<Begin Segment 11>

TI: So talk about finding your family, how that happened.

IH: Oh, my family is... that day, my father was sick. So my brother tried to take, just happened to be the day of, that Monday. And then he tried to take my father to the doctor with the bicycle, they were making ready, then that bomb happened. And at my house, they saw first the flash came on. So my brother tried to take a look outside, and next minute, blow him out. My brother was on the second floor, he tried to come down from the stairway, then wind blow him down to the first floor, and he didn't get any injury. Only back of the ear, something scratched. And my father was lying down in the room, and he saw the flash, so he stood up, and those days, not pajama, they wear the kimono. And when stand up, the wind blow, it's coming in, and then he went out to the bomb shelter. And nobody coming out, so he came back to the house. Then my brother was just, from the second floor, my mother was on the kitchen, and something fell down and then hurt above the eye, and then she thought she lost her eye. And then the three of them meet in the room, and then my father said, "Everybody okay?" and he collapsed. So my mother opened the kimono, and she found out, the right hand chest wide open, and blood was gushing out. And when my mother saw it, it's already bubbles coming out. In that case, nobody can't help, everybody same situation. Nobody can help. So my brother went out from the house, find a stretcher. Because those days, they prepare for the... he found one and come back, and they put my father on the stretcher. My mother and then my brother, my brother was only fourteen years old, they knew that the school is about two hundred yards from my house. They tried to take him down to the school, but the street is not a regular street. Already, everything comes down, and no more place to walk. But the two of them, nobody else helped, took him down to the school. And the army doctor gave him painkiller.

TI: But he couldn't do anything for his... it sounded like a punctured lung or something?

IH: Yeah.

TI: So when the blast happened, it sounds like there must have been some kind of object or something that hit him?

IH: Glass stick inside.

TI: Okay, glass.

IH: So they can just put a bandage, wrap around. That's the only thing they can do.

TI: And how far away was the house from the blast?

IH: About a mile and a half.

TI: So about a mile and a half. And so your brother saw a flash, started running down the stairs, and then when the blast hit, the wind hit, he was pushed off. Your mother got hit above the eye, and then your father, it sounds like glass from the blast punctured his lung.

IH: And then fire is coming down to the school, too, so then now get plenty soldier around there, so they carried. And when they carried, four soldiers have to carry.

TI: Your father?

IH: Yeah.

TI: Four soldiers, and it was your brother and your mother carried him a couple hundred yards to the school.

IH: Because that heavy, you know, that's really deadweight. But when something happens, they can do it. It's not easy, but they did it. Nobody going to help, you have to do it. And then went out to the bamboo forest, because, again, if an airplane comes, cannot stay on the open place. Then my father died over there. But he wasn't burned, so really clean. Because if burned, your body comes about three times bigger, arm swell up, the head swell up, everything swell up and cannot recognize. But he was just hurt.

TI: Oh, so there was no burns. It was just a blast and the glass puncturing his lung.

IH: Yeah. Of course, I didn't see what the cut is. The next day I come, I didn't see that far, just what happened over here?

TI: So describe when you first got to the house where you met your brother and mother. What was that like?

IH: Oh, that's inside the bamboo forest. And then I found them, and then talked, and then I had lunch, I mean, two musubi, rice ball, and I said, "Here, this is for you." They didn't eat from that time until next day about lunch, nothing. Only the water. And so I stayed a little while over there, and then I got to do something on my house side. Because my father is dead, so I've got to go someplace to look for the sleep and then with my mother back to the house. Then we had two bomb shelter, one close to the, right next to the house, if we don't have time, just we can jump into the close one. And then the other one is a vegetable garden. Everything, clothes and food for a short while, we stock inside there. And we looked inside there, everything is fine, nothing damaged. Then when we look at the chicken house, some of them wasn't burned. House is completely burned, but the chicken (house), some of them left. Of course, it's flat, oh, we can do something. So find a post, and then corrugated iron, just make one place three of us can sleep. First I put the roof on top. And that's not high, about four or five feet, just for sleep. And they had the mat, so put 'em over there. And by the time, from the countryside, they started to bring the food. But they couldn't go inside the city, so all the food stuck at the, close to our place. And then we heard that food is there, so we went over there, oh, so much food. About three days we didn't have to worry, just go over there and just get it.

TI: And who was bringing the food? Was it the government that was bringing it?

IH: No, no, just all volunteer.

TI: So like farmers?

IH: Farmers. And then bring down, but cannot take 'em into the city. So leave 'em over there and somebody take care. Because the farmer have to go back, too. So that part was kind of, we were just around the city limit, we were lucky. And later, I put all the side on, and then we can sleep. And we don't have to worry about blankets because hot in the summertime. That's the middle of it. And for a while we stayed there, and then clothes, of course, were inside the bomb shelter. And everybody started to get rumors already, so many years, cannot live inside Hiroshima, inside city. So everybody started to go out from the city. We was prepared to get out.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.