The Last Tomato - Hiroshima Told in His Own Words (by Dango)

　
(10) Oh, you are alive!

I had and ate two rice balls after I came back to Mr. Masumoto's home from the army hospital once again. And I went across the Tenma and Ohta rivers. I arrived at the national highway No. 2 line (the road which leads to Shimonoseki from Hiroshima) with suffering troubles. The distance from here to my house was about 4 km.

10 hours already passed from the moment of atomic bombing, and it was 6:00 oclock in the evening. The national highway No. 2 line was also much crowded. There were persons who were going to the city for help, those who were escaping from the city with bedding or household goods and those who had fallen on the road. It was really a serious bustle.

When I was pushing way through the crowd, I heard the man on a bicycle shouting, "Shigenori!" It was my father. I said, "Oh! Father". He said, "You are alive. I think you are dead." He was very surprised to find me. He supposed that I had died already, because he heard that the Hiroshima city office where the three classes of the second grade of the Hiroshima Shudo middle school were was completely destroyed. Then he thought I was not alive any longer and he had almost given up me.

Since he thought that he would confirm whether his daughter working at the Bank of Japan was alive, he was moving by the bicycle. The father explained me what and how to do later and he started by the bicycle to the ruined city still burning briskly. I went back home in a hurry and took out a bicycle trailer.

I put down bedding on the bicycle trailer. I went back to the place which was decided by my father, with another elder sister who was married and lived in the neighborhood. The place is at the west of Hiroshima and 3km apart from our house. Around 9:00 oclock at night, the father brought back my elder sister, picking up on the rear seat. I heard that the elder sister was in the underground of the Bank of Japan.

I placed my elder sister on the bedding of the bicycle trailer immediately. I ran 3km distance desperately to our house. Although, as for me, my breath became going out repeatedly, I only wanted to make the elder sister easy on the tatami mat. I knew even in the darkness that my elder sister was in a severe condition. The position of the Bank of Japan was only 500m apart from the center of the explosion.

The elder sister was laid in the drawing room. I looked at my elder sister's body anew and found she undertook the serious burn in the whole body and she was in a pitiable situation.

My father went away again, after he laid the elder sister. He was acting as a chairman of the town association. He had to act as the person in charge of the relief squad. People who had escaped from Hiroshma were accommodated in the elementary school. They escaped desperately from many places and died one by one there.

Those who died had to be transported from the classroom to the playground soon one after another. Otherwise, those who were still alive could not be given their allowance. Even if he had his daughter who was dying soon, the father had to go out. Instead, I had been sticking near my elder sister. The elder sister's consciousness was solid and she began to say after a while, "I want to go to a rest room".

Although it seemed that she had still energy to try to stand up by herself, since a bedpan was prepared, I said, "A situation may be sufficient. I recommend you to carry out here". She wanted to go to the rest room by herself, and never agreed with me. Since it was unavoidable, I lent the hand to her and took her to the rest room as the elder sister said me. And I made her pee, holding her from back. Across the passage, a bathroom was on the other side of the rest room. A full-length mirror was in the dressing room of a bathroom. It was a keepsake of our mother who passed away four years before when I was a fifth grader in the elementary school.

I realized the mirror was there. I was careless. But recovery was impossible. The elder sister caught herself reflected in the mirror.
She saw that not only she undertook the burn to the whole body, but also that about three holes were opened on her head.
It could be seen neither as a 20-year-old daughter, nor as a figure of man. What kind of thing I did?

I had shown an ugly figure to the dying elder sister who must be encouraged no matter there may be what.... The elder sister who had caught her own sight said, "This is not man. It is not man's face", and began to shed tears.
"This is not man. I do not want to be alive in such a figure."
Though till then, she had power to try to stand up by herself, she lost her energy after catching her sight.

If that mirror did not exist .... If I did not take her to the rest room .... the elder sister would not catch her ugly sight. .... When I thought so, I was quite regretful, It was too late for me to be regretful.
I could not bear that. I could not bear that. It was an imprudence of my lifetime.

