<Begin Segment 8>

TI: Okay, and now you're saying so after you helped everyone out of the building, you then went out into the --

IH: So everybody, most of them can walk, and a couple of them, they broke their legs, so everybody helped out and then going out from the school. Because no sense staying in school. But us, I tried to find out what happened in the college, and then maybe the kind of bomb that we didn't hear, we looked all over the campus, couldn't see the bomb hole. "Oh, no sense staying inside the (campus), better go out." And go out to the street, and looking to the center of the city, found out it's flat and everything burning. So you can see the mile away, building, no nothing between. And then people walking out from the center of the city, everybody hold the hands out like this [holds arms out in front] and slowly walking out. First thing I noticed, naked. No clothes, and no more underwear, too. Some of them were completely naked. Then say, "Sore, sore." And then when all the hands, arms, like on the arm, they're hanging down, some thin plastic-like. Those days, no plastic, so I thought, "What is that?" Just like a silk, thin silk. And then when you look at it, girl or boy, bald head, because hair is all burned off. And they're slowly coming down, and some of them beside me said they're tired, sitting down, and right there they died. Just as they sit down, and then died. So that's really... how I exaggerate, cannot explain. It's terrible. Unless you see it, you cannot believe it.

TI: So the blast burned the hair off, burned all the clothes off, and then you mentioned this, it looked like plastic or silk, what was that?

IH: That's the skin, body, and it's hanging to there. And then why they kind of put their hands up, just recently I found out. When burn or something like that, this position [holding arms out in front] is less pain. If they put their hands down, it's kind of painful. So everybody put their hands in the front and then walked out. Of course, that people cannot have, I mean, they don't have a chance at all. But sometimes inside the house, they might have a chance, but again, if close to the center of the atomic bomb drop, they're trapped inside the house, cannot get out, and then a fire coming up right away. So some families come out from the house and tried to rescue the sister or parents, cannot. Fire slip so fast. So you see it, they're gonna burn, but they got to move out.

TI: Now, when you left the school and you saw this, you would look to the center of town and you could see a whole mile just flat, all burned, and then these people walking, what were you thinking? What were your feelings at this point?

IH: That time, no feeling at all. Just kind of ourselves got shocked with the blast, and then when look at that, we don't feel, felt anything.

TI: Do you recall --

IH: Just come and then just take it.

TI: Do you remember any words that anyone, your classmates or anyone said when you saw this?

IH: No. And then tried to get out from the center of the city, go outside. Then an army truck came --

TI: But before we go there, a few more other questions. So when you came out of school and you looked to the center, it was flat. Was your school like one of the last places where... or was your school also flat? I'm trying to figure, from the epicenter, how far away before there were any buildings left standing?

IH: Oh, that all depends on how the blast goes to. Because not go in a circle, just like a finger out like this. Some, they go far, and some is not. I don't know how that happened. Now, my house is the same thing. It's far away, but burned. And some kind of close to the center, some safe. So all depends on the, again, location.

TI: Okay, so now you were saying, so you're trying to get away from the center, and this is where you...

IH: Tried to get out from the city, and the army truck came, and soldier look at me, and, "Hey, you better hop in the truck." Because they're going to the army hospital, that's on the opposite side of where we stayed. And then my house is the same side of the city. So I jumped onto the truck, then so many people want to get on, too. And one girl asked me, "Help me," pull up. And I didn't think anything, just hold her arm, and tried to pull her up. And what happened? The skin came off, just slipped off. Then I have to think, "Oh, maybe not the burning, (part is) under the arm." So I jump off from the truck and put my hands under the arm and then push her up to the truck. So skin is already burned and really it's off. So that's what I found out.

TI: And was she in pain when you did that?

IH: No, didn't say anything.

TI: People are just more shocked.

IH: Maybe kind of numb already. Didn't say anything. But I know I cannot pull up because if I did hand to hand, that's not too long, so I have to...

TI: And can you recall any of the smells during this time?

IH: No smell, nothing. Just already everything... just burning.

TI: What about sounds? What sounds can you remember from this time? Do you remember any...

IH: No, no sound.

TI: So just this...

IH: Just the fire.

TI: Just the fire. So you could just see things.

IH: Because I asked a classmate afterwards, and nobody hear the sound.

TI: No, but even afterwards. Afterwards, as people are leaving, do you just remember what kind of sounds? Was there like any people calling out for help or anything?

IH: Nothing. Just quiet. Just nothing. Just, you can hear the burning sound, house burning. And then the smell, that's the only thing. It's really quiet. No sound, just a dead town.

TI: And before that, you had hundreds of thousands of people there, 250,000 people in the city of Hiroshima.

IH: But close to the center is, die instantly. They die, no more chance at all. And then what they survive is maybe some shade of something, or the kind of weak part they were in, not people coming up from... that time, too, not too many people. There was not too many people coming out there like that.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.