Hiroshima Page #6

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Black fluid flowed

where the rain fell.

It was raining black fluid.

What the people

who drank the rain didn't realise,

was that it was highly radioactive.

In time, it would poison many thousands.

On the day the bomb was dropped,

President Truman was still

travelling home from Europe.

On our way back, on the Augusta,

returning to Washington,

we were on the edge of our chairs,

because we expected any day:

any time, any day,

to have a flash from the War Department

that the first bomb had been dropped.

And on August 6th,

as we were one day out from Norfolk,

that flash came.

George Elsie decoded the telegram

that brought the news

to President Truman on the Augusta.

When something like that came,

we would walk in to him immediately,

we would interrupt

whatever he was doing.

He happened to be having lunch with the crew,

at that point.

I took it to Truman,

who showed it to Secretary Burns,

and to Admiral Leyhey,

and Truman announced to the ship's crew

this great accomplishment.

We have dropped a single bomb

on the Japanese city of Hiroshima,

with the power of 20,000 tons of TNT.

The city has been completely destroyed!

There was cheering, cheering by the crew,

and by the officers,

when he read it in the officers' mess.

The Augusta was one of the ships

that was destined for the Pacific,

and would have been

involved in the invasion.

The crew knew that.

Just about everybody who was in Europe knew

that they would be headed for the Pacific,

and an invasion of Japan.

So they were just as

overjoyed as the President was,

that this damned thing is over!

We hope this will be

a warning to the Japanese military!

Come on, boys, we're going home!

He was eager to get home,

because he was sure that the

Japanese surrender would come very soon.

In case there was any doubt,

Truman spelt it out to

the Japanese High Command.

It was to spare the Japanese people

form otter destruction

that the ultimatum of July 26th

was issued at Potsdam.

Their leaders promptly

rejected that ultimatum.

If they do not now accept our terms,

they may expect a rain of war,

from the air,

the like of which has never

been seen on this earth.

Late that afternoon, the mayor of Hiroshima,

issued his own proclamation.

The present catastrophe is the result of

a horrible and inhuman air raid.

The enemy's intention is clearly to undermine

the fighting spirit of the Japanese people.

Citizens of Hiroshima,

the damage is great,

but that is only to

be expected during a war.

Keep up your spirits.

Do not lose heart.

The morning after the bomb,

a full-scale rescue effort began.

Squads of soldiers from surrounding garrisons

were drafted in to help.

They collected the dead bodies and

disposed of them before disease could spread.

The wounded were quickly

taken away for treatment.

Makeshift hospitals were set up,

although there were only

a handful of medical staff.

Dr Hida found himself

treating 3,000 survivors

in a village outside Hiroshima.

At first we had no medicine,

no equipment.

There was nothing we doctors could do.

However, we gathered up some things,

and started treating the burns.

Nurse Kinuko had an extraordinary escape.

I don't know whether I was

unconscious for hours or for days.

When I did come round,

I thought, so, I'm still alive.

God must have given me strength.

She woke to find that

she had been thrown into a mass grave.

After I crawled out of the hole,

I managed to cross the road,

to get to the entrance of the hospital.

It took me a terribly long time,

as I could not stand,

nor lift my arms,

or move them to the side.

I crawled like an insect,

and finally reached

the hospital entrance.

Dr Hinoki from the pharmacy spotted me,

and exclaimed,

you're still alive!

He picked me up,

and carried me to the surgery area.

The corridor was full of people

lying side by side.

This was where they operated on me,

and removed all of the large pieces

of glass that were stuck in me.

All over the city, relatives searched

the ruins for signs of survivors.

Before midday,

my friend's father came to get us.

But my friend,

who had escaped from the bank with me,

turned out to have a broken spine.

She died a week later.

She was a year younger than me.

I am nearly 80 years old now,

but she was only 18 at the time.

whenever I think of her,

she is till 18 years old.

She was a very pretty, gently person.

Three days after the Hiroshima bomb,

despite all the destruction,

Japan still hadn't surrendered.

A second bomb was made ready,

and Truman issued another warning.

The world will note that the first atomic bomb

was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base.

If Japan does not surrender,

bombs will have to be dropped

on more industries.

I urge Japanese civilians to leave

industrial cities immediately,

and save themselves from destruction.

I realise the tragic significance

of the atomic bomb.

Having found the atomic bomb,

we have used it.

We have used it against those who attacked us,

without warning, at Pearl Harbour.

Against those who have starved, and beaten,

and executed American prisoners of war.

Against those who have abandoned all pretence

of obeying international laws of warfare.

We have used it in order to

shorten the agony of war,

in order to save the lives of thousands

and thousands of young Americans.

A second bomb was intended

for the city of Kokura,

but it was too cloudy,

so the plane moved on to Nagasaki.

Desperately short of fuel,

the crew released the bomb,

despite more clouds.

The bomb missed the aiming point,

and fell into a valley.

This time there was no firestorm,

but even so,

more than 50,000 people were killed.

The Supreme War Direction Council in Tokyo

was meeting on the same day.

By now, the Russians had

declared war on Japan.

Then came the news from Nagasaki.

Then, Prime Minister Suzuki

did something unheard of.

He asked the Emperor to break the deadlock,

and make a decision.

Emperor Hirohito told them he wanted to

end the suffering, and bear the unbearable.

Four days later,

radical soldiers attempted a coup,

to prevent the surrender.

They failed.

At dawn on the day that Emperor Hirohito

was to broadcast an announcement

to the Japanese people

that the war was over,

General Anami prepared to end his life

in the time-honoured tradition of seppuku.

His suicide note read,

my death is my apology for my great crime.

The war was over.

At last the troops were going home.

There was jubilation around the world.

But then, came something that would

forever change perception of the bomb.

It started in the hospitals.

A mysterious illness began to spread.

I noticed it from about the fourth day.

Of course, it had been there all along,

but I thought people

were dying of severe burns.

The woman who lost her children in the fires,

Shigei Hiratsuka, and her husband,

were amongst those affected.

They lined my bed

up next to my husband's,

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