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| HASEBE Matsuko（HASEBE Matsuko） |
| Gender |
Female |
Age at time of bombing |
6 |
| Recorded on |
2005.11.29 |
Age at time of recording |
66 |
| Location at time of bombing |
Hiroshima(Direct exposure Distance from the bombing hypocenter:1.8km) |
| Location when exposed to the bombing |
Senda-machi 3-chome, Hiroshima City [Current Senda-machi 3-chome, Naka-ku, Hiroshima City]-Motoyasu River |
| Status at time of bombing |
Elementary student |
| Occupational status at time of bombing |
Senda Elementary School |
| Hall site |
Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims |
Dubbed in English/
With English subtitles |
Dubbed in English |
1. It was a school day for Matsuko Hasebe, who was playing with her friends before school, by the river, when her surroundings were glazed by a frightening light. She was 6.
2. The atomic bomb robbed her of her cute little brother and beloved Grandpa. Hiroshima became a place of sorrow, for the young girl.
3. I finished breakfast and my grandfather was taking down buildings. I think he headed the neighborhood.
4. They were all being prepared for evacuation in case of a fire. He was out directing the work.
5. So my grandfather went out and I, well it was a small lane beside the kitchen, but my friends came around because we were all going over to the community temple, I think. It wasn't school.
6. So we all gathered. It was hot and we could hear cicadas. I don't know who said it first, but we all agreed to go down to the river to play.
7. We went to the river and the beach was quite visible. Back then, there was sand and it went almost all the way to the other side when the tide was out.
8. While we were playing, the tide started to come in and the level of water of course started to rise.
9. You know what a stepped pier is, I'm sure, but we took off all of our clothes, even our underwear and left them there and started swimming. There were 5 or 6 of us.
10. Maybe more or less, but I think 5 or 6. We were playing and I felt something strange.
11. [that moment]
12. There was a strong flash, I think. I'm not quite sure but it was strange so I went up the stone steps and just as I got to the top two or so, there was a rumbling sound.
13. Later on in school we learned about the Pikadon, but that's how it was. Flash and bang. I took cover, then hand in hand with my friend climbed to the top.
14. Just then it was impossible to see, for the sand dust. It felt completely dark. So I didn't move. I just stayed put.
15. In a little while, I started hearing noises. People screaming and shouting, ""Help!"" ""It's hot"" and so on.
16. I slowly lifted my face and looked. I saw lots of people with their skin sliding off from being burned.
17. I think they were people going to work. They were all on their way to work and my friend and I just stood there in awe. Silent.
18. People started going down the steps because it was so hot. Many dove into the river. I think the tide was making the water even higher. People started flowing away.
19. We were so scared. My friend and I just stood there hugging each other. We weren't crying at first, but we got scared and started to cry. Then we went home.
20. My grandmother came looking for me. I heard her calling my name. She knew we had gone to the river so she came looking for me and we went home together.
21. Already, the streets were covered in roof tiles and broken down houses. I carefully walked through the rubble because I was barefoot.
22. That's just the way it was. I wasn't burnt and the only injury to speak of was a scraped knee. So I guess I was lucky.
23. [returning home]
24. There was a big beam in the middle of my house. When I got home, that beam was on its side. The clay walls had crumbled and the woven bamboo was showing. You could see through it.
25. The house was a mess. We couldn't get in from the side so we had to go around back and in through the yard. Through the back yard.
26. Well the dirt was really smelly. Around the front door and so on. From the clay walls, I think. The smell was bad.
27. I don't know what time it was, but it started raining. Black rain. It was big and thick. I was very small, so those raindrops seemed awfully big to me.
28. My grandfather got back before it stopped raining, on a stretcher. There was a bed in their room, so we took him there so he could lie on the bed. He was alive but he couldn't talk.
29. Meanwhile, fires broke out and they were getting closer and closer. We were told to evacuate, but I was at home with my grandparents. The three of us.
30. My uncle was volunteering labor when the school building collapsed. He was on the 2nd floor.
31. He somehow crawled out, went through Shukkeien picking up footwear and such so he could walk. When he got home he had glass stuck in his body all over.
32. [the situation that followed]
33. So we took grandfather and went over to the other side across Minami-Ohashi, over bumps. I was carrying the luggage. It was heavy so I don't remember if I was able to.
34. But there were only grandmother and me so I'm sure I did my best, even if I may have dropped a few things along the way.
35. So we got to the other side and there were many evacuees. We walked through them and found a place to put our things down. All around us people were burnt.
36. A young lady I saw. Her face was sliding off, it seemed. It was frightening. I grabbed onto my grandmother and didn't let go.
