Ms.Sakue Shimohira
In the Air-Raid ShelterI was a ten year-old pupil in the fifth grade at time.Whenever an air-raid
warning of alarm was sounded in Nagasaki,I fled with my younger sister and
one year-old nephew into the large neighborhood cave shelter located about
500 meters from my house.
We had stayed in the shelter day and night since the bombing of Nagasaki
in a conventional air raid on August 1,but we were allowed to go home on
the evening of August 8.
The next morning the air-raid sirens wailed but for some reason I wanted
to stay near my mother and deliberately lingered in the house.She told us
to go to the shelter earlier than usual,saying that she had a feeling of
danger that morning.It was about 8:00 a.m. when my younger sister,nephew
and I put on our air-raid hoods and set off toward the shelter.Little didr
I know as I waved good-by that I was bidding her an eternal farewell Upon
arrival in the shelter,we took off our hoods and sat down.When the alarm
was lifted a few minutes later,the boys in the shelter with us shouted joyfully
and ran out to play.
My sister,nephew and I were playing inside the shelter when there was a
sudden,brilliant flash of light.I remember nothing else.We were spared the
heat rays generated by the explosion but everything went dark and I fell
unconscious.I do not know how much time had elapsed whensomeone shook me
and brought me back to my senses.When my vision cleared,I could not believe
the sights before my eyes.People with gruesome wounds were filing jinto
the shelter one after another.They were horribly burned,covered with glass
splinters like pin cushions,and so disfigured that it was impossible to
distinguish one person from another.
I began to cry hysterically and to scream ot for my mother.The minutes and
hours went by but none of my relatives appeared.Although a child,I realized
that something terrible had happened outside.
The stench inside the shelter became so strong that I could hardly breathe.In
the evening I heard my father's voice at the entrance to the shelter,and
my sister and I began to cry and call out his name at the to of our voice.
He came over to where we were sitting and told us to come with him out of
the shelter.When we emeged,I was shocked to see piles of corpses and dozens
of groaning injured people who had been unable to get inside the shelter.The
whole area was strewn with people whose skin was burned and hanging down
in shreds like tattered clothing.
When he realized that my mother and older sister were not in the shelter,my
father decided to search for them in the ruins of our house.But the neighborhood
was a sea of flames.Later,he found the blackened corpse of my mother in
the smoking ashes of the house.The body my older sister was also terribly
burned,but strangely enough her face had remained unmarred.
Two days later,we collected broken lumber that had escaped the fires and
built a funeral pyre for my mother and sister and then gathered around them
for a last,tearful farewell.
My oldest brother,a member of the special attack(kamikaze) unit,died
in battle off the Philippines.My next brother was student at the Nagasaki
Medical College.Although free from external injuries,he began to bleed from
the gums and died four days after the bombing.
In this way, my relatives died in the ruins of Nagasaki or on the battlefields
a long way from home. Why? The answeris, because of war.
"If only the war had not occurred...." When thoughts like this
come to mind, a feeling of enormous rage and sorrow wells up inside me.
For several months my sister, nephew and I were cared for in three separate
places, but in the spring of 1946 we were able to join my father and live
together again.
My father built a small dwelling in the wasteland and it was there that
we spent our childhood and adolescence. At the age of 18, my sister underwent
a simple appendectomy operation, but because of a low white blood cell count
due to atomic bomb exposure, the scar did not heal properly. The odor from
the open wound was a great vexation for someone in the prime of young womanhood.
Still only 19 years old, she committed suicide by throwing herself in front
of a train. I still feel deep regret that I did not know about this problem
and could not come to her help as an older sister.
I began to speak about the atomic bombing eighteen years ago, partly
because my father was serving as chairman of the Association of Bereaved
Families of Atomic Bomb Victims. Although it is an experience I would perfer
not to even think about, I now consider it my duty as a survivor to inform
as many people as possible about the horror and misery caused by nuclear
weapons. And I intend to continue speaking as long as there are people who
are unaware of this reality.
Mathematically, one person saying something ten times is equal to ten people
saying something once. But the combination of ten different voices is actually
much stronger.
Let us strive together to protect the precious peace we enjoy today, to
keep the message of the atomic bomb victims alive, and to ensure that our
planet is blessed with the beauty of nature and the treasure of peace for
centuries to come.
