WRITTEN MONUMENT(English)

Hatsuo Matsui (79)

The place of my A-bomb exposure
Inside of my house in Kawara-machi (1.1km from the hypocenter)
Acute symptoms in those days
No external injury but diarrhea in September, gradual loss of hair to baldness
The loss in my family
None

My background
I was born as the first daughter to my parents, Torataro and Fusa Matsui. I got married into the Tanaka family at the age of 22, but separated for some reasons.

A-bomb exposure ---weakening body
My husband was 63 and I, 43 years old when we were exposed to the atomic bombing in our house, Kawara-machi. My husband, Muneo Wakao and I were trapped under the collapsed house. Luckily we had no external injuries and escaped on barefoot in desperation, with the only clothes we were wearing then. Chased by the flames, we went to the south in Funairi-machi along with many others in the heat. We came to a temple where we drank some water. Together with many other people, we were still there when night came. Even the name of the temple has slipped out of my memory, but I can never forget the taste of the omusubi or rice ball given to us the late afternoon of 7th and the happiness at that time.

We stayed there about one week, I think. On the third night when I was getting into the air-raid shelter under the corridor, I slipped and fell. I remember how much I was upset, because neither medicine nor doctor was available. Since we could not stay there forever, we left the temple and went to Kaita-cho where my husband’s eldest son was living. We depended on him. Around that time severe diarrhea emaciated my husband. I was also suffered from diarrhea and bleeding from my mouth. In Kaita we stayed at the Yokohagi’s and saw a doctor in the neighborhood for the first time. Many delicious figs given to us were another blessing.

My hair came off entirely in the autumn and I felt awfully cold. I washed my bald head with clean water of the deep river and prayed. A friend of mine gave me hair oil that was hard to get by in those days and I used it. Whether or not it worked I’m not sure, but my hair began to grow little by little, which made me very happy. We are deeply indebted to many of our acquaintances for various vegetables, thanks to which we regained our health. We, at length, could afford to live alone with my husband and settled down in Danbara-cho. Shortly, however, my husband died of illness. Living alone, I had a lower back pain and anemia. I was hospitalized in the A-bomb hospital and became hardly able to walk.

Joy of outing
I entered this nursing home in 1973. The Home is well facilitated and I am grateful for my easy life here, free from worry. It’s a pity that I can’t walk, but the occasions for going out in a wheelchair such as sports meet and Bon dance festival or just to the park are my only comfort. The other day we were taken to the Asa Zoo in a bus and had a very nice day. It was a long while since I last rode a bus. Over the bus window to and from the Zoo, I was surprised to see the suburbs having been developed. I was glad that I lived this long, although I am alone with no children. Above everything I am very thankful to those who take care of me day and night.

(This was written in December, 1980 by Matsui who died the following month, January 16.)

Kiyomi Ishibashi (70)

The place of my A-bomb exposure
Inside the house in Kawara-machi, 1.2km from the hypocenter
Acute symptoms in those days
General fatigue, fever lasting three weeks, cuts on forehead, losing sight of
my left eye
The dead in my family
None

My background
I was born as the first daughter to my parents Jiro and Take Ishibashi on June 12, 1910. I had two younger brothers and two younger sisters. We used to live in Kuramoto-dori, Kure. When I was three years old, we moved to Koami-cho, Hiroshima due to my father’s job. After graduating from Kanzaki Elementary School, I entered Hiroshima Municipal Girls’ School. But I quit the school, and stayed home doing the household chores.

Enormous flash
At 7:30 a.m., on August 6, my family, seven of us, started breakfast after praying that nothing bad would happen on us for the day. At 8:00 a.m. an air-raid warning was issued. But a little later it was lifted, so we were clearing up the breakfast table. At 8:15 a.m., with enormous flash and deafening roaring sound, my house instantly tilted. The moment my body was thrown into the air, the pillars, the walls, the ceilings, the sliding doors of the house collapsed and I was trapped underneath. The right side of my forehead was seriously bleeding. A broken stick of a sliding door stuck in my left eyeball and I couldn‘t see anything. Fires started out of the broken houses here and there. I frantically crawled out from my wrecked house, and headed toward Kawara-machi. I eventually got to the riverbank. The area around me was a sea of fire, so I jumped into the Honkawa River. I was clinging to a floating timber in the high tide and we splashed water to each other because the heat of fire was unbearable. I remained in the water until late afternoon. As the fire went subsiding, I got out of the river, and I slept in the open air on the riverbank that night.