The father came back once midnight, but he went out immediately. The elder sister was being nursed all the night by myself, another elder sister, the grandfather, and the wife of the oldest brother who had a new born baby.

(To be continued)

　
(11) The last tomato

My father came back a little past five oclock next morning. Maybe he was tired with all-night work and he sat cross-legged on the wooden floor of the kitchen for a while. He sat straight suddenly after a while and summoned me. And he said to me, "Shigenori, Go to the field and take and bring a tomato." I noticed his mind. His eyes were gazing only at one point intently, keeping sitting straight. As for it, although I was still only a second grader of a middle school, I understood that the father opted for preparedness.

I took a tomato and handed it to him. The father squized the tomato into the teapot and began to make juice. The tomato was one of my elder sister's favorite foods. Since Reiko is a child who likes a tomato very much ...." The father, whispering so, finished making juice, came to the head side of the elder sister and put the exit of the teapot to her mouth.

The elder sister drank, raising sound and said, "Delicious and delicious". As for man, he will be thirsty if he is burnt or largely injured. People dying due to the atomic bomb were also dying, asking "The soldier, give me water. The soldier, give me water". However, if water is given, he will die. So nobody gives water, saying, "If you drink water, you will die. So you do not drink water".
They asked, "The soldier, give me water. The soldier, give me water. It does not matter that I will be dead. praying to the soldiers with their hands joined.

Although my elder sister also wanted water, I did not give water, since it was known that she would die if I gave. I soaked cloth with water, and made a lip of the elder sister wet. The elder sister regained the lull state.
Then the father again went to the elementary school for the activity of the relief squad. Around nine oclock the elder sister's breath became confused.

The father did not return yet. Close to the head side of the elder sister were there myself, the grandfather, the other elder sister, my elder brother's bride with her newborn child embraced. She called, Father. Father. in despite of absence of her father. We looked into her face by our turns and encouraged her. However, it seemed she could not notice us. Probably, her eyes could not see already. She said, "Mother will come to pick up me soon." I thought that the elder sister was ready for dying.

In a while, she said, "Father, I am going to die. Allow me to die before you."
The grandfather encouraged her, "What do you say?. Be brave. I would die instead of you if it is possible.... Although.." but his voice became tearful from the way. So I could not hear it.

I said "Elder sister -- be brave. I will become a pilot of navy airplane and revenge for you absolutely. Therefore, elder sister, hold out! ". However, our words of encouragement were also vacant and my elder sister took over her breath.
9:40 p.m. on August 7 .... It was the quiet last moment.

(To be continued)

　
(12) The cruelest thing

Although people died, of course, there was no coffin etc. We made the coffin with ready trees. We dedicated the elder sister's body into the coffin and only covered it with white cloth. It was shouldered to the mountain with all the family. The hole was dug in the mountain, firewood was placed into the hole, the coffin was put on the firewood, and the body in the coffin was cremated. There was almost no family who had no victim in the town. Though any family was in a similar situation, I suppose how regretful it was that the father had to burn his child by his own hand.

I made and brought up my own child later. When I imagine the feeling of my father at that time, I am very sad and regretful as if my breast were got blocked. There were many, many cruel things in the atomic bomb and in the war. However, it seemed the cruelest thing to me that there were people like my father who had to burn their children by their own hand. I begin to think that my elder sister might have been more fortunate, because she could return to her house, received the allowance, and passed away with watch of the blood relation. Tens of thousands of people died without meeting anybody of their relatives.

I attended the memorial service of my mother school, the Hiroshima Shudo middle school in summer of Heisei 7 (1995, 50 years later after the atomic bombing). There was a big natural stone on the surface of which was written a letter IREI (memorial). On the back face of the stone were written 136 names of the teachers and pupils who passed away by the atomic bomb. Following and reading every person's name with my finger, I remember the faces of my teachers and the faces of my friends of 50 years before on the reverse side of my eyelid clearly. However, most ashes of these people have not been found yet. And I think that they will never be found also in the future. Where they were dead will never be known.

