VOSHN 248

<body><a href="../index.html">HOME</a><br><table summary="231"><tr><td class="etesti">231</td><td class="edate">August 10<sup>th</sup>, 1945.  In the morning</td><td class="eage">21 years old at that time</td></tr><tr><td class="ei_midasi" colspan=3>I set fire to dead bodies, praying for their souls.</td></tr></table><table summary="haikei"><tr><td class="bg" background="../../photo/img606.jpg"><div class="large"><p>We went to the hill.  We saw five dead nurses, who grabbed runners of sweet potatoes with their hands.</p><br><p>They had their clothes blown off by the bomb blast.  They were all naked, swollen and so deformed that we couldn't tell who was who.  In those days, all of us wore "mompe", a pair of slacks which all Japanese women wore during the war.  The various patterns on their mompes helped us identify each of them because some patterns were printed on their ankles or necks.</p><br><p>Blocks of wood blown by the blast scattered around us.  We separated each body and laid wooden blocks on their bodies so that we could pick up each bone of them after we burned them.</p><br><p>Someone had to set fire to them.  I didn't have the courage to do that.  I asked my professor to set fire, but he said, "It's your duty.  You must do it!"</p><br><p>I finally lighted a match and set fire to them, praying for their souls.</p><p>Their bodies burned with a bright flame.  I can't forget the scene even now.</p></div></td></tr></table></body>