1. Miyuki Kamezawa was exposed to the bomb 1.3 kilometers from the hypocenter at Funairi Naka-machi. She was 17.
2. Also exposed were her mother and two sisters. Her sisters died soon afterwards. She gave up on marriage because of keloids.
3. With after-effects, she continues to struggle through life as a writer.
4. [home and family before the bombing]
5. I was living with my mother and two sisters in a house next to Kanzaki Elementary School. My father was a public servant living away, in Kuwana.
6. So he was saved, but he came into Hiroshima right away, hearing of my youngest sister's death. He cried profusely.
7. [life at the time]
8. Generally, August means summer vacation. Oh and Sundays of course are holidays. Anywhere. But Hiroshima was different. There were no air raids and the buildings…
9. It was anyone's dream, to have a house. Like Tokyo, they were everywhere. If a bomb were to be dropped, they'd all be gone. So we were told to make way for rescue. For spaces and military roads.
10. But you know, there weren't enough working hands. The idle were sent to army factories and well, by the time kids were in the 9th grade, they were good to work.
11. So those that age and older worked in the army surplus and clothing depots - girls sewing and boys making guns.
12. And there were many houses in Zakoba-cho, behind the City Hall, I think. I never walked the streets, but if you were called to take down houses, it was there. Like my sister.
13. [moment of the bombing]
14. There were two goldfish in a green bucket. I grabbed one and put it in a washbasin with water a lady had. It flapped around. I remember the lovely color. I forget a lot of things, but that I remember.
15. I barely touched the belly of the second lively one when there was a pressuring sensation. No big bang … just being pushed. Nothing can compare. This was the A-bomb. And it flashed, white and blue.
16. Then the roof tiles came falling in, of course because there was no ceiling. Only a hole. It was that moment. I don't know, maybe a few minutes. I thought I was going to die.
17. I had a strong feeling for young foot soldiers that went off to war and I thought, this must be what it's like to die, or to think you're going to die. Then it got quiet.
18. Oh, it's over, I thought, raising my head. I was buried up to here and my sister came up from below and me, well I took off, even if though it was completely… almost dark.
19. Usually you hear all kinds of noises. The sounds of life. It could be a cicada or a child crying, or maybe a streetcar going by. Well this day, there was nothing. It was a world without sound.
20. So I wondered where I was. Since I thought I was dying, I wondered if this was the world of death? I certainly did not feel alive.
21. Then two people appeared, wearing torn rags like I'd never seen before. I couldn't tell if they were male or female.
22. I looked at myself and saw that I was all covered in blood and realized that I'd been done in. Then suddenly, where I had felt nothing… my back became extremely painful and twisted up. I was done in.
23. My back was burnt, roof tiles cut my head. Blood was dripping to here, shocking my mother. My back blistered up. Only from an instant. It didn't feel hot or cold. That flash of light did me in.
24. The rescue center was one street over. My sister who wasn't injured ran ahead. It had been crushed. Our only choice was Eba Army Hospital 2km away. We carried nothing. Mother and sister were barefoot.
25. [the tragedy that followed]
26. People were ragged and their lips… I don't know what happened, but their lips were torn and gone so they couldn't speak well. I watched them walk away, crying, saying something.
27. On the way, we picked mugwort and other herbs to stop the bleeding, because bleeding starts again when you move.
28. The Army Hospital is gone now, but when we got there… I thought we were pretty quick… but was I ever mistaken. It was incredible. I had thought that it was only our area that had been hit.
29. But when I got there I realized that it was everywhere. I had never dreamed of it. There were lines and longer lines with people getting worse.
30. Of course the better off came running or walking so they were there first, but the worst were… I don't remember clearly but in the end they were brought in like this, on stretcher-like things.
31. Then there was ""move, move, move! Get out of the way!"" then perhaps tripped over something, fell down and stopped moving. Someone turned him over and his stomach popped out. It was frightening.
32. [miraculous family reunion]
33. Soldiers were systematically lining the bodies up in rows. I don't know if they were separating the living and the dead. One soldier was keeping track.
34. We stopped and my mother called my sister's name. If she wasn't here, she was next in line to be brought. So my mother, oh she ran so fast. I had to wonder why. Thinking about it later made me cry.
35. She heard my sister calling; ""mommy."" Mother had no time to be looking around or being treated. It hurt to follow, to watch her holding back her own pain. But being there at that time was a miracle.
36. [sister's last moments]
37. The night of the 7th or early morning on the 8th, I don't remember the time, but she died in the dark, in a warehouse-like building.
38. It's true that people take their last breath. You can hear them taking it. For about an hour, I heard my sister breathing in. I watched her thinking she's still alive as long as she gets over this.
39. She swallowed up the last one and then she was gone. Just like that. I felt dismal. I cried not so much because I was sad but because I couldn't understand why this had to happen to her.
40. Mother tore a sleeve from her yukata and laid it across my sister's face. I'll never forget that. I can still see it.
41. [anxieties of after-effects]
42. My mother had a number of illnesses from the A-bomb, including thyroid diseases like Basedow's disease. On August 6th 1960, she said, ""pathetic, I've lived 15 years."" And then she died.
43. In 1960, I couldn't stand to hear about or remember the atomic bomb. Nothing was wrong except for my legs, though I developed problems later. I think she died on that day to tell me never to forget.
44. [living strong]
45. You see we didn't study during the war. We had been workers from 8th grade, boys and girls. I was in Onomichi, so I was often sent to work on farms.
46. After the war was over, well we were supposed to take our defeat honorably and die, but we didn't have to do that, so I wanted to study. Not because I wanted to do something, I just wanted to study.
47. [giving up on marriage]
48. Radiation eats away at the hematopoietic stem in your bone marrow, rotting the blood cell formation. On June 2nd, 1947, I'll never forget, I was 19, it was so painful I was like this.
49. I was in Kuwana, where they didn't have a clue about the A-bomb. No doctors either. See all these scars? This way and that. Shot my 20s to pieces. Miserable. I want compensation for this.
50. [resentment toward the bombing]
51. What I most wish for is, well we all know how frightening the atomic bomb is, but the fact that the United States of America used it - the crime - charges must be faced.
52. They were ordinary people. The Bomb was an experiment. I wrote a book. They've tested on people and buildings in Nevada. I went to Los Alamos, Albuquerque, Santa Fe. It can't be good. They know that.
53. What's proof is that they built ABCC to study the effects on humans and what makes them die. And that's exactly what they did. This crime cannot be forgiven. I've said it a million times.
54. No matter what anyone does for me, I'm not going to live much longer anyway. I just want to hear an apology. My anger is towards the bomb, but more so towards those that used it.
55. What's bad is the US ordering others, like Iraq, to get rid of weapons, when they have the largest share, including chemical and nuclear warfare. Clean up your own act first. This is outrageous.
56. [what the atomic bomb robbed]
57. I'm not sure what happiness is. Marriage might have made me unhappy, but family love is passed down, not out. Not knowing that warmth may be what made me this way. I wish I knew that love.
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