Mr. NAKAMURA Akira, who was 14 years old at the time of the A-bombing.While working at Mitsubishi Steel Mfg, he was exposed to the bomb's radiation in Mori-machi, 1.2 km from the hypocenter.He was surprised by a pink flash that colored everything. As soon as he ran out from the factory he was blown back by a blast, and trapped under an iron frame.His body incapable of moving, he prepared for death in a relentless overnight bombing.And when he’d get home at last, he’d see a disastrous sight.
Nagasaki is an exotic town with a mixture of Eastern and Western cultures.In Nagasaki, we lived a pleasant life in a house set in a very spacious lot, on a hill overlooking the port.
Usually, my mother tended a farmland field,and my father belonged to the town’s Civilian Guard. He went to prepare soup kitchens for victims in case of emergency.Both of my parents were 53 years old.They were healthy and well-liked by everybody. They worked for the benefit of the neighborhood and its residents.My siblings and I felt proud and respectful of my parents. We were raised in a loving home.
When I entered Mitsubishi Steel Academy, I was 14.Every week I worked in the factory for three days and studied at school for three days.
【On August 9th】
By chance, I went to fetch lunchboxes before 11 am, because I was the youngest and just a child.When some of the youngsters and I had gathered to carry lunchboxes to 300 employees, we got exposed to the flash.The mountains and everything else turned pink.Everything was pink, and the noise was as if the very earth or the mountains were cracking.
I escaped towards the northern part of the city center.Unsure where the bomb had been dropped, I guessed that the military plant where I was had been directly attacked, so I tried to escape the factory.When I had run only about 10 meters towards the city center,I was blown back into the factory.
And I was buried under that iron frame, regaining consciousness at about sunset.Seeking only rescue, I screamed and screamed, “Help me!” And finally someone came.It was my boss, “Bosun,” as we called him. He had survived, and had been searching for me ever since the atomic bomb had been dropped at 11:02.That man, named HONDA Kumao, saved me because he happened to hear my screaming.
When he hoisted me up onto his back, I felt a sharp pain in my right thigh. It was broken. “Mr. Honda,” I said, “Please leave me here to die. I’m severely injured and don’t have the strength to leave the factory.”I cried and yelled, “Please leave me here!” because I was in so much pain.But Mr. Honda said, “No,” and he took me outside.
Mr. Honda then told me, “I’m worrying about my home, so I will go and see. You stay here.” I waited and waited. It got dark but he didn't return.With darkness all around me, the sky was burning red. Schools and private residences were blazing. Sparks kept falling on my face.I couldn't shake off the sparks because I was just lying there unable to move.Grumman fighters from an aircraft carrier were coming to strafe and to drop flare bombs and incendiary bombs.They carried out the raid all night. I felt desperate but also prepared for this brush with death.
【My elder brother's help】
Mr. Honda could not go back to his home. It was located at Nishizaka-machi, just to the north of Nagasaki Station.He struggled very hard just to get to a place across the Urakami River the next morning.Yelling, “Are any Nakamura family members around?” he encountered my elder brother, who couldn’t make it home either. “I am Nakamura!” he responded to Mr. Honda’s shouts. Mr. Honda asked whether he knew Nakamura Akira. “He’s my younger brother” was his reply. Then they both came to rescue me the next morning.The moment I met them I was overwhelmed with many inexpressible emotions. With joy and excitement, I finally felt I could survive.
I was brought on a stretcher to an aid station. Once I got away from the factory, I saw there were no houses, only smoke drifting all over from their smoldering embers. I saw almost no one but wandering burnt people with their skin peeled off and dangling down. I went to an aid station at an elementary school around two km away.It had already filled up with lots of people. There were no bandages, nothing but mercurochrome. I received no treatment.There were no doctors except for two military surgeons who couldn’t find anything to do. I was brought back on the stretcher.
Then, by coincidence I met a friend I’d frequently played with since I was a small boy. His name was NIWATANI Yutaka.He was not injured at all. He said he was saved because he’d been in an air-raid shelter.He said he would visit Shimabara City for a while. That was the last goodbye for us. Three days later, when I was in bed at the air-raid shelter, somebody told me that he had died.I felt so deeply sorry about it. If he had survived, we could have done so much together. Inevitable, but truly sad.
