Record by an Army Doctor
4. Departure from Hell
Most of the serious patients were sent to the Kabe Branch Hospital, which was the assembly place of the First Hiroshima Military Hospital, and many survivors left Hesaka transferred by train. Someone went toward the Branch Hospital in Sanin district and someone went back to their home by the Sanin Line. Requisitioned sickrooms scattered in more than 100 farmers' houses were closed, and the majority of remaining survivors were brought to the primary school. Supporting Army Doctors from various troops were demobilized one after another and returned to their homes. Dr. Fujimoto, the Head of the Hesaka Branch Hospital, and several doctors remained in Hesaka with about a hundred patients.
The occupation army began to advance into various districts in Japan, as we had expected, and it was topic number one among village people. There spread a wild rumor, for instance, “Women had better cut off their hair because men would surely assault them without discrimination” or “Men who keep and hide weapons will be shot to death at once.” A parcel of potassium cyanide was handed over to each nurse, a handgun to each officer and a grenade to each soldier. We seriously believed that they would assault the nurses. We all agreed to fight with our best and kill ourselves.
These weapons were unexpectedly useful in a place never dreamed of. In those days, materials and foodstuffs which the army had evacuated in several villages around Hiroshima were frequently plundered by robbers. We heard that a villager was killed when he refused to meet their demand. We had been off our guard thinking that robbers would not come because we were with many patients. After 11:00 in the night, when I attended the last moment of a patient, one of the villagers came to me with a deadly pale face. He said that 15 or 16 soldier-like men came to a certain big farmer's house and were forcing open the door of the storehouse. Immediately, I sent a messenger to Dr. Fujimoto, the Head of the Hesaka Branch Hospital who was in his lodgings. I hurried to the spot after the villager. At that time, I learned that my thoughtless behavior was due to the handgun I wore. Running into the front garden of the farmer's house, I was startled to find 15 or 16 men in front of the storehouse. They were shouting something each brandishing a naked sword. The husband and wife of the house knelt down on the stone steps in front of the door of the storehouse, earnestly begging something. I saw at once that begging was no use. Some turned back and saw me. No time to lose. Undoing the safety lock of the gun and holding it up over my head, I ran through them and up on the stone steps.
“I'm Lieutenant Dr. Hida. I will talk with you. Put up your swords.”
Though I was out of breath, my voice rang well. I stood there defending the couple who shuddered with fear. Some of the men began to return their swords into their sheaths, murmuring something. I didn't know where I should hold my hand grasping the gun.
“Damn it! There's no army anymore, man! Damn Lieutenant!”
Drawing a saber, one of them stepped out of a corner with big strides. He made threatening remarks, showing his bare chest, brandishing his saber two or three times.
“Will you shoot me, dear Lieutenant! We are a large number. Open the door of the storehouse at once.”
His action showed his experience in the battlefield. He was not a man to be handled with an empty promise. I was driven into a corner, but I pointed the gun at his breast, not knowing what else to do. I saw his face rapidly turning pale. At that moment, when the trigger was about to be pulled, there sounded a volley of rifles. Seven or eight soldiers who hastened from the hospital rushed into the courtyard with loud voices, and pointed their riffles at the intruders.
The game was over in their defeat. Their weapons were less powerful. I had a big, heavy wooden box brought out of the storehouse and gave it to the captain-like man. I wanted to avoid their revenge on other villagers. After they had disappeared in the darkness carrying the heavy prize, we burst into laughter, knowing that the content of the box was hobnails. And yet, I could understand somewhere in my mind that they had no other way to show their resentment than behaving in that way.
I remember it was just from that time that the victims of residual radiation began to appear. We saw on the paper early in September that there was no more danger to a human body and the pollution grade at the bomb's epicenter had decreased rapidly. We also came to know the new word of residual radiation. Although we did not understand why, how and how long radioactivity remained on the ground, it was going on, faithful to the law of nature.
