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 Mr. Sunao Tsuboi's Testimony. [ TEXT MODE ] |
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I am one of the people who were atom-bombed in Hiroshima. My name is Sunao Tsuboi. Sixty-one years ago, at 8:15 on sixth of August,1945, an atomic bomb was exploded approximately 600 meters above Hiroshima. At the time, I was damaged at about 1 kilo meter far from the ground zero. On a map, namely Here is the ground zero, the center of the exprosion, then it was far from 1 kilo mieter, This concentric circle is divided off 500 meters each. I was here, at the moment. Then, Im going to talk about this map, first of all, A pink colored point was completely destroyed and burned down. Here is the part what is called 'atomic desert'. So, if I tell you about it bbriefly, the lod section of the town was almost burnt to ashes. (Here is)1 kilo meter(from this ground zero on this map). And,Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is here within 500 meters (From this ground zero on this map). 100 percent of the people who were outside of any buildings within 500 meters were died. Within 1 kilo meter from the ground zero, about 60 percent of people died. If you are inside of house, the percent of the possibility of live is higher than outside. However, 60 percent of people who were at our are died. I was on my way to university then, so that means I was atom-bombed outside. Then, I was still alive although the survival rate was only 40 percent. So, 60 percent of people died in an instant within 1 kilometer. Therefore, I had a horrible damage. Now I should move on from the map, but I am going to mention about it when I get a problem. At 8:15, the atomic bomb was exploded above the groung zero, actually, In fact,at 7:40 I was going to go to a restaurant to have a breakfast before going to Uni. It was not a luxurious meal, anyway,I finished eating that in 3 or 5 minites, I returned empty dishes on a tray by myself. Because there was shortage of people in that time, it was self-service store. There was a girl behind a counter. I told her 'Thank for the meal.', and then I passed the empty dishes to her. After saying thank you, I was going to go out from the restaurant. It was a 'Exit' for me, but for a party, it was a 'Entrance'. Then I met three underclass men accidentally. The three asked me' Let's have a breakfast again!'Actually I was not used to eat a lot then as there were not many to eat in a war. Thus, I was going to accept the invitation to eat again, but one of them told me 'I am going to treat your meal ticket.' In those days, even though we had money, we could not eat with only money.We needed to bring a meal ticket which was published by city council. Students were used to get three meal tickets a day. But, if we get a meal ticket from the city council, we can't have ration of food such as rice, meat, fish, vegetables, fruits anymore. I couldn't even buy rice. A rice book showed about it clearly. Then, one of them said, “Let’s eat together. I will sort out a meal ticket for you.” I fully knew how important meal tickets were ? they were important next to your life. You would have been seriously in trouble if you had lost them. You could not eat without them. I suddenly stopped walking halfway. I just finished eating and said to the girl behind the counter, “Thank you for the food.” I was afraid that if I ate again immediately, she would think “What a student. He just had a meal and is going to eat again. I have never seen such a greedy university student like him.” She did not actually say so. I was getting embarrassed a little when I started thinking like that. I was still young, 20 years old at that time, and I was embarrassed. Just finished eating and eating again, you know? So I said to these three younger students, “I am going to school. I will see you again at lunchtime” and left them. Then, “bomb!” - the atomic bomb was dropped on my way to university after I left the restaurant, so that means I said goodbye to them after 8am. I figured out these things later. I was only thinking that I had to go to school and was desperately heading there at that time. I will tell you what happened to the three younger students first. I learnt their fate much later, but all three of them died at the restaurant. When I was told about their death at the university, it really brought tears to my eyes. I thought, “Alas, what a pity.” When I think back on them, my last words to them were “I will see you again at lunchtime.” I am of course talking about after the war was over. I went to university after the war ended. I thought “what a pity” for the death of the 3 students and shed tears but that was it then. I just felt “pity” and “sorry.” However, speaking of them a little bit more, My feelings toward them began changing. I mean, I did not simply feel “pity and sorry” any more. Think about it. If the war had not occurred and the atomic bomb had not been dropped, these three would have had breakfast and gone to university diligently. They did nothing wrong, but these three men died instantly. All of them had abilities to work diligently, graduate from university, be engaged in such and such occupation, and commit themselves to various things if the war had not happened and the atomic bomb had not been dropped. They must have had lots of dreams and hopes to achieve after