Survivor O I believe we had summer vacation that year. August 6, 1945, was Monday. We used to sing an old song that said, “Monday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Friday.” And that was just how it was: it was even true for elementary school students. In the name of “student mobilization” we had to constantly work alongside and assist adults. Those in 3rd to 6th grades were helping with demolition. That meant we were helping to remove or disassemble wood from a building. The 2nd grade was helping the younger students go below during an air raid; the wooden buildings would be burned quickly. So everyone was in a group, and the 2nd grade was helping the others to go down to the building’s basement. (After the bombing) When I came up from the basement and out into the playground, the air was full of an odd smell and there should have been a blue sky, but there wasn’t. I saw the rising black smoke and soot from the blast hanging in the air, but I think quite a bit of time passed. The buildings on the west side of the school were completely gone. I couldn’t see anyone clearly, though there were shadows moving. Everyone seemed to be crawling, or leaping up. Toward the rear gate near the wooden school building were the bodies of what I think were [telecom company] service guards. I waved them off without flames. (The fire from the explosion) then picked up my untouched wet shoes. The people in the playground might have been burned up instantly. I don’t know.

Survivor A Survivor A commuted to Fukuro-machi Elementary School from his home in Togiya-cho (now Kamiya-cho) about 150 meters away. He was in fourth grade. “That day” he arrived at school and went down to the basement room (about three meters underground) to take off his street shoes and change into his gym shoes. Suddenly, everything around him went black, and he was sprayed with fine sandlike tiles. The air was cut out quickly, and he shouted with his friends and classmates. They started to go up, but it was dark and night-like except for flames leaping up here and there. It was like a dream. But a breeze, flames, legs rising in heat and the playground barefoot, he wandered to the basement to get his shoes, then was just going back up. The other was standing by the shoe shelves changing from his geta (wooden sandals) to gym shoes. He had a splitting headache, and while he was putting out the glass fragments stuck in him, his friend T disappeared. – Excerpt from Chugoku Shimbun, April 14, 1970

Miracle Underground It was originally assumed that all were lost instantly by the atomic bombing. However, the Comprehensive A-bomb Disaster Survey begun in 1967 by the Research Institute for Nuclear Medicine and Biology of Hiroshima University discovered that there were a few survivors. Three pupils happened to be in an underground room in the West Building. This was a sturdy, ferro-concrete building, and these students were 3 meters underground in a room with a ceiling 20 to 30 centimeters thick. Thus, they miraculously escaped. When the A-bomb exploded: One student (A) had just arrived at school and had gone into that basement room where shoes were kept. Another had been in the playground barefoot, had then wandered to the basement to get his shoes, then was just going back up. The other was standing by the shoe shelves changing from his geta (wooden sandals) to gym shoes.

The harrowing accounts from two of the students that survived the atomic bomb that day.