ブックタイトルeigo13

概要

eigo13

That Day（あの日） (234)Setsuko Iwamoto（岩本節子）At that time, I was 13 years old and a second grader in an old system girls’ school.I was exposed to radiation in the wooden school building, which was located 1.4kilometers away from ground zero.The state of the war had already worsened. Most of the major cities in Japan hadalready been burned to the ground because of a series of air raids by U.S. militaryaircrafts. In Hiroshima, in order to prevent the fires from spreading, to make roadseasier to extinguish fires or to secure large spaces of land for evacuation, some housesand buildings were moved and reconstructed elsewhere while many other houses weretorn down. So, the first and second graders like us were usually forced to help adults inthe volunteer teams clearing the debris of those buildings. Upper graders weremobilized to work in the munitions plants every day. On that day, only second graderswere supposed to meet at school and receive instructions before heading to theirworkplace, while the first graders were told to stay home.The sky was clear and blue and the sun was shining brightly in Hiroshima. Then thebell for the morning assembly rang. Some students had already been out on the schoolground while others were still in the classrooms on the second floor. I was in the corridoron the first floor and heading to the exit. Suddenly I was hit by the golden flash from thefront, right side of me. Wondering what it was, I turned around toward the light. Then Iwas penetrated by an even stronger bluish ray. After a while, I recovered consciousness.I grew aware of some of the students shouting “Help me, Mom.” “Help me, Teacher”from all over the place. I was buried under the debris myself. From evacuation drills, Iknew I would be in a big trouble if I had not been able to get out, I would have beentrapped by the fires and I would have been burned alive. I have never been able to recallhow I did it. But I must have been terrified and struggled desperately for my life. Ieventually climbed out of the debris and stood on the ground. It was a little dark as if itwere the evening. I was so shocked to find that there were neither buildings nor treesleft as far as I could see. And I have never forgotten that dreadful sight in the weirdsilence. I instantly felt as if I were the only creature living on earth.When I came to, I heard someone yelling and screaming. Looking around, I sawsome people by the school gate. As I approached them, I noticed that they were allburned black and were suffering terrible pain from burns over their entire bodies. Theskin on their faces and arms were totally burned, turning into a running sore, skinspeeling off, and hanging in strips. Their hair was overly dry and stood on end and