On August 7, I received some treatment on my injury at the shelter, Kanzaki Elementary School. On August 16, I was transferred to the first-aid station at Honkawa Elementary School and received treatment through August 31. On September 1, I moved to my acquaintance’s house in Kannon-mura, Saeki-gun and went through a difficult time. The injury on my head became better thanks to the treatment at the Ohmae Surgery Clinic in Itsukaichi-cho, Saeki-gun, but the severe pain in my left eye continued.

In October 1945, I went to see an eye doctor at the Red Cross Hospital and had my left eye examined. The doctor found a fragment of the wooden sliding door imbedded in my left eyeball. He had to remove the eyeball and replaced it with an artificial one. My case, seemingly, surprised the doctor.

Struggling against the disease and hard life
Five of us, my mother, three younger brothers and I lived in a shack we built in the ruin, where our burned house used to stand. I worked as a laborer in Dobashi, the job was created as the City’s unemployment project, or sold eggs of the chickens I kept in the vacant lot. We made a living on a small income.

My younger brother was admitted in a mental hospital in 1963. My mother died of pneumonia at the age of 79 in 1967. She had had too many hardships in her life. Since then I was living alone, but breast cancer was found. I was hospitalized in the A-bomb Hospital and underwent an operation in April 1968.

As I was worried about my future; health and a solo life, I entered the A-bomb Survivor‘s Nursing Home in October, 1973. I am happy here with no worries at all. I am so very grateful.

Sumiko Kuramoto (75)

The place of my A-bomb exposure:
Inside of my house in Takara-machi, 1.3km from the hypocenter
Acute Symptoms in those days:
Diarrhea for two weeks, entire loss of hair, one month treatment for the cut on the head
The death in my family:
My nephew, Kaoru who was a junior high school student, during the labor service

Uneasy night
My family had six members; my mother, elder sister, brother-in-law (military officer), nephew (in the Military Academy), nephew (in Hiroshima Municipal Boys’ Middle School) and I. We lived in Chuodori, Takara-machi. I worked at home doing typing as well as teaching it. My sister worked for a company of medical equipment, which did business with the Army Hospital.

On the night of August 5, 1945 the air-raid alarm was sounded and cleared, which was repeated two or three times. Each time we went upstairs and downstairs, and we all had a restless night feeling tired. My nephew was especially exhausted.

Missing nephew
My sister went to work in Takeya-cho and my younger nephew went to school, complaining about his physical condition. Then the air-raid alarm was sounded but it was cleared soon, so my mother was letting down a bamboo blind in the bathroom. I had just mailed a post card and was sitting in my living room. Just that moment I saw a strange and dreadful flash and heard a roar. My house collapsed and I was caught underneath; the pillars, ceiling, ridge and everything. I lost my consciousness.

In about 30 minutes I regained consciousness and found my head bleeding. I called out, “Mother!” She could not stand up with her waist badly hit. After a while, my sister returned from her working place. She, too, had a bruise when she fell down from upstairs at her office. In spite of her own pain, she put our mother on her back and three of us left home. We evacuated to the Army Ordnance Supply Depot in Kasumi-cho where we found a lot of injured people accommodated. Later we were taken to the ground of the Ordnance Supply Depot by a soldier and given some treatment. While resting there, black rain began to drop but it did not last very long.

That night we slept on the ground, borrowing some futon, or quilts and a mosquito net from a soldier. We were worried about my nephew but we could do nothing. We just spent overnight there. I felt severe pain on my head and wait, so did my mother and sister.

On August 8, my sister and I went back to our house to look for my nephew, entrusting a soldier about our mother. Our house, we found, had completely been burnt down. So had been the entire neighborhood. We could not tell where we were. We went to his school in Yokogawa only to find that it had also been burnt down. Realizing no hope there, we returned. We continued to search for him day in day out, but we could find neither his body nor his remains. We saw many injured boys of his age crying out for water. We could hardly see them straight. My nephew never came back to us. I can never forget this forever missing nephew.