finishing school. Then, three of them, students at the age of 18 or 19, who were slightly younger than I, “bomb!” died. When I thought about it, I realized how cruel war or atomic bombs were and that they just do not kill people but also ruin your life. That’s how I realized that “I have to devote myself to peace.” There are many reasons why I got involved in peace activities, but it was what was taken place first. Young people with such promising future were killed by one atomic bomb. This really made me disconsolate. Indescribable. But it also made me think that “I must accomplish peace on this earth for the three students, too.” Well, after that, let's get back to the subject of myself. Then, when I was walking in this way, I heard some hisses from the upper left. And then, you know, blasts made eyes spring out and tore eardrums. Therefore, as I was always training myself, you know, as soon as I heard a hiss, I tried to cover my eyes and my ears with my arms and to fall down quickly, but before my arms could cover my face, you know, I saw a flash, which was silver and slightly red. However, to talk about sight, you know, all I could see was light. I was really surprised, of course. When foreigners sometimes ask me how I felt at the flash, I always reply, “Nothing. I was surprised!” That’s all. “I only thought, ‘Oh!’ ” I say. I was not in a condition to think or do anything then. Well, in just a moment, in less than one second after that, I was blown away with a “bang”, you know. I was blown about 10 meters away, that is about as far as from this wall to that over there, with a “bang”. Like many others, that made me lose consciousness. And then, you know, I did not know how many minutes it took for me to regain consciousness. Or I did not know either whether anyone helped me or not. Anyway, while I was still lying on the ground, I did regain consciousness. All those who had not then regained consciousness, you know, would have been blown away with a “bang” to enter the memorial monument as the dead on August 6. They would have entered The Register of The Dead by The Atomic Bomb, you know. Therefore, although I did not know why I had not regained consciousness at first, I found how lucky I was. When I regained consciousness and lifted my face like this, you know, it was really pitch-dark. That's why I could not see even one hundred meters ahead. At that time, I was surprised for the second time, you know. “Wow, how heavily we have really been attacked!” Therefore, since it was already some time after that, I began around this time to think, “You did do it!” “All right. I will remember this. Just wait and see, damn Americans! I will revenge this sometime,” I thought, you know. I do know what I shall say, but I shuddered or was really thrilled, and I lost my temper. You know what, well, I wonder if I was heated up. “Ooh.” It came like this. However, you know, since we were in complete darkness, we did not know where to escape. Well, a wide variety of atomic bomb victims say, “The atomic cloud by the atomic bomb was horrible.” It did rise massively by about 7000 meters. Well, it was colored red, yellow, green, purple and so on, you know. Indeed, many atomic bomb victims do testify that it expanded upward very fast. But we don’t say like that. We did not see any “atomic cloud” at all. That is because, you know, the people in the old section of the town did not see any atomic cloud. They were right in the middle. I mean I was here, here (in the area near the ground zero on the map) in this area, you see. That means, you know, those who saw the cloud of the atomic bomb saw it from outside. Well, that is, it is those who were a long way from the cloud that saw it. Perhaps it could be seen 30, 40 or 50 kilometers away from it under the circumstances. Well, it is those around here (in the area away from the ground zero) who saw it. These people saw that terrible thing, you know. We did not see it. That means the atomic bomb victims who say that they do not know the atomic cloud, you know, are of course those who were hit right below. It is sad to say, you know, that most of those people are not alive any more. That is, what is called the directly bombed. The number of those who were not directly bombed and keep their atomic bomb pocket notebooks still amounts to 260,000 nationwide. On the other hand, the number of those who were directly bombed and were wounded all over is already less than 10,000, you know. All the other 250,000 or 260,000 people are those who entered the city afterward. Such people could also receive the pocket notebook, you know. Or those who did know Hiroshima at all, but who cared for or nursed the atomic bomb victims who escaped, you know. The pocket notebook for atomic bomb victims was issued for these people, you know, for the reason that they also suffered remaining radioactivity. Such people do not know at all what should be called the tragedy of Hiroshima. Even if the people from the regions a long way from Hiroshima such as Fuchu, Shobara and Miyoshi do not know the tragedy themselves, they do have the pocket notebook as a certificate of an atomic bomb victim since they nursed those who were directly bombed. In addition, such atomic bomb victims as had not yet been born and were still in the stomachs of their mothers at that time do not know the tragedy of Hiroshima, you know. Therefore, there