I wish he could survive...


I wish he could survive... Unforgettable days with Kentaro. *The story of Kanji Yamasaki*

My house used to stand where the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park now lies.
By that atomic bomb, I suffered more than 70 heavy injuries all over my body, lost 19 members of my family and relatives, and survived for years without any help except for food. I think it was a miracle. I was 17 then, and my house used to stand where the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park now lies, and there were 8 people living happily there including my mother and me and 6 other relatives who escaped from Nagoya. I will tell what happened and what I saw in 3 days after August 6, 1945, where the Peace Park is now. I should explain what it was like around the park before the bombing.
Happy days I spent with Kentaro.
The building we now call the atomic bomb, that was near the hypocenter, when the bomb was dropped, opened as Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall on August 5, 1915. It was very modern for that time and was the symbol of Hiroshima developing into a modern city. The Peace Park is located across Motoyasu river about 70 meters away from the dome. Hiroshima originally came into existence around 7 rivers and the delta made by them, and the place where the Peace Park is right now used to be the area with the busiest streets, lots of brothels and shops and was the center of culture for the castle town since 1600. The Motoyasu river, which runs on the east-side of the Peace Park was busy with many boats loaded with firewood and coal, vegetables and rice from upstream. Boat pilots came ashore and went shopping, people were active, and this was typical for Hiroshima. When the tide was low, it became the beach and children played catching shrimps and small fish. This gay town came to be under the threat of B-29, the US bomber, every day in 1945 and food was very scarce. But under these hard conditions, I was enjoying my life because my cousin Kentaro, who was 12 and came from Nagoya, was there and we were like real brothers and my life was full in spite of hardships.
August 6. After the flash, I was trapped under the collapsed school building.
I had been teaching 343 freshmen students of Hiroshima Second Junior High School (Current Kannon High School) which was my alma mater, as a substitute teacher since April. On that day, all of them gathered to dismantle buildings around the place where the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum now stands. I left home before 8:00 to do some paperwork at the school which was about 1500 meters away from the hypocenter. I reached the school and got the key at the office and went upstairs....FLASH!....I was pinned under the crushed school building the next instant. It was totally dark and no matter how hard I tried to move my arms and legs, nothing budged. Right under me, a teacher was yelling "Help!" I could hear but it felt like bobody was there and I could feel the heat of the fire. I remember I thought I was a goner. I cannot remember anything at all of the next 2 to 3 hours. It must have been around noon when I finally came to. I was lying on my back under the mid summer sun. I started to rise slowly and looked and stared. Where was I? I turned to look on the left side and saw a totally black-burned baby beside my left leg. A mother was holding the neck of the baby and she was red-black and looked horrible. I still remember clearly how white her breast looked. Mayby that baby was holding on to that breast till it died? 10 or 12 small animals that looked like monkeys were stirring. I looked close, and saw their eyes were popped out, long tongues were dangling, guts were hanging out and some were trying to put them back into their stomachs. Finally I realized they were human beings because they tried to speak. "Gimme water, water", they moaned. Were they really human? Two things like ghosts passed before my eyes. Red-black and very thin; they were totally naked people. It was impossible to tell male from female. One was trying to hide the front of the body with a burnt tin plate, so maybe female? Both their arms were hanging in front of their chests; the skin of their faces and arms were dangling long. I fainted wishing this was all a dream.
August 7. Desperate coming home.
I woke up with the dawn. I think I remember blue fires were flying in the air all night (They say it was phosphorus in the bone burning). All around me, horribly burnt bodies were scattered. Not many were walking. What I thought about first was my family. Yet Hiroshima was totally gone and just some black smoke was rising. I could see Nino Shima Island right before my eyes. Also I could see other Islands and ships. I knew my house was burnt down, but I thought if I got back to the house, my mother and my sweet Kentaro would come back, too! Let's go home! Then I found out that my right leg wouln't move at all. So I thought let's find something to lean on but there was nothing left, everything was burnt down. But my will was strong, so I crawled toward home. There are many rivers in Hiroshima, so therefore there are many bridges, too. The bridges in the center of the City were all burnt down, so I circled around from Ogauchi bridge and finally reached Aioi bridge. Aioi bridge was tilted and was dangerous to cross. I managed to reach where the Park now is. Numerous bodies were floating in the Moroyasu river and I can still hear their cry for help even today. At last, I reached my home, but nobody was there and all I saw was a field covered with countless bodies. There were 5 or 6 burnt bodies piled up in the same direction. They had been trying to seek water crawling toward a water tank ( in those days in Japan, on every street a water tank was stored filled with water to prevent fire from spreading), and my heart was crushed to see 4 or 5 of them were reaching their black hands toward the tank. Silent, a very silent nether world. Nobody came to help me. I had neither drunk, nor eaten since yesterday. I gave up and collapsed right there.
August 8. Is it human? -Unbelievable scence.
Am I awake? I thought I was dead. Right here in the Park, it was filled with red-black bodies since yeaterday. But now it was all white. Just like under the midnight sun in the north pole. Pain was all over my body, and I was wondering if it was still painful after I'm dead? What are those white things? So I crawled toward them and was shocked. They were maggots all over the burnt bodies hatched just in one night. Even on people walking, maggots were clinging on eyes, mouth and ears, and one by one people were collapsing - the most miserable sight right before my eyes. Maybe it's little past noon? Soldiers began burning bodies with wood and oil. I crawled away from the fire, with no hope for living, no strength left, just waiting to die. And still no help came. But when it was way past noon, I heard a crunching sound, I looked up and saw my cousin Kentaro walking toward me. He had some wounds on his mouth, but his face looked every clean. An angel in Hill! I was begenning to feel better. He was exposed to the bomb at Hiroshima Junior HIgh 800 meters away from the hypocenter, but escaped through the window with others. His father who came to Hiroshima to find his family arrived later and they went back to Nagoya that day. I had no strength to go with them. Only when I knew Kentaro was alive and well could I keep going. After that I tried everything possible to stay alive just to see him again.
My life and Hiroshima after the bombing.
It must be past mid August, In Hiroshima, "Aren't you losing your hair?" People asked each other every time they met, as a greeting. I never heard such a horrible greeting in history. Someone fully alive and well yesterday, suddenly loses his hair, and within 2 or 3 days, dies with strange sicknesses. At that time, a rumor like this was spreading in Hiroshima. The United States dropped a very big bomb, and lthat bomb contained extremely potent poison gas. Nothing will grow in Hiroshima for the next 75 years. Of course people can never live here. As this rumor said, my friends and relatives died one by one. I was there in the Park for days, very very close to the hypocenter. I must have inhaled a great deal of this gas. Day after day, I pulled at my hair, Oh, God! it didn't come off today,but how about tomorrow? I was living under constant fear. It was the beginning of October, when I heard Kentaro died. He went back to Nagoya with his father and after 3 days, he started bleeding from his gum and started to run a high fever, and all over his body red spots appeared. The next day, his hair stuck to his pillow, and he became totally bald. They immediately took him to a college hospital, but in just 20 days on August 26, he expired, calling my name. I really believe it's a miracle that I survived for more than 50 years, yet even today as I wash my face, I am scared of finding my hair falling out.

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