I finished the right shift at the factory and retuned to my house,where
I took off my shirt and went out into the backyard to do washing.Just at
that moment,I heard the faint drone of airplane engines in the sky above
Mt.Konpira behind my house.
My first thought was "Oh no,not another air raid".But I remembered
that the alarm had been lifed that morning and concluded that the sound
was coming from Japanese aircraft.
Suddenly,a loud dull "boom!" like the burst of an anti-aircraft
shell sounded in the direction in which the airplane would have passed,and
just as I looked up wondering if it had in fact been the enemy,a blinding
flash of light filled the sky and my body was showered in a wave of intense
heat.
I felt a searing pain in my face and threw myself onto the ground with my
eyes firmly shut.The rush of heat continued for several seconds.It was like
a glimpse into the horror of hell.When what seemed like aon had passed and
I was finally freed from the onslaught of heat,I had suffered terrible burns
all over the upper half of my body.Although located only 1.6 kilometers
from the hypocenter,my neighborhood had been shielded to a certain extent
by a small hill and so fires had still not broken out.The hypocenter area
and nearby factory districts,however,were enveloped in flames and thick
black smoke was churning up into the sky.About 300 meters to the north of
the point where I was standing,I could see hundreds of people filing through
the smoke toward the mountains.
I suddenly realized that I took should flee for my life.Barefoot and
naked from the waist up,Iran off in the direction of the nearest hillside.
I do not know how much time had elapsed when I finally came out onto the
road half way up the mountain.The ground was strewn with countless numbers
of corpses burned black and red and almost naked.Others were puffed up like
balloons.An indescribable stench wafted on the air.
After various experiences on the mountain,I eventually made my way back
to the city and went to the makeshift hospital in Katsuyama Primary School
for treatment.When I arrived at the school,I found the yard scattered with
broken glass from the school windows.But I walked over the glass in my bare
feet,ignoring the pain as the splinters penetrated my skin.My only thought
was to receive medical care.
The classrooms were like battlefields teeming with injured people.Two or
three nurses were trying desperately to care for the injured.But they were
hopelessly outnumbered and it became obvious that,however ling I waited,my
turn was not going to come.I pestered one of the nurses until she finally
threw a small tin of Vaseline in my direction.I tried to spread this on
my skin but I could not reach the most severe burns on my back and had to
give up.I decided that it was pointless to wait for help.I left the school
and started on the way home.
However,I was surprised to find the road roped off and all traffic halted
by a number of civilian guards.I stopped and looked in the direction of
my house and saw that the whole northern sector of the city was shrouded
in black smoke rising from a clossal fire.
"My parents and sisters are over there," I cried."Please
let me go to look for them!"
But they bluntly refused to release me,saying that going into that part
of the city would mean certain death.I finally gave up resisting and they
let me go.
I stood on that very site for a long time,having no idea what to do or where
to go.
But I had to do someting.I remembered that a distant relative was living
in the Kannai neighborgood of Nagasaki and decided to go there to spend
the night.
I had nothing to eat since the bombing and had been running around in shock
and terror the whole time.When I went back to my relative's house on the
third day,I collapsed and lost consciousness.
Later,I was placed on a pull cart and carried through the hypocenter area
to the Mitsubishi Arms Factory in Ohashi.The building had been completely
destroyed and so the seriously injured,including myself,were carried by
truck to a temporary hospital set up in a restaurant in Mogi,a small town
on the other side of Nagasaki Peninsula.Fut,again,there were no doctors
or medical facilities and the treatment consisted of simply rubbing Mercurochrome
or zinc ointment over the burns.
I did not regain consciousness until the end of August.But in early September
my symptoms took another turn for the worse and I fell into a critical condition
with acuter atomic bomb disease.Even the doctors and nurses gave me up as
a hopeless case.Just at this time my father appeared on crutches at the
hospital,and under his care I managed to turn back from the brink of death.
Still today I receive regular treatment as an outpatient at Nagasaki Atomic
Bomb Hospital.When my condition is poor I feel a great weariness with life,but
I have never given up hope.In the face of every trial and every hardship,I
have found new incentives to continue living and working.
The survivors continue to die today,finally released from lives of untold
suffering.We have suffered enough.There must never be another Hiroshima
or another Nagasaki.
In order to reach this goal,all the people of the world must realize the
value of peace and take concrete steps for mutual understanding and assistance.
I direct this statement with special emphasis to young people.My greatest
wish is to see a would where we can live without threat of nuclear war.
