On the 6th of August,1945, While my brother and I were on a streetcar near Fukuya department store in Hatchobori(2/3 miles East from the hypo-center), we were blinded by a great flash. At that moment I felt as if I had beenstruck by a thousand bolts of lightning. Then there was complete darkness, after which we could see dead bodies covered with blood that were piled on top of my brother and I. We tried to come to our senses and push aside the corpses. We had difficulty getting out of the streetcar, it was very dark and I could hardly see what was in front of me.
Until it became brighter much like the coming of dawn, I had not realized that a great disaster had happened. Hiroshima city had totally changed its apperance, and every house had been destroyed in a moment. I could see Mt.Futaba just over the way and I could also point the islands of the Inland Sea which used to be behind the buildings. When I looked around I realized that not a soul was to be seen, although there were many people walking on the streets until a minute ago. People were borned just like charcoal and had turned into a substance as hard as a rock. I couldn't believe that they were human's bodies. they were piled up unsparingly and covered with a heap of rubble.
I started running away in a daze. Nevertheless I dumbstruck with surprise. I could recognise a big bank about two hundred yards away, and I saw the first person alive on the stone steps of the bank. That person was a mother who was burntall over her body. She was holding her burnt baby tightly in her red metled chest as she was suckling her child, drop by drop from her enflamed breasters. She was calling her baby's name again and again and shouted to him, "Please don't die! Please!" We wanted to help them but were obliged to leave there in order to escape the flames.
Every year when approaching the 6th of August, I remember the mother and the child and cross my fingers in prayer involuntarily as I pass the bank. After that we ran away from the place with difficulty, over the smashed roofs and through Kyobashi and Enkobashi street. Many people appealed to us "Help me! Help me!," as they saw our fine appearance, not having any injuries or burns. In short time the whole neighborhood turned into a sheet of fire. Living people under the destroyed roofs were burned scorchingly in flames. While I was quickly getting away from there, one mother pulled my leg and cried "You! Please! Please help my child!".
It was deadly hot as I passed through the raging blazes, tearing myself away from the people's demanding cries of help.
The scream of mothers and children who died under the roofs and rubbles at the time never fade away in my memory.
Soon we arrived at Hiroshima station which was 1 1/4 mile away from the center of the explosion. Terribly burned people formed groups and cried for the heat as they wondered from place to place seeking an escape. All their clothes and kimonos were scorched black and their skin was sore and melted as if they were hanging vinyl handbags from their bodies. I also witnessed a blind child whose eyeballs were projected by a blast of wind. He cried "Mommy, take me somewhere!" then fell down and died after aimless unsteady steps.
In the early evening we reached East Parade Ground at the back of Hiroshima station. In the parade ground, which was as huge as an airport, there were numerous burned and wounded people lying down. I will never forget them dying one after another dazed by the heat of the charring sun, and their grievous cries, "It's too hot! Help me", "Give me water! Give me water!"
That night we arrived at Hesaka station. My terrible nausea became worse and I felt down with thud there. Later that night on the 6th of August, a person who knew us allowed us to sleep in their house which was full of burned people. Through the night I vomitted something and groaned.
Next day we finally reached our house in the countryside. Even though my parents were very pleased at our returning safe and sound, I was struck down by an illness after the 15th of August. I began to lose my hair, my mouth was raw, and I bled from my bottom. Moreover, bloody spots appeared all over my body. Begin in such condition, I couldn't even stand up when I listened to the Emperor's statement from the radio to terminate the war. I, however, could not accept his statement, because I had a strong belief, which was that Japan could never be defeated and Kamikaze, divine wind, blows for our victory in the end!
We were defeated. Every day and night I vomitted blood.
On the 2nd of the September, my brother who had been in much better condition than me said, "Take care of our mother and father, please," as he breathed his last breath peacefully. His body got colder and he died. After his funeral I became unconscious. When I recovered my senses half a year had past. It was the end of February in 1946. After a long time, I looked at myself on a round-shaped hand mirror which my mother had put beside my bed. I saw something glittering in the mirror. Suddenly, I called to my mother loudly "Mommy, my hair has grown!" She hasted to me and embraced my body as she howled with delight "You revived! You revived!" I owe my life to my mother who sat beside me all through the nights. About a year later that I could toddle like a baby. My life began again.
More than fifty years have passed since the end of the war. During these times I suffered from an illness which ruined my both eyes. I had cataracts caused by the atomic bomb, and I went blind. In 1991, I had an operation to insert artificial lenses to my both eyes, now my sight has recovered.
So many times I was admitted to the hospital and until today I barely survived. My second life started on the 6th of August 1945. I narrowly escaped death. As a survivor I strongly believe nuclear weapons and atomic bombs ruin human begins. We have lost so many people's lives by the explosions of the bombs which were made of uranium. Hiroshima turned into an atomic desert. It is said there are more than twenty thousand atomic bombs in the world at present. It is believed that if a nuclear war breaks out and some atomic bombs are dropped, the earth will be ruined completely in thirty minutes.
Now we are living in a terrible age in which a soldier could make a simple mistake and bombs could fall any time and any where, even to this venue. We must abolish all the bombs and nuclear weapons from the world, then a nuclear war could never break out.
I want to appeal to all of you that we are resposible for developing a peaceful world in which there is no war and no nuclear weapons, then we can live in safety. We never forget the 6th of August, 1945 till we develop a peaceful world. Now we must engrave in our mind the hell of Hiroshima, to ensure that this tragedy will not repeated. Let us spread our cry, "No more Hiroshima, no more Nagasaki".
Finally I declare to everyone in the next generation that I am going to devote the rest of my life to making sure the living testimony of Hiroshima never dies.
Thank you very much.