokiwa or Kouhei bridge and reached the reservoir in Ushita. Everyone seemed to be exhausted to death around this location. ….. This person returned his home in Miyajima at 17 o’clock on August 6 on his own. Half of his body was burnt. Around 10 o’clock on August 9, he passed away while he sang a parachute troop song…. There was another friend who sang another war song half way and passed away. Before his death, he told his family that he would die soon but he would like them to defeat the enemy.
This story is what I learned from the newspaper article. The 7th grader of Sutoku Junior High School had his right rear of the head tore open by the explosion and walked to flee with his part of brain hung outside of the head. He was suffering with the pain and pleaded the soldier who passed by “Please cut me to death. Please kill me.” It was around the pine tree forest at the foot of Tokiwa bridge leading to the direction of Hiroshima station. The soldier had only a dagger:Takemitsu and could not take his wish and kill him with it. Learning this story ends up in some miracle. I called some bereaved family for the survey and came to realize the deceased alumnus is the same person described in the said newspaper article. I could identify with the information on the place he fled to and how the injury was like. I heard the story, said “Wait a moment. I have a newspaper article that has almost the same story with yours”, and sent the copy of the article to the elder brother of my alumni. The elder brother was happy and sent me some letter. According to the letter, the elder brother was told that his brother evacuated to Onaga. He went Onaga and asked the neighbor about his brother. The neighbor said,” Good news for you. Your brother is still alive. I gave him some water a little while ago.” He asked where his younger brother was and went there to look around. But he could not find his brother in the place he was told to go. As he went on to find his younger brother, his younger brother was found dead a few hundred meters away from Onaga Elementary School. According to the elder brother I talked to, the body of his younger brother was still warm upon his finding. It was August 7. Tears went down on his cheeks. “ My younger brother just passed away when I found him. How regrettable it was.” I made a set of brothers glad to know the last of their brother’s death by sending newspaper article with my identification match through my survey.
As I said before, there was almost no one who returned home on his own. Almost all the survivors were found half way to the home and taken home by their father or mother. The rest were missing. At that time, people contacted the family of those who fell on the streets.
For example, we have a person such. We have the place called Kake, which is further down in Kabe. The student from there went back to his relatives in Nagatsuka. His parent came to pick him up by bicycle with the door board on it. The direct distance between Kake and Nagatsuka is about 20 kilometers. In reality, the road draws a circle along the river and the actual distance in between would probably be double. The student lived until August 15th. He said, “What a regret” and passed away when he heard the Gyokuon announcement by the Emperor. I think he was in high spirit as to live in wartime as to say such. There were some who passed away while they sang some war songs like “We will win.” To be very frank, there were not many who passed away by saying “ Long live the Emperor!” They usually say “ Mother.” I have one alumni who said “ Long live the Emperor” and died. According to his younger brother, “My elder brother said ‘long live the Emperor’ but at the end, he said ‘ mother’ in soft voice and passed away. The voice to say ‘long live the Emperor’ was loud but the voice to call ‘mother’ was soft and broken. He might have said something to the mother.” The younger brother is 3 or 4 years only younger than I am. He should remember the scene well.
Regarding this person, no water was fed to him because the family was told that A-bomb victims would drink to death. So they did not give him any water. However, when his mother was so tired with nursing to dose off, she was awoken by the squeaks of the water pump. While she was asleep, he was out of bed to get some water. Mother pulled him away from the pump in order not to let him die. The younger brother said, “ It was complications between mother and elder brother.” They fought against each other saying, “Let me drink” and “ I would not let you drink”, and it went on for five days until the elder brother passed away on August 10th. Another friend died upon the arrival of his mother to pick him up. The neighbor passed by and contacted his brother-in-law in Hesaka and his sister came to pick him up. He waited his mother to come from Ohbayashi with her and died upon his mother’s arrival. Another friend stayed under the iron bridge right next to his house until August 10th. His father found him, took him home and on the same night he returned home, he passed away. I think everyone lives until his family come to rescue them and die in relief upon their arrival. I wonder why the victims would drink to death. When I was walking in front of Choju-en frantically, some survivors who fled to the river bank were saying, “Water, water.” I wonder if there were some reason why we did not give water to the victims. The bereaved family say that they should have fed them with water at any case the victims would die.
