Evidence

Evidence

Masahito Hirose’s view on the atomic bomb

Masahito Hirose was 15 years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.   During the war he worked in the office of the Mitsubishi shipyard factory.

In the early morning of 9 August, 1945, an air raid warning was issued at about 8 o'clock, but as no planes appeared in the sky above Nagasaki, the alarm was cancelled about an hour later.

So most citizens came out of air raid shelters, children rushed out of caves and housewives started to queue up outside shops to draw their rations of rice.

Many people started work in factories, hospitals and company buildings.

At about 11 o'clock I was working in the office of the factory as usual.

I suddenly saw a white-blue flash and then a sound came — it hit me.   I threw myself to the floor and covered my eyes with three fingers, ears with my thumbs and nose with my little fingers, as I'd been taught by my teacher.   The next moment many pieces of glass fell down on my back.

After a while all became quiet.   I got up and rushed out of the office.   Suddenly I saw a cloud climbing up above the northern district of Nagasaki.   I could see this gigantic cloud climbing up and up like a tornado.   I didn't know what to do so I stood there for a long time, looking at the cloud.

My house was about 3.1km (2 miles) from the bomb's hypocentre.

That morning I'd left the house with my cousin.   He was 19 years old.   He had left his own house in Osaka [after it was bombed] and came to live in my house in May of that year.

I left the house with him at about 7 o'clock.   I parted with him — and he turned right, towards his factory, which was near the hypocentre.

That night he did not come home.   But we could not go and find him in the northern part of the city.

On the afternoon of 10 August, his mother left the house to look for him.   That night she came back and said: 'I didn't find him anywhere.   Around his factory everything has been destroyed and I couldn't find the factory.'

She went out to look for her son the next day and the next day, and she continued to go out t

On the morning of 15 August she couldn't get out of bed.   She had a high temperature and she was bleeding from her nose.

She died crying her son's name.

This interview is from the series 'August 1945'
BBC commemoration 2005

Francis Mitsuo Tomosawa was interviewed by Scholastic students in May 2000.

 We are reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. Sadako gets radiation poisoning and then dies of cancer at the age of 12. Did you get any radiation sickness or medical problems from the bomb blast?
I'm sure I received a large dose of radiation because the day the bomb was dropped I worked in a nearby hospital, and helped many people who were burned by the radiation. I'm sure I received a dosage of radiation then, but fortunately I haven't come down with any effects of the radiation yet. Though that doesn't mean that I won't later.

My grandfather was walking guard duty on Okinawa when the atomic bomb was dropped. He said it seemed like the sky was moving. What did the sky look like to you?
At the moment before the bomb exploded, I was watching the parachutes that were dropped from the B­29. Then the bomb exploded, and a brilliant light surrounded me. I couldn't see anything. Then I looked back in the direction where the bomb had fallen, and I saw the mushroom cloud. I don't remember seeing any blue sky — it had been a clear day — but after the bomb, there was all this debris in the air, and I didn't see any sky.

How long did it take before the people in Hiroshima found out what had actually happened to them?
We didn't know what type of bomb it was — we knew only it wasn't the usual type of bomb. I don't remember exactly, but I think it was probably two or three weeks, or even a month, after the war ended, that the newspapers reported that it had been an atomic bomb. We knew that the bomb had been dropped by the U.S. because we had seen it drop from the B­29.

What was it like living in Hiroshima after the bombing? How did you get food or water?
Well, before the war ended, everything was rationed. We had a very small amount of food, clothing, and so forth. Even after the war was over, the supply of food and clothing was very limited. As a 15 year old, I remember almost always being hungry, and wearing tattered or patched-up clothes. All around us houses were burned or destroyed, and people were burned or suffering from the atomic bombing. We just had to make do with whatever was available. There was a black market, but without enough money, you couldn't buy the food. Regular stores didn't have food, except for the supply routes for the rationing. Even after the war, the rationing went on for a while. I remember going out to the farmland away from the city to get food. Farmers wouldn't accept money because it had no value. So, we had to exchange clothing or anything of value with the farmers — even an expensive kimono. But then they wouldn't take that. I remember walking around farms the whole day to secure some food. It was a very difficult life for at least a year or so. But then gradually, it started getting better.

How did the people of Hiroshima treat one another after the bomb was dropped?
I saw everyone helping each other. Though right after the bomb exploded, during the confusion and pain and suffering and dying, people's instincts told them to save themselves. People under the buildings would ask for help and the passersby couldn't hear the cry for help or they didn't stop for help. So, many people died by fire because nobody would help them. But after that, after 30 minutes or an hour, people came in from outside the city to help — all day and all night. I guess this showed the good part of human beings. Many people didn't eat or drink. Everyone tried to help each other within the city. This helping continued for weeks and months and years — until the city was rebuilt enough so that people could get on with their normal lives. Even by the time I left three years later, I still saw many people helping each other. But because of the radiation and the lack of medical supplies, people continued to die and we couldn't do anything to help them. Even the doctors couldn't do anything. We did our best, but it was still very frustrating.

When did people first become aware that there was a danger of radiation exposure?
Unfortunately, as history indicates, the U.S. occupational forces hid the truth about the danger of radiation so that we didn't know about the danger for many, many months — I think for even over a year. In fact, I don't remember hearing about the danger of radiation until I came back to the U.S. in 1948. And my friends hadn't heard about it. That's why many people stayed in Hiroshima, which compounded the effects of the radiation. Since people stayed, they got more and more contaminated. The danger of radiation decreased as time went by, but for example, we heard that plants were not going to grow again for a long time, but we were never told the scientific reason. We didn't know if it was true or just a rumor that plants and grass were not going to grow in Hiroshima for another 75 years.