are four types of atomic bomb victims, you know, among whom we the directly bombed people account for less than 10,000. All the rest are various atomic bomb victims such as those who entered the city afterward, you know. Well, in the past 60 years, all those who were indoors in this way like ourselves have been killed one after another, you know. By the way, after those incidents, while I was thinking, “I'll remember this! I will avenge this sometime at any cost,” I found close to myself, you know, well, a private house crushed, with a bang. The roof had also completely fallen down. From the inside of the crushed house, I heard a woman of forty or fifty calling for help: “Help me, please. Help me, please.” Then, attracted by the cry, since I was still young at the age of twenty, you know, I thought, “Now is the time to help someone!” I went there quickly, avoided all the rafters and said, “I will let you out.” After that, when I said, “Are you all right? Are you all right?” and went to look for her, I heard her saying from inside, “I’m here, I’m here,” you know, but I could not see her. In the meantime, however, I noticed my wound. From here, you know. Well, I had a dress shirt on, without a jacket. This (dress shirt) was long-sleeved, you know. I had this part from the elbow downward burned, you know, with the sleeve blown away with a bang. I also had this opposite side here from the elbow downward burned, with the sleeve blown away with a bang. What was more, I also had my trousers burned from both the knees downward, with the hems blown away and lost with a bang, you know. The mere sight of it really made me think, "Oh! What harm!" When I put the rafters away like this, I did not notice that I was wounded. My hands were burned black, you know. Burned black. In addition, from here at the shoulder, well, say, the upper arm, from this arm here, you know, I still remember that bright red blood was running. It was running massively and very fast. And then, through the hands which turned blackish and burnt-out, the blood was dripping from the tips of my fingers. "Oh! What harm! You bastard!" I thought, but since I wondered if I was wounded somewhere else, I looked through all my body, you know, leaving the woman for a while. This time, however, from the waist, you know, I found blackish blood running through my trousers, which were completely torn. Most parts of the trousers had been blown away and were lost, you know. I mean that, down to the tips of my toes, I was also bleeding heavily as if the blood vessels had been cut off and had hung down, well, with something like a mass of thick blood. As soon as I saw it, you know, I thought I was really wounded, which discouraged me. When I think of it, you know, human beings are really miserable, even if they show off their courage like this. Since I saw it, you know, the vitality which there had been by that time was all gone. "I can’t do it any more." That was why, even if I tried to go to help her, well, I could not do with myself, you know. When I thought, “Oh,” I lost my energy. After a short time, I did not know how many minutes had passed after that, but I thought, "Oh! I remember," and said to the woman, you know. Certainly, I said to her, “Madam! Cheer up and hold out! Now I will call a lot of people and am sure to help you. Please be patient for a short while!” and left her. After I left her and went, well, as you may have seen in various pictures, everyone escaped, you know, with his or her face messy, with his or her hands and wrists hanging down forward like this and with his or her skin torn. Well, I will describe the state of myself later, but everyone escaped with his or her wrists hanging down like this. I called loudly to those people many times and said, you know, "A woman is buried under the house over there. Everyone, let’s help her! Let's go!" However, these atomic bomb victims looked as if they could not have heard me, you know, and ran about trying to escape, wandering around and confused completely. Even if I said, "Everyone!" and called to them again and again, you know, none of them tried to act according to my call. At that time, I thought it was regrettable, you know. This did mean not only the U.S. was the enemy. Though we were fighting a war together as Japanese, you know…. When I wondered why everyone else could not help someone who was suffering heavily, you know, I thought that, even among Japanese, there were no good people, which really made me angry, you know. "Why don't they go and help her?" I thought, you know, and got angry. Though I got angry, I could not help it. They were only wandering around and running away. I could never imagine at all, you know, that I could lift the crushed roof by myself. At first, I thought I would let her out, avoiding the rafters, but since there was no more strength left in myself, huh, I was completely at a loss, you know, when I felt my back stinging and stinging. “Oh! Darn it! It really hurts,” I thought, you know, and took off my dress shirt, since I could not endure the pain any more. And then, you know, I found my back still burning. That means I had my back kept burned for 10 or 15 minutes' time, you know. It means I did not notice that my back was burning when I said to the woman, “Are you all right? Are you all right?” It did neither hurt nor itch. In the eight-volume book “The History of Atomic