When I was talking my experience as a narrator, the elementary school student asked me, ”What do you mean by ‘ we should not feed water to the victims because they would die’?” Later I inquired this to ABCC and some doctors, but they said feeding water would not kill them and it should have been better to feed water to the victims. Not feeding water to the victims probably was to extend the moment of their deaths. With their autonomic nerves fully strained with strong thirst, they would be so relieved with one sip to have their strained nerves cut. The people would die if they do not get any water. But drinking water would fasten their deaths. The victims would be too relieved by drinking water and their struggle to survive would be burnt out. I think the reason was such.
With such terrible burnt, the victims would suffer from the heat and get thirsty. The doctor I talked to said there are some cases that we should not feed any water. If the person whose throat is burnt, drinking water would make him threw up the blood from the throat. This case may lead to death, but for any other case, drinking water would not lead to death.
The elementary students ask me a great question like “How did you feel during the war?” Nowadays, they ask me how I feel about the war in Iraq. To be a narrator, I can not take my eyes off from the newspaper. The narrator should not only emphasize how they suffered from the war but also be able to lead the talk to the conclusion; we should not have anymore war. From the beginning of my talk, I do like this.
What I thought at the age of twelve during the evacuation was that it is a terrible situation and I would like to be a grown-up as soon as I could, become a soldier and have Americans exposed to the same suffer. I thought of taking revenge. Probably everyone at that time shared the same feeling. It was because the people who were dying begged us to take revenge. Since it is not good to touch on revenge to children, I do not tell them this. But it was wartime. I thought of taking revenge just as Americans did such a terrible thing to us. I confess this feeling to the adults only when, just like today, all the audience is adult. Taking revenge is the honest thoughts of that time. The damage was as bad as to make us think of it. Normally people would not think of revenge: I would like to be a grown-up fast, become a soldier and let Americans go through painful experience. To revenge them for the deaths of our people was my real thought of that time because our people were forced to meet with unnatural deaths.
The saddest thing of the A-bomb is that the most of victims were non-combatants. They consisted of children, women and the elderly people. Soldiers died, too, but the number of them was small. Numerous Koreans also died but we can not have the number of their deceased. For the case of Sutoku Junior High School, we had about one hundred of students who stayed at its boarding school. Aside from these, we had students who commuted from suburbs or took a room at their relatives or acquaintances, and those who did not report on that day. We do not track their life or death for those who went back home after the A-bob explosion and did not inform how they were to the school since then. At Sutoku Junior High School, the most of people who died were students on duty for student mobilization. According to its 120th school history, we lost 10 teachers and 512 students. It is the most among the boy’s schools. For girl’s schools, the first Senior Girl’s High School (It is currently Funairi Senior High School.) had lost 600 students. This is the biggest number of the deceased students.
You know the inscription on the A-bomb memorial monument; “Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall we not repeat the evil.” However, I felt a strong resentment as an A-bomb victim when I saw it. The sentence was proposed by a university professor, and it may have some implication. But think. What you mean by “for we shall not repeat the evil”? It would not the victims who would repeat the mistake. No such a stupid sentence on the monument. It became an argument. I felt offended at the sight of it.
According to the explanation by the professor, he did not include “we” in original sentence to his Japanese translation. But what he explained is not the same with what we see in the inscription. It is understandable if we ourselves did something wrong and put “we shall not repeat the evil”, however, it is not we ourselves who did something wrong. I really felt offended by looking at it.
The argument became quiet down once the explanation of missing “we”. And then, sentence of “No more Hiroshima” was introduced. However, we still feel strong resentment as narrator with the information such that nowadays, school teachers educate students that A-bomb triggered the end of the war. I was stunned to learn that we have such teachers. But it seems to be really true.
It is said that Americans have had three reasons to drop the A-bomb. First, it is to make Japan surrender earlier and minimize damage to US. Second, it is to keep a better position in the post-war world: the Cold War against Soviet Union. They thought of this upon Potsdam Declaration when they learned that Soviet Union would participate the war with Japan within three months after the surrender of Germany. So they wanted to end the war as soon as possible. And lastly, they wanted to see how powerful the A-bomb is in the real war. For me, to see how it can damage Japan, it is enough to drop the bomb to Hiroshima. No need to drop it to Nagasaki. But the type of A-bombs dropped to Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not the same. So we think the bombs were thrown down as experiment purposes.
At that time, Japan was about to make a decision to accept the Potsdam Declaration unconditionally or not. The A-bombs might contribute to bring forward our unconditional surrender, but at that time, Japan already agreed to surrender anyhow. Japan had not surrendered yet as people were still discussing what to do with the Emperor System. US was in a hurry to have the war ended in order to cope with Soviet Union. For their rivalry, they made a sacrifice of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
