1. Kiyoko Nosaka was exposed to the atomic bombing in Yokogawa, 2km from the epicenter. She was 16.
2. She was working as a mobilized student and was trapped under a building but was able to get out from underneath and return home to have her injuries cared for.
3. Worried about the effect it would have on her children, she kept this experience a secret.
4. Going to Hiroshima before the Bomb
5. I came when I was in 2nd year at the Girl's Commercial High School in Yanai. Those of use who lived near Yanai Station were allowed to commute in the morning.
6. Work at Yokogawa Station
7. We were divided into small groups to take care of issuing and collecting tickets, parcelling, cargo and general affairs. 20 worked day and 20 worked night. I was working night shift.
8. I was 16 but once I left in the morning, I couldn't return to my dormitory until the next morning. This was my routine.
9. In order of height, we worked cargo, parcelling, general affairs, examining and collecting tickets and issuing tickets. I worked in parcelling.
10. The parcels were actually quite large - 10's of kilograms - containing army sundries.
11. I carried them on my back from the arrival platform to another platform.
12. Moment of the Explosion
13. I was working that morning and the people before me hadn't returned yet. They were exposed to the bomb at Yokogawa Station.
14. That morning before work, I had put a pot on my brazier to cook porridge. I heard a big noise and saw it turn bright red outside the kitchen window.
15. I wondered if the house next door had caught fire.
16. As I tried to go outside, the upper floor fell on me. I was trapped. I don't know how long I was like that.
17. I became conscious and scraped through the dirt wall and other things that had come falling. When I got up, the house was gone.
18. Tragedy Afterwards
19. Very soon, fires broke out and the entire area was a sea of fire. Wanting to escape out of town, I walked along the train tracks on the Kabe line.
20. The tracks were covered with broken electrical wires.
21. I wore a wooden clog on one foot and a straw sandal on the other.
22. As I was escaping, black rain the size of hail came falling.
23. The rain was so bad, most of the people around took cover in the bamboo forest.
24. Returning to Yanai
25. We lived in a passenger train that was sitting at the station.
26. It was decided that people who were badly injured would be sent home first, so I walked to Koi Station with a few others and went back to Yanai for the time being.
27. On the way, there were many victims lying on the streets. When I saw them, I had no words.
28. We were told not to drink water, but many had gone to the river to drink and ended up floating, dead.
29. I got off at Iwakuni Station with a friend, to change trains.
30. But then I was told that it was too late to return to Yanai, so I stayed with someone my friend knew.
31. I was told to wash my bloody face, so I washed and I washed, but I couldn't get the blood off. My face was full of cuts.
32. Worrying about After-effects
33. At the time I still didn't know how frightening the atomic bomb was, so I wasn't very afraid.
34. My family knows that I am a hibakusha, but I've hardly ever told the people close to me about how horrible my experience was.
35. My friend who was with me until the end, also. Afraid that it might interfere with her daughter's marriage, she had kept it a secret. She wouldn't even apply for an Atomic Bomb Survivors' Certificate.
36. Hiding the A-bomb Experience
37. I wonder if a child who is raised in this wealthy age would ever understand if I talked about my experience.
38. I wondered if my daughter might have a hard time hearing about it.
39. I was lucky because my husband was very understanding.
40. Recent Health Conditions
41. I suffered from an ulcer, and so I'm very careful of my health. I feel that I mustn't die.
42. I cannot die until I convince the young people of today that ""War is absolutely out of the question.""
43. We have a meeting of hibakushas every year, and each year the number of people attending decreases.
44. We are younger than the others, who are mostly now over 80. There's not much we can do about that, but the group must go on.
45. Brutality of the Atomic Bomb
46. An atomic bomb can kill a great many people at once.
47. Fire bombs only kill those in the vicinity of where they are dropped.
48. With one atomic bomb, 100s of thousands of people in that entire area died at once.
49. Of the students who were mobilized, none died. I feel that I am extremely lucky. Many average citizens died at the station that day.
50. Anger towards the Bombing
51. I truly cannot forgive that act. I hate the United States.
52. I read in the newspaper that the people who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima went back to their country and were greatly praised.
53. Seeing things like that make me very angry.
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