Bomb War Damage,” one copy of which is kept in my office, and which Hiroshima City edited spending about two years, you know, this state of myself is also mentioned, you know. At first, you know, it did not hurt at all. The shock of the atomic bomb was that too much. It came with a bang, so that I lost all the sense of my skin, you know. That was why some people testified that, when they felt an "acute" pain while escaping, they found a piece of broken glass like this sticking in the arm. Even though they were covered with blood, they could not notice it. Actually that is because they were too surprised and then too excited to feel any pain at all, you know. They were tense, you know, so they felt no pain. However, as they got back from their tension gradually, they began to relax. Then, they began to feel pains. That is what happened to me for 14 or 15 minutes. I remember it. And then, I did not know about the atomic bomb in those days, you know. I thought that fires should be prevented in the neighborhood because I thought the bomb had fallen close to me. That is why I swept away the fire and put it out. Then I found the sleeves here missing. Both of them were missing, you know. Since it was no use wearing them, well, I wore nothing on the upper part of the body only 30 or 40 minutes later, you know. I wore a pair of torn shorts on the lower part of the body. I wore a pair of shorts, you know, and that not neatly sewn, but torn and untidy. With these shorts on, I escaped through the fire, you know, from this time on. Otherwise with nothing on the body. That is why I shivered all over during the night. Well, I threw away my clothes after something like this had happened, you know. However, I did not know what was going on to the woman. It was about when I tried to go to her, you know. I guess that was how, well, 30, 40 or 50 minutes and about one hour had already passed, when the house began to burn. The temperature of fire was 3 thousand or 4 thousand degrees, you know. That was why clothes caught fire easily and immediately. Burns were also terrible. However, it was also when about one hour had passed that the house burned, you know. Besides, according to the history of war damage, fires were heaviest around noon. It was already a sea of fire, you know. As I will tell you in a short while, even though the armed forces came to the rescue, they could not enter the fire. Even though military trucks tried to enter it, they could not do it. Well, things like that happened. Anyway, the whole Hiroshima area already became a sea of fire around noon, you know. This area in pink was burned down, you know. Nothing was left because the area was burned down. But I did not know the overall damage like that on that day, you know. Well, we were attacked and the fire came with a "bang", you know. If you had jumped into the fire, you know, you certainly would have been killed. That could have been, no matter how you think. However, you know, even though I also tried to go and help the woman, Tsuboi had no courage enough to dash into the blazing fire like this, you know. Well, I wonder what I should say. I thought human life is important, you know, and at that time, I might have had to dashed into the fire, even though I knew that I would have been killed if I had gone to her. But my subconscious mind avoided it, you know. When the fire came to me all at once, I avoided it quickly. After that, I escaped from the fire backward when it came from in front of me, and escaped forward when it came from behind me. I could do nothing more but escape, wandering around where there was no fire. And, well, atomic bomb victims escaped through where there was no fire, you know. Since there was a way, they all escaped through it, except wide ways. We were escaping around here in Hiroshima. Since it was a mess, we did not know where the way was. Since all was coming crushed, there was a lot of glass. Roof tiles were crushed, of course. Besides, since the houses were built of wood, a lot of nails were sticking out, with the houses crushed. I would not and did not step on the nails, you know. If I had stepped on them, I really would have moaned with pain and would have already been surrounded with fire. If that had been the case, I could not tell you this story now. However, since I had already stepped on crushed glass, I was covered with blood. Children ask me, "Didn't you have your shoes on? Didn't you have your straw sandals or some other footwear?" although I was covered with blood, but you can see it when you look at the picture. These armed forces here, you see, had shoes on, but everyone else was barefoot. As you can also see it when you look at my picture again, this is the picture taken three hours after the bomb was dropped on August 6, you know. As you can see when you look at this, you know, everyone was barefoot. That means these armed forces came from somewhere else. Well, the people in the old section of the town (the ground zero) were barefoot, you know. Now, look at the tips of their feet all exposed. Here like this, they were barefoot. Well, anyway, everyone was barefoot. Those who escaped. I mean there was some reason for bare feet. Well, anyway, those who had their shoes on came from a distance and to search. Something like this. That is why you find everyone barefoot when you look at the pictures of those days. Also when you