(8)A-Bomb Dropped on Human Beings

It was a blinding flash. Everything around me turned sheer-white. The ring of light, like a halo around the moon shone and spread like a rainbow. The next moment, a big column of flame reached up to the sky and detonated like a volcanic explosion in the air. It was a sight no words can describe.

At the point of explosion, the fireball generated air pressure tens of thousands times normal and the temperature reached millions of degrees Celsius. In one second, the fireball swelled 230 meters in radius. It continued to shine for about 10 seconds, releasing intense shock waves and heat rays. In an instant, two cities and so many lives were no more.

Photo: the Japan Peace Museum

(9)Sea of Flames

A bright flash
And explosion at the same time
I could not see an inch ahead
Is it smoke or dust?
It all happened in a moment Hiroshima was engulfed in a sea of flames
Those who got burns were fleeting here and there, crying in pain
"Help!"
With screams, a wave of people come rushing toward me.

Kojin-machi, Hiroshima
Picture: Yoshiko Michitsuji

(10) Finder Fogged with Tears

I returned to Miyuki Bridge
But could not snap the shutter of my camera
Faint cries asking for help and water
An infant clinging to the breast of his mother who was too weak to move
A mother holding her baby in her arms, cried madly
"Open your eyes! Open your eyes!" It was nothing but hell
The scene I saw through the finder disappeared
As the tears streamed down my face 　Yoshito Matsushige

Miyuki Bridge, Hiroshima.
Photo: Yoshito Matsushige

(11)Hell

Peeled skin was dangling like seaweed from their arms
Red flesh exposed
People were staggering with vacant eyes
Extending their arms forward
Like ghosts
Suddenly they fell, stumbling over something
Never to get up again

A-bomb Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima
Photo: Shin'ichi Oki

(12)Leaving Mother's Voice Behind Me As I Flee

My house collapsed instantly
Broken roof tiles, shingles and mud walls
I found Mother lying on her back, trapped under the debris
Her face was covered with blood
She could not even turn her face sideways
I heard her saying "Take the thing pressing on my shoulder away"
But I could not budge it
The fire came closer
I ran away, bidding her farewell

Hiroshima
Picture: Shoichi Furukawa

(13)Black Rain

My cousin suffered no injuries nor burns because he was in the basement of a bank. He walked through the black rain and finally came home in the evening. He and his family members rejoiced at his safe return, saying, "You are fortunate."

One month later, he had high fever. His hair fell out.
Spots appeared all over his body.
He died, leaving his newly married wife and a baby.

Near Koi, Hiroshima
Picture: Kishiro Nagara

(14)"Kill me!"

On the streets of Nagasaki City, a 16-year-old postman was delivering telegrams by bicycle.
With the blinding flash, the boy was thrown to the ground. His entire back was burned.
After being carried to the hospital, with excruciating pain,
he shouted again and again, "Kill me!"

Mr. Sumiteru Taniguchi, Nagasaki
Photo: from documents returned by the United States

(15)River

People jumped into the river one after another.
Most of them appeared to be naked.
I could not tell men from women. Some were dead.
Some were groaning in pain.
Others were asking for water.
Still others were just crying and shouting......
Without seeing the sight firsthand, you could not imagine
the horror and depth of despair.

West End of Sakae Bridge, Hiroshima
Picture: Kanemitsu & Chieko Ikeda

(16)In Search of Water

There are three or four people piled on top of each other in a water tank in search of water. Others are injured and left for dead in collapsed houses.

I was unbearably thirsty.
Though there was something oily floating on the surface, I desperately wanted water.
Hesitating only a moment, I finally drank it anyway. -- From epigraph of Peace Fountain, Nagasaki

Temma-cho, Hiroshima
Picture: Akira Onoki

John Smitherman, U.S. "Atomic Soldier" Photo: Rengo Tsushin

(17)Reaching Out

The dead bodies were all placed with the heads facing toward the hospital, either on their backs or stomachs...Even at the hospital gate itself and a few steps inside of it, I saw the dead with their hands stretched outward. I realized that death had taken these miserable figures as they lay struggling to grasp the hand of hope, the hand of a doctor who might be able to save them. I could feel their souls full of regret and resentment burning like an unbearable summer heat.
-- From "A town of Corpses" by Yoko Ota

In front of the Red Cross Hospital, Hiroshima
Picture: Tomiko Ikeshoji

(18)The Blast

A boy with part of his brain projected from his head, cracked open by a flying brick
A burned mother and child, their breakfast still in their mouths
A burned cart horse with crumbled legs and guts showing
A sick person found blown to the river and dead, along with the mattress and tatami mat on which he had been lying...

Matuyama-cho, Nagasaki
Photo: Yosuke Yamahata

(19)Emptiness

My mother's head and legs were charred and her body was half-burned.
When I saw my mother like this, I did not feel sad or anything like that.
I felt as if I had lost my soul...just so empty...
If this is where our house was, the body may be that of my mother after all. Ryu Chieko

Ms. Chieko Ryu, Nagasaki
Photo: Yosuke Yamahata

About 300,000 soldiers were made to take part in a series of nuclear tests conducted by the U.S. After detonation, they were ordered to rush into the area of the blast center or to engage in fire-fighting activities. In 1983, Mr. Smitherman died at the age of 54 of rectal cancer spread throughout his entire body.

John Smitherman, U.S. "Atomic Soldier" Photo: Rengo Tsushin

(20)Going Mad

Not even knowing her child had no head, a mother run away like a mad person.

"Where should I burn my dead child?"

A heavily injured military officer with his eyes popping out suddenly raised himself, drew his sword and ran shouting, "Charge!" He fell off from a cliff and died.

Hiroshima
Left picture: Chieko Takeji
Right picture: Kazuo Matsumuro