ブックタイトルeigo13

概要

eigo13

Memoir with Tears(書きながら涙) （１６１）Kazunori Amitani(網谷 和典)“Look! Parachutes are coming down!” I don’t know who said that, but Ilooked up at the sky anyway. Up in the sky, I could see two parachutes werecoming down slowly. Before this event I don’t have any memory of August 6th,the day an atomic bomb was dropped. It occurred while I was on my way tomy working place, East Parade Ground, since I heard a signal to gettogether.“Pika-Don” (the sound of a flash and a drop.) It is how some people referto the atomic bomb. It was, however, just an instant flash and sound for me. Idon’t know how to put it. I was battered by a gust of explosive wind and whenI returned to my senses, I was lying on the ground. The ground looked as if itwere covered by orange carpets. I looked up and saw clouds lifting. Theywere growing bigger and bigger as they went up. Fearing the dropping ofanother atomic bomb, I evacuated to a nearby air-raid shelter. I was gladthat I could see some of my friends there. Together we shared our commonhappiness of being alive. Looking at their half-burnt faces, I finally realizedthat my own face was burnt as well.From that time, I was wandering in a living hell for two days.I can’t remember how long I was in the air-raid shelter. After a while, Idecided to evacuate to a nearby mountain with my classmates, Ogawa andIshitani. On that day’s evening, we spent time together until we went toNishihara’s house in Nakayama-cho. After meeting up thirty years later, Inoticed the memories of devastation we had were different among us.Now, I want to retrace my memory.From the time we evacuated to the air-raid shelter that was dug in amountain, my burnt face started to hurt. We took a cucumber from the fieldthat lay in front of us, and we used it to cool my face. The owner of the fieldfound out that we had taken the cucumber and scolded us saying, “Thesecucumbers are for making seeds”. Being scolded, we went to Hiroshimastation as if we were running away. Seeing the station, we were surprisedbecause all the houses that face a rail track were devastated. When we weretrying to walk to my home, we heard a voice a from under a ruined housecrying out “help me.” She was reaching out with her hand. We tried to pullher out, but could not. We found that no matter how hard we tried, we