look at them in the museum. That was why, as I am telling you now, since I went through a mess of glass when I escaped, the blood peeled off already, you know. However, compared with the blood here on the arm, it was out of the question. That was why it did not matter. Looking like that, everyone escaped, you know. Well, after something like that had happened, I was rushed with the fire and ran about trying to escape here and there, but I did not know which town I went through. Well, then, on the way, I found some people whose eyes sprang out, whose intestines were exposed, or whose lungs were stuck with window frames. I also found an old man, whose lungs came out and were pulled in blup-blup each time he breathed. Well, they were covered with blood, you know, and would not pull out pieces of broken glass sticking in themselves. I also happened to meet a man who was literally covered with blood and who looked just like a bloody ghost. Besides, I met those who said, "Please give me water" or "Please help me", but I could not help them at all, you know. By the way, there are seven rivers in Hiroshima, all of which also became covered with dead bodies, you know. That is because burns hurt. The rivers were simply cold, you know. Even in the summer, they were colder than outside. That is why even small children all jumped into the rivers. That is why adults and even junior high school students who could not swim, you know, all jumped into the rivers. Needless to say, due to the acute pain, they would feel better in the rivers, so they all jumped in. But all of them died after all. Many of them could not swim and all of them grappled with each other. That is why dead bodies hung on all the bars of the bridges, you know, which was quite a mess. Besides, dead bodies were carried away, you know. According to some record, they drifted to an island even about one kilometer away. Well, anyway, the whole Hiroshima area was full of dead bodies on land, of course, you know. They all had fallen down burned black. That is why I also tried to escape where such dead bodies had fallen down, you know. Since it was difficult for me to jump over all those dead bodies lightly, when I went in this way to what I thought was dead bodies, I found them dead, which meant no problem at all, you know. Then I stepped on around their waists and escaped. However, some people were still alive while lying like this burned black. Since I tried to escape and went running to them, I stepped on their feet, which made them angry, you know. They scolded me like "You bastard!" Then I said, "Oh!" because I found them alive, you know. I ran away, you know, saying, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I really did not know whether we were dead or alive. I came eluding such a world, you know. Much more, as I have just told you, there were already all those people covered with blood, you know. There was someone whose eye sprang out. Well, it was really so beyond description, you know, that I will not tell you any more. That is because various pictures have been left, you know, so you can only imagine. But I ran away through such a place avoiding the fire. And then, I remembered an old woman, who was one of my relatives, suddenly, when maybe, say, about two hours passed since the atomic bomb had been dropped. Here is Senda-machi in this place, on the border of the pink area and the non-pink area. But her house had been all crushed from the second floor down with a smash. And I found her covered with blood due to some stuff hitting her inside the room, but she did not burn herself, since she had been inside the room. I happened to meet her outside. I guess she could get out of the house. I met her anyway. When I met her, she said, "Sunao, it’s serious! It’s serious!" I had no idea what was serious. I had no mirror at all with me, you know. But she could not tell me at that time what Sunao looked like. That was because she thought I would soon die when she told it to me. That is why she said so. Of course, the strength was running out, you know. I had just barely reached her house. That was how I happened to meet one of my relatives among tens of thousands of people, you know. I wonder how I should say. Oh, how glad I was to meet a relative! I thought I was saved at last, or I felt relieved, I can say. I hardly thought I would ever have me treated. "Anyway, I am saved!" I felt strongly. But she did not think so. "Sunao, it’s serious! It’s serious!" she said. During that period, some people were dead, while others were alive. That was why she could not tell me yet. Both during the war and after the war, she could not tell me. After a while, I got a little better and could walk at home again. Around that time, she thought she could already tell it to me and told me, you know. For example, my ears were torn off, you know. They are now sticking tightly around here like this. But they were torn off. And my facial skin was burned black already, messy and covered with blood, you know. And of course, the back of my hands was torn, with the skin turning inside out and hanging down. Well, all of these were burns, you know. Well, then, she saw my head and face, you know. For example, my lips were suffering from blisters due to burns. The upper lip swelled like this. The lower lip also swelled like this. That was why I looked like this (with my face and other