Densho Digital Archive
gayle k. yamada Collection
Title: Frank Fukuhara Interview
Narrator: Frank Fukuhara
Interviewer: gayle k. yamada
Location: Hawaii
Date: February 9, 2000
Densho ID: denshovh-ffrank_2-01-0012

<Begin Segment 12>

gky: Can you remember what Hiroshima looked like when you first walked, went in there? And you went in there about a month after.

FF: Yes, about a month after, no, more than a month, because it was sixth of August that the bomb dropped and I came home about, pretty close to the end of September, so almost a month and a half, maybe, month and a half. And then I stayed another two, three weeks.

gky: What was it like? What did people look like, both spiritual as well as --

FF: Well, when I got off the train, before, when I got off the train at Hiroshima city, all I can see, the hotel building right in front of the station, but I can see clear across the city. Nothing, flat. And all the bridges went down, so by the, I had to cross about four or five rivers to get back home, so every time I get close to a river I look for a boat to take me across the river, see, so it took me, if I walked and the bridges were still there it took me less than an hour, but it took me, like, three hours, I think, to get back home. And everybody was kind of, looked, they're dressed raggedy because nothing, no rations, things like that, but they looked much better than when I left, because the war was ended, they feel release, but still nothing hardly to eat, no rations and food and things like that. The image I got was the people sounded or looked much happier to me, that the war ended.

gky: How about a smell? Did it smell?

FF: No, by the time I got back it didn't smell, not too, the smell wasn't, it still smelled, but not too bad. It was really bad for about a month, they say, because body was left, they didn't do anything about it. They just left the bodies all lying down. And so about, starting for about a week later up for about a month, they kept gathering all the bodies and throw oil over it and burn 'em together, see? All over that happened, so after they got rid of all the bodies, then it, not much, by the time I got back it didn't smell too much.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2000 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.