ブックタイトルeigo13

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eigo13

clothes were worn and torn into pieces. Because of the terrible burns and its pain, theystood holding their arms straight out, unable to let them down. They tried to recognizeeach other, and who they were with their voices or their Monpe, the Japanese typicaltrousers during war days, because their faces were unrecognizable. I was suddenlyseized with fear. So I touched my face with my hands. Fortunately, my face wasn’t inrunning sore like them but it was badly swollen. With the direct radiation, the skin ofmy right arm as well as both hands was burned, peeled and it sagged because they weresticking out from my uniform. Being bare foot, the outside of my right foot and theinside of my left foot were in the same condition as the right arm. My uniform andtrousers called Monpe, were badly torn and ragged. I felt so ashamed because I wasalmost bare and my skin could be seen from the openings of those clothes. I couldn’t findanything that I had had, such as shoes in my hand, hood on my head, the bag for firstaid on my shoulder, and a pin with which I parted my hair on one side. Blocked by theroof of the building, my face and left arm luckily escaped from being exposed toradiation directly. However, they were swollen and blistered badly. I felt so hot as if mybody was still burning and my throat was stinging. My mouth and nose felt gravellywith dirt and dust, so I had some difficulty breathing.Under this terrible circumstance, a home economics teacher, who herself wassuffering from burns all over her body, was shouting with all her might “Run away toOhkoh elementary school. Head to Hijiyama.” I joined people from around there andheaded to Hijiyama absent-mindedly. On the way I saw someone drinking the dirtywater from a tub used for extinguishing fire, another pouring the water on her and athird soaking in the water. There was also a crowd of people around some water whichspouted from a broken pipe. Then I heard someone shouting, “Don’t drink water if youare burned. If you do so, you will die.”While I was walking on the debris with bare feet, I met a mother who was shoutinghalf madly, “Please give me a hand. My child is under the debris. So help me!” I saw anaked child crying and looking for her mother. There were some soldiers in a panic whowere burned badly to the waist and whose hair was sticking out from their combathelmets that had been burned and torn off. The sight there was like hell.At Hijiyama Bridge, I came across a friend from the class next to me, who I usuallywent to school with. Although I tried to persuade her to cross the bridge and go toHijiyama as our teacher had told us to do, she and her friend insisted on going down tothe river. I pulled her hand strongly to go with me, but she wouldn’t listen andeventually headed down to the river. There were already a lot of people soaked in theriver. Sadly, this is the last time I saw either of them, and since then I have never heard