There was a survivor in a room of a farmer's house, who could not move because of a fracture on his leg. He was bombed inside of the Prefectural Office, and he did not get burned. His wounds with pieces of broken glasses on his back had almost gotten well, but he was obliged to lie quietly with his leg in splints. He was a public officer and had been transferred to the Hiroshima Prefectural Office from Shimane Prefecture in April. Asking about his safety, his wife entered Hiroshima a week after the bombing. She searched for him in the wide stretch of burned ruins between his lodgings at the foot of Hijiyama Hill and Prefectural Office. Finally she could find him in the Hesaka Branch Hospital.
One day, I was told that she suddenly fell down. My nurses said that she was highly praised because of her devotional nursing of her husband. I dropped in at the farmer's house on my way back from some house visits. At a glance, a chill ran down my spine. I saw purple, uncanny spots on her clear skin through neck and chest covered with a blanket down to her stomach. The back of her eyelids were mucous and the skin under the nails was also pale. Progress of her symptoms after that time was quite similar to those of the people who were directly bombed in the city. Although her husband who could not move continued to call her name, she died spitting blood on her black hair which had fallen out.
As if that was a sign, there began to appear acute radioactive symptoms -- anemia, diarrhea, vomiting, etc. among those who entered the city many days after the bombing. Of course, it was not everyone who died at once. But why had they taken ill although they never experienced the flash or the blast, who only came near the epicenter afterwards? At that time we were unable to know why by any means.
Here, I have to talk about my uncle's friend, whose death seems to be connected with this problem. Mr. Nakajima was his name. He was a healthy man of 40. One night, he invited me to dinner in his new house. I remember his face that night, as if I saw him yesterday. He told me how he struggled with difficulty of obtaining precious timber for his new house, which had been restricted in an area within 52 square meters by the wartime law.
Mr. Nakajima was very fond of fishing. On that day, August 6, he was fishing in Obatake channel about 100 kilometers from Hiroshima, having started at midnight the night before. His wife was searching for something in the back room of the mezzanine floor.
The new house escaped collapse, to his great pride, in spite of its distance of 1.2 kilometers from the epicenter, and his wife survived without a scratch. After a while, she escaped to the dry riverbed under Nigitsu-shrine, driven away by the fire next door and spent the night there.
Shortly before noon, Mr. Nakajima heard that Hiroshima was in flame from the bombing. He returned to Hiroshima half in doubt, but the train took him only to Itsukaichi town. He walked from there, seeing the burning sky of Hiroshima. When he came into the city, Hakushima, where his house was, was in flame. After walking through the fire, he was informed that someone saw a woman resembling his wife somewhere near Nigitsu Shrine. They were glad to be in each others arms. The next morning, they left Hiroshima and rested at a friend's house in Hesaka crossing over Nakayama Pass. And they came to Miyoshi in the upper stream of the Ota River counting on their relatives for help, without knowing that I was in Hesaka at that time.
Before long, Hesaka Primary School would start a new term, so we could not stay there forever. We were very busy making preparation for moving the Branch Hospital.
Some day around that time, Mrs. Nakajima visited me. At first I could not tell who she was because she had become so thin. And I was astonished again to hear of her husband's death. From her talk, his progress from beginning to end was quite similar to the symptoms of acute radiation disease itself. At the moment of explosion, he was on a fishing boat in Obatake channel about 100 kilometers from Hiroshima. Why could she, who was directly bombed close to the epicenter, survive, but her husband had to die? At that time, we could not understand the reason.
In the middle of October, new buildings for two Military Hospitals in Hiroshima were finally decided. It was already made known to us some time before that the Military and Navy Hospitals were expected to change their characters, and go under the jurisdiction of the newly established Ministry of Health and Welfare, making a fresh start as National Hospitals. My title also changed into a public servant as a technical official of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The Second Military Hospital moved to the barracks of the former Marine Corps in Ujina, renamed as Hiroshima National Hospital, but the first one's new location was not decided for a while. After frequent visits to the GHQ of the Occupation Force, it was finally decided to move the First National Hospital to the former barracks of the Engineer Corps in Ihonosho village about 10 kilometers from Yanai city in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
The day before, I went to that site with the officer in charge of the Engineer Corps. All weapons of the Corps were placed in order on the ground to be handed over the Australian officer in charge. And that day, I went to Ujina to make final arrangements with the person in charge at GHQ about how to transport all members of Hesaka Branch Hospital with its materials to Ihonosho village.
