The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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The Manhattan Engineer District >> The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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We must proceed to our goal in the park and are forced to leave the wounded
to their fate. We make our way to the place where our church stood to dig
up those few belongings that we had buried yesterday. We find them intact.
Everything else has been completely burned. In the ruins, we find a few
molten remnants of holy vessels. At the park, we load the housekeeper and
a mother with her two children on the cart. Father Kleinsorge feels strong
enough, with the aid of Brother Nobuhara, to make his way home on foot.
The way back takes us once again past the dead and wounded in Hakushima.
Again no rescue parties are in evidence. At the Misasa Bridge, there still
lies the family which the Fathers Tappe and Luhmer had yesterday rescued
from the ruins. A piece of tin had been placed over them to shield them
from the sun. We cannot take them along for our cart is full. We give
them and those nearby water to drink and decide to rescue them later. At
three o'clock in the afternoon, we are back in Nagatsuka.
After we have had a few swallows and a little food, Fathers Stolte, Luhmer,
Erlinghagen and myself, take off once again to bring in the family. Father
Kleinsorge requests that we also rescue two children who had lost their
mother and who had lain near him in the park. On the way, we were greeted
by strangers who had noted that we were on a mission of mercy and who
praised our efforts. We now met groups of individuals who were carrying
the wounded about on litters. As we arrived at the Misasa Bridge, the
family that had been there was gone. They might well have been borne away
in the meantime. There was a group of soldiers at work taking away those
that had been sacrificed yesterday.
More than thirty hours had gone by until the first official rescue party
had appeared on the scene. We find both children and take them out of the
park: a six-year old boy who was uninjured, and a twelve-year old girl who
had been burned about the head, hands and legs, and who had lain for thirty
hours without care in the park. The left side of her face and the left eye
were completely covered with blood and pus, so that we thought that she had
lost the eye. When the wound was later washed, we noted that the eye was
intact and that the lids had just become stuck together. On the way home,
we took another group of three refugees with us. They first wanted to
know, however, of what nationality we were. They, too, feared that we
might be Americans who had parachuted in. When we arrived in Nagatsuka, it
had just become dark.
We took under our care fifty refugees who had lost everything. The
majority of them were wounded and not a few had dangerous burns. Father
Rektor treated the wounds as well as he could with the few medicaments that
we could, with effort, gather up. He had to confine himself in general to
cleansing the wounds of purulent material. Even those with the smaller
burns are very weak and all suffered from diarrhea. In the farm houses in
the vicinity, almost everywhere, there are also wounded. Father Rektor
made daily rounds and acted in the capacity of a painstaking physician and
was a great Samaritan. Our work was, in the eyes of the people, a greater
boost for Christianity than all our work during the preceding long years.
Three of the severely burned in our house died within the next few days.
Suddenly the pulse and respirations ceased. It is certainly a sign of our
good care that so few died. In the official aid stations and hospitals, a
good third or half of those that had been brought in died. They lay about
there almost without care, and a very high percentage succumbed.
Everything was lacking: doctors, assistants, dressings, drugs, etc. In an
aid station at a school at a nearby village, a group of soldiers for
several days did nothing except to bring in and cremate the dead behind the
school.
During the next few days, funeral processions passed our house from morning
to night, bringing the deceased to a small valley nearby. There, in six
places, the dead were burned. People brought their own wood and themselves
did the cremation. Father Luhmer and Father Laures found a dead man in a
nearby house who had already become bloated and who emitted a frightful
odor. They brought him to this valley and incinerated him themselves.
Even late at night, the little valley was lit up by the funeral pyres.
We made systematic efforts to trace our acquaintances and the families of
the refugees whom we had sheltered. Frequently, after the passage of
several weeks, some one was found in a distant village or hospital but of
many there was no news, and these were apparently dead. We were lucky to
discover the mother of the two children whom we had found in the park and
who had been given up for dead. After three weeks, she saw her children
once again. In the great joy of the reunion were mingled the tears for
those whom we shall not see again.
The magnitude of the disaster that befell Hiroshima on August 6th was only
slowly pieced together in my mind. I lived through the catastrophe and saw
it only in flashes, which only gradually were merged to give me a total
picture. What actually happened simultaneously in the city as a whole is
as follows: As a result of the explosion of the bomb at 8:15, almost the
entire city was destroyed at a single blow. Only small outlying districts
in the southern and eastern parts of the town escaped complete destruction.