37. The lady went toward a soldier, begging and begging for water. He wouldn't give her any, saying that if she drank water she'd die. I don't believe she's still alive today.
38. Meanwhile the fires were spreading and getting closer until finally, in the early morning, they started to subside. Then grandmother left grandfather and me saying she was going to check the house.
39. Everything on this side of the street had burned down. The factory and everything. But this side was fine. Our house hadn't caught fire. It was all there, so we went home.
40. We needed to feed grandfather some rice porridge or something. Our kitchen was a mess, so we borrowed our relative's kitchen and got porridge and I think they had freshwater clams.
41. So I cheerfully took grandfather his meal, but I didn't hear him say anything. I think he was dead then.
42. Of course we had to cremate him, but we couldn't have a proper funeral because everyone lived far away and so we took his body to a place where other bodies were being burned.
43. What I saw was a mountain, or mountains of dead bodies. And tracks from two-wheeled wagons. Boys, I think, were sitting on one of the wagons, just like this.
44. They were small, so I think they were children. They were burnt to a crisp. Both of them. Scenes like that, I saw. It frightened me.
45. For years, I could smell it. The smell of dead people. I don't know how long, but that smell stayed in my nose.
46. It's the smell of death. I couldn't get rid of it. I'm sure it wasn't just me. I'm sure everyone felt that way.
47. [brother's death]
48. My father had the bends, like diver's disease and was hospitalized at the naval hospital in Kure. That's why he didn't have to go to war and that's probably why he stayed alive.
49. My mother had taken my younger brother to visit him on the 4th or 5th, I'm not sure. But they arrived at Hiroshima Station on the 6th. I know because I heard about it later.
50. My brother was, um, my mother's right hand was burned, and she had been carrying him on her back, like this maybe, so he was completely burned.
51. She was told that the city was completely burned out so I think she decided that it would be better to go back to where my father was. They put her on a truck and got her to a school in Saka.
52. Apparently my brother died at around 11 pm. Right up until the last moment, he begged for water but they wouldn't give him any, saying he'd die.
53. Later my mother regretted not feeding him water when he asked for it. She cried every time she talked about it.
54. So my brother came home cremated. Just his bones.
55. Mother had burns and suffered for a very long time. You could see her bone here and she couldn't use a bandage because it would stick. And big maggots grew and came out of there.
56. Maybe they lay more eggs when you try to get them from above. They were all over and her sticky wounds wouldn't heal. We made powder with dried squid shells. She went to the doctor. Nothing worked.
57. Oh and grandmother. She had walked over a mound of dirt from the walls and stepped on a big needle without noticing. I remember putting her on a carriage and taking her to the doctor.
58. [father's condition]
59. My older brother, who was sent to the country for evacuation, was at a temple in Yamagata-gun. He said he saw the mushroom cloud from there.
60. My father wasn't completely well yet, but came home after knowing about the atomic bombing. He couldn't leave us alone.
61. But he was sick still. Anyway, he had to find work so that we could all eat.
62. So my mother too, worked hard even though she wasn't well. There used to be a seaweed cultivating place where she picked seaweed, by the river.
63. She also had a little shop near the western style buildings. She did a number of things to help us through.
64. [influence on children]
65. Of course I was worried. But, my older son, there was nothing wrong when he was born but after 5 months when I brought him back to Hiroshima, I guess he caught a bad cold. He was weak.
66. And he was very skinny. Oh and had a lot of allergies. All kinds of things. I had to always hold him and settle him down. He got excited, almost like epilepsy. I had to put my finger in his mouth.
67. I definitely think there was a connection with the atomic bomb. My younger child too, well I don't want to talk about it too much because I don't want to worry anyone.
68. [awareness of the atomic bomb]
69. People might not really mean what they say, but they still say it. That the atomic bomb is a communicable disease that will linger on.
70. So I can tell who has been thinking like that all along. I tell them it's not true, but they have preconceptions and they seem to be bound by them.
71. That's why I feel the necessity to keep talking about this, so that I can get as many people not to think that way, as possible.
72. [my message]
73. War is something that must not be done. Even today, there are wars going on all over the world, and every time that happens, it affects women, children, the vulnerable in negative ways.
74. So war is something that must not be carried out. Perhaps it takes a frightening experience to know and understand what's wrong.
75. We need to get rid of those situations so nobody has to experience that. We don't have that in Japan today.
76. But things happen and we need to be sure that bombs, atomic bombs, such weapons, nothing good comes from dropping them.
77. 60 years have gone by and I'm still feeling the effects. You wouldn't know by looking at me, but in my heart and mind, that atomic bomb is sometimes the only thing I think about.
78. So what do we live for? I guess it comes down to people getting along with each other and enjoying every day of our lives. That would be nice.
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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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