The town of Hirosima continued burning for about two weeks. When I saw the sky of the city from my house, it changed to a crimson sky at night. I entered inside the Hiroshima city repeatedly after the atomic bomb. There were bodies rolling across the town. There were also those who were dead sitting down in the fire prevention tank, those who were dead entering half into the tank and those who are dead upside-down in the tank. When there was a river, people asked for the river, and they asked for the water of the tank, when they could not find a river in the neighborhood.

Not only men but also horses fell and cows were upset. Bellies of the horses swelled extremely. Cars and street cars had been also upset. Since it was midsummer, decomposition of bodies also progressed. There was a terrible smell, as they began to rot. Without taking care of it, everybody was searching in quest of his family and acquaintance.
In the town, I saw the figure of the mother who was searching in quest of her child everyday. It is partial insanity wholly. When she saw the body which was floating in the fire prevention tank, she turned over it to see whether it was her child or not. Every river was full of bodies who were floating in proneness, and of pieces of woods which burned. With the flow of tide, they were flowing upstream and downstream the river. And they were remaining for two or three weeks as they were. If the body was seen from on the bridge, people went into the river, and turned the prone body inside out and checked it. The form of the face of the body was already deleted as several days had passed after the death, so it was difficult to recognize whether he was their blood relation or not. But they could not do but turning inside out and confirming the body. Who can do such a thing but his parents?

When the day broke, they asked and walked along the concentration camps yesterday and today also, and they said, "I found nothing today. I found nothing today again" for five or six days, and although they checked most of the concentration camps, they were still asking and walking there. There is the word "battlefield psychology." At present time we will think that we feel fearful only by seeing a man break down from a traffic accident. Hiroshima after atomic bombing was the same as the battlefield, and even if they looked at a body, they used to feel nothing to the body at all, while they were continuing to walk along inside many bodies laid for many and many days. Though it is terrible, man has such a strange character.

Thus, many people passed away without meeting their blood relation. There was no method to do but that those bodies were accumulated like a mountain and were burnt by gasoline. Since, even if bodies were burnt, there was no place where ashes could be buried, they were put into air-raid shelters. However, the air-raid shelters became full of ashes soon. Of course, there were many ashes whose names could not be recognized. I thought repeatedly and repeatedly that such a tragedy was not allowed to happen, and that such a hell was not allowed to exist. Moreover, having considered such a thing, I thought that my elder sister was still more fortunate.

We shall not repeat the evil.

I went to the Atomic Bomb Commemoration Hospital in Hiroshima a long time after the war. The map of the Hiroshima city was stuck in the hospital. The point that this map differed from the ordinary one was that small needles of red and yellow were stuck everywhere on the map. The countless small needles were stuck. A red needle was the person who passed away and a yellow one was the person who did a big injury. The closer to the center of the explosion, the more the number of needles. Inside the circle of a 1km radius where I was contaminated were almost only red needles. However, I was unhurt and saved inside there. The doctor of the hospital told me that I was a very rare case with probability of one to hundred. Data show that 96.5% of people died inside a 500m radius of the explosion and 83% died inside 1km.

In Hiroshima about a hundred and several tens of thousands lives were removed at the moment of atomic bombing. 65% of them were children, old persons, and women. After then, the people who suffered from illness caused by atomic-bomb radiation passed away one after another. But, why was I saved though I was in the place of only 1km from the center of the explosion? I did not have even a burn and did not suffer from illness caused by A-bomb radiation with which many people were troubled a long time after that.

I think that one of my luckiness was that I changed the direction on the way and escaped toward the south of the city. I did not necessarily think that the south was safe. I was interfered by the rubble which became like a mountain, and could not advance any more, and the direction of my escaping was changed. Black Rain (rain which was written in Mr. Masuji Ibuse's novel "Black Rain" and became well known) fell down to the city region of about 2/3 around the half of the north of the city after atomic bombing. Since this rain included very high-concentration radioactivity, most of people who were struck by the Black Rain were dead. In the south half where I escaped, the Black Rain did not fall down fortunately.

