My Experience as a victim of the atomic bombing (2)

　
Our classroom was on the first floor and facing the playground (with the statute of Ninomiya Kinjiro near by). Nishie, lets get out of here! I yelled out and we jumped out of the window. I still clearly remember the scene of the fellow students crying and running around in all directions. We went to the West rear gate where the students living in Sanjo-cho were supposed to gather at the time of aerial attacks of the enemy. As nobody was there, we went out of the gate and started running in the direction of our houses. Having crossed the suburban railway (Geibi Line) and passed underneath a railway bridge via a trail in bamboo thicket near Mitaki (?) Military Hospital, we got close to Aki Girls School when we began to see the things around and human figures in the semi-darkness that looked just like the break of day. As the collapsed building of Aki Girls School blocked up the road in front, we went a long way round and passed through a field. I just could not recall how we managed to arrive there running through such dark roads.

Mr. Nishie shouted from behind, Look at my face!, and I turned around to find his blooded face with pieces of broken glass sticking out. I thought I had similarly been injured but no external wound was found. Instead, I felt some pain in my right shoulder as if I was beaten by a stick-like object.
　
When we came near my house, Nishies father kindly said to me, Your family went to the river bank. I desperately run to the small hut near the river bank which my uncle had built so that everybody could get together in case the family got separated for some reason. I managed to meet my family in the hut but I fell unconscious as soon as I got in there. I dont remember for how long I remain unconscious but it was raining heavily like a shower when I regained consciousness. I realized that somebody was lying beside me. It was my uncle who had returned there while I was unconscious. His clothes were ragged and the skin of his body was torn; he really looked naked. His hair was burnt down, the skin of his chest and arms were peeling off and his face was stained black as coal. It turned out that he had encountered the bombing on his way to Shin-Tenchi where he had some business on that day.

At around 4:00 p.m., we learned from somebody that emergency medical treatments were being provided in Koi National School and we carried the uncle to the school on a stretcher. As so many patients were brought there at a time, there was literally no space to accommodate them and we spent the night on the stairway leading to the second floor. My uncle passed away at around 3:00 the following morning. In the afternoon of August 7, his body was cremated in the school yard and I and his family returned to the hut with his remains.

(To be continued)