It was very troublesome and to negotiate through a Japanese American interpreter with the officer of the U.S. Army, who was quite obstinate. I had a feeling of defeat, as if I were made to kneel down as a loser in the victor's presence, too. Nevertheless, in the course of meeting him many times, I made friends with him, and we began to speak in half-babbling English.
One day, when I was at GHQ to receive a permit to hire a transport ship, two foreigners stood close to me. They were not wearing uniforms.
“Dr. Hida. I'm P., a French writer. This is Mr. B., a Swedish one.”
They offered their hands with a smile in disregard of my dubious look. Mr. P. was a middle-aged person and had a friendly expression. He was at home in Japanese, too. The interpreter stood up and explained to me that they came to GHQ asking for a guide to the ruined city and were refused because there was no one available. They heard that a Japanese officer who was bombed in the city was expected to come there soon, so they were waiting for me.
“Please! We will not bother you for a long time,” they implored me together. Though I did not feel inclined to do it, I accepted their request, for they were not soldiers and I had no worry about the language.
Mr. B. drove a car and Mr. P. and I sat side by side in the jeep, which I rode in for the first time. As we drove near downtown Hiroshima, they expressed their shock in a loud voice at the conditions of the streets which were filled with a burned smell. It was rather miserable that several barracks had been rebuilt here and there, which raised faint smoke probably made by the cooking. We went toward the ruins of the Castle. Had these people lived as human beings, though they were, indeed, corpses now? We renewed our surprise by the tremendous destruction brought upon the city.
Leaving the car, we entered the Castle. The two men could not speak even a word seeing the wretchedness of old pine trees with split trunks slanting and dipping their leaves into water. We came to the pond, crossing over man-made hills of discolored lawn. How would they respond if I told them that there had been a young American prisoner tied under that tree, and I set him free? The idea flashed in my mind for a moment, but I held my tongue. On that day, I had to run about in the burned field leaving many people who were still breathing under the debris. Indeed, how meaningless it was to set an enemy soldier free in pity for his thirst under the unprecedented mushroom cloud. Such a sense of shame must have kept me silent, while we had a short rest sitting on the end of the stone wall. Blue smoke from three men's cigarettes went up straight in the sky of Hiroshima in an evening calm.
Suddenly Mr. P. asked me, “doctor, do you know why the U.S. used the atomic bomb?”
I knew only the official statement of the president of the U.S.
“I hear, it was used in order to end the war as soon as possible, protecting shedding more blood of American youth,” I answered.
“Well, why! You do not believe such words, do you?” Mr. P. turned to Mr. B with a look of surprise. The Swede had begun to snore slightly, lying sprawled at full length.
“It's not true. Japan had lost all the power to continue the war months after the surrender of Germany. Hitler gave up on the 8th of May. So, the U.S. must have known that the Soviet Union would attack Japan from Siberia by August 10th at the latest.”
It came as a complete surprise to me that the Soviet Union, who refused renewal of Non-aggression Pact with Japan, entered the war according to such an international agreement.
“The Japanese Navy was completely destroyed. All planes which were able to fly over the ocean were lost, too. All large cities were burned down. There was not enough food for all Japanese. Japan was, indeed, on the brink of surrender. There was no reason to drop the atomic bomb. Nevertheless, the U.S. used it. It must have been for some other reason.”
Though his Japanese faltered a little, his opinion was quite logical. Before I was aware of it, I was drawn into his talk and waited his next word with breathless attention. Waiting for his next word, I was feeling that his manner of talking was quite similar to someone else's.
“The U.S. was expecting that it would make war with the Soviet Union in the near future while this war was not yet over. I heard a very interesting story. When the German army was invading Soviet and its power was still strong, Churchill and Roosevelt talked together over the plan to attack the Soviet Union together, stopping the war against Germany and reconciling with Hitler. It is said that an arrangement was made with the president of the biggest German iron industry. I am not sure of the truth. But it sounds likely, don't you think so? When the Soviet Union's attack on Japan was close at hand, the U.S. thought that the atomic bomb must be dropped beforehand, whatever may happen, and they hastened to produce the bomb, though the U.S. had begged the Soviet Union to attack Japan. The U.S. tried to make Japan and Russia recognize that Japan's surrender was not due to Russian participation in the war, but to the use of nuclear weapon by the U.S.