Why do you think the experiences of atomic bomb survivors were different than those of other wartime bombing victims?
Well, we must realize that many scientists have said that the aftereffects of atomic bombs are unique when compared to the effects and injury of other kinds of conventional bombs. In conventional bombings, if someone is hurt but survives, they heal — and that's it, they've survived. The atomic bomb, though, is different because of the radiation it creates, and the effects from that continue for many years. For example, that's why survivors come down with cancer. My mother developed cancer at the exact, tiny spot on her neck where she was burned by the radiation on the day of the bombing. Unfortunately, the cancer spread and she died — but 24 years later. This is what we must realize for a second nuclear war — that even those who survive initially will probably die from the bombs many years later. And I mean not a natural death. It's this difference Japan as a nation has recognized and even stated in a law that established completely free medical care to atomic bomb survivors in Japan. Another difference is the size of the destruction. A friend of mine was in Osaka, which had been destroyed with conventional bombs and he didn't see that many dead people in the city. But when he came back to Hiroshima, he saw hundreds and thousands of bodies all over the city. The destruction from the atomic bomb was so huge. There just wasn't time enough to remove the bodies.

Did you ever think about staying in Japan instead of coming back to America?
I did think about it because my best friends were in Japan at that time, as they are today. Many people should realize that when you go through such hardship with people as we did in those times, that you get a lot closer to those people. But I wanted to see my father. Remember, I hadn't seen him for seven years. And most of all, I was a U.S. citizen. The U.S. was my country, so I wanted to return to Hawaii.

Once you moved back after the war, were you ever discriminated against by Americans?
Not in an overt way, but in a very subtle way, there were many instances of discrimination — what people said or did. Not anything large-scale, but still, I could feel it and see it. In the army during the Korean War, I didn't see any clear–cut discrimination, although I did hide my past history. I don't know what would have happened if anybody had known that much about me. I don't think they knew I had lived in Japan because I never volunteered the information.

Was it difficult to participate in the U.S. Army after having experienced the U.S. military's destruction of Japan?
Yes it was. Several years earlier, I got to believe in Christianity and because of my experience in Japan, I was opposed to the war. I had a choice of either resisting and being thrown into jail, or serving as a regular soldier, or serving as a conscientious objector. I felt I needed to serve, so I served as a conscientious objector.

Have you been back to Hiroshima since the war? How did it make you feel?
The first time I went back after the atomic bomb was in the later part of 1953, when I was in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. It was about eight years after the bomb had dropped and the city had still not fully recovered. About 40 percent was not even rebuilt yet — maybe 40 or 50 percent. Being there reminded me of what had happened on that day eight years before. I didn't go back again until 1987, 32 years later. At that time, I was surprised because the city had completely recovered. Many paper or wooden houses had been rebuilt by 1987. Except the dome — the Atomic Dome — was left as a memorial to remind us of what the atomic bomb did. It had originally been like a chamber of commerce building with various offices related to business in Hiroshima. It had  round roof and was a unique building in Hiroshima — I'm not sure what style. It is the only building that has remhhdddained as it was after the bomb. So in 1987, I was happy to see the city recovered. But then I did find that some of my friends had died over the years from the radiation effects.

Can you think of anything good that came out of the Hiroshima bombing?
No, I can't think of anything good. Even the demonstration of human love in the way people worked so hard to help each other, even that I think we could demonstrate in other circumstances. I think when so many civilians die from a war like that, no good can come out of it. Some people say that because the bomb was dropped, we now know how powerful it is and we won't use it again. But we could have learned this in other ways. So, no, I don't think any good was achieved when they dropped that bomb. Especially when they dropped a second bomb.

Do you think it would have been better if the U.S. hadn't dropped the bomb and had attacked Japan like it attacked Germany?
Definitely, given hindsight, it would have been better if the U.S. had not dropped the bomb. I think the U.S. wanted to stop the war, but it also wanted to test the effects of the atomic bomb, to see what would happen. I met Dr. Oppenheimer, one of the scientists who developed the bomb, probably about 1965, and he told me he was sorry the bomb was dropped. He was sorry he didn't oppose it, and he was shocked by the huge number of people who were killed by the atomic bomb. There was, I think, an alternative to end the war. I think anybody who studies history would understand that Japan was simply in no condition to continue the war. The U.S. forces could have blockaded Japan and within six months, Japan would have given up. The majority of Japanese people who I knew and saw in Hiroshima did not want to continue the war. The people around the emperor were negotiating for peace, and the only condition they asked of the Allied forces was the safety of the emperor. But the U.S. and their allies refused — they wanted the unconditional surrender of Japan. But then after the war, during the Occupation, they did protect the emperor from being prosecuted as a war criminal. So, the Allied forces protected the emperor anyway! If they had accepted the condition, I think the war probably would have ended a year earlier and saved hundreds of thousands of lives — and I mean not just of Japanese, but everyone who was participating in the war.

     The United states should have never conducted the atomic bombings. It was not necessary for the United States to drop the bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The Japanese were devastated by these atomic bombings. Many buildings were destroyed, many civilians were killed and severely injured. Many people lost their loved one’s in this horrific destruction. America was very harsh throughout World War 2. The United States should have thought about it longer and harder before trying to come up with a solution to a quick end to war. The U.S destroyed many innocent children, men and women