The desolation of Hiroshima - Ninoshima island can be seen in the distance

As soon as I got back my father-in-law asked me if I had saw Kimie. I could summon myself to speak and just shook my head. The next day my condition worsened and I stayed in bed. So my parents-in-law went out to search for Kimie. That evening they found her. She was on Ninoshima Island (shown above and mentioned in the last account). On the morning of the 9th of August I went there with my father -in-law to the island. We walked around and around until finally we found her in a bad condition. She was so badly burned we only recognise her by the Monpe pants she had been wearing when she went to school. She was so happy to see me but as she looked at me all she could say was “Mom came.” She spoke as if she was delirious.

Some Okayu (rice gruel) was brought. I tried to feed her but the salt in it hurt her. The inside of her mouth was burned. Father went back to cook some more and returned in the evening, but she was unable to eat. She became critical and died that night. We were under a blackout. I wanted to know the time she had died and struck a match. Someone shouted out “Who struck a light?” That was at 30 minutes past midnight on August 10th.

We wanted to take her home but it was prohibited to move bodies. My father persisted in wanting to take her. He shouted furiously and acted frenziedly as if he was going mad. We were finally allowed to take her. He had injured his finger and worried that he might become sick. I thought that his insane actions were because of the poison from the wound. We carried her body on a shutter door. When we got to Miyaki Bridge, he asked our neighbours to help us. They were reluctant to do so complaining that they had nowhere to escape to if there was another air-raid. I felt sorry for them and expressed my apologies to them all the way home. One of my friends told me that she was regretful that she had left her child's body. Compared with her I felt fortunate. My step father died ten days later from a heart attack.

One month after the end of the war I closed the store in Miyauchi. I rented a house behind my parents house in Saekimachi. I studied kimono-making by myself by unstitching old clothes and Kimonos. One day I made a white hat for my son Takashi. It became popular in the neighbourhood. I received lots of orders to make more and was taught how to sew students uniforms with rationed clothes.

Takashi was dead within five years, my stepmother in 25. My health was also poor. My hair often fell out and I suffered from anaemia and thyroiditis. I underwent an operation for breast cancer in 1989 I now live alone. I cannot begin to describe how sad and lonely it was to lose family in a few days. If Kimie was alive today she would be 64 this year. On many occasions I think abut what it would have been like if she had lived. I have never forgotten her.

These days tanks and combat uniforms seem to be popular with small children. But I want them to know how cruel and terrible war is. I wish the world would be at peace and wars would end.

After the Interview: Mrs. Miyakehara lives in an upstairs room at a Social Welfare Centre building. Small articles she has made herself decorate her sunny, neat, room. She looked younger than we had expected. She spoke clearly but could not remember some things as it has been fifty years since the event. It was the first time she had ever told of her experience. Relating her experience seemed to relieve her and she gradually looked more relaxed. At the end of the interview she asked “How old are you?” with tears in her eyes. We were very moved. She told us she wanted to learn to knit. We hope she has comfortable days enjoying here new hobby.

October 7th and December 2nd 1994 Interviewers Kazuko Koyanagi, Tomoko Dokita, Mitsuko Umio of Dazaifu.

 

Being bombed and then - Kazue Ko-uge

I lived in Aosaki, Nihonmachi, Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. I was seventeen years old and a pupil of Hiroshima Girls Commercial School near Mt Hijiyama, but I had taken time off from school to care for my sick mother. On August the sixth I had gone to see my aunt in Higashi-Aosaki. I was in her house when the bomb dropped. Glass and window frames blew away, lights dropped and a big hole opened up in the ceiling. All the things in the house were blow down by the huge sound and the blast. I did not notice a flash at all.

I immediately returned home. On my way the sky became dark and black rain was falling. Ten minutes after arriving home my mother and I evacuated to a dugout near my house with our neighbours. It was five and a half kilometres away. Volunteer soldiers also came there. The skin on the soldiers hands had peeled away and their ears were swollen. For several days I cooked for survivors at an elementary school and cared for the patients.

I was okay, I had no symptoms from the blast But my mother who was 39 years old showed signs of radiation sickness because she was weak and suffering from neuralgia. After one month she had a high fever and her tongue was swollen. She had diarrhoea and her hair was dropping out. She died in two months . It was a bitter experience caring for her when she was dying.

I had two older brothers. One returned in a month after fighting in a distant country. My father came back in October and my eldest brother was back from Borneo in November. Before my mother s death the family was back together. In this we were fortunate.

I married after the blast. On the day the bomb was dropped my husband who was then twenty years old had been living in Funakoshi. He was also exposed to radiation when he was looking his relative who seemed to have been killed by the blast. Fortunately had no symptoms from the blast. When we were transferred to Tokyo due to his work our friend told us he had been given a bomb certificate. We received ours in 1973.

Changing the subject, when we suffered from the great flood in 1953 we were isolated in Onga -gun. The American Military gave us a lot of relief goods at helped us. I appreciate their kindness the remember it for the rest of my life.

My husband says the Pacific war was a sacred war and that we should accept defeat. However I have another viewpoint. Think there must be some way of avoiding war. Although Japan and America had a terrible experience with each other, we have to compromise and understand each other. I hope peace will continue.

After the interview: I wanted to interview both Mr. and Mrs. Ko-uge. But Mr. Ko-uge did not want to talk about his awful experience. I think Mrs. Ko-uge had a hard time. But she hesitantly told me about her experience. I appreciated their effort and hope they have peaceful days.

December 5th 1994 Interviewer - Junko Inaba of Dazaifu