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FUKAHORI Hiroyasu(FUKAHORI Hiroyasu) 
Gender Male  Age at time of bombing 20 
Recorded on 2003.11.5  Age at time of recording 78 
Location at time of bombing Nagasaki(Direct exposure Distance from the bombing hypocenter:5.0km) 
Location when exposed to the bombing Yoshimuta-go, Nagayo-mura, Nishi-sonogi-gun [Current Yoshimuta-go, Nagayo-cho, Nishi-sonogi-gun] 
Status at time of bombing Civil servant 
Occupational status at time of bombing Transportation Ministry Moji Railway BureauNagasaki Administration Department 
Hall site Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims 
Dubbed in English/
With English subtitles
Dubbed in English 

1. Hiroyasu Fukahori, working for the national railway company, was 5 km from the hypocenter. His home in the city disappeared without a trace. His family too. He was 20 years old when his hell began.
2. [home and family]
3. My home was in Shiroyama, 1.2 km from the hypocenter. My mother, my two brothers and I were living there at first.
4. In May, my aunt (my mother's sister) brought her family to live with us. They had evacuated. So about 10 of us were living there.
5. [work at the time of the bomb]
6. I joined the national railway when I was 18 and worked in the general affairs section of the national railway's Nagasaki management division. The office was burned in a fire.
7. So it was moved from Dejima to a barrack-like building in place called Nagayo, 3 stations from Nagasaki. It was the control tower for all of the Nagasaki precinct. I worked there.
8. [moment of the explosion]
9. The A-bomb is recorded as having been dropped at 11:02. In Nagayo too, a few seconds later, the sky turned black.
10. We thought that a big bomb had been dropped nearby and dove under our desks. Several seconds later, a blast blew over our heads and ripped through the room.
11. The glass broke to pieces and windows blew right off of their hinges. None of us in the room were injured, thanks to being under our desks.
12. Many who weren't able to take cover were cut by glass.
13. The A-bomb destroyed trains, too. Windows shattered, injuring many passengers inside the trains.
14. Slowly, I started to realize that this was no ordinary air strike.
15. [immediately, a rescue train]
16. We heard that Nagasaki was ruined but there were no details. Only that victims were pouring out of the city. A rescue train was needed.
17. We immediately turned a train that was stopped at Nagayo Station into a rescue train and headed for Nagasaki.
18. From Nagasaki Station, the city was bare. Where there had once  been buildings factories and houses, was now completely bare.
19. The railroad tracks were unreliable, so we slowly went down into town, signaling with flags.
20. Then all these char-black people came streaming up the hill. Most of them weren't wearing anything. Oh, and their hands and faces were completely black.
21. Houses were burned or blown away so the streets were blocked. The only passage walk able was the railroad.
22. Victims were headed out of town along the railroad. Long lines of them. Hundreds of them.
23. [rescuing victims and the tragedy]
24. At the time, there were two big navy hospitals in Isahaya and Omura. We stopped the train and started to let people on, so we could take them there.
25. It was a long way up from the rails to the passenger deck. It was hard even for us to get up. The victims had barely enough strength to hold on, so we tried to help them up.
26. But when I tried to boost them up, I was so surprised. Shocked at the state of their burns. Their hands, face, the skin all over had peeled and was sagging.
27. They were burnt through the skin and red flesh was showing. Of course their faces were so swollen they could barely see. They were all like that, these people.
28. Clothes had burned off of their bodies so they weren't wearing much. When I tried to carry these people up, their skin stuck to my hands and blood oozed from the red meat.
29. Many of these hibakusha cried, ""It hurts, it hurts, please help."" They cried a lot.
30. Anyway, I had to help them up. I did everything I could to lift them up into the passenger cars of this train which was headed for Isahaya.
31. When we arrived, we tried to get the injured people off, but they wouldn't go.
32. The people of Isahaya were out on the platforms, waiting for the train to come in so that they could help the people who had been in the bomb.
