"Fountain泉" ;  Very first hibakusha Note, edited in 1946
 by Junior High Students, Heitaro Hamada & their friends and families

The third edition

The second edition

行者山から広島が一望できるのを思い出し頂上に駆け上りました。
I reminded of Mt.Gyosha, where being able to see whole Hiroshima, I immediately climbed up the mountain.

広島全体が黒い煙に覆われ
まるで活火山の大噴火のようにもくもくと、煙が天まで達していました。
What I saw was as if an eruption of volcano, many lines of smokes in the air up into the sky, like until the heaven.

10時ごろだったと思います。にわかにあたりが暗くなり、ゴロゴロっと雷鳴がし、大粒の黒い雨が降りました。まるで通り雨のようにさっと上がりました。雨の通ったあと、前のトタンの堀にくっきりと黒い線が残っていました。
Around 10 o'clock, the sky turned to black and heard the sound of thunders, then big rain drops fell down. Rain stopped soon, but it left many black lines on many boards.

お昼前、様子を見るため避難所になっている草津国民学校に行ってみました。

Before noon, to see what was going on, I went to Kusatsu(草津） elementary school, the place where temporally for evacuation.  

そこにはやけどをして、服がボロボロになった人たちがおられました。

There were a lot of people who were burnt and their clothes become like rags.

信じられないような状況でした。

The scene was unbelievable hell.

異口同音に

「地面にはどこにも穴があいていなかった」

「目の前で爆弾が破裂した」

といっておられました。

Everyone was saying,

“There was no hole of being bomb attacked…”

“The bomb exploded in front of my just eye sight.

なかには、皆実町のガスタンクが爆撃されたらしいとか、爆弾庫が直撃されたらしい、とかいっているひとたちもおられました。

People are talking about rumors like,

“Gas tanks were exploded in Minami-machi, or the storage of ammunition was attacked…”

私はそのとき、はっとしました。

これは、ただの爆弾ではないと！
At this moment, I intuited,

“This is not an ordinary bomb….”

午後3時過ぎ、草津に住んでおられる妹の級友のお母さんがおみえになり

「孝子さんは己斐国民学校に避難していらっしゃいますよ」

と知らせてくださいました。
Passing 3:00 o’clock, I met a mother of my younger sister's friend living in Kusatsu(草津) and she said to me,

“Your sister Takako-san is evacuated in Koi(己斐）Elementary School.”

その時、私は、もう歩くことができないのだなと察しました。
While listening to her, I imagined she could not walk any more…

早速、車の手配にかかりました。

車といっても、大八車です。

I tried to borrow a wheelcart, but hardly found out.

なかなか見つかりませんでした。

ようやく借りることに成功しました。
Finally I got one.

己斐国民学校めがけて一目散に走りました。無我夢中でした。

Then I run to Koi(己斐) elementary school desperately.

どのようなコースを通ってたどりついたのかよく覚えていません。

I did not remember which roads I went through at all.

途中で会った被災者の姿は全く目に入りませんでした。

I couldn’t see any victims in my eyes because of totally losing myself at that time.

学校についたときは、さすがに長い夏の日もようやく暮れかかっていました。

When I arrived at school, it was already evening and the sun was setting in.

Koi(己斐) elementary school

最初の教室で見たものは、終生忘れることはできません。

衝撃的で、とても正視できるものではありませんでした。

The scene when I saw in the classroom was unforgettable for me for all my life.

It was too shocking to see in straight.

教室の机や椅子は、廊下側にうずたかく積んであり、比較的軽症の人が座っておられました。

In the classroom, there were piled up desks and chairs, and victims whose injuries not so serious were sitting around in a hallway.

床には、全身やけどでただれ、皮膚がはげおちた被災者が横になり、足の踏み場もありませんでした。

On the floor, there were casualties suffering from heavy injuries, their whole bodies were burnt, and skins were peeled off, then there were no room for stepping in.

衣服がこげてボロボロでした。

シャツが血まみれの人や、ほとんど衣服をまとっていない人もたくさんおられました。

Their clothes were also burnt and become like rags.
Some were wearing shirts covered with blood, and others were without any clothes.

私は、ひとつひとつの教室を、妹の姿を求めて丹念に探して回りました。

I looked for my younger sister and visited every classroom but could not find out.

Takako-san
(his younger sister, when 6 years old)

しかし、顔や姿で、妹かどうか確認することは到底不可能なことでした。

It is totally impossible for me to distinguish by just looking at faces and figures.
To find out whether the person was my younger sister or not. 

前田先生の自宅は、福島町をこえた西部の古江でした。
建物疎開作業を開始されたばかりで、生徒たちは、やけどや傷だらけになり、前田先生は、必死に生徒たちに声をかけ、己斐国民学校へ向かいます。
福島町をすぎたあたりから、広島のまちは火の海になっていたからです。
Mr.Maeda(my class teacher), whose house was in Furue（古江), western part of Fukushima（福島）-cho in Hiroshima.
He & his students just started working Tatemono-Sokai, when A-bombed.

