<Begin Segment 12>

TI: So, Izumi, we're going to start the second part, and where we left it was, this is after the bombing, and you had heard that people wouldn't be able to live in Hiroshima for years and years. And so you were talking about, at that point, people were starting to move away?

IH: Yeah.

TI: So why don't you tell the story.

IH: And my mother saw the weeds coming up, grass is coming up. So they, "Hey, if grass is coming out, we could stay, too." So couple days we think about, then might as well, we can stay, better stay inside that part, our land. Then we can do what we can do. And plus, the chicken house is quite a bit left over, so we can do something. Then my mother started to... taking off the lumber and wood like that, and my mother just go and wash the board. And that time, my father was thinking ahead. In case water is out, we don't have any water, so he made a well, pump. And that's in the wintertime, water is warm. Summertime, it's cold. So we didn't have to worry. That really helped us. Then I go back to the, after the Hiroshima, volunteer doctor, nurse, then army doctors, nurses, came into the center of the city and tried to help other people. Later on, less than a week, everybody started getting sick.

TI: So these are the people closer inside the city.

IH: Yeah.

TI: But on the city limits, it wasn't so bad?

IH: No, it wasn't so bad. And then when they get sick, they die. And only, so they stay about a couple of week, they didn't know, but a couple of weeks later they're all out from there because they found out it's with radiation, something happened to the body and then they die. Just like other people, victim of the blast. So that's... the only people that tried to cremate people that's left inside there. We stayed that land, and then made, just about... more than double this room, I made a shack. And later on somebody out from our place, coming back, they want to go to the center, came to our house to sleep, we can share the, just sleeping place. And that year in September, we had a flood.

TI: So this is about a month after? August, September...

IH: About a month. It still wasn't cold. And just happened to be I was again out to my mother's parents' house, and my mother and then brother was home. But they just go under the water so they have to evacuate.

TI: So the land was underwater because of the flooding.

IH: Then I have to make a higher place, another house. I wanted to make a permanent, you know. So about four people, four or five people can sleep, and then a kitchen, and then a bath place, the tub was iron, so that's saved. So I put, all put 'em in the house.

TI: And I'm curious, how many other people were also living around there, the neighborhood? Were there other people living also?

IH: Yeah, they came back, most, all of them. But some of them, they couldn't come home, because nothing, and then everything have to do from scratch.

TI: Now, were there very many people living, from where you lived, closer into the city? Were there other people living like... you said in the center...

IH: No, all around, around the city.

TI: So just more around the city, but not closer, but more just around.

IH: Not closer. Close to the, inside the city is maybe a year after, they started to gradually come inside.

TI: Now, how would people know where was safe and not safe to live? Because in the center there's radiation.

IH: Just guessing. Maybe okay. And some people go back, "Oh, they're okay. Maybe it's okay, let's go back."

TI: So how much did people know about radiation poisoning?

IH: Nothing.

TI: So it was just like, they thought, well, if people were okay, who looked okay, they must be okay. But still people were getting radiation.

IH: Yes. Those days, we talk about, everybody said "gas," something "gas" is affecting. We didn't know the radiation.

TI: Oh, okay. So they thought it was gas, and so if the gas was gone, then it was okay.

IH: So maybe gas is, with the wind, it'll blow out. But maybe the radiation, too, on the surface is gone, but inside, they had, some of them left inside the ground. So even one year later, go back and then tried to fix the house, they tried to clear up the land, then they got sick.

TI: Because they would kind of... the dust, probably the dust had a lot of radiation and things like that. How about officials? Now we're talking about months afterwards, are there, I guess, government officials and rules and things happening at this point?

IH: They don't have any problem. Most of them right after that, the government started giving rations really cheap. Not the city price, really cheap, they're giving rations. So at least we can survive.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.