33. Nobody was coming so when we went in to look, more than half had died on the train.
34. So actually what happened was that people who had died were taken off the train, lined up like tuna and taken to Isahaya and Omura to be cremated.
35. [finding family at home]
36. I went to where I could see my house from behind Shiroyama-cho, but I could have sworn I was in the wrong place. It looked so different.
37. There wasn't a trace of the house.
38. When I finally got to what seemed to be my house, fire was still burning. The house had totally burned down. I still see the image of what was left.
39. Not knowing what had happened to my family, I searched the neighborhood. A air raid shelter had been dug out, so I went there with hopes of finding them.
40. The neighborhood air raid shelter had been dug out of a cliff and could house 50 people. It was big. I found my aunt and my sister there.
41. My sister, I say, but if I hadn't been told, I never would have recognized her.
42. To tell you the situation, she was originally quite pretty with clear white skin. She would grow up to be a beauty.
43. Well her face was burnt black and bloated and her eyes swollen shut.
44. Apparently she was outside. I heard later that my aunt was rocking her youngest on her back, while they went outside because the air raid warnings had been called off.
45. The flash of the A-bomb killed the baby in an instant. My sister was somehow able to run to the shelter but she was in a horrible state. She died that evening.
46. My youngest brother was in the house. The day after, I went to search in the rubble and found the lower half of his body.
47. His upper half was completely burnt away so only his lower half… I will never forget what that was like.
48. My mother had gone out and was in Morimachi when the bomb exploded. She didn't suffer any injuries because she was inside.
49. I have no idea how she found her way through the ruins and fires. It is still a mystery to me, but she found her way home. Perseverance, I suppose.
50. She popped up out of nowhere in the early evening as we stood gazing at the remains of our home.
51. I was thrilled that my mother had made it. You wouldn't believe how happy I was to see her alive.
52. [victimized family --- anger at the A-bomb]
53. In my family alone, a total of 8 people were killed, because my mother and aunt died later. They lost their lives. They were murdered.
54. The number of lost lives shows how the A-bomb robs everything of life, leading to complete destruction. It is indiscriminate massacre.
55. The more time passes, the more anger this A-bomb festers.
56. My mother was my only family left at the time. Then a week later, 2, 3 days after the war was over, she finally, in the evening, she died, repeatedly calling her sons' names.
57. This pain. The pain of having lost all of my family apart from one younger brother. This feeling is something…
58. I still feel it, but I think the most important thing in life is your family. There is nothing more precious than family.
59. We hibakusha, we lost our families. I think this feeling is what makes us yearn for nuclear abolition all the more. Our prayer for peace is stronger than you could imagine.
60. [cremating sister's body]
61. Waste wood from destroyed homes was laid along the river bank and 8 and 9 bodies at a time were lined on top and burned. I set my sister at the very edge so I could find her ashes later.
62. This cremation of bodies went on for 3 days and 3 nights. We all burned our own family's bodies.
63. Some people helped us burn bodies the day after the bomb. The day after that, it was their turn to be burned.
64. Those who were fine one moment were dead the next. The terror of radiation is indescribable even now.
65. The cruelty of the burns is horrendous in itself, but these people who looked absolutely fine without a scratch on their body. They lost their lives. They're dead.
66. I saw right before my very eyes, how radiation destroys human tissue as it takes life away.
67. [importance of life, deterrence of war]
68. Very important. Losing my family taught me for the first time, just how important life is. I'll say it time and time again, but I still won't have said it enough.
69. The life of a hibakusha is one that strongly emphasizes the importance of life, from what we learned through our families.
70. Look after the people close to you and spread the love. Let the importance of life ripple out so that everyone can see.
71. See the thing called peace. See that war is bad. The world must become a place where people can say ""no"" to war. Together. Out loud.

*Many more memoirs can be viewed at both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Peace Memorial Halls.
*These contents are updated periodically.
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