Keisaburo Toyonaga

On August 6, our Onaga-cho neighborhood association had to send 220 people for the demolition of buildings.  That meant that each household had to send at least one family member.  220 people of the Volunteer Army Corps Onaga Squad gathered at 6:00 in the morning and departed for Showa-machi (1.7km from the hypocenter, present Showa-machi, Naka-ku) at 6:30, led by the head of the association.  The designated meeting place was near the Hijiyama Bridge.  As Hiroyuki was three years old, my mother couldn’t leave him alone in our house, so she took him there, holding his hand.  The demolition of buildings means to destroy buildings around important facilities to make an empty space to avoid fire by air raids from spreading.

The work usually started at 8:30, and the Onaga Squad arrived there around 7:45.  There were a dozen children with their mothers, like Hiroyuki, gathered under a big willow tree.  While the volunteers lined up and listened to the explanation of the demolition procedure from an employee of Hiroshima prefecture, the light of the A-bomb flashed.  My mother remembered that the light was beautiful, and ten times brighter than a flash of lightning, but she didn’t hear any sound.  She felt like boiling water was thrown on her head, and she fainted, crying, “It’s hot!”

My mother fainted for a while but woke up, hearing Hiroyuki’s voice, “Mom! It hurts! It hurts!”  He had been playing with other children under the tree a little bit away from my mother.  Miraculously, he was under my mother’s body.  Thanks to that, she later said that he was the only one who had no injuries, though there were wounded and dead people all around there.  Then a military soldier walked around nearby, calling out, “Everybody, the fire is reaching us soon.  You must escape!”  The people who were alive tried to escape by themselves.

When the A-bomb was dropped, my mother was facing the direction of the hypocenter, so she had burns from her face down to her shoulder.  She had also small burns on her right arm, and her face was swollen.  She staggered away, holding my brother’s hand.  As they saw many people crossing the Hijiyama Bridge nearby, they decided to escape to Hijiyama Hill which was on the other side of the Kyobashi River.  Watching from the bridge, they saw so many floating bodies which covered the river that they couldn’t see the water.  There were also many bodies on the ground on the way to the hill.  She said, “Though some people there were still alive, one’s injured back was bleeding like a fountain, one lost his arm, one had his eyes pop out.  It was a hell!”  Eventually, my mother and brother managed to climb to the top of the hill.

Around noon, my mother and Hiroyuki decided to go home.  Because of the fire, they had to take a long way around, and it took them hours to get home.  Although the glass in the window of our house was smashed into small pieces and the tiles of the roof were blown away by the blast, they could get into the house at that time.  Because they were desperately thirsty, they drank water in the bathtub which was stored for fire prevention.  My mother said later, “I’ve never drunk such tasty water.  I won’t ever forget that.” 

While they were resting, Hiroyuki screamed, “Mom, fire is coming!  Fire is coming!”  The fire was spreading near our house, so they escaped into a vegetable garden nearby.  However, one of our neighbors came along and said, “Mrs. Toyonaga, this place is not safe. Come with me.”  Then the neighbor took them to Futabayama Hill.  A crematorium was there at that time, with a small empty space in front of it.  Dozens of people who were heavily burned and blackened were lying there.