ブックタイトルeigo13

概要

eigo13

As far as I was concerned, I had feeling that almost everything wasmeaningless.In front of the hospital, there was a lotus field, and it was dotted withhouses. We saw a person at the first house on the way. I asked him “Whereis the nearest air-raid shelter?” Then he said to me, “Please come into myhouse. There is no shelter but a hole under the veranda. You can use it.” Andwe accepted his kindness.Going down into the hole, we found a room which was 2 jou large. (1 jou =90cm×180cm) His family was already there. “Where are you from? I heard agas company exploded. You are seriously injured. Was it by an incendiarybomb?” We were asked very quickly. We could only say, “Something wasdropped. We don’t know what it was.”I was not sure how many hours had passed. But the warning alarm wascleared. They said to us, “Where are you going back to? Feel free to take adecent rest here.” So I tried to lie myself down on the tatami mat. But I couldnot do that because of my burns. Instead, I leaned against the pillar,supporting myself with my right hand which was less damaged.I felt like falling asleep. But a strong thirst wakened me. And we said tothe lady at the same time, “Excuse me, but could we have a kettle of water?”She hesitated and asked someone, “We have heard it is dangerous togive water to those who were injured by the bomb. What shall we do?” After ashort discussion, she understood how seriously we wanted to drink water.She brought us a big aluminum kettle of water, saying “I heard it wasdangerous to drink too much water.” We all drank 3 glasses of water veryquickly. It was “pouring water into us” rather than “drinking.”We looked at each other, because we all felt it was not enough. But wedecided to stop drinking. Thanks to having water, we felt like doingsomething, and talked about our next plan.We decided to go to Hiroshima station though we didn’t have anyinformation about trains. We went out of the house with just a simplegreeting and walked along the Hijiyama streetcar line. I thought that thefire of the central part of town had become fiercer, or perhaps a hot wind wasblowing, I felt pain on my face. And I became worried whether trains were inservice.At the east edge of Hijiyama Bridge, a hydrant was broken, and waterwas coming out from it. A few people who were seriously injured were taking