parts of my body seriously injured), you know, so She said that she had not thought at first that I had been Sunao himself. She said that she was surprised. And what was more, the skin was hanging and messy, you know. That was why the clothes here around my shoulders were torn and the red flesh appeared. It was so painful that I almost jumped even when someone hit me just a little while I was escaping. I cannot tell you how much it really hurt. It really hurt. It was so painful that I could hardly describe it. She knew about it, but when she went around to my back, she found it really bright red on fire, you know. As I took off my clothes and had my flesh under the skin exposed, she must have thought already that I would not be saved any more. What was more, from around the waist even to the tip of my toes, as I am pointing the finger now, when I took off my clothes, I had myself burned as much as my back here, as I am just showing you. Stains of burns were spread out from around here to all my body, here and here, (pointing to the arms,) the back, the waist. For example, the waist was only bone and skin, you know, which you can touch later. In the scar of my back, there was no flesh because it remained attacked by the atomic bomb and the flesh would never be recovered. Well, I will tell you later. Due to this wound of my back, I cannot make blood. I cannot make blood one hundred percent as well as other people, you know. The result of the test by a university proved that I could make only about sixty or seventy percent of the blood which I needed. "That's why you cannot overdo because you can make only about sixty or seventy percent of the blood." I was told that I would fall down even when I lived a normal life. In spite of this, as far as my job is concerned, I never say, "Please let me take a rest because I am an atomic bomb victim," or "Please let me work in a shorter time." That is because, if I say like this, I am told, "You're fired!" you know. That is why I hide the fact or try to do my best and to go to work, so that I go into the hospital. I have been in the hospital about ten times. Well, apart from that. I have gotten off the subject a little on the way. Let me get back to the subject about the very day when the atomic bomb was dropped. She was really surprised when she was saying that. Here, I used up all my energy, you know. In this situation, if I had died with her, she could not have left my dead body as it would have been. She had to do something with herself. She also got wounded, covered with blood. But I was afraid that, since I was full of wounds, if I would stay with her, she and I might fall together. That was why I did not think that I should stay with her. Emotionally, indeed from the belly to the chest, I wanted to stay and talk with her. "Oh, I am saved!" "I met a relative." "I met one of my family members." "I will do something. " Such feelings were extremely strong for sure. Above here in my head, that was also the case emotionally, but rationally, I thought rationally as follows. "Hey, Tsuboi, are you happy with that? If you stay with her, you will cause her trouble. That’s why you should leave her." My mind was filled with such a thought like this, and then I left her after about twenty minutes, as I remembered later. Then she suggested that, if I wanted to escape, I should go to the port of Ujinahiroshima, which had a pier, you know. "Please escape to the south." "Never go out to the the hilly section, to the north." "You must escape to the south if you want to!" she said. Since the fire blew rapidly, she tried to let me leave her, saying, "You mustn’t go into the north." Then, she said, "Sunao, Sunao," and pulled my hand for me. I shook off her hand with a feeling really like a demon and left her. I left her about twenty minutes after I had met her. That is why, you know, emotionally, I thought, "Oh, now I'm saved! Oh, how glad I am!" But I controlled the emotion and left her. And I did not know at all where to escape. Of course, I did go to the university and other various places. It was really hopeless. It was terrible everywhere like this. I could not do anything with it. Then, finally, I went to her, but I left her against my emotion. I looked at the map later, I found that there were few places to rely on.All my energy was gone. I was physically very weak and had no anergy to move. That was my condition at that time.Finally I was fallen down at the place that is 200m from the house of the old woman. After I left her, I thought " I can not go on any longer." If anything had not happen to me, there was anything to talk about now. I mean that I was dead at this place. I heard people were talking. They were saying that there were a temporary hospital at Miyuki-bashi. ( He points to the bridge on the map.) "Let's go to the hospital quickly and get treated!" I heard people were saying that,lying on the ground. I was wondering that it is 200 meter or more 200 meter from here to the hospital, I also will go! This area is 500meters from the center of the explosion. ( He was pointing at the area between the circles on the map ,that are written at 500meters intervals from the center of the explosion.) Well, it was about 250meters or 200meters. Hearing this, I thought that “OK, I also go “ It was Miyuki-bridge where I put my all energy to go. The bridge that I had showed you before. This