<Begin Segment 14>

TI: Well, first, before then, what about August 6th, when the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima? Did you hear about that?

PY: Yes, yes.

TI: And what did you hear?

PY: Well, they didn't tell us exactly what, and they didn't know. The government didn't know that was atomic bomb. But they said that was very, very strong bomb, but very unusual bomb. I guess maybe the government knew atomic bomb, but they didn't tell us exactly what. So we knew Hiroshima was -- and there were many rumors going around. Maybe you cannot live in Hiroshima forever, or something like that. So what you call August... and then we knew that this is it already. Japan can't continue war anymore.

TI: So you knew, or you heard that when they dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, that it was such a powerful bomb that Japan probably could not keep fighting.

PY: Right, right.

TI: And then did you hear about the second bomb, too, at Nagasaki?

PY: Well, I didn't hear too much about the Nagasaki bomb, no.

TI: And were there concerns? When you hear, because lots of your classmates were from Hiroshima and you knew lots of people there, did you have any special concerns about that?

PY: Well, you know, right away I didn't know how many people, my classmates died. But later on, I found out he died, this and that. I felt, hey, I was lucky that I went to Tokyo, otherwise I will be there. In fact, I passed one of the tests in one of the Hiroshima college. And so instead of Waseda, if I never passed the Waseda, then I would be in Hiroshima.

TI: So it was a good thing that you were a good student, that you passed that exam.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.