Reiko Yamada- Oral History and Interview
Date: 25/4/2019
Oral history/ interview:
Shimasaki-san:
I have read your testimony, but if you can briefly go over where you were at the time, and what you were doing it would be appreciated.
Yamada-san:
When the A-bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, I was 11 years old.
And I was in the grounds of the school, elementary school. When they are in the grounds of the school, elementary school, having some kind of ceremonies… I noticed one B-29 flying in the sky. It was a very hot day- summer. Hot summer day in Hiroshima on August 6th in 1945, and the boys had just waved out [at the bomber] and I felt that the body, airplane body, glittered very beautifully, glittered with silver colour in the sky, a blue sky and all of a sudden, the scenery was turned dark. At that time, the B-29 were American air force. They flew to the Hiroshima area so frequently but without any bombing or shooting… Most of the cities in Japan were air attacked but in Hiroshima there is no air attack or even fire attack in Hiroshima, so B-29 is kind of a safety symbol.
Shimasaki-san:
That is interesting, it was considered a safety symbol? Was there anything different, other than it ‘shimmering’ in your experience and ‘glittering’ about that specific bomb, or did it look like every other one that had been through the area. Every other B-29?
Yamada-san:
We don’t know what they are, while we are very young, that children so that we don’t know about how severe the air attack or how it influences on the B-29 or so. But by nature, the young boys or young girls just noticed it flying around… Usually the government regardless of the countries, government tried to hide/bury serious matters from the eyes of the people.
Shimasaki-san:
You mentioned in your testimony that after the bomb, there was black rain, can you talk more about that?
Yamada-san:
The students/pupils gathered there and ate there on the ground, and all of a sudden it hit, so that they are all going into the shelters, but shelter is small, and many students are outside shelters and those students had suffered from the rain. Although it is very short, the black rain, the circumstances are very dark. Now at that time of course, they did not know about the word ‘black rain,’ afterwards we understand that the rain is starting and for a short time, on August 6th, so-called black rain with radiations.
Shimasaki-san:
What did you see immediately after the bomb and heading back out of the city and home?
Translator:
She wrote in the testimony that she stumbles home heading to the shelters, and it is a time lap for her to get in, its all, just the shelter was full so she get up from the spot and has shower for short time and notice that there is no room there and each student trying to get back to their home.
Shimasaki-san:
- Yamada-san and translator showing Shimasaki-san the locations of the atomic bombing and key locations from the testimony.
Ah, so that is the location.
Yamada-san:
Hiroshima station [showing on a map]. My hometown. Seven rivers; seven rivers in Hiroshima.
Shimasaki-san:
Seven rivers. Ok.
Yamada-san:
If you go there right now it is 6.
Shimasaki-san:
Talking about the rivers. You had mentioned food shortages after the war [in Yamada-san’s testimony] and how they had to plant food, and that human bones were unearthed in harvesting. Would it be possible to hear more about that?
Yamada-san:
That’s epicentre [showing Shimasaki-san on the image].
Shimasaki-san:
The epicentre, yes.
Yamada-san:
There is [my] house. I had choices at that time [it] was not [in a] burning area.
Translator:
She pointed out, along this river, from the river down to the city it is all burned out, but this area is not burned, so that maybe rescue, evacuees, were going toward a high area. So, there were many evacuees heading for the safe area so that when she tried to return her home the road towards her road was so much full of dead bodies or injured bodies [she] cannot walk, cannot walk through them.
Shimasaki-san:
Did her family or anyone she knew suffer or perish from the bombs?
Yamada-san:
My father was working about, within 500 metres at the school. When I returned home, my father, after I returned home, my father was burned severely on the face and had many injuries caused by debris of glass- and two soldiers helped him to go back to his home. The soldiers working under my father was all hit by the wave, shockwaves and buried under the buildings.
The reason why, that my father is working at the elementary school, the reason why the soldiers is occupying the elementary school, at that time the evacuees, evacuation project, national evacuation project for the children, they forced to go to the suburbs for protecting the young students not to be damaged by air bombings or something, so that the classroom is empty, so that the soldiers that would be going overseas had the training on that premises.
Shimasaki-san:
Ok, that is why your father was there.
Seeing death and harm, especially as an 11-year-old, what sort of emotional impact did that have for you?
Yamada-san:
I do not expect anything. Don’t know how to react because all of a sudden. Yeah, the world it changed and many evacuees, coming towards my house beyond the more safe place and I don’t know why my father suffered such severe burns and injuries. All of a sudden, such kind of a [9:24 inaudible] is coming, facing, so I didn’t [inaudible] this point emotionally or something- just surprised.
Shimasaki-san:
Just surprised when you found out?
Yamada-san:
My eldest sister was near Hiroshima station. And first day, on 6th, she couldn’t come back to her home, the next day she came back home with tears, with back burned, and just reached to her home.
And the first day, of course she tried to get back to the, from here to here [pointing on map] and a bunch of fire was in the city. That hindered her from going back home and instead escaping from the epicentre to save her. Finally, she just got access by the mountainside, not to enter the city. And of course, you can imagine that there is no remedy or no medicine to be applied for my father or for my sister’s burning bodies, no remedy or medicines.
Shimasaki-san:
Reflecting on your experience now, what impact has that had on you and your life decisions?
Yamada-san:
In conclusion, I do not know what happens. That means that on the spot I cannot make any response, but for the first time my father came back, and my sisters came back, and all six members of my family returned home compared with other families missing somebody or watching. I watched the bodies lying on the roads and they are ready to be passed away, and for seeing, by seeing it, it just, first is surprise, second is pity and thirdly it just, I felt very sorry and sad but cannot even, the tears cannot come out from my eyes, just very miserable memories.
On the third day, that the lawn which is full of dead or ready to dead body, was my home. On the lawn, on the third day, it was to be cleared up, and I noticed that this black smoke is coming up from the ground of the elementary school and I understood that that is smoke of the bodies, still alive or dead, I didn’t know, but anyway, these people or soldiers make a crem… [trying to think of the word] burning the bodies.
Shimasaki-san:
Cremation?
Yamada-san:
Cremations- burning the body. It probably, it may probably they’re breathing, regardless of the situation, it is just like dumping the waste or burning.
Shimasaki-san:
Even people who were alive?
Yamada-san:
So that made me quite frightened making spots on my skin [nervous, scared…].
The surrounding, neighbouring families, lost fathers or husbands, or losing her children, such kind of information or news was spreading around, and I really felt that the result is just evil on the earth, and I couldn’t help stopping tears for the sad facts.
Shimasaki-san:
Yeah. Did it take long for help to arrive with the soldiers being right in the epicentre and many of them being injured?
Yamada-san:
On the rivers, that many corpse are floating up and down depending on the tide and also that within the area of close to the epicentre, that according to my facts on radiation, or even the lake, that temperature of the epicentre amount 3500 degrees centigrade or even more like the surface of the sun so that every living creatures was vaporised so that there is no body, dead body found, or even its very light burns. They tried to evacuate from the centre, then the shockwaves hit, and they were buried in the debris of the buildings and had really disaster situation. And the soil of Hiroshima, it’s still lots of remains of the bombed victims- must be.
Shimasaki-san:
Who did help them? Did anyone come to help immediately, or did it take more time?
Yamada-san:
So, because every person tried to, of course there are rescue places somewhere, somewhere well of course many rescue places in Hiroshima, however, there are many people who cannot go there. The existence of a rescue spot is in a sense meaningless; there are no medicines for the recovery/ remedy method, it’s just a nomination of the rescue spot and it’s really hard to, for instance, my father did not go to the rescue spot because he couldn’t go there…