On August 6, 1945, when the world's first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the Furuta family was living one mile away from the hypocenter. Five year old Kikuko, her mother, Masako, and her two brothers barely escaped with their lives. However, their soldier father was not so fortunate. Masako never talked about her family's experiences on that day and the grim days following the bombing. Then one day, Masako started to talk about what happened—breaking a silence of nearly fifty years. Written by Kikuko (Furuta) Otake, now a retired assistant professor of Japanese in the United States, Masako's story is a collection of prose-poetry, based on the true story of her family's tragedy. It is written with an "Objectivist" lineation similar in its understated power to Charles Reznikoff's Testimony. Kikuko Otake's Masako's Story is a powerful addition to the literature of the Atomic Bomb, and yet more evidence that we should all work together to stop the Nuclear madness.

Masako's Story

Surviving the Atomic Bombing of HiroshimaBy Kikuko Otake

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 Kikuko Otake
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4634-4338-2

Contents

Letter to the Reader................................................xv1. I Can't Talk About It Today......................................42. Oh! I Can't Continue to Speak of It!.............................73. Nam'amidabutsu...................................................224. The Remains of Uncle Yataro......................................345. Human Beings Don't Die Easily....................................406. That's Why You Are Still Alive Today.............................447. "Watashi no Ningyo"..............................................49Two Haiku About Masako..............................................551. Atomic Bomb......................................................592. Skinning Tomatoes................................................603. Anniversary......................................................614. I Believe in God.................................................625. WHY..............................................................636. No More Radiation................................................647. Breast Cancer....................................................668. Medicine to Prevent Radiation-Induced Cancer.....................679. I Will Ask YOU...................................................6810. What Would Happen to Our Bodies?................................6911. Nuclear Deterrence..............................................7012. Don't Repeat the Evil...........................................7113. Looking Back, Moving Forward....................................73Epilogue............................................................87Selected Bibliography...............................................89About the Author....................................................91

Chapter One

My Family

July 1945

My father took this picture less than one month before the atomic bomb was dropped. I recall that I did not want to have my picture taken on that day. As I was crying, I had a sad face. Was it because I had a presentiment that something terrible was going to happen?

Flight Path of the Enola Gay

August 6, 1945

The US B-29 bomber Enola Gay departed from Tinian Island near Guam at 1:45 a. m. on August 6 (Japan time). It dropped the atomic bomb over Hiroshima at 8:15 a. m.

    1. I Can't Talk About It Today

    My dear Daughter.
    On that morning,
    When I went out to the backyard,
    I found a flower blooming on a squash vine
    Which the former resident1
    had planted in a small garden in the
        yard.
    Oh I tell you, I was so glad!
    'Soon we'll have some squash to eat!'
    That's what I thought that morning.

    Then I saw a lady with a white parasol
    Walking beside the railroad tracks.

    'It's going to be another hot summer day today,' I thought,
    'Best to hurry up and finish the laundry.'

    So I went back into the house,
    And when I started washing some clothes in the kitchen in a big
    wooden tub,
        It was just at that moment,
        WHEN ...

            The Atomic Bomb fell.

    The lady flew like a doll from the railroad tracks,
    And landed on her back with her parasol still in her hand,
    Dead.

        Ah, that moment!
        Oh, that day!

        How horrible it was.

        Hell on earth.
        .......

    I don't want to think about it any more.

    Sorry, not now.
    I can't bring myself to tell you today.

Mushroom Cloud

August 6, 1945

(Approximately one hour after the explosion at 8:15 a. m.)

The cloud generated by the explosion rose upward on strong currents of turbulent air. As the pillar of radiation-laden soot and smoke reached the bottom of the stratosphere, it spread horizontally to a diameter of several miles, forming a giant mushroom cap.

    2. Oh! I Can't Continue to Speak of It!

    I lay unconscious.
    How long?
    I don't know.
    It felt comfortable,
    Like taking a nice, long shower.

    Gradually ... a sound filled my ears:
    — Children,
    — Children screaming,
    — Crying for their mother.
    I freed myself by pushing off the debris ...
    Our house had collapsed around us ...
    And I discovered that both you and Koji had been buried
    Up to your chests in the rubble,
    So I crawled across the broken beams and roof tiles,
    And I pulled both of you free.

    The gashes on your heads ...
    Like a fountain,
    The blood spurted down your smudged faces.

    I then looked for Shoichi and found him struggling, alone,
    To free himself from the wreckage.
    He was bleeding from his head and brow.
    And oh!
    His left eye was smashed.

    'What?
    Our house?

    Our house has been bombed!
    A bomb ... it fell directly on our house!
    That's what I kept thinking at that time.

    I dug through the broken roof tiles, timber, and crumbled stucco
    Searching for the emergency bag I kept handy during the war.
    I found it!
    Then I took out the first-aid kit.
    You were bleeding so badly.
    I tried to stop the flow
    By binding your heads — yours and your brothers' —
    With the big triangular cloth bandages.
    But the blood still gushed!

    The blood clung to your hair
    Pasting it to your skulls and...