ブックタイトルeigo13

概要

eigo13

At the foot of Mt.Futaba, there was a parade ground, which was full ofdying wounded people. They wanted water and were groaning. They said,“Water. Water.” However, there was neither glasses nor buckets. On top ofthat, soldiers didn’t allow us to give them water. It was because it wasbelieved they would die sooner if they drank water. We couldn’t find doctorsor nurses. We washed the blood off in a small stream nearby. We dipped ourtorn clothes into the stream and put them onto the mouths of the dyingpeople who wanted water. They slurped and slurped. We kept doing thesethings all day. In the late afternoon, we sat on the hill, emotionless, lookingat piles of dead bodies, hearing groans of dying people, and watching thewhole city of Hiroshima burning.On that day, in the center of Hiroshima city, there were 7,000 or 8,000students working. They were in the first and second grade at junior highschools, who were mobilized from all the junior high schools in Hiroshima.They were demolishing and removing houses. 351 students at our girls’school, including a few teachers, were killed instantly by the atomic bomb.They suddenly vanished into the air. I heard that many others who survivedwere so swollen up from burns that they could only recognize one anotherthrough their voices. My cousin Tokiko Nanba and my sister in law wereamong people that I could never meet again. Tokiko was in the first grade atJogakuin Junior High School. My sister in law was studying at a higher levelnormal school established that year in order to be a teacher, and wassupervising Yamanaka Girls’ School students on that day.My close friend Setsuko Muramoto was also working there. She survivedluckily. She saw many of her friends dying in front of her. Later she told meabout the situation at that time. This was the situation. All her classmatesgathered and sat in a circle at the suggestion of their math teacher MutsukoYonehara. Drinking muddy water, they sang hymns in weak voices. Whilethey were singing the hymn “Lord, I am approaching you,” they died oneafter another. After a while, Miss Yonehara said, “Those who can walk, let’sgo to the Red Cross Hospital. Please lean on my shoulder.” As soon asSetsuko leaned on her shoulder, her skin and flesh around the shoulderpeeled off and she saw the white bones of her teacher. At the hospital, therewere a lot of people lying everywhere, in the halls and in the yard. There wasno room there. Miss Yonehara died a few days later without any medical careat this hospital.