<Begin Segment 10>

TI: So when you got to your mother's parents' house, what was the reaction? Tell me what happened when you got to the house.

IH: Oh, that time, when reach up there, "Oh, your family's not here." And then one of my cousins went into city with a bike and then tried to get to my house, but couldn't get inside already, so much fire. And he was back that time, and he said, "I don't think your house is safe." Not sure, but he couldn't go out, "So you better take a look next day." And next day, again, no more transportation, so I got to walk down to the city.

TI: And before we go there, how about your wounds? You mentioned the blood coming down, how severe were the injuries?

IH: That's just, I was put (towels) on, and I didn't know so much blood came out. But when looks from the outside, they thought I'm really hurt, maybe my head is all wide open or something like that. Because the two towel is soaking wet with the blood. And then my uncle... at my mother's parents' house, "Izumi, I don't want to say, but you're not really bad. That's not yours. Only scratch." That's the one, what happened is the door glass shattered and then go into my right side. And then some head and then some right hand side. That's a, cut up inside. Then I'm a curious guy, so just follow the city train tracks.

TI: But before we go there, I just want to make sure I understand. So essentially the wounds you had were all surface wounds, that was just the glass just cutting not too deep, but it caused lots of bleeding. So when you put those bandages on, they got covered with blood, and so when people saw you, they thought it looked a lot worse than it really was. With all the blood they thought perhaps --

IH: On the head.

TI: Like maybe heavy burns or big gashes, but actually it wasn't as bad.

IH: And then maybe my face was all with blood.

TI: Okay. And that's why the army person stopped, because you looked bad, and others, okay.

IH: I couldn't understand why they said to jump onto the truck.

TI: And so when you got to your uncle's, or your mother's parents' place, they cleaned you all up and it wasn't so bad. And so the next day you then, you said you followed the tracks into town?

IH: Right. And then I passed right center of the atomic bomb drop. Only fifty yards away from the street, I passed right there. Of course, train was in the middle of the street, burned down, everything. And then people inside there burned like charcoal. And then both sides of the street, all the dead people were just black. Some of them just like charcoal. Some of them is close to the house. One of them I saw, head just kind of sit on top of the road, then everything, you see the picture, all white. And when I look at it, still inside is the fire. Inside the head is burning. So just like a Halloween mask, outside is all white, and you can see inside the eyes, red, nose, mouth, still inside, hot. It's red.

TI: So what, what did you think at this point? Because now you've had a day or so...

IH: Yeah, one day.

TI: And so what are you thinking?

IH: Just nothing.

TI: But some of these figures, these images of like a skull, I guess, burning from within.

IH: Didn't feel anything. Just, oh, people die, and what happened. And some of them carried a baby, tried to protect the baby and then died right over there, mother and baby died right by the street.

TI: And you would see this? You would watch this happen?

IH: Yeah.

TI: Now, were there any officials like army or police or anyone helping people at this point?

IH: No, no, nothing. Because on that day, still next day, just a dead town. And then from the third day, fourth day, they, from the countryside came out to help. And so much body, so they're going to have to cremate. And that time, you cannot carry with hand, because of, some of them burned, some of them already start to rot. So just like a fish, they just hook 'em and take 'em in one place, and put a big fire, wood, line 'em up, all line 'em up on top of there and make 'em high. Then start to burn.

TI: So we're talking about hundreds of bodies burning?

IH: Uh-huh. And that didn't happen 'til about ten days after.

TI: And so I'm imagining the smell of just cremated bodies.

IH: Oh, that was terrible. That's terrible, that kind of thing. If you want to know, cut a fingernail, put it inside the fire.

TI: That's the smell...

IH: That's the smell. First, the second day, went back to my house, already they started burning and cremating the people. Oh, I couldn't eat. Something you want to eat, just the smell. But from the next day, so used to it, cremating right next to me, don't bother at all, can eat. So when you become used to it, it's really bad. Really bad. That's not a human being already.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.