VOSHN 305

<body><a href="../index.html">HOME</a><br><table summary="284"><tr><td class="etesti">284</td><td class="edate">On August 15<sup>th</sup>, 1945.</td><td class="eage">Better kill myself than being a prisoner.</td></tr><tr><td class="ei_midasi" colspan=3>33 years old at that time</td></tr></table><table summary="haikei"><tr><td class="bg" background="../../photo/img702.jpg"><div class="large"><p>At that night, when I was on night duty with a young nurse, other nurses got together with syringes filled with morphine or narcotics.  They said, "Our country lost the war.  We must become prisoners.  How frustrating!  How disgraceful!  We want to give injections to each other and kill ourselves."</p><br><p>I said to them, "Don't hurry to die.  In Hiroshima, the war hasn't been over yet.  The present situation is much the same as the beginning of the war.  There are so many patients and we need as many help as possible to save them.  Your die won't make us happy.  If you want to die, you can kill yourself anytime, but now is not the time to die.  To care for the patients suffering in front of us is our prime duty."  I encouraged them and persuaded them out of killing themselves.</p><br><p>I can still recite the clauses of <i>"Senjinkun"</i>, which was a precept given from the Emperor to the members of the armed forces and civilian employees of the army.</p><p>It said, "You must not bring disgrace on yourself to be a prisoner as long as you are alive.  You must not leave your name dishonorable even after you die."  We absolutely weren't allowed to be a prisoner.  It was taken for granted that we must kill ourselves after we became a prisoner once.  We thought we should die even after we were released.</p><br><p>We had been taught that death was beautiful and that death for the Emperor was the best honor and the most beautiful.  We had taken it as gospel since we were children.</p></div></td></tr></table></body>