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Memoir of the A-Bombing
"Memories of that day"
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by Hiroaki Kawasaki
Atomic Bombing Witness for this Foundation
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Prologue
In May 1945, as a 1st grade elementary school student, I was taken by my grandmother to evacuate to a relative's home in Yamagata County.
Immediately after that, my younger sister, who was 2 years old, was also taken to my mother's parents' home in Mihara, but apparently, she was so lonely there that she was brought back to my parents in Hiroshima City before six months had even passed.
I too was feeling sad every day.
Maybe my grandmother realized that, because every now and then she would bring me back to Hiroshima.
We would spend two or three days with my family, and when I felt better, she would take me away to the evacuation location again.
This happened a number of times.
The last time I came back to Hiroshima was one or two days before the A-bomb was dropped.
Enveloped by a terrible flash of light
On the morning of August 6, my father, who was a teacher, went to school by bicycle as he always did.
Just before the A-bomb was dropped, the six remaining members of the family were gathered in the cool living room, playing with my little brother, who was 1 year old.
Eventually my mother took my little brother to the toilet, and feeling bored, I decided to go outside.
I went to the entrance of the house, and I had just finished putting on my shoes when it happened.
Flash! All around me was a terrible flash of light.
Surprised, and with my shoes still on, I ran back to the living room that I had just come from.
At around the same time as I fled to the living room, the building collapsed.
The pillars fell over, the ceiling fell down to a height that even I, an elementary school student, could reach, and the dust flying around turned everything pitch black in an instant.
My mother, carrying my little brother, felt her way back to the living room.
We all thought that our house must have been directly hit by a bomb.
But no matter how long we waited, no-one came to rescue us.
So my mother went to the entrance, and came back with everyone's shoes and evacuation bags, and we went outside through a window facing on to the road.
We then found that all the houses around us had collapsed just like ours, and there were already many people on the road, which was dark with dust.
There were people crouched down investigating their children's wounds, people shouting something at their collapsed houses, and the children were all crying.
Flight
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The adults consulted with each other, and it was decided that for the time being we would flee to the west.
We fled along a road where all houses on both sides had collapsed, and the road was strewn with pieces of tile and glass and bits of wood.
We fled together with large numbers of people with wounds and burns.
There were people staggering along, bleeding from head wounds, people being supported by their shoulders as they walked, people whose backs were stained with blood, people whose jackets were burned and in tatters;
with many people we fled across Nishi Ohashi bridge.
In the grassy area near the construction work on Ota River drainage canal, many people with wounds and burns were sitting or lying, having run out of strength.
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"7-year-old me and my family fleeing"
by Hinako Misaka and Hiroaki Kawasaki
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After that we arrived at the town of Koi, and after a while, it suddenly began to rain, rain that was black as if the water was mixed with soot.
We rested for a while in a nearby shrine, and then fled by a narrow farm road alongside bamboo groves and rice paddies in the direction of Kabe.
When we got to that area, a huge fire had broken out in Hiroshima City, which we could see to our right, and we passed many people with burns and injuries.
It was a horrific site for a 1st grade elementary student like me.
It was late at night when we arrived at a relative's home in Kabe Town.
My father, who had gone to school, was rescued a few days later with serious burns, and was brought to the same relative's home.
Epilogue
At the time there were seven people in our family.
In the fifty-something years since the atomic bombing, I lost my grandfather, grandmother, mother, younger brother and father passed away, in that order, just like losing teeth.
Now the only remaining family members are my younger sister and I.
My father's burns and his damaged eyes and ears never healed, my mother died of a heart attack and my younger brother died of cancer.
My younger sister is still alive but has had major operations for aortic dissection and to remove her ovaries, among others, and I have also had many operations for cardiac infarction.
In all cases, our medical conditions were greatly impacted by radiation exposure.
Atomic bomb testimony activities－becoming a drop of water
I am involved in testimony activities with the intention of becoming a "drop of water" that is colorless, transparent, with no taste and no smell.
What I mean by that is, water honestly takes the shape of its vessel without being affected by any man-made rules, either political, religious, race-based or national, and possesses the energy expressed in the saying
"Constant dripping wears away the stone."
And when drops gather together, they have the great power to move mountains, as expressed in the story The Foolish Old Man Moves the Mountains.
That is the backbone of my testimonial activities.
And I believe that far ahead of that one drop of water is a peaceful world where our descendants, who we have never seen, can live with peace of mind.
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Profile
[Hiroaki Kawasaki]
Born in 1938.
Experienced the atomic bombing at home in Higashi-kan-on Town, 1.3km from the hypocenter.
His family of six people mixed with other survivors and fled to a relative's house in the north of the city, passing through the Nishi Hiroshima area.
On the way, witnessed many people fleeing with wounds and burns, and others sitting or lying down, having lost all their strength.
Became an A-bomb Legacy Successor in 2016, and active as an Atomic Bomb Witness from 2017.
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