HIROTA Etsuko was 3 years old at the time of the bombing. She was in Takajo-machi, 0.8 km. from ground zero, when the atomic bomb exploded. There were burns all over her body and she says she used river water to cool them. She still feels the effects of the atomic bomb.
【Life Before the Bomb】
I lived in Takajo-machi, Hiroshima. I don't remember the street number. The house was just 800 meters from Peace Memorial Park. Takajo-machi was located on the far side of Aioi bridge. The name of the neighborhood is different now, but that’s where we lived. There were 7 members in my family: my father, mother, grandmother, my three big sisters, and me.
【The Family Business】
My family owned a restaurant. That day, my father left, saying he had to evacuate everyone to the countryside. The atomic bomb exploded as my father was heading to the restaurant. We couldn't find him. My grandmother and sister (the second oldest) had already evacuated to Aki-gun, Fuchu-cho.
【The Moment the Bomb Exploded Exposure to the Bomb at Age Three】
On August 6, my mother, father and I were at home. Shortly after my father went to the restaurant, the atomic bomb exploded. I was three years old at the time. I remember coming out of the toilet and turning toward my left. I don’t remember what happened after that. My mother was lying on the couch by the front door.
After the bright flash, my mother tried to go to the tatami room but did not make it. She was trapped underneath the collapsed house. My mother said she saw me running to where my oldest sister was in the room in the annex.
After that, I heard that my older sister put me on her back and took me into the water under Aioi bridge. At that time, my mother was trapped under the house. She saw a small crack of light so she crawled towards it and stuck out her hand. Neighbors moved some of the wooden debris. Eventually they said, "We can't make the hole any bigger so you need to try to get out now. " When she crawled out she was covered with wounds. Her head was injured and she had a nail piercing her foot.
She wanted to find her children and to wash off all the blood, so she went to Aioi Bridge. She found us there and my sister handed me over to her. All three of us had burns on our feet and hands. Just being held was painful for me.
【What Mother told me about the Immediate Aftermath of the Bombing】
The river turned brown, and finally it turned red, the color of blood. The water was lukewarm, as if we were in a bath. Dead people, people who were injured, people who had burns were all in the river. The bodies of the dead were taken from the river and piled into holes dug on the banks. Oil was poured over them and they were burned.
The people walking were naked, so badly burned that there was no telling whether they were men or women. Many people on the ground pulled at my mother's legs as she passed by begging, "Water please." But she believed that if she gave them water, it would kill them. She left them saying, "Please hang in there until the soldiers come to help."
It was a hellish scene around Aioi Bridge. There was nothing, just burnt-out ruins. Bodies were being burned here and there. If it was thought a person couldn't be saved,she was put into a hole and burned.
【Treatment after the Bombing】
I was laid in a room and after a day, I became covered with flies and maggots and began to stink. When people entered our yard, the unpleasant smell of my mother and I was unbearable. My grandmother and my sisters didn't think that my mother and I would survive. They tried all kinds of treatments but to no avail. They thought we were going to die.
After receiving a penicillin injection, we gradually got better. "My burns didn't turn into keloids." There are no keloids on my hands, feet or face. If I tell people this is a scar from a burn, they may just barely be able to tell that the skin is a little different. It has healed almost completely. My mother didn't have keloids, either.
My illness healed just as we ran out of money. I was able to receive treatment thanks to the money that my father had saved under my name. I don't have scars, either. Unless I were to say, no one would be able to tell that I was an atomic bomb survivor. My skin is dark and I am weak, but people say I look normal. I am grateful to my mother and grandmother. Thanks to them, I have been able to heal to this extent.
【Symptoms from the Atomic Bomb】
My hair came out in bunches whenever I moved my head or combed my hair. The more I combed or moved my head, the more my hair came out. I became completely bald. They always made me wear a hat because they said my hair would never grow back. I hated that hat so I always took it off. About a year before I started elementary school, my hair began to grow again. It was sparse. By the time I started elementary school, my hair had grown back.
My mother lost her hair, too. She gathered bunches of pine needles and used them to open her pores to make her hair grow. She was always pricking her head with the pine needles. Her head would be covered with blood.
【The Death of My Mother】
This year marks the 16th anniversary of my mother's death. My mother had many heart problems, including heart valvular disease, angina, and myocardial infarction. She had problems with most of her internal organs, including her liver, but the cause of her death was heart disease.
【Stories My Mother Told Me】
"My mother told me stories about the atomic bomb. She told me about what the bomb was like, how it was terrifying, and how everybody suffered from burns." "There wasn't much I could do as a child, but I attended various meetings about the atomic bomb." Sometimes I would ask her to tell me about the bomb, and she would comply.
When I was a student, I was so weak that I could not even sit up straight at school and study. I was always resting my body on my desk. I was told to get a thorough medical examination at the hospital, so I went.I told them I was in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb fell.
Why was the atomic bomb dropped? Will I be able to marry if I became sick from the bomb? Will I be able to live a long life? From around that time, I talked to my mother about all kinds of things. My mother told me about the atomic bomb and the conditions of the atomic bomb survivors. I became an active member in the movement to support atomic bomb survivors.
My mother said, "I really do not want to talk about that time. I get teary eyed and it is hard to keep on talking. "But my mother felt she had to tell me. She hoped that when I grew up, I would be able to join the movement to supportatomic bomb victims. My mother said that her stories would be useful then.
From the time I finished junior high school, I believed that I would never be able to get married. People would certainly oppose my marriage if they found out that I was an atomic bomb victim. Even if I did get married, they said I would give birth to children without fingers, eyes, or ears. Hearing all these things, I believed I would never be able to get married.
My mother feared that I would become a bad child because she and I were both frail, and I had lost my father. My mother began practicing traditional Japanese dance in Hiroshima in order to maintain discipline and health. I have continued to practice it diligently because I like the traditional performing arts.
【Problems Caused by the Atomic Bomb】
The skin on my left hand and my left foot are different because I was facing left when the bomb exploded. I had burnson my right side too, but when you compare the two sides, you can see that my left side is mottled. I have threeor four keloids on my stomach. It is as if I had a kimono sash knot around my navel. The keloids cannot be seen it unless I take off my clothes, and they are not strange-looking. My face was turned to the left, but my skin is normal now. My skin does not turn red-black and white in the summer or winter.
【Obstacles to Marriage as an Atomic Bomb Survivor】
My husband's father, sisters, brothers, and relatives opposed our marriage. They said, "She is an atomic bomb survivor and so is her mother." "Why do you need to marry such a person when there are so many healthy girls around you?" The neighborhood elders said to my husband, "Your parents will object. So will your siblings. Will you be able to overcome their opposition?" My husband answered, "I am certain I can. I will marry her even if they oppose me." We got married, but I wasn't allowed to officially enter the family register until we had a child.
【Hatred Toward the Atomic Bomb】
I don't want the atomic bomb to be dropped ever again. I don't want anybody to go through what the atomic bomb victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki went through. I only hope that the world is peaceful, and that Japan is peaceful. I don't want any more wars. I hope that the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be the last victims of the atomic bomb. -The Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors have already suffered so much. There has been enough suffering. I hope that our grandchildren and daughters will live in a peaceful world, so that there will be no more war, and nuclear weapons will not be used.
Translation: Students of the Class "Nuclear Issues through the Translation of Hibakusha Accounts," Yokohama National University, Fall 2018.
Translation Supervisors: Ronni Alexander and Kenji Hasegawa
Translation Coordinator: NET-GTAS (Network of Translators for the Globalization of the Testimonies of Atomic Bomb Survivors)
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