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| OKABE Tomiko（OKABE Tomiko） |
| Gender |
Female |
Age at time of bombing |
23 |
| Recorded on |
2004. |
Age at time of recording |
82 |
| Location at time of bombing |
Hiroshima(Direct exposure Distance from the bombing hypocenter:2.0km) |
| Location when exposed to the bombing |
Misasa, Hiroshima City [Current Nishi-ku, Hiroshima City] |
| Status at time of bombing |
|
| Occupational status at time of bombing |
Volunteer Corps |
| Hall site |
Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims |
Dubbed in English/
With English subtitles |
Dubbed in English |
1. Tomiko Okabe was exposed to the bomb in Misasa-cho, 2km from the hypocenter. She was 23.
2. Half of her body so badly burnt, she was taken for dead. The scars stayed for more than 10 years. She gave up marriage to support her sisters and endured prejudice. Her hatred for the Bomb remains.
3. [going to Hiroshima before the bombing]
4. Our family moved to Hiroshima because of my parents' work. I was in the second grade when we got over there.
5. My father's brother originally ran a restaurant called Otake-ya, behind what is now Mitsukoshi in what is now the Okabe Building.
6. So my father had already gone to Hiroshima and my mother and I joined him later.
7. There was a residential area called Daiya-cho near the station. It's not there anymore. It's called Kyobashi now. We lived there. My father had two factories. One in Misasa.
8. One was in Ozu because Toyo Kogyo was there. I was asked to go to Misasa at around 7:30. I went by train to Yokogawa and walked to the factory. Then I was done with business.
9. [the family then]
10. There were six of us. My father, my mother, me and my three younger sisters. That was in Daiya-cho. We had a housekeeper too.
11. [Hiroshima before the bombing]
12. Oh it was very quiet. That was the best time of my life. I mean, until the atomic bomb, we were all connected. People to people, heart to heart.
13. That's why when I remember those days, I can't help but cry. Most of them died, those people over there.
14. We went on an entertainment call, from the dance group in 1941. There was a place called Shintenchi. I was one of the young members at the Hiroshima Takarazuka Theater where I studied.
15. But those people are all dead. From the atomic bomb. So since the war, I can't think about those days without getting emotional.
16. [immediately before the bombing]
17. My house was in Ushita then so that's where I was headed. As soon as I stepped out, A B29 flew overhead. It was strange because there was no air-raid siren.
18. Then 4 or 5 minutes later, it came back. This time it dropped a black box about so big, but I don't know, it was pretty high up. It came falling with a little parachute attached to it.
19. I thought, ""What's that?"" and stared at it. When I looked at it, I wasn't aware of the time or anything. I was mesmerized. It's difficult to explain. My skin was pulling and I couldn't move.
20. Actually that was my skin burning and sticking together. I don't know, but I fainted. When I became conscious again I had no idea how much time had gone by.
21. [moment of the explosion]
22. That B29 flew over and I was thinking there was nothing to worry about because there was no siren. Then it came back right away and this black box in a parachute came falling.
23. But those days this sort of thing was quite common. Dropping leaflets or dropping fountain pens… so I was curious as to what it was this time. Then the box opened up and something was happening to me.
24. I could almost hear it sizzling. I couldn't move and my body was burning. When I tried to get up I was bare-naked. And black and peeling, like burnt plastic. I couldn't make out my own face.
25. Skin was sagging from my entire body. I tried to peel it off but it hurt too much as it was partly intact. I found a white shirt that had flown over and covered myself. After all I was a woman of 23.
26. Then I heard ""Fire!"" ""Fire!"" They were saying ""Towa,"" my father's company. ""Run! Towa's warehouse is on fire!"" There was oil there for army use and it had caught fire. That could be bad. I had to run.
27. Ask me about how it was. I don't remember if I itched or hurt. All I know is I was headed home. But then everyone was heading towards the hills. And everyone looked the same.
28. So I ran to the railroad track because I had to cross two rivers to get home. The railroad would be a shortcut and easier to walk along. But when I climbed up, the ties were all on fire.
