My Experience as a victim of the atomic bombing (3)

　
My aunt was bombed when she happened to be watching the B-29 bomber and some glittering objects coming down. As she was covering over her eyes with her right hand when she looked up, the right side of her Chogori (Korean Jacket) was lifted and the right side of her body was burned. The wound didnt heal for a long time. She gave birth to a baby boy (a bomb victim in mothers womb) right after she returned to Korea. She suffered from pain in the chest and breathing trouble for 9 years before she died. One of the cousins who were born in Hiroshima and bombed there grew up despite suffering from pain in the knees and somehow survived until he was 19 years old. He agonized over chest pain and threw up bloodstained sputum when he died

After the bombing. I saw many people burning dead bodies of their family to ashes in the holes they dug on vacant lots. Near the Koi Bridge, there were dead bodies lined up and covered with straw mats, attracting flies. At first, it was very difficult for me to just take a look at dead people, lot alone see the smoke or smell the burning. Gradually, I became unconcerned.

About 10 days or so after the bombing, I visited Sanjo National School just to see how the school looked like. I could not enter the inside because the main gate was closed. From outside was seen a large open space with just some cornerstones left behind; the school building disappeared. According to the commemorative publication of the Schools 100th anniversary, which I received when I had a chance to visit Hiroshima 37 years later, the school building caught fire while attacked by the bomb blast and falling down. Therefore, I made a miraculous escape from death by getting out of the building minutes before it fell down, without being buried under the wooden structure which was located only 1.7 kilometers away from the hypocenter. In the downtown area of the city near Yokokawa-cho, I saw nothing that looked like a house, except the chunks of concrete here and there
　
At the beginning of September, we decided to travel back to Korea but failed to take into consideration that it was the stormy month. We started on a voyage from the port of Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, in a unlicensed boat, and stayed over night at a port in Northern Kyushu. Next morning, we took off but had to stop over in the island of Ohshima due to a severe storm. There were many boats in harbor knocking each other amid the storm and our boat was finally destroyed. We ended up staying in Ohshima for about one month until a new boat was found. We then sailed to Tsushima Island and from there headed for Pusan. On the way, the boat had an engine trouble and drifted for about three days before we finally arrived at an island which is faraway from Masan.

(to be continued)