VOSHN 116

<body><a href="../index.html">HOME</a><br><table summary="108"><tr><td class="etesti">108</td><td class="edate">About August 7<sup>th</sup> - 8<sup>th</sup>, 1945</td><td class="eage">39 years old at that time</td></tr><tr><td class="ei_midasi" colspan=3>I had no choice but to say, "Yes"</td></tr></table><div class="largep"><p>There was a reservoir tank in the city.  There we found schoolgirls with their bodies swelled and piled on top of each other.  I thought they really wanted to drink water and got into the tank.  There were two or three layers of their bodies around the tank.</p><p>Barely breathing students were laid down in the front yard at Japan Red Cross Hospital or Hiroshima Prefecture Hospital.  Many other students, who couldn't be laid even in the yard, lay down outside at the gate.  There was no more space left for them inside.</p><br><p>They looked extremely impassive and didn't show any reactions to us.  They looked as if they were not creatures of this earth.  The next day, I found out that some of them had died and been removed to the corners of the hospital.</p><br><p>One of those schoolgirls could still She managed to say,</p><p>"We came to the city by the mobilization orders<span class="red">*</span>.  And the bomb hit us when we were working.  My family should be in such-and-such a place, so please tell them about me and to come to pick me up."</p><br><p>The place she told me about had been already burned up and no one lived there any more, but I had no choice but to say, "Certainly.  I'll let them know about you."</p><br><p>*Mobilization orders: Schoolboys and girls were ordered to pull down houses and buildings in the densely populated area.  It was considered to prevent the fire caused by air raids from spreading out.</p></div></body>