In and out of the hospital
We could not stay at the Ordnance Supply Depot any longer, so we moved to my niece’s schoolmate’s house in Fuchu-cho, Aki-gun. Three of us lived there, but getting food was a chronicle problem. Before long another nephew, who had been in the Military Academy, as well as my brother-in-law were demobilized. That was a great help. Then, my brother-in-law returned to his former work place, the Chugoku Electric Power Company. He was given a post as the Onomich Branch manager, so moved to Onomichi with his wife and son. My mother and I felt uneasy to continue to stay at my niece’s friend’s house, so we rented an independent corner of my acquaintance’s house in Kaita-cho, Aki-gun. We made a living by teaching knitting.

Before long I was invited to work at the dormitory for NHK workers in Kaita-cho, where I used to work. The former NHK workers got repatriated one after another, and came to live in the dormitory. They reminded me of my uncle, aunt, niece and nephew and I was worried about them so much. I heard that my uncle died at his collapsed school. Tears would not stop. My eldest sister was also trapped under the collapsed house in Kawaya-cho and never seen again. Everything that flashes back makes me only sad.

In 1964, as I had a swollen belly and threw up, I was getting treatment at the Red Cross Hospital and the University Hospital. Then, at the Imanaka Hospital, I was diagnosed as intestinal obstruction. I was immediately hospitalized to have an operation and stayed there for four years. After that I was recuperating at home, but my physical condition reversed again. I went to the A-bomb Hospital, where my problem was found to be a severe case of anemia. After one year of hospitalization, I was released. Since then, however, I was in and out of the hospital many times.

Around the time I entered the Home
When I was in the A-bomb Hospital, the doctor recommended me to enter the A-bomb Nursing Home as it was to open in September, 1970. I decided to do so. I am very thankful that I am alive today, though I am constantly fighting against my illnesses and once told that I was no good any more.

Shizue Tanaka (79)

The place of my A-bomb exposure:
Inside of my house in 2-chome, Kanon-machi, Hiroshima, 1.5km from the hypocenter

Until Japan wins
My husband, Yoshio Tanaka, was working as a veterinary at the livestock section of Hiroshima Prefectural Office. My husband and I (we were not blessed with children) lived in Higashi-kanon, Hiroshima. He was an official of the Higashi-kanon-machi Town Community and I was involved in the national defense women‘s association. Both of us were devoted ourselves to work for the nation, hoping that Japan would win.

A life in misfortune is miserable.
When the A-bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, my husband and I were at home. Flash and roaring sound! At that moment our house was collapsed and we were caught under it. A big pillar fell on me and I was unable to move. I called out to my husband for help in vain. He was also caught under the house. We called out and encouraged each other. However hard we called out for help, nobody came. My husband managed to creep out by himself and came to rescue me. He took the pillar off my body and we finally escaped from the house. Since both of us were injured, we helped each other. Reaching the air raid shelter of Higashi-kanon Town Community for refuge, we received first-aid treatment. Inside the shelter we met out neighbors and cried together, hugging one another. We were speechless for a while. Then a shower of black rain came; I cannot remember about what time it was. A town community official suggested that we move to Koi Elementary School. As we couldn’t stay there for long, we started walking toward the school. The scene we saw on the way was so terrible; some houses were totally broken by the bomb blast and others were burning down. It took us a long time but reached Koi in the early evening, where we were admitted by a rescue squad at Koi Elementary School and given treatment for two days.

On August 8, my husband and I walked from Koi via Hiroshima Station to Kaita Station. We took a train from there to Daiwa-cho, Kamo-gun, our hometown, and we settled at my brother‘s house. As my brother was a doctor, we could receive a treatment there and that was very lucky for us. In two months our injuries got better and we came back to Hiroshima. The life in the A-bombed Hiroshima was not easy. Due to our physical conditions, we would often go and see doctors. Now, probably because of my old age, I am not well, and so I am glad that I am in the Home. I’m definitely against wars. A life in misfortune is miserable.

(She passed away of Heart Failure on May 25, 1980 after she wrote this. Our condolences here.)

Mura Takeyama (80)

The place of my exposure
Inside my rented house at 2-6 Hirosekita-machi, Hiroshima, 1.5km from the hypocenter
Acute symptoms in those days
Light injury on my right toe.
Loss of hair a week later, (despite the fact that any internal disease was unthinkable)
About my family
My husband: No injury although he was inside the house and buried under the debris of the house.
Our elder daughter (17): She was exposed to the A-bombing on the way to work, the post office in Senda-machi, and died.
Our second daughter (14): She died at Hirosekita-machi Higher Elementary School, where she was in the second year.