Another fortune was that I adhered to the surface of the wall of the building of the city office at the moment of dropping. The atomic bomb was exploded 570m above on the sky. I would be burnt in my whole body, and be blown and thrown away to somewhere by the direct heat rays, if I were not in the shade of the building. It was lucky that I was in the west side of the building with avoiding the strong sunshine from the morning. Probably I would have moved to the place where I would receive direct rays of light, if it were afternoon.

(To be continued)

　
Epilogue

The Co-op Kobe, a chairperson of which I am, asked the mothers (the members) and staffs to contribute 100 yen respectively. With the money, we have bought medical equipment and have contributed for the atomic bomb hospitals in Hiroshima and Nagasaki all the time. Since money was not enough in the Atomic Bomb Commemoration Hospital, it was troubled that it could not have so new medical equipments. Even if the amount of money which each person gives is never large, when many people gather their power, considerable money can be obtained. We have continued to gather money, hoping that the hospital can introduce at least one medical equipment every year and use it for improvement in medical treatment.

When I was inaugurated as a union president in Heisei 3 (1991), I was invited from the director of the hospital, "Please come to see our hospital once. and I went to visit the hospital. On that day I had warm welcome from the staffs as well as the director and was shown everywhere inside the hospital. The building of the Atomic Bomb Commemoration Hospital is of the Hiroshima Japanese Red Cross Society hospital which was built in Showa 12 (1937). It was located about the middle point between the Hiroshima city office where I was contaminated, and my mother school, at 1500m distant from the center of the explosion, but it remained without collapsing. Though the tiles of the door are in the same state as at the time of contamination, they remain still now without any sheet exfoliating. I found the medical equipment we had presented. The plate where a date and "donation by the Nada Kobe co-op" were written was stuck on the equipment. The Nada Kobe co-op was an old name of the Co-op Kobe.

Medical equipments cannot be mass-produced. Even if it is a small apparatus, the price of it is expensive, five or ten million yen. However, even if it is small, since it was presented by the contributions of the members and staffs of the co-op, so all the people of the hospital were very much appreciated.

I saw the transparent plastic baskets of 2850 after I went up to the roof at the end of inspection of the hospital. 2850 contamination patients passed away after they were hospitalized in this hospital from Showa 20 (1945) to that year (1991). The internal organs of all the people are saved in formalin liquid. The plate on which his death date, his age and his name were written is stuck on each basket. The clinical history and the dissection view are boiled and recorded in the drawers. In order to save them, formalin liquid has to be replaced every year. The work can be supported by the volunteers of hundreds of people, such as medical students. Though 80 million yen per year is necessary for maintenance, no support comes from a country or a prefecture. They have to carry it out of the expense which manages the hospital. It is serious to keep precious data left.

One doctor who was in charge of the medical treatment of illness caused by A-bomb radiation all the time after the war, said When we use these internal organs as a material of research, even if it is one piece, we use it very carefully, with appreciating God. This is eternal precious property for human beings. It can be never made anymore and must be never made. That's right. I also thought anew "it is really serious if human beings might make this once again." In order to hand down the solemn problem of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to future generations, these should be saved eternally. For the present sake and for the sake of the next generation, I think that we must appreciate that these are being saved with much care.

On the monument built in Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima is written the following.

Let all the souls here rest in peace,
for we shall not repeat the evil.

Hiroshima sees the 53rd summer in this year (1998). Although the day of atomic bombing was just before my birthday of 14 years old, I, now, exceeded 60 years old already. Those who know Hiroshima of that day also are decreasing gradually. It is necessary that every person consider this "phrase" deeply. I have read the text of asking, "Who said this Phrase to whom?

However, I think that we had better read obediently.
For example, it is a phrase of mine that lost my elder sister. No, it should be my own phrase. At the same time, it is better to be considered as my own "heart". I think that it must continue to be told as my own words and my own heart.

My elder sister, Reiko -- please sleep peacefully.
Since human beings, including myself, shall not repeat such a thing, the bad thing of war, please allow us.

Please sleep peacefully.

This "word" is a wish common to human beings, a shout, and a word from my sincere heart.

(The end)