KOHATA Yoshiteru, at the time of exposure to the radiation, he was 16 years old. He was a fourth grader of Nagasaki Prefectural Isahaya Junior High School. While the battle field situation was getting worse, he had no class and spent his days helping to repair motors in a factory. From a distant mountain, he saw an ominous black cloud rising in the sky above the city of Nagasaki. Afterwards, he began to carry countless dead bodies.
I was going to a junior high school in Isahaya, living in a boarding house. When I was a first grader of junior high school, my mother died. My father's younger brother was in Manchuria at that time and took care of us. He sent us school fees and I managed to graduate junior high school. I was exposed to the radiation of the atomic bomb when I was in the fourth grade of junior high school. At that time, when we became fifth or sixth graders of elementary school, we were sent to farmers' houses to help with the work. This was called service work (hō sagyo in Japanese). Many men were absent as they had gone to war. First-year junior high school students also went to farmers' houses. We had been studying until Showa 17 or 1942, when we were first graders. Around Showa 18 or 1943, because of wartime mobilization of students for labor services, we could no longer go to school. Factories, for example. Naval Air Arsenal in Omura was destroyed by an air raid. Only the repairing section of motors moved to Isahaya. A factory was built in the mountains and we helped to repair motors there. This was when we were third or fourth graders. We worked there until Showa 20 or 1945, but by then there were not any motors to repair. So we were sent to dig out roots of pine trees containing oil. It was when we were out digging out pine roots that we were exposed to the radiation of the atomic bomb.
It was around 11 o'clock. Digging out pine roots was a heavy work. We were sweating a lot in August heat. While we were taking a break from work, we heard a terrible sound of a huge explosion. I sprung to my feet in surprise at the sound, thinking that a bomb was dropped nearby. I had just laid down to take a rest. Then a black cloud was rising up in the direction of Nagasaki. We were shocked at the sight. About 60 people who were working in the mountains went to Nagasaki in two trucks.
[A disastrous scene］
On the way to Nagasaki, we saw injured people, blood stained and with their skin hanging off. Almost naked with bare feet, crying loudly, they were escaping in the direction of Isahaya. We saw them from our truck but could do nothing to help them. We went on to our destination which was Urakami. I was shocked to see them thinking this was not a usual bomb. When we entered the Urakami area, everything, houses and people, were destroyed. Everything was burnt down and devastated as far as one could see. We went in and did our relief work. I was shocked because everyone was alomost naked and I didn't know what to do. Trembling, I did my relief work.
It was in August, the height of summer, and a lot of flies swarmed onto the eyes of the dead. Looking closely, I found a large number of maggots wriggling there as well. I thought flies laid eggs but actually they laid maggots. (This is his impression.) There were some people who were still living but could not move. Maggots were crawling around their wound as well. We put medicine called "akachin [Mercurochrome]" on their faces. Whole faces were injured. We applied it trembling with fear. Faces rapidly became red because of the red antiseptic. Nagasaki University of Medicine was also destroyed and I guess there was no anesthetic available. A medical officer was cutting with scissors the underarm of a young lady without anesthesia. What devastated me the most was her screaming, "Stop. Please stop it." I still cannot forget it now.
[Things I cannot forget］
I was working trembling. A soldier spurred me on shouting "Stop shaking." We were told, "Now, carry the dead bodies" and two people carried them on a stretcher. We had to carry them to a faraway place on a mountain. The way there was steep. Nagasaki is surrounded by mountains. I don't remember at all how many times or how I carried them. Working in pairs, with no work gloves, we put dead bodies on a stretcher with our bare hands. There were some people on the top of the mountain who were in charge of digging holes. We were in charge of carrying dead bodies. Because of fear, we ran back although we knew we had to carry them (another dead bodies) again. It was horrifying. I remember we ran down a hill holding a stretcher with a friend. We did it many, many times.
We slept out at night. There were no buildings. I don't remember where I slept. We didn't eat things like white rice because there was a shortage of food. Even if I was given a rice ball, I could not eat it because the images of the atomic bomb were present. When the night came, there appeared lots of mosquitoes as we were in the mountains. I couldn't sleep at all because of large swarms of mosquitoes. I remembered the atomic bombs and features of dead bodies and being plagued by mosquitoes. I spent three days without sleeping at alI. We did our work there for three days. We passed the night there. Even if we returned to an elementary school or a junior high school in Isahaya, we found that all of them became places for laying dead bodies. Dead bodies were gathered in the lecture halls. We did this type of work even when we went back to schools. We dusted powder like lime on dead bodies for making them white until the end of the war. From the 9th of August, we did such work until the 15th of august.
The 15th of August… I hesitate to say but I was really relieved when the war ended at last. Because I saw the disastrous scenes of Nagasaki after the atomic bombs, what I remember the most was that sense of relief even if we lost the war.
[Awareness for the "hibakusha"］
I started losing my hair that year but no one in the public seemed to pay attention to such a problem and I thought it was because of the atomic bomb. People around me also paid no attention to the problem. I could get black hair to grow at some time or other but I was surprised at losing my hair whenever I saw myself in a mirror. I didn't notice I had lost my hair quickly or naturally. I was anxious about it as I was young and was afraid that what would happen. I didn't expect I could get my hair again.
[Things what I want to tell］
The anniversary of the end of the war comes every year on the 15th August, I once ask a head teacher, "May I talk about my personal experiences of the nuclear bomb?" but I was declined. It was still in the 1950's. I would never send my students and young people to the war; it has been my belief since I saw the disastrous scenes of the atomic bomb. I became a teacher because of this. It has permanently fixed in my mind that I don't want the same thing to happen to my students and young people. I just have had no chance to talk about it until now but I thought I would like to talk voluntarily this time. Wars are equal to dying and they should never happen. We get old gradually and I'm anxious about what will happen to the young and people who will be born from now. Education, I think I have been engaged in that with my whole heart. When politics come in, I am really at loss about what to do. I just want to keep my belief that wars should never occur.
Translation: Seminar Class in Kyoto University of Foreign Languages in 2019
Supervisors: SHONAKA Takayuki and Paul D. Scott
Translation Coodinator: NET-GTAS (Network of Translators for the Globalization of the Testimonies of Atomic Bomb Survivors)
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