【Death of My Family】
When I got to my home, the house was burnt away.I saw wisps of smoke from the smoldering jar Mother had buried in the ground, with wheat grains saved for emergencies.When I went to the air-raid shelter, my mother was waiting for me.My father was lying there, burned all over his body except the part covered by his cap. He was barely breathing.Mother was seriously alarmed about the family, with Father burned, myself injured, and Sumako, our elder sister, still missing.
The night I came back, Father died.My mother, brother and younger sister cremated my father. I stayed put at the shelter because I could not move.These family members cremated my father, who was already so badly burned, which made us all very sad. What unbearable suffering and desolation to have to cremate one’s own family member.With anguish and misery, the children put the flame to their own father.War caused all of this. We must never make war again.
My elder sister was working for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Nagasaki Weapons Factory at the age of 20.Every day, she was in charge of carrying business correspondences by train between the office at Ibinokuchi-machi and the Ohashi Factory. So we didn’t know where she’d gone missing.
Mother asked my brother to search for her everywhere, such as aid stations and schools in Nagasaki City, but his search ended in vain. We actually had no hope of finding her. My brother brought back some unclaimed remains left at Mitsubishi’s Nagasaki Weapons Factory, because he gave up looking for her.Mother, my brother, and younger sister buried these remains, even though they were not my sister’s, praying for her happiness in the next world.Due to the war, I have had suffering, sadness, and miserable thoughts.
My mother died on September 18th. It was just a month and a week after the atomic bombing.Three or four days before her death, there were spots on her whole body. I slept on the stretcher and she slept next to me. Rainwater made pools inside the air-raid shelter when I lived in it. My brother made a makeshift A-frame shed by tying some logs together at one end.He brought in 3 tatami mats to lay my mother and me onto. Mother suddenly fell into poor health. Besides the black spots there was blood loss. My brother sat up with her 3 days and 3 nights but she died the morning of September 18.
On her deathbed, she called me, my elder brother, and my sister to her side and told us how we ourselves would survive.She told my brother to marry a wife, told me to go to Ureshino Naval Hospital in Saga, where my parents came from, and told my little sister to go to our relatives. And she told us to hold a Buddhist memorial service for her in Ureshino with the money made by selling sugar she’d stored in the air-raid shelter.As my mother had a strong character, she told us what she wanted to say and passed away.My elder brother again scavenged lumber and cremated my mother. But there was no funeral urn for her ashes.We had to put them in something like a broken rice bowl. Can you imagine how miserable we were with nowhere to enshrine our mother’s remains?
【After-effects of atomic bombings】
I tried to fix my fractured leg with surgery, but at the time my white blood cell count had dropped to just 550 due to after-effects of the atomic bombing.If an operation were performed my bleeding couldn’t be stopped and I’d die. So I could not undergo surgery until my white blood cell count increased. Two or three years after going back to Nagasaki, when my white blood cells increased, I tried to have surgery. However, my leg muscles had hardened by then. Though the current medical technology could have cured it, at that time it was impossible. My leg stays as it is.I am physically handicapped. One of my legs is 5 cm shorter than the other.
【In search of a new world】
Living in Nagasaki, I couldn’t stop remembering my seniors, juniors and friends, over and over.But we have no classmates in Nagasaki because they all died in the atomic bombing. Of course, there are no reunions. Could you live in such a town? We all must live together and support each other. I have lived with the love and gratitude of my close friends and neighbors. When I was young, I felt I couldn’t live in Nagasaki anymore without any friends and relatives. I wanted to live somewhere else.
【What he wants to convey】
A war from now on would be a big war leading to an atomic war, and both sides concerned would be destroyed or keep facing each other.I would like our government to teach the horrifying reality of atomic warfare to children in the nation’s educational curriculum. It is necessary for children to learn that wars will bring them misery and sadness. Those who have experienced wars should keep their lifelong anxiousness even though they survived.I hope war will disappear if we fill school textbooks with that fear and teach it to children.I think education for children is prior to everything. As such a large number of people sacrificed themselves and died in the war,younger generations should appreciate those people who brought the peace they enjoy today, and hold firmly the idea of leading the world toward everlasting peace.All I want for those who have no war experience is to learn the importance of peace through education.
Production.Translation: Kishio Sakamoto’s 2019 seminar students of Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. Supervision of translations: Stewart Wachs, Kishio Sakamoto. Translation coordination: NET-GTAS (Network of Translators for the Globalization of the Testimonies of Atomic Bomb Survivors).
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