Yuriko Hayashi

In 1954, after graduating from Motomachi High School, I became a bus guide of a local bus company.  My teacher recommended me to get that job because I liked singing, dancing and drama, and I am very cheerful.  I guided tourists to Hiroshima sightseeing spots.  In the bus I explained about the spots and sang songs of Hiroshima.

However, I had to guide places related to the atomic bombing, because almost all the city was affected.  Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was the main spot.  As the bus was getting closer to Peace Park, I had to explain details about the A-bombing.  And following the guide manual, I always had to sing the song, “We Will Never Allow Another A-bomb To Fall”:

Deadly the harvest of two atom bombs.
In the city where our city was destroyed,
Where we buried the ashes of the ones we loved,
There the green grass grows and white waving weeds,

I couldn’t sing any more than two bars because my heart always became painful.

When I stood in front of the entrance of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, my legs started to shake, my body got stiff, and I felt blood drain from my face.  In fact, I never was able to go inside.  The guide of the other bus took my visitors with hers, guiding them together, while I waited for them outside.

The tour was sure to stop at Hijiyama Hill, where we could see the whole city.  I could see Dote-cho where we used to live, and Hijiyama Hill was the first place where we fled from.  There I had seen many burned people there, pleading, “Give me water!  Give me water!”  Then they died writhing in agony.  Escaping from the approaching flames, stepping on dead bodies, we reached the shelter, which was full of severely burned people and people already dead.  Still now, I can’t get rid of that scene and the smell of Hell from my mind. 

Though the job as a bus tour guide was suitable for me and I enjoyed it, I quit three years later because I couldn’t endure the painful memories.   I worked at a company affiliated with the Chugoku Electric Power Company as a clerk or a receptionist until I was 25, when I got married.