Due to A-bombed, Mr.Maeda & his students helped each others with their all might and went to Koi(己斐） elementary school.
Because Fukushima(福島)-cho was just a boarder line between fire and water.
And if possibly keeping some distance from western areas beyond Fukushima(福島）river, from Fukushima（福島）to the center of Hiroshima-town became sea of huge fire.

（「泉」第2集　原爆とわたし　　浜田平太郎　（被爆当時15歳）　27ページより）


Hiroshima 広島　ヒロシマ　ひろしま

「放射線測定値」以前に考慮すべきshould be considered「大きな問題big issue」

Nuclear and the Humankind cannot Co-exist / Nuclear Victims Forum  / 竜安寺石庭　Ryoan Temple Stones Garden 

Surviving the Fire Tornado

Tadashi Takahashi

19 years old at the time of A-bombing

 Fukuromachi Fukoku-Seimei building (350m away from H.center)

The Hiroshima telecommunication bureau  I worked for, was located in the Fukoku-Seimei building only 350m from the hypocenter.

The bureau used the basement through the fifth floor of the building.

My job included telecommunications related tasks, such as military communication and maintenance of the civilian-used telegraph.

The city had been on regular bomb alerts from 9pm through 3am, and on the day of August 5^th, my boss said, “everyday is like this, so let’s have a little rest after the alarm tomorrow morning.”

He went home, but I decide to stay and rest in the basement rather than return to the boarding house where I lived.

Because I was in the basement and taking a nap.

I didn’t notice the lightning of the A-bomb, I heard a big noise and felt the pressure like a blast.

Immediately, I thought the bomb had to be huge if I was feeling the blast so intensely even in the basement.

So I went up to the ground floor in the darkness.

It seemed to me that I went up right after the blast, but it actually took some time to put on my jacket and shoes.

By the time I made it to the ground floor, that shattered wooden houses around the building were already on fire.

It seemed weird that I had heard only one explosion and yet the damage of bomb was so large.

More than that, though, my attention was immediately captured by the sight of staff members coming down the stairs.

They were burned and bleeding.

I met Mr. Tadashi Ueno and his face and chest were covered with ward Hijiyama through the building’s back door.

I went up to 4^th floor.

On my way, I saw some people lying in the hall and stairs.

The chief office and general affairs room’s iron doors were bent and immobilized, so I entered women’s rest room, the only door that would open.

Ms Tetsuko Uemoto was there, clad only in underwear and crying.

I had her put on her clothes, which were on the floor, and sent her downstairs.

Then I heard a woman’s voice cry for help from under the broken mortar.

She had probably heard me talking to Ms. Uemoto.

I could see what looked like a right hand sticking up slightly out of the rubble, struggling to move.

The pieces of mortar were large, maybe 20 cm across and very long.

I could not move the pieces by myself.

So I told the woman, “I will come back, so please hold on.” And went to the general affairs room

I had forgotten to ask the burried woman her name.

I don’t know why, I had thought I had kept a cool head, but maybe I had been in a panic.

I had forgotten about the fire, thinking that it wouldn’t come into this building made of reinforced concrete.

It makes me so sad whenever I think about leaving that woman under the rubble and how the fire must have overtaken her. 

For months afterward, I wished the woman would come to me in my dreams

All staff who had been in the general affairs room were blown into the the chief’s office by the blast.

The boss’s body was upside down and was buried from the waste to the head in broken wall, plaster, and papers.

Next to the boss, Mr. Oshita also was half buried, his right side covered in debris.

He was loosing blood from his temple.

I put a bandage on his head, but he was unconscious.

I dug out the boss, but he was already dead.

Mr. Masaoka was sitting on a breaking chair in a daze.

His head and legs were injured, so I gave him a broom as a crutch as  asked him to go downstairs.

The fourth floor housed the radio equipment and the accounting room, but no one was in the accounting room

In the hall, Isao Nishimoto had fallen prone, and his back was pierced by many pieces of glass.

He couldn’t move due to the pain, and I didn’t know what to do for him.

A student worker, Ms Shinkawa, was lying in the kitchen but I think she was unconscious.

Then Mr. Otani and Mr. Shinagawa came to me, and I helped them to take work papaers from the radio shack.

We wrenched the door open and took the work papers.

When we finishted that, the fire had become strong, and it seemed impossible to evacuate the building, so we decided to stay inside.

Mr. Otani, Mr. Nakao, Mr, Shinagawa and 10 other people with only minor injuries took shelter near the back door on the ground floor.

I think I wasn’t the only person who thought that the fire would not come to the inside of the building.

When everybody began to calm down, we heard a loud noise, something that sounded like another blast and the sound of airplanes.

Some people thought it was the beginning of a second air raid and went back inside of the building.

Soon after, we were struck by the first fire tornado.

Although it came with heavy smoke and strong wind, it went by quickly, so the damage was small

I was worried that staying inside of the building was more dangerous than being outside because of the danger of suffocation.

We left the building and went to the fire cistern located out the back gate of the building.

Soon big black drops of rain began to fall, and someone shouted “this is oil!” the second fire tornado struck.