is the photo. This is Miyuki-bridge and it’s parapets. This is a bridge. This is a police box as we call today. I remember that place. I do not forget the place. I heard that “there was a temporary clinic there.” so I went. But this was not a clinic. So I asked to a person about a clinic. Then, they asked me “ Where were you exposed to the bomb ?” They talked about the disaster victim’s certification or a list of the disasters. They only did that kind of things, There was not a clinic and we could not take medical treatment.. We were so exhausted that sat on the bridge like this. It had not passed a long since the bomb. I thought that thousands of people would come here and would be full of people. One of the people was me, Look at the person in the photo. It was me. I have a copy of it. A person from a newspaper company happened to take this photo. However I did not care anything about this at that time. I heard that there was a clinic, but there was no medical treatment. That was like a shelter. I thought that this was useless,because there were a lot of rocks inside. I picked up these rocks and took them to a temple. With all my energy I wrote on a rock that “ I , Tuboi, was died here.” You want to know why I did that, do you ? I did that because I did not have any identification. I was naked to the waist. Everybody sew our identification on our shirts during wartime,nothing like a name tug as we know today.(He is pointing to his chest.) Our blood types, addresses,telephone numbers and so on were written on a name tug, I do know remember exactly though. We had to put a name tug that were written our name, our age and our sex, because we had to identify ourselves when we died. If we had died, even our faces would have been burned beyond recognition. We sewed a name tag on the chest. But I was burned and my name tag was throwen away , so I lost my tag. At least, I wanted to inscribe to keep a record of myself. " I, Tsuboi hanged in and survive to come here" "However at this Miyuki bridge, I am resigned to die." I inscribed on a stone with my all might "I, Tsuboi, died here""Tsuboi died here. This means that I walked here as hard as I could, however I exhausted and died here. I remember exactly that. I was 20 years old at the time. I was old enough to remember when the bomb was dropped. I did that thing, but nobody saw what I did. There were so many people, more than one thousand people . I was ready to die. I do know when I collapsed. At that time, I felt very sad. I remembered my family,class mates and various things and then I became dazed. I was exactly blank. I remember that I went totally blank. When I think of that time, I went totally blank, I fainted and collapsed. I have no idea about the border between life and death. But I felt like wondering on the border. There was a troop called the Akatsuki troop around there. ( He is pointing the map.) The troop started rescue operation. It was done in villages. Even the army could not enter burning areas. It was too dangerous. I was rescued by the army in the spot where was not burning in the burning area. I would have died if I was running about there searching for a safe place.. I would have died by the night. My relative live there, ( pointing that place on the map ) I went there. I went to Miyuki-bridge. The army stayed for a long time on the bridge. These trucks are not the same ones you imagine today. Only10 peoples reach the truck's capacity. There is a photo gallery in the museum. There are photos of the trucks There are photos of trucks that was involved in rescue operations. People run for the trucks from the back, who were exhausted. There were the photos. So, a truck would be filled with 10 people. The truck came near me and stopped with a scream of brakes. I heard the sound of 'booo~' and 'kii~'. The sound awaked me, I was prepared to die. When I was up like this, I saw a soldier getting out of the truck. He said 'Only young men can get on this truck. The rest have to wait!' So I , a kid, was not allowed to get on the truck. Women were absolutely not allowed. Even if you are a man, the older could not get on the truck. They said that women, kids and the olders should wait, To the young men, they said 'Got on the truck! We should rescue them.' A few trucks transported guns. When ten people got on a truck, the truck would be full. When toddler of 5 or 6 years old tried to get on, solders saw them, shouted 'Hey!' and got them off. Then I was upset, thinking what was happening here. I would like to say something about the army at first. They wanted to rescue only people who can contribute to the war. That was a problem. Women, children and the old could not fight for the war. Even if you are a man, the old man can not fight for the war, losing the breath. In short, the army did not rescue such a old man. women can not take a gun, because it is very heavy. Even children could not do it. The military regarded people as a human, who can fight for the war. This is a way of thinking for the army. The issue for them was 'win or lose'. They did not think about a life of human or human rights. These are not the matter. They thought human as material, an ammunition and a weapon. to be continued ...
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[ Links ] eco多摩 http://vege-navi.jp/ |
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Witness： Mr.Sunao Tsuboi