My background
I was born as the second daughter to Jiro and Sueko Tanimura in Hagiwara, Kanda-mura, Sera-gun, Hiroshima Prefecture and grew up there helping my parents with farming. I was married to a farmer in Toyota-gun but he died of illness before long. After I returned to my parents and stayed there for a while, I came to Hiroshima to work thanks to my friend’s help. Then I had a chance to meet Toraichi Oride, a massager, and got remarried to him. We were blessed with two daughters and living happily in spite of all the difficulties in the wartime.

How could the god of fate have done that merciless quirk to us? The god dropped the first A-bomb in human history on us and our happy life was instantaneously destroyed and turned into an unimaginable living hell.

Bodies of our daughters were not identified
My husband and I were buried under the house but our relatives living close to us saved us from the debris. We desperately fled from the approaching fire to the river near Betsuin Temple.

Our elder daughter was exposed to the bomb on the way to work and the second daughter was at school. Both of them must have died at that moment. Their bodies have not been identified yet.

We took refuge in a temple in Midorii, Sato-cho, Asa-gun, keeping off our hunger with some relief rice balls on the night of August 6th. On the following day, we went to one of our relatives, the Takeyama’s, and decided to stay there for some time. Despite the inconvenience of transportation and the sweltering heat, my husband and I went back and forth to Hiroshima every day to search for our daughters, mainly around Senda-machi Post Office and Hirose-kitamachi Higher Elementary School. Our efforts ended in failure, and they are still missing. Both of us were about to go insane in those days.

It was a scorching summer. The whole city of Hiroshima was burnt out. Heaps of rubble were all over the city. Some people were working hard to cremate the remains. The others, including us, were desperately looking for their family in spite of no transportation system functioning. None of them looked real in this world. The most difficult thing to us parents was that we had no way to know even whether or not our children were alive. It took us long to come to terms.

Just absent-minded
In addition to the sudden loss of our two daughters, there came another blow to me. My husband died on September 7th, one month later, although he had looked healthy. Walking around to look for our daughters in the intense heat must have affected and led to his death. He became weaker everyday. Only a week of hospitalization in the Toyohira Hospital, he died.

I was just vacant with the indescribable agony. I remained to stay with the Takeyama’s, my husband’s relatives. Then I was loved by Tatsuichi Takeyama and married to him. I would work hard on their farm as a member of the Takeyama.

For quite a while I was free from illnesses and working hard on the farm until I was hospitalized at Toyohira Hospital in May 1977 with softening of the brain and chronic hepatitis. Although I did not completely get well, I left the hospital in October and entered this nursing home when my conditions somewhat improved and became stable.

Shedding tears remembering my daughters
Whenever I see kind, friendly nursing staff here, I shed tears being reminded of my daughters thinking, “if they were alive, they would be the similar ages.” I live, praying for the repose of my daughters and my husband’s souls, with gratitude to the nursing staff and others in the home. I hope war shall never be repeated, as it forces us into never-forgetting misery.

Fusako Yamamoto (67)

The place of my A-bomb exposure
Inside my house in Showa-machi, 1.6km from the hypocenter
Acute symptoms in those days
I could not leave my bed due to a nausea that lasted a week and weariness.
The dead of my family
None

My background
I was the youngest child of eight, born in Higashisenda-machi, Hiroshima on March 31, 1913. My parents, Kenichiro and Seki Yamamoto had two sons and six daughters. I graduated from Ote Higher Elementary School. My father worked for Hiroshima Electric Railway Company.

My father died of heart and liver diseases when I was twenty years old. I was working at a dancing hall located in Nakadori, Kure when I was twenty-one. At the age of 26, I got married to a military officer, second lieutenant of the Navy. We lived in Naha, Okinawa where my husband was stationed.

We were not blessed with children. As the Pacific War intensified, I left Okinawa for Hiroshima alone to live with my third elder sister whose husband had been drafted into the Navy and sent overseas. Later my fourth elder sister returned from Manchuria alone and came to live with us. But my sisters evacuated to Umaki-mura, Aki-gun to stay in the house where my fourth sister’s husband was born. I remained alone in Hiroshima, as I had started working at a chemical factory (military-related) in Takeya-cho after my divorce.

Three sisters exposed to the A-bomb
I went to Umaki-mura to ask my two sisters to come back to Hiroshima. We heard that there was a private truck leaving Umaki-mura for Hiroshima on August 6, and luckily we got a lift. We, three of us left Umaki-mura at 6 o’clock in the morning and reached home in Showa-machi, Hiroshima at 7:30.

