| 5.Under the Mushroom Cloud |
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On the morning of Monday August 6, 1945, there wasn't a cloud in the sky over
Hiroshima.
An air-raid warning had sounded a little after midnight, but nothing happened, and the
all-clear was given at 2:10 a.m. Again at 7:09 in the morning, a yellow alert was issued,
but the all-clear came at 7:31. People were relieved and, after a simple wartime
breakfast, were beginning their day's work. Then, at 8:15 a.m., there was a flash of light
in the sky.When the yellow alert was issued a little past seven o'clock, a B-29 had in
fact appeared over Hiroshima to conduct a weather survey for dropping an atomic bomb.
Nobody imagined such a thing was happening. It was a midsummer day and people in the city
were starting to move about.
Approximately 8,400 mainly first and second year middle-school students (mostly twelve to
fourteen-year old boys and girls) were about to help dismantle buildings to make
firebreaks as protection from air raids. About 10,000 volunteer guards were coming from
neighboring towns and villages into Hiroshima City to join them, and they were also
arriving at their work sites. There were students who had been mobilized to work at
military factories, and others who were ready for a day at school.
Akira Ishida, who would later work to promote peace education as a teacher and as a
hibakusha (A-bomb survivor), was on a streetcar in the center of the city. Fumio Shigeto,
who from this day on would work for the rescue activities of survivors and give them
medical treatment at the Red Cross Hospital, had just arrived at Hiroshima Station.
Ichiro Moritaki, who would dedicate the rest of his life to hibakusha relief movements,
was at the Hiroshima Shipyard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, in the south of the city
where, together with his students at Hiroshima Higher School of Education, he had been
mobilized as part of the labor force. The experience of the three, of whom only Ishida is
still alive today, was in many ways typical of a large number of other hibakusha.
Although it was still wartime, another day had just started for people in Hiroshima. At
8:15 a.m., people were going to work, doing housework, going to receive rations, seeing
the doctor, visiting sick friends or relatives, going to the bank to draw money out, or
busy with other things.
Many hibakusha say that straight after the bomb, people tried to get away in the
oppositedirection from where the bomb had exploded (the hypocenter); people near Hiroshima
Station escaped to the east or to the north, those near Yokogawa Station to the north,
those around Hijiyama Hill to the south or to the east. There were, of course, some people
who were going against the flow because of their families or jobs.
There were still other people who were coming into Hiroshima from the surrounding
communities to help with the rescue work. The Army Marine Transport stationed near
Hiroshima Port at Ujina dispatched soldiers from its unit called the "Akatsuki
Corps" to the city center to be engaged in the rescue effort.
They saw hideously disfigured corpses which could not be identified; schoolgirls who
were desperate for water jumping into the river; people walking about like zombies, with
burned and peeled-off skin hanging from their bodies; a boy trying to save his groaning
mother who was trapped under fallen walls. Fire was approaching. A man was beating his
dying daughter hard with a piece of wooden board, saying, "Your pain will be over
soon." It was hell all around.
Flames and screams filled the city, where refugees and rescue teams were going to and
fro. Hanging over them was another evil of the atomic bomb: residual radiation.
The atomic bomb was dropped from the B-29 Enola Gay at an altitude of about 9,600
meters and exploded at approximately 580 meters above the city. At that moment,the
temperature of the air at the point of explosion reached several million degrees Celsius,
and a fireball appeared, radiating white heat.
After 1/10,000 of a second, the fireball grew to a diameter of 28 meters and its
temperature was close to 300,000℃. In one second, the fireball is estimated to have
expanded to a maximum diameter of about 280 meters.
At the instant of the explosion, intense heat rays and radiation were released. The
surrounding a ir expanded with enormous pressure, causing a tremendous blast. 
Survivors said that the flash of light that came from the fireball was like an "intense magnesium light". With its flash and the deafening sound that followed, many people sensed that this was not an ordinary bomb.
An atomic cloud was created by the sudden extraordinary turbulence right after the
explosion and it was lifted up in the rising current.
A U.S. Forces observing plane reported that five minutes after the bombing a massive
gray cloud about 5 kilometers in diameter was hanging over the center of the city. The
mushroom cloud rapidly grew into a gigantic pillar of rolling white smoke, and soon it
reached an altitude of about 17,000 meters, spreading out wide at its top. Four hours
after the bombing, a photo-reconnaissance plane flew over Hiroshima and reported that the
whole city was still so thickly covered with the cloud of smoke that all they could see
were scraps of flames around its edges.
The destruction caused by the atomic bomb was due to the combined effects of the
tremendous pressure, the blast and the heat rays. The result was horrific.
Within about two kilometers of the hypocenter, almost all wooden houses were completely
destroyed and burned down. More solid buildings which did not collapse had their windows
shattered and their interiors burned out. Some fires were caused by the embers from
kitchen stoves, but within 1.8 kilometers of the hypocenter, it is thought that the wooden
houses caught fire by direct exposure to the heat rays.
Buildings between two to four kilometers from the hypocenter were either completely
destroyed or partially destroyed, depending on how far away they were.In some cases,
however, buildings quite a distance away caught fire due to the radiant heat.
Fires began to spread in the city about an hour after the bombing, and raged until
about two o'clock in the afternoon of that day. By the evening, a vast area of the city
was reduced to ashes, and in some places the fires did not completely die down until a few
days later.
It had been a clear summer day, but about 20 to 30 minutes after the bombing,
pitch-black rain began to fall over a wide area of Hiroshima and northwest of the city.
