The last tomato - Hiroshima told in his own words: (1)

　
(1)

I was born on August 22, in 1931 in Kusatsu-cho in the west area of Hiroshima city (now Nishi-ku, Hiroshima). Though my birth town is really inside Hiroshima city now, it is at the west end of Hiroshima and its neighbor is a county area (Saeki-gun). Hiroshima merged surrounding towns and villages and becomes a large area now.

Kusatsu-cho is at the seashore of the Inland Sea (Seto-Naikai) and mountains of its back approach the shore. The San'yo Line of Japan Railway (JR) runs close to the shore.
We could see the mild Hiroshima bay just in front, and went out of our house and were able to go to the sea directly for swimming.

The sound of a steamship could be heard from early every morning.
From the second floor of my house, Miyajima (one of the three most famous views in Japan) could be seen in the distance on fine days.

There was a central fish market of Hiroshima since the ancient times, though Kusatsu-cho was a small town of agriculture and fishing.
Fishes caught in the Hiroshima bay or in the Iyo strait were transported to the central fish market.
Just the Hiroshima bay was a famous place also as a large culture farm of Hiroshima oysters.

Since the sea was shallow to a distance, a culture of laver was possible in winter. We were also able to catch littleneck clams and hard clams.
In those days there were about 130 boiled-fish-paste factories, including small or large ones.

There was only my house in the field.
We kept hens. We wrote the date on laid eggs, left them in chaff and were waiting for eggs to become chickens.
I was able to see the inside of an egg, when I held it up to the sun.
[Oh, blood has not been made yet. I wonder-- when it will become a baby --.]
It was one of my pleasure at that time.

Surroundings of our house were rice fields and farms. While I took a nap during the summer vacation, I could hear grasshoppers crying all over the place.
After I took a nap I used to go to dragonfly fishing or to play for catching frogs.

There were a lot of fun of nature in which rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs, and cats were all kept in our house.
There were also about 30 carrier pigeons. I was absorbed in them with my elder brother, just older, and were often scolded from our mother, saying, "Both you study!."
Our town was blessed with rich nature and was really a calm and peaceful town.

However, in 1931 when I was born, Manchurian Incident broke out in China.
The first Shanghai Incident occurred in the next year, and Manchukuo was founded. Thus the continental invasion of Japan started.
Sino-Japanese War started in the summer of the year 1937 when I entered the elementary school.

In that year my elder brother went to war to China, and was marching for the place called Changsha which was 600km or more deep from the coastline.
I remember I sent a letter and a comfort bag to him there.
The Pacific War started at last on December 8 in 1941 when I was a fourth grader of the elementary school.

I remember I heard the news bulletin on the Pearl Harbor attack in the classroom of the elementary school, and was excited very much though I was still a child.

And August 6, 1945 comes on.
When an atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, I was a second grader of the Hiroshima Shudo middle school.

(To be continued)