Surviving Hiroshima: Keiko Ogura
BY BBC News
August 5, 2005
Keiko Ogura was
eight years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. She still
lives in the city.
I wanted to go to
school, but my father said 'I have a very strange feeling today - you
shouldn't go to school, stay with us'.
That morning I was on
the road near the house and all of a sudden I saw a flash of bluish white
light - a magnesium-like flash and soon after a big sound with dust, and I
was blown away and fell on the ground.
I found myself lying
on the ground near the house. I thought the house was just in front of me
but I couldn't see it because everything had become so dark and many
pieces of wood and roof tiles and rubbish were falling on my head.
There was black rain
falling... It smelled bad and there were many spots on my white blouse
And in the darkness
there was a strong, strong wind like a typhoon. I couldn't open my eyes
but tried to get back to my house and in the darkness I heard somebody was
crying - my brother and sister.
I was 2.4km from the
hypocenter but houses nearer the hypocenter had caught fire and were
burning.
I saw long lines of
refugees, just quiet, I don't know why they were so quiet. There were long
lines, like ghosts.
Most of them were
stretching out their arms because the skin was peeling off from the tips
of their fingers. I could clearly see the hanging skin, peeling skin, and
the wet red flesh and their hair was burned and smelled, the burnt hair
smelled a lot.
And many people, just
slowly passed by the front of my house.
Parched
All of a sudden a
hand squeezed my ankle. I was so scared but they said 'get me water'.
Almost all the people were just asking 'water', and 'help me'.
I rushed into my home
where there was a well and brought them water. They thanked me but some of
them were drinking water and vomiting blood and [then] died, stopped
moving. They died in front of me. I felt regret and so scared. Maybe I
killed them? Did I kill them?
And that night, 6
August, my father was so busy looking after the neighbors, but when he
came back he said: 'Listen children - you shouldn't give water, some of
the refugees died after drinking water. Please remember that.'
As a little girl I
was so curious. I climbed up the hill, near our house... I was so
astonished - all the city was flattened and demolished
Then I felt so
guilty, and I saw them many times in my nightmares. I thought I was a very
bad girl - I didn't do what my father said - so I kept it a secret. I
didn't tell anybody this story until my father died.
There was black rain
falling, black rain mingling with ashes and rubbish and oil, something
like that. It smelled bad and there were many spots on my white blouse -
sticky, dirty rain.
In the morning people
were moving, brushing away flies from their skin. My house was full of
injured people.
But as a little girl
I was so curious. I wanted to see what the city looked like. My house was
at the bottom of a hill - I climbed up the hill, near our house, and then
I saw the whole city. I was so astonished - all the city was flattened and
demolished. I counted just a couple of concrete buildings.
In
Denial
The next day some of
the buildings were still burning, and the next day, and the next day, and
for three or four days I climbed the hill to see what the city was like.
I have a
brother-in-law. He was living almost at the centre of the city - his
family was very close to the hypocenter. Until now his family members were
missing and he didn't want to recognize they were all gone, so he refused
to say and report the family's names to the officials and he didn't want
to visit Hiroshima.
Right now, he is
living far away in Tokyo, and only last year he decided to report to
Hiroshima city that his family members - his mother and sister - had
passed away.
And there were so
many people [who saw] so many dead or dying, but actually, most of them
made up their mind not to tell anyone about what they saw.
This interview is
from the series 'August 1945', from 3-14 August on BBC Radio 4, at 8.55
BST Mondays-Saturday, and at 9.55 BST on Sunday.
Posted by
Bulatlat
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