Warning: This post has graphic description of the effects of war
In 1946, after four years of war, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan bringing World War II to a swift end. The two cities selected to be bombed were Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cities that were important to the Japanese war effort. The impact of the bombs was massive. Many civilians died in the attack. Keijiro Matsushima was one of the civilians that survived. This is his story. Keijiro Matsushima was a sixteen year old student when the bombs were dropped. After the war he went to college and became a teacher. He returned to Hiroshima and taught middle school for forty years. He described the impact of surviving the “A-bomb”, which is what he always called the atomic bomb. Life in Japan was difficult during the war, he said. Students were forced to work in the factories but still had to attend school. He said he was always hungry. Below is his story. I apologize for any errors but I was transcribing his speech as quickly as I could.
I was sixteen and attending school. Because our school started early we were already in the class when the bomb was dropped.
Fifteen minutes after school started, I looked outside the window. It was a beautiful day… I looked up and saw two American bombers in the sky. Maybe they had dropped the bomb already. We didn’t pay attention. There were no Japanese airplanes to attack, so we paid no attention. The planes were beautiful, flying in the sun. I imagined them as silver rice cakes, I was so hungry. When I returned to the text, that was when it exploded. A blinding flash, a shock wave and heat attacked me at the same moment. I felt like I was thrown in the oven for a moment. The whole world turned into sunset colors.
In one moment, everything was decided for us… where we were… inside the building or outside in the street…. even in the shadow or not… they said the heat was 4000 Celsius. I covered my ears and eyes and jumped under the desk. Then a huge noise followed… a very huge noise. The whole world turned to a pitch black. I couldn’t see anything. I was crawling around the floor like a blind mouse. My seat was in the front row on the south side of the classroom. I was lucky because of my seating assignment. A student in the north side had half of his face burned away. For the first time in my life I asked for help. “Help me, Buddha. Help me, Mother.” It was so quick…. and then deadly quiet. I don’t understand it -- seventy boys and no one said anything. Then the ceiling fell on our heads. We thought maybe another bomb was dropped on us. When I touched my head I was bleeding from head to feet. Again I was scared. But my bones were alright and I could move. But then I was shocked that the school building was smashed so badly. How could they have dropped hundreds of bombs with two planes? We didn’t know that one bomb could be so big.
One of my friends was hurt so I took him to the Red Cross. We were shocked that all the buildings were smashed. The street cars’ wires were broken and fires started. We could see many people from the center of the town [closer to the point where the bomb hit the earth] coming up the street car road. They were miserable. They were charcoal gray from head to feet. Some had roasted hair. Many of them had been burned so badly that their skin was peeling. Trousers were torn. Some of them had skin that was hanging from the face. I could see their red muscles under their skin. We could not see who they were; their faces were swollen like pumpkins. I wondered why these people were so badly burned.
We went to the hospital but there was no help, because even the doctors and nurses were wounded. My friend was picked up by a rescue worker and was moved to another island. All day long, wherever I went, I saw miserable people. You can imagine houses made of wood, bamboo and paper… fire was coming. .. Real hell… Many bodies went up and down the rivers for many days according to the tides.
For many years after the attack I felt guilty. I should have helped. But I was only sixteen and I only wanted to get out. I was like a baby; I wanted to get back to my mother. Americans had invented such a big bomb, I thought maybe no one would survive. But I would never surrender… that was our education.
I was very lucky because I had a home in the country to go to where my family lived, but the people in the center of town had no place to go so they had to go to the schools or shrines. So they had to go… thirsty for water in the dark.
I walked to our family’s house in the country. My mother had been working in the rice field that morning and she saw the mushroom cloud. She had heard rumors about Hiroshima so she was sure I was dead. So when she saw me she was so happy.
I went to bed, but when I woke up I was sick… it was immediate effects. Again I was lucky; I had left the city very soon after the bomb so I had less radioactivity than those people that stayed in the city. Some of the people became ill all of a sudden. We call them A-bomb diseases. Red spots on their bodies. Many strange symptoms. People losing their hair. The wounds formed pus very soon and people got maggots. They had to take them off with chop sticks. Now we know it as cancers of all sorts. It is a very horrible weapon.
When I visited Hiroshima two weeks later I could see the effect of the blast. From the train station I could see beyond the city and see several islands because few buildings were left in the city. But can you believe street cars began to run two days after the bomb? It took about ten years for all reconstruction… Japanese economy was so bad.
I left Hiroshima and studied to become a teacher. I returned to Hiroshima and taught junior high school for forty years. I survived both the bomb and the students.
In my case, for many reasons, I am one of the most fortunate survivors. I am alive. Buddha says I am alive to tell others about my experiences. Memories are being lost. Younger people don’t care so much.
The Japanese were stubborn and showed no effort to surrender. People would do anything to end the war. Mankind wanted to create this bomb, not just Americans. If Japan would have had the bomb we might have used it on America. So I don’t hold a grudge against Americans, I hold a grudge against the A-bomb. Hiroshima was bombed so mankind can see the effects of the bomb.”
Keijiro Matsushima is now in his eighties. He tells his story often in Japan and around the world. Hiroshima is now a city dedicated to trying to bring peace to the world. There is a world-famous peace park there. Keijiro Matsushima’s story was not easy to listen to, but when studying history it is important to gather all the facts, and hear multiple perspectives. We live in a complex world. Many people doubt that there will ever be a time when we will live without the threat of nuclear war or nuclear attack by terrorists. The way to achieve stability and peace in the world will always be an area of passionate debate. But Keijiro Matsushima believes that nuclear weapons are not an option.