The first reason the atomic bomb was used was so the U.S. could reject Russia's demand at the Peace Conference after Japanese surrender and use Japan as the army base against the Soviets.”
He pushed out his right index finger before my eyes showing his firm belief.
“The U.S. decided to use the bomb soon after the German surrender and also the city to be sacrificed. Hiroshima was decided because it lay on a flat delta which was most suitable to test the effects of radioactivity. And the U.S. dropped the bomb at the very time when the greatest number of people in Hiroshima were supposed to be out of doors. At 8:15 in the morning, many trains and tramcars just arrived at Hiroshima Station one after another, and many people who came to their duties from surrounding villages were walking on their way after getting off the carriages.
In the army, most of the soldiers were out on the grounds doing gymnastics after breakfast. In the schools, all students were listening to the schoolmaster's speech. The U.S. would not be able to excuse itself if the people in the world censured that the U.S. tested their nuclear weapon with living Japanese bodies. This was the second reason.”
Mr. P. who finished his talk, gave a light kick on Mr. B's foot, who was still sleeping. He stood up and stretched himself, not caring about the effect of his talk on me. The Swede woke up and looked around. Then standing with us, he dusted off his trousers with his hat and chattered something rapidly. I thought he said, “Let's go back!”
Shadows of three men fell at full length on the artificial hill colored red with the evening glow. Standing up with them, I thought that explanations of the reporter, Mr. P., somehow resembled those of my old friend, Second Lieutenant Kondo.
On the chilly morning near the end of October, all patients and staff of the Hesaka Branch Hospital arrived at the Ujina landing pier in a long string of carts. Many of the survivors in Hesaka, about ten thousand one time, were dispersed to various districts, depending on their relatives. Not a few of the victims had changed into smoke that trailed into the sky of Hesaka. Now, only about 100 survivors, wrapped up with blankets, were sailing across the sea for the new National Hospital. Three vessels came alongside the pier and began loading.
By and by, the ships left the quay following the sun which was about to set in the western sky. It was the start of the new Yanai National Hospital facing the Inland Sea at Ihonosho village in the Kumage Peninsula, and also the new beginning of the life of a doctor who was appointed as a technical official of Ministry of Public Welfare.
I was standing on the deck and feeling sorry to part from Hiroshima Bay, which was getting dark in the evening calm. The shadow of the huge mushroom cloud, which would never die even if I left Hiroshima, was growing larger in my mind, until it completely filled it up.
I was thinking that because of the mark of hellfire, which was engraved deeply in the inner most part of my body, together with anger at the atom bomb, I would never cease to denounce war, even if each scene, all sounds and all smell which I saw, heard and felt should fade away after a long time. What was my life of 28 years? What had I thought or done during the progress of the war, which I had experienced since my memory began? I had no answer to such questions.
Second Lieutenant Kondo had already bitterly criticized my behavior, saying that I had no consistent principle behind my behavior. It was nothing but chance that I escaped death three times; namely, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and finally the atomic bomb. And I was aware that everything must depend upon my own view of life from this time on, if these experiences had any significance. To my regret, I lost many respected people for whom I should have acted as a substitute. Among them was Second Lieutenant Kondo, my dearest friend.
“Even if our nation is defeated in the war, there remains the Motherland, and Japanese people will not die out. We must fight toward a great end to build up our Motherland, learning deeply from the lessons of defeat. Expecting such a day to come, I strongly desire that you survive whatever may happen.”His letter comes across my mind even now. It was you, Mr. Kondo, who should have survived.
Before I was aware of it, the long day was drawing to a close. The ship was moving on the Inland Sea calmly. The dull sound of the engine was shaking my body pleasantly. Just then, suddenly, I was filled with strong emotion blazing up from the deep inner part of my body.
“I will never be killed by such a thing like the atomic bomb!”
There were still some days left before the end of the year 1945.
Next Section- Record by an Army Doctor
- 1. The day Hiroshima disappeared
- 2. In the city-desert
- 3. New Tragedy
- 4. Departure from Hell
This sentence is licensed under the Hesaka public hall.
