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Memoir of the A-bombing
"Passing on the Hiroshima Story to Future Generations"
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by Yoshinori Kuniwake
Atomic Bomb Witness for this Foundation
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At home with family when the bomb was dropped
On August 6, 1945, I was 16 years old and a 4th year student at a junior high school under the old system of education.
At just after 8am I was just about to leave the temple (Hoshoin Temple in Hakushima town) that was my home to head for my work site as a mobilized student, and I was sitting on a chair near the window on the south side of the main hall.
Suddenly I heard the sound of a plane nose-diving, and thinking it sounded strange, there was a flash of light and my head was hit with a boom.
I was thrown and nearly lost consciousness.
Coming to my senses I looked around in all directions in the dark, and I saw a ray of light shining in.
Aiming for the light, I feverishly removed obstacles and escaped from there.
I had been under the collapsed building.
I got out together with my younger brother, who was in 5th grade at elementary school.
When the two of us called out for our parents, our father made his way out.
When my father saw the wound on my forehead, he brought some cloth and tied it to stop the bleeding.
The three of us divided up and called out for our mother.
It was then that we heard the crying voice of what sounded like my younger sister.
Listening for her voice we removed tiles and other rubble and found my four-year-old sister and got her out.
When we removed the rubble in the area where my sister had been we could see part of a kimono.
It was my mother.
A thick piece of wood was lying across her body, and she had died instantly, holding my one-year-old brother.
Our neighbor brought a saw, but we were not able to cut through the thick wood.
When I think about it now, I tell myself that the one good thing was that at least she was not burned while she was still alive, but after she had died.
Looking around, we saw that there were flames coming from the tearoom.
We put out the fire with water from the pond in the courtyard.
This was a place where fire was not used, so I think the heat wave from the atomic bomb must have started the fire.
There were cracks in the storehouse from the bomb's blast.
The tearoom started burning again, and fire was approaching from all side.
Realizing that we had done all that we could do, we left my dead mother and brother under the main hall and fled.
Tragic scenes at the riverbank where we fled
My father brought a kettle that was lying in the kitchen.
We filled it with water from the well pump and set off.
My sister could not stand so I carried her on my back.
When we finally reached the nearby riverbank, I was amazed at the unbelievable scenes there.
Many soldiers were lying down, or sitting down, with their shirts off, and there were some who were crawling into the river and drinking the water there.
When I got closer, I saw that the only hair remaining on their heads was where they were wearing a hat, and from the rest of their head to their trousers their skin was black, and the skin from their arms to the tips of their fingers had peeled away and was hanging down.
The solders were all saying "Give me water, please give me water" and holding out their hands.
My father was formerly an army medic private first-class, and he had some medical knowledge.
Saying "With burns like that they're not likely to survive" he gave them water from the kettle we had brought, and they thanked him.
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Suddenly rain started to fall.
As the rain fell on our clothes they started to turn black.
My father said "There's something strange about this rain", and we fled from the rain to an iron roof.
This was what became known as "black rain".
When we looked from the river embankment to the direction of the temple we could see that it was now a huge fire with flames in a whirlwind swirling up to the sky.
We returned to the riverbank, lay down and rested.
Temple completely transformed
Close to evening, the fire had died down, so we decided to head for the temple.
The fire was out around the temple gate but the storehouse and main hall were still burning.
The carp in the pond were all floating
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"Tragic scenes at the riverbank where we fled"
Created by Ms. Yuki Tochida, Hiroshima Municipal
Motomachi High School Creative Expression Course,
and Mr. Yoshinori Kuniwake
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belly-up, dead.
When I put my hand in the pond's water it was hot.
The bright red sun set in the west, and a bright red moon rose from the east.
The area where my mother and brother were buried under the main hall was still burning steadily with red and blue flames.
I stood there wondering which flames were my mother's and which were my brother's, and thinking that I should have died there with them, I could not control my tears.
Praying for peace
In 1945 there were nine in my family－my parents, older sister, myself, three younger sisters and two younger brothers－but because of the atomic bomb I lost four members of my family－my mother, two younger sisters and one younger brother.
I am currently involved in activities to send to people in Japan and overseas the seeds of the Bodhi tree and saplings of camellia tree that survived the bombing in the grounds of the temple.
I pray that the camellia flowers and the Bodhi trees envelop the world with their fragrance, and that we can achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons and peace throughout the world.
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Two Bodhi trees survived the atomic bombing in the grounds of Hoshoin Temple and
one of them was transplanted to Peace Memorial Park.
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Profile
[Yoshinori Kuniwake]
Born in 1929.
Experienced the atomic bombing at the age of 16 as a 4th year junior high school student, while he was just about to leave his home (Hoshoin Temple in Hakushima) 1.8km from the hypocenter.
After the war spent many years serving as a Buddhist priest.
In 1998, when working as the head of the local residents' association, built the Memorial Cenotaph for the Atomic Bomb Victims on the riverbank where many of the A-bomb victims had been cremated, as a prayer for world peace.
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