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Memoir of the A-Bombing:
"My A-bomb experience
－To communicate the atomic bombing in Hiroshima－"
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by Ikuko Sado
Atomic Bomb Witness for this Foundation
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Experienced the bombing at grandmother's house
There were four in my family－my parents, myself (seven years old) and my sister (one year old), and we were living in Matsukawa Town.
On August 6, 1945, my father was working for the national railways, and my mother was working from early morning, mobilized as part of the regional volunteer unit involved in building demolition work (to create a fire belt to prevent the spread of fires resulting from attacks by incendiary bombs).
Because my mother went to work, my sister and I had been taken to the home of our grandmother (my father's mother) in Kami-Nagarekawa Town, and at 8:15 that morning were playing in the garden, where the mid-summer sun beat down brightly.
Our grandmother's house was extremely close to the Hypocenter, only 870m away.
In the very instant of the flash (of light) and the boom (blast) I lost consciousness.
When I came to, both my sister and I had been thrown a far distance away.
I had burns on my hands and forehead.
Because the sunlight was so harsh my sister had only been wearing a thin slip.
She had major burns all over her body, and the skin of her inflamed hands and legs was hanging down.
The houses around us had all either been blown away by the blast in that instant, or if they were wooden houses, had started burning when they were hit by the heat wave, said to be 3000－5000 degrees Celsius.
As far as we could see, we were surrounded by ash and soot and burning flames from the blast.
The scene of sinister black flames burning was eerie, and could only be called a picture of hell.
To the Eastern Drill Ground
There was nowhere to remain amongst the blazing flames and smoke, so the three of us (my grandmother, my sister and I) fled to the Eastern Drill Ground.
My grandmother carried my sister on her back, and the three of us tried to make our way to Enko-bridge to get to the Eastern Drill Ground, but the road was strewn with rubble, and we had to clear away the ash and soot to get through.
On the side of the road were people suffering from serious burns.
People shouting "Water! Give me water!"
People in the river to get water, calling for help.
People in the river who had died.
It was truly like passing along the path to hell.
There were people everywhere groaning and asking for water, maybe because their throats had been burned by the hot blast.
Many of them had stuck their head in the fire prevention water tank and just died like that.
Even today I sometimes still picture the tragic sight of them.
I do not know how many hours it took, but we finally somehow reached the Eastern Drill Ground.
My sister had terrible burns.
Her whole body－her shoulders, neck, chest, arms and legs－was completely red and burned, and the slip she was wearing was stained bright red with blood.
Even though we asked for treatment by the military doctor it was never our turn, and I will never forget my frustration at that time.
At the Eastern Drill Ground lay many charred corpses, and the place was noisy with voices of people suffering from wounds and burns saying
"It hurts, it hurts",
and wailing voices and the crying voices of those who could not contain their sadness at having lost a family member.
The whole scene was as if all these people were being pulled alive down into hell.
Reunion with my mother
My mother had been working in the regional volunteer unit, and we were safely reunited with her when she came to the Eastern Drill Ground that afternoon.
Even though she had been working at a site less than one kilometer from the hypocenter, fortunately she was apparently in the shadow of a large building, and was not injured at all even though many of the other people had died.
When my mother saw my sister's serious burns she was saddened, saying
"She was so well when I left this morning…",
but all she could do was kindly pat my sister as she slept.
After that, my mother became worried that the house she had left in a rush that morning was on fire, and she went to check on it, leaving my grandmother and I to look after my sister.
It was about two kilometers from the Eastern Drill Ground to our house, but because there was no public transportation and much confusion along the way with fires everywhere, it took my mother three hours to finally get there.
When she arrived the house next door was burning, and our house too had also started to burn and it was difficult to get close to it.
Even so my mother was determined－she poured water over her air raid hood and ran into the house, and managed to bring out only our first-aid kit, which was near the front door.
The whole of Hiroshima City was enveloped in huge fires.
The fire-fighting system was not functioning, and my mother shed tears as she said goodbye to our house, engulfed in fierce flames before her very eyes.
Farewell to my one year old sister
The day after the bombing, when I awoke my sister was crying.
When I looked closely, there were maggots festering in her burns, and I do not know whether it was because they were painful or itchy but she was thrashing her legs.
I used the disposable chopsticks we received from the military doctor to remove all the maggots from her wounds, and maybe this made her feel better because she fell asleep.
By around the evening of the 8th, two days after the bombing, my sister's body became gradually colder, and she died.
She had a beautiful expression on her face when she passed away.
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At 5pm the next evening, we placed my sister's body on a wagon that we had borrowed from a soldier together with some firewood, carried her to a nearby park, and my mother and I cremated her there.
The park was being used as a temporary cremation site, and the soldiers poured oil and cremated one by one the dead bodies that were constantly brought there.
The weather was hot so the corpses rotted quickly, and the odor was so bad that I nearly collapsed with suffocation.
After the cremation, my mother and I put my sister's bones in a small can we learned about from a soldier, and brought her back to the Eastern Drill Ground.
People who still had a home could return home, but we had no home to return to.
After that we ended up sleeping outside at the Eastern Drill Ground in a tent we borrowed.
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A-bomb Drawings by Survivors "Cremating deceased
family members" by Satoshi Yoshimoto
"Around August 6-10, 1945, the deceased were
cremated by members of their own family at a park in
Takasu (in Hiroshima City). This kind of scene was
witnessed for over a month."
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To communicate the atomic bombing
As someone who has had first-hand experience of an atomic bomb, I will continue to appeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons and world peace.
I want to leave my testimony to the younger generations in particular, to ensure that the memory of the tragedy of the atomic bombing is not forgotten.
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Profile
[Ikuko Sado]
Born 1937.
Experienced the atomic bombing at the age of 7, when a grade 2 student at a national elementary school.
She was playing with her younger sister in the sandpit in the garden of her grandmother's house in Kami-Nagarekawa Town (currently near Hiroshima Mitsukoshi Department Store) 870m from the Hypocenter when the bomb hit.
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