29. So I stepped barefoot on the bigger stones. I don't remember feeling any pain or anything.
30. [family victims]
31. My entire family was exposed to that bomb. All six of us. My father was struck just as he left the 5th division.
32. My 3 sisters and our housekeeper got trapped under the house. They managed to crawl out because they happened to be where there was no upper storey.
33. My mother was out working on breaking houses down for evacuation. She left early in place of my father who was the head of the neighborhood. She was with the Tsurumi-bashi group.
34. My mother talked for years about how she never expected to live through that. She said all she could think about were her children. She needed to get home so she dove into the river.
35. It was full of dead bodies. She tried to get up to the riverbank but was pushed back by dead bodies. They had all jumped in, I guess. So she crawled over them and that's how she got home.
36. Somehow she knew that all of her children were safe. With that realization she collapsed with relief.
37. [immediately after the bombing]
38. I was thirsty but there was no water. I could see a cement fire extinguishing pool. I moved some trash away to take a drink and saw my face in the reflection. I was an ugly ghost.
39. This was 5, 6 hours after the Bomb. My face was so swollen I was not human. I had no hair. I sat on the ground, determined that when I saw my family I would kill myself. I couldn't live like this.
40. The director at Red Cross was very helpful. My face still had keloids here and I couldn't straighten my neck so I would look at people from below. There's a little left here but it was bad then.
41. Three buttons here and my shirt collar - there's still a keloid. And my arm was like this. So the doctor says, ""Okabe, I'll be blunt. You have one year to live."" He became my best friend.
42. Other people including the head nurse were kind. They told me to do anything I want because I don't have long to live anyway. They say if half of your pores are plugged you can't live. Well I couldn’t care less.
43. I couldn't go outside for about 10 years. The wind made me itch all over. Scratching would make blood blisters, like water blisters and they'd break and weep. The poison was being released, I guess.
44. That's probably why I'm alive today. You wouldn't know. When it was hot I'd go out and the wind would itch, I'd scratch. The sun would cause blood blisters. I suffered this for 10 years.
45. [giving up on marriage]
46. There was no time for marriage. My body being the way it was, too. The doctor told me to give it up. I just asked him to get rid of the keloids no matter how much it cost my mother.
47. So I was worked on one at a time. I was hospitalized twice at the Red Cross and had the keloids peeled, but it still didn't get better. I finally gave up on marriage.
48. Besides, my youngest sister was in grade six. She begged me and mother to stay alive because father had died. Like a parent, I felt for her. I had to hang in there until she found happiness.
49. [prejudice against hibakusha]
50. There is prejudice. It was horrible. When we returned to Okayama, we first stayed with my aunt. People would run past the house holding their noses saying, ""ugh the smell"" because of the puss.
51. We shared a well to do laundry back then and my sisters were told not to wash things that wiped my mother and my puss. They were told to do the laundry downstream. I still cringe thinking about it.
52. I remember thinking what the heck! Hang in there, one day we'll show them! Then mother and I would go to bed and talk about getting better and going back to Hiroshima.
53. [the hardest thing after the bombing]
54. The hardest thing was first, not being able to go outside. Not being able to meet people. Next was mentally, well being anemic. The slightest thing would make me dizzy and faint.
55. I suppose it was about my blood. The director at Red Cross Hospital told me not to travel far, to stay in Hiroshima. My body wouldn't listen to me. I had nothing else. Only if my body would move.
56. This hand wouldn't move at all. The part of the keloid, I don't know what it's called, but it's apparently cut now.
57. [anger toward the atomic bomb]
58. I don't believe the war has ended. I'm beyond anger. I'm hateful. Why did I have to go through what I did? But these days, people don't listen. They ignore people who speak of the past.
59. I'm not talking about the past. The war hasn't ended. Not until these scars go away. What are you going to do about it? My family fell to pieces because of the A-bomb. Put us back together, please.
60. It's like being naked. Well naked is not so bad. But this hatred will never go away.
61. So I tell my parents and my sisters that one day soon, we'll remember something good and when we say ""something good happened today"" it's bound to show up in our dreams.
62. And in our dreams, we'll be living happily. Father will be with us and when we're all together, we'll be dreaming of life in Hiroshima.
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*Many more memoirs can be viewed at both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Peace Memorial Halls.
*These contents are updated periodically.
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