We were relieved to be home and relaxed sitting on the entrance floor. Then the air-raid alarm sounded, and was cleared after a while. Without warning, we heard a roar of a plane but I thought a Japanese Military plane was flying over us. Suddenly, however, I saw a blinding flash of light. Then I heard the deafening roar. That moment, we fell into the air-raid shelter we had made in the yard before. We were thrown into the shelter by the bomb blast. I felt choked, but recovered my senses. We kept calling out for help but nobody was available.

We crawled out of the shelter somehow. Then we saw the nextdoor woman trapped under the collapsed house and unable to get out. I tried hard to pull her out, but failed. The columns and beams were too heavy. She kept saying, “Go, you just go!” We parted there, crying. Later I was so relieved to hear that her husband had hurried back from his work, Mitsubishi Shipyard and rescued her.

Another woman in my neighborhood was blown off to the ground by the A-bomb blast at the moment she came to the veranda upstairs for drying the laundry. She was burnt all over her body and covered with blood. She had a cut on her head. She was wearing only a slip. I hurried back to my fallen house to fetch my emergency bag. Taking out a triangular bandage, I bandaged the bleeding cut on her head with it.

My sisters and I walked together with this injured woman. Crossing Hijiyama Bridge, we walked along the Streetcar railway of the Ujina Line. When we were passing by the Communication Unit, the woman parted us there and entered the Unit building for medical treatment.

On the way to Hiroshima Station, we saw people injured or already dead. When we reached the Enko Bridge, we looked back toward Showa-machi where we were living and saw a conflagration. The city was burning violently. We crossed the Enko Bridge avoiding the burning cross-ties and reached Atago-machi.

Don’t fall asleep, you may die
The houses on both sides of the street in Atago-machi were burning. We passed through the fire and got to the safe area. I don’t remember where we were. As I was drinking water leaking from the broken water tap, I heard a little voice, ‘Auntie, give me water.’ As I turned around, there was a schoolgirl standing with skin, like rags, hanging from burnt face and hands. I felt pity for her so much. I gave her water from my cupped hands. There were a dozen more schoolgirls lying asleep around her. I tapped every girl on the cheek saying, ‘Don’t sleep. You may die!’ A few of them opened their eyes.

We went on, and made our way to seek refuge in Umaki-mura, Aki-gun, helping with each other.

Missing Hiroshima
After we got to Umaki-mura, we stayed there to convalesce doing some chores for my brother-in-law’s family and other nearby farmers. With no income, we were living on our small saving. The brother-in-law’s family was very kind to look after us, but I could not help missing Hiroshima. We wanted to return and live in Hiroshima, just three of us sisters. After some discussion, in August 1946, the fourth sister and I left Umaki-mura we had lived for one year.

The fourth sister and I built a shack by ourselves in the burnt ruin, Showa-machi where we used to live. Salvaging burned columns and boards, putting scorched tin sheets and roof tiles for the roof, we set up a house solely to keep us from rains. It was our own house that my physically handicapped sister and I cooperated to build, and the house I have fond memories. To make a living I worked hard at a dancing hall. In 1955, I left Hiroshima for Tokyo, getting a job in a tourist inn.

Hospitalized in the A-bomb Hospital
I was working in Tokyo free from physical problems. It was in 1961 when my sister asked me repeatedly to come back to Hiroshima to attend her. She was going to be hospitalized in the A-bomb Hospital to have an operation for breast cancer. Since she was my own sister, I decided to take a leave and return. I took care of her for 12 months in Hiroshima. I shared the joy with her when she got well again and released from the hospital. Then, when I was getting my belongings ready for going back to Tokyo, I felt an acute pain in my lower back and became unable to walk. I received treatment continuously as an outpatient at the A-bomb Hospital, but my condition got only worse. I was finally hospitalized in December 1963 and stayed there for seven years until July 1970.

Thanks to this nursing home
My doctor said to me that my condition was stable. I heard that this Hiroshima A-bomb Nursing Home was going to open in 1970, and I expressed my wish that I would like to become a resident. My request was heard. I was tormented by diseases and had no relatives to depend on. If I had not been admitted in a nursing home like this, I’d never had a chance to survive these 10 years. I am still struggling with my ailment everyday, but I’m hoping to live long. I will keep going. I am so glad that this home was founded.