ブックタイトルeigo13

概要

eigo13

Dear Teacher, Thank You For My life（先生、生命をありがとう）（271）Taeko Teramae（寺前妙子）On August 6th, I was lining up in the corridor of the telephoneexchange station where I worked as a telephone operator when at thatvery moment as I looked out of the window, up at the clear blue sky, I sawsomething shining. It came down toward us, becoming larger and larger,and increasing in brightness. I wondered what it was and I asked myfriend “What’s that?” At that very moment, it flashed just in front of myeyes and I thought I would be melted away. In just a short moment intime, I felt like the world had lost its light and it had turned into a kind ofwhite darkness. I heard a large sound like the earth rocking. It was asound like I’d never heard before. I found that I was caught undersomething. I couldn’t move an inch and I was covered in completedarkness. The collapsing sounds of the building surrounded me and asmell like poisonous gas penetrated the air. I was choking with dust thatwhirled and entered my mouth and eyes. Though I tried to move my body,I could not do it at all. However I continued to try to move. Then when Icould pinch myself and feel the pain I knew it wasn’t a dream. I thought abomb had fallen on the telephone exchange station. Along with the loudsounds of buildings collapsing, I heard voices asking for help from alldirections “Help me, mother!” and “Help!” “Mom, it hurts!” and I cameback to just the feeling of being lost. A little while later, Ms. Wakida,who was our homeroom teacher, shouted in a big voice as hard as shecould, “Let’s stop whining! Let’s be brave!” Those words of our teacherencouraged us. We stopped calling for our mothers. Only the sound of thebuildings collapsing continued.I felt something scratchy and slimy in my mouth, and I could tellthat the clothes which I wore were soaked. But I couldn’t realize whathad actually happened in the darkness. In fact, it was a mixture of bloodand dust in my mouth. I had some cuts on my face and they werebleeding. Blood mixed with the dust in the air entered my mouth andmade my clothes wet. After trying to move my body, I could finally getmyself free. I went to the stairs, groping in the dark. Then I saw a lot ofpeople (mobilized students, women’s volunteer corps and staff from thetelephone exchange station) lying down on top of each other. “I can’t go