The second tornado was stronger than the first one.

It was like a pillar of fire, and it came with very hot wind, pieces of wood, stones, and many other things.

The fire pillar struck the bulding and went through windows on the second and third floors.

Soon the radio shack was covered in fire.

The flame coming in through the windows seemed like it was alive.

It went up to the fourth and fifth floor.

We saw people inside the fire shouting and trying to excape.

However, we couldn’t do anything, and we lost them immediately.

At the fire cistern, everybody was trying in put their heads down into the pump to escape the fire.

I thought this situation was really dangerous and would lead to everyone dying, so I punched, shouted , and made them sit down around the pump.

We pumped and there water over each of the people, making sure to douse each one in turn.

Mr. Nakao and I were the last ones left pumping water, and the water started to flow slowly.

Then people waiting for water started to scream, “It’s so Hot!!”

It was more than hot, it was furnace.

We were throwing water on people and had them soaked from the shoulders down, but their heads were burning hot.

Even though people were screaming, they were waiting for their turn.

It is amazing that we could breathe such a condition, and I began to sing a song loudly to cheer them.

I forgot most of the songs I sang.

The only one I remember was the theme song to my communication academy.

When the fire tornado was gone, Takashi Shirai, and Nobuko Kojima disappeared.

Before the fire tornado came, Yoshikazu Wakasa had begged us, “Give me water.” 

But we refused:

“You are injured seriously, so if you drink water, you won’t survive. We can’t give you water.”

But he said, “It’s OK if I die, so please give me water.”

We couldn’t find Mr. Wakasa as well.

Other people were sitting close by and nobody spoke.

Only Mr. Masaoka said to me, “Thank you so much for helping us, it means a lot to me.”

His words still remain strongly in my heart.

Soon, the third fire tornado came,

The power of the fire had decreased but no one had the strength to pump water.

We poured the last of the water in the bucket on us.

We couldn’t open eyes due to the heavy fire smoke.

I put a wet handkerchief on my nose and mouth, but there was no air to breath in, and I could only breath out.

I don’t have the words to express the feeling,

but it felt like my chest was exploding even

I wanted to either pierce a hole in it to relieve the pressure or just rip it away.

I couldn’t even move to touch the bucket.

I lay down with other people and I thought a terrible thing, “It’s so painful. I wish I would just die instantly.”

The black rain became heavy, and the power of the fire had decreased, so we could survive.

However, if the tornado stayed any longer, we wouldn’t have survived.

When we could move around again, I looked for the others.

Mr. Shirai was in the sewage tank.

Ms Kojima had put her face in a toilet.

Mr. Wakasa had died.

I imagined that everyone was in so much pain, and that the inside of th building had gotten even more smoke than we had.

If they had stayed outside with us, they might have survived.

It still fills me with regret.

A mother and her daughter, who were bombed in the city and escaped to our building, had stayed with us during the firestorm.

The mother said, “Thank you very much for your help.”

They went back to the city.

Her words of gratitude intensified my sense of regret for those who had died inside the building.

Only on the next day could I begin to feel grateful for having survived.

However, not long after I began to realisz the full scariness of the Atomic Bomb.

Three days after the bomb, we had built a temporary office, and staff began to come to work.

We after the bomb, we had built a temporary office, and staff began to come to work.

We started working as telegraph staff.

However, staff who had not been visibly injured soon began to lose their hair, developed fevers and skin spots, and started bleeding.

In that first week, many of our staff died.

From the end of August through the middle of September, it became even worse.

More staff died, most of whom  had no immediate injuries from the bomb and had been working fine.

It was a particular shock to me when Mr..Nakano died on September 7^th(1945), only four days after going in  for medical treatment.

He also had been fine.

All of my remaining joy died with him.

By the end of  September , 40 people had died.

It was all due to radiation sickness.

The same thing had happened to people who had come to the city looking for their family and friends.

Today, even though it has been 71 years since the atomic blast, 

people are still suffering from the effects of radiation even in HIROSHIMA.

We cannot forget the horror, cruelty, and atrociousness of the Atomic Bomb.

I must tell my story.

It is my work as an A-bomb survivor.

We must continue telling these stories to future generations, 

until all A-bombs and Hydrogen-bombs are gone from the world.

Hiroshima 広島　ヒロシマ　ひろしま

Nuclear and the Humankind cannot Co-exist / Nuclear Victims Forum  / 竜安寺石庭　Ryoan Temple Stones Garden 

似の島（NINOSHIMA）
An island close to Hiroshima in Seto inland sea 

After A-bombed, everything had been burnt and there were mountains of dead bodies.

Almost all bodies were treated like objects, not human beings.

And many of them were sent to （似の島Ninoshima） for burning,

Publicly, the numbers of HIROSHIMA casualties after the direct bombing was often said 140,000.

However Hiroshima people who know "that day" say, "numbers" could not be counted in such condition.

Nuclear and the Humankind cannot Co-exist / Nuclear Victims Forum  / 竜安寺石庭　Ryoan Temple Stones Garden