The rain was a result of the rising current of air which sucked up fine particles of dust
containing an enormous amount of radiation from the A-bomb cloud.
The black rain fell on people who had just escaped from the burning city and those in
the suburbs who were worrying about their families' safety in the city. People exposed to
this sticky black rain did not know that it was radioactive fallout, or radioactive rain,
caused by the nuclear bomb.
The heroine in Masuji Ibuse's novel, "Black Rain", eventually falls ill of
what was called "A-bomb disease", as a result of this rain. According to
investigations so far, this rain fell in an oval area up to 30 kilometers long, but some
people have suggested that it rained over an even wider area.
The following ten days were the "ten days after the
bombing" for Hiroshima, but they were also "the ten days still at war".
The national government dispatched a survey team from the army and the navy, and
summoned scientists to investigate the extent of the damage.On August 10, they determined
that the bomb was an "atomic bomb" and, on the same day, they protested to the
United States, "We denounce the government of the United States and demand the
immediate renunciation of the use of such an inhumane weapon." The government,
however, did not tell the Japanese public this, but just said that matters were
"under investigation".
In Hiroshima, both the prefectural and municipal government offices were seriously
damaged, so the relevant local government bodies discussed emergency measures, moving
temporarily from one place to another. On August 8, in order for the administration to be
most effective in the relief and restoration work, a liaison meeting of military
personnel, government Officials and the private sector was held, and decided among other
measures that damage certificates could be issued by volunteer guards as well, that lists
of patients' names be urgently made and posted where they were accommodated, and that the
government should continue to provide meals for one week, after which they would resume
food rationing.
The survivors took refuge with their relatives in the suburbs, at first-aid stations
within and outside the city, at temples, factories, military facilities and schools. Some
were carried by naval ships to Ninoshima Island off the coast of Ujina. People who were
terribly burned or seriously injured died one after the other. Even those who looked well,
without apparent injuries, would suddenly die. Some lost their hair, others suffered from
severe diarrhea. "This is something very strange," people thought, terribly
worried about the extraordinary effects of the bomb.
The war ended. Japanese people were later informed that their government had kept
discussing in one meeting after another whether to accept the unconditional surrender of
Japan until, finally, the end of the war was announced in an Imperial edict on August 15.
The Emperor Showa's edict broadcast on the radio was called "Gyoku-on Hoso (Broadcast
of His Majesty's Voice)". People reacted in different ways. Some were devastated to
hear that Japan had lost the war. Others were just glad that the war was over. Some felt
relieved, now that they were free to turn on the light at night. 
Living conditions were very hard for the survivors. In August, the burned-down city was frequented by people who were looking for their relatives, and an uncountable number of bodies were cremated. In September, medical doctors who came to Hiroshima from Tokyo University, Kyoto University and others to survey conditions advised hibakusha to carefully monitor their health. On September 17, the Makurazaki Typhoon hit the Hiroshima Region. In October, classes at Noborimachi Primary School and other schools started again. In November, most of the railway lines under the jurisdiction of the Hiroshima Railway Administration Bureau were restored after the damage caused by the A-bomb and the typhoon. In December, the unidentified remains of about 6,000 people in the care of the Hiroshima Municipal Government were moved to Zempo-ji Temple in Koi-machi. At the end of the year, as winter was setting in, survliving citizens felt very insecure because there was very little shelter, clothing or food available.
one month after the bombing, Buddhist services and memorial services were held for the deceased at government offices, schools and workplaces in Hiroshima. The Governor of Hiroshima Prefecture, Genshin Takano, commented, "By keeping large open spaces and constructing wide streets, I seek to prevent the spread of fires and also make vegetable plots in the future." He added, "The population of the city now stands at 130,000." The population had sharply decreased from the estimated civilian population of 300,000 before the bombing. On January 1, 1946, four months after the bombing, Hiroshima City announced that its population was 151,693 .
On September 8, a U.S. A-bomb survey team arrived in Hiroshima. It was composed of
Brigadier General Thomas Farrel and twelve others. By this time, university medical
doctors and other people had come to Hiroshima
from all over Japan to conduct research and to assist with medical treatment. The U.S.
survey team seized survey results regarding human casualties and medical statistics from
these experts, as well as a large volume of film showing the physical destruction caused,
taken by Japanese news photographers and documentary film crews, and took these materials
back to the United States. It was not until 28 years later, in 1973, that they were
returned by the United States and made available to the Japanese public.
The atomic bomb wreaked great havoc on the economy, too. It was impossible to produce goods needed for everyday life, including even the most essential commodities. The distribution systems for clothing and food were also paralyzed. Black markets filled this gap and, springing up around Hiroshima Station and in other locations, provided what people urgently needed. Anything that people needed to live was bought and sold at these black markets, including vegetables, clothes and furniture brought from nearby towns and villages, as well as military uniforms, shoes, and medicine found in the former military warehouses. The survivors in Hiroshima, suffering severe shortages, joined together to hold a rally on December 7, and adopted a resolution requesting the Governor to make essential provisions available.
The rain which continued from the end of August turned into a solid downpour on the morning of September 17. The rivers rose, the sewage flowed backward, temporary shelters and half-destroyed houses were blown down, and the railway service was cut off. According to the records of the Hiroshima Local Meteorological Observatory, the total rainfall on this day was 197 millimeters, with the dead and missing totaling 2,012. Victims included members of the A-bomb survey team from Kyoto University who were washed away in the landslide at Ono Army Hospital in Ono-cho to the west of Hiroshima City. Eleven people, including Professor Toshikazu Mashimo, died on the spot.