The bomb exploded over the center of the city. As a result of the blast,
the small Japanese houses in a diameter of five kilometers, which
compressed 99% of the city, collapsed or were blown up. Those who were in
the houses were buried in the ruins. Those who were in the open sustained
burns resulting from contact with the substance or rays emitted by the
bomb. Where the substance struck in quantity, fires sprang up. These
spread rapidly.
The heat which rose from the center created a whirlwind which was effective
in spreading fire throughout the whole city. Those who had been caught
beneath the ruins and who could not be freed rapidly, and those who had
been caught by the flames, became casualties. As much as six kilometers
from the center of the explosion, all houses were damaged and many
collapsed and caught fire. Even fifteen kilometers away, windows were
broken. It was rumored that the enemy fliers had spread an explosive and
incendiary material over the city and then had created the explosion and
ignition. A few maintained that they saw the planes drop a parachute which
had carried something that exploded at a height of 1,000 meters. The
newspapers called the bomb an "atomic bomb" and noted that the force of the
blast had resulted from the explosion of uranium atoms, and that gamma rays
had been sent out as a result of this, but no one knew anything for certain
concerning the nature of the bomb.
How many people were a sacrifice to this bomb? Those who had lived through
the catastrophe placed the number of dead at at least 100,000. Hiroshima
had a population of 400,000. Official statistics place the number who had
died at 70,000 up to September 1st, not counting the missing ... and
130,000 wounded, among them 43,500 severely wounded. Estimates made by
ourselves on the basis of groups known to us show that the number of
100,000 dead is not too high. Near us there are two barracks, in each of
which forty Korean workers lived. On the day of the explosion, they were
laboring on the streets of Hiroshima. Four returned alive to one barracks
and sixteen to the other. 600 students of the Protestant girls' school
worked in a factory, from which only thirty to forty returned. Most of the
peasant families in the neighborhood lost one or more of their members who
had worked at factories in the city. Our next door neighbor, Tamura, lost
two children and himself suffered a large wound since, as it happened, he
had been in the city on that day. The family of our reader suffered two
dead, father and son; thus a family of five members suffered at least two
losses, counting only the dead and severely wounded. There died the Mayor,
the President of the central Japan district, the Commander of the city, a
Korean prince who had been stationed in Hiroshima in the capacity of an
officer, and many other high ranking officers. Of the professors of the
University, thirty-two were killed or severely injured. Especially hard
hit were the soldiers. The Pioneer Regiment was almost entirely wiped out.
The barracks were near the center of the explosion.
Thousands of wounded who died later could doubtless have been rescued had
they received proper treatment and care, but rescue work in a catastrophe
of this magnitude had not been envisioned; since the whole city had been
knocked out at a blow, everything which had been prepared for emergency
work was lost, and no preparation had been made for rescue work in the
outlying districts. Many of the wounded also died because they had been
weakened by under-nourishment and consequently lacked in strength to
recover. Those who had their normal strength and who received good care
slowly healed the burns which had been occasioned by the bomb. There were
also cases, however, whose prognosis seemed good who died suddenly. There
were also some who had only small external wounds who died within a week or
later, after an inflammation of the pharynx and oral cavity had taken
place. We thought at first that this was the result of inhalation of the
substance of the bomb. Later, a commission established the thesis that
gamma rays had been given out at the time of the explosion, following which
the internal organs had been injured in a manner resembling that consequent
upon Roentgen irradiation. This produces a diminution in the numbers of
the white corpuscles.
Only several cases are known to me personally where individuals who did not
have external burns later died. Father Kleinsorge and Father Cieslik, who
were near the center of the explosion, but who did not suffer burns became
quite weak some fourteen days after the explosion. Up to this time small
incised wounds had healed normally, but thereafter the wounds which were
still unhealed became worse and are to date (in September) still
incompletely healed. The attending physician diagnosed it as leucopania.
There thus seems to be some truth in the statement that the radiation had
some effect on the blood. I am of the opinion, however, that their
generally undernourished and weakened condition was partly responsible for
these findings. It was noised about that the ruins of the city emitted
deadly rays and that workers who went there to aid in the clearing died,
and that the central district would be uninhabitable for some time to come.
I have my doubts as to whether such talk is true and myself and others who
worked in the ruined area for some hours shortly after the explosion
suffered no such ill effects.
None of us in those days heard a single outburst against the Americans on
the part of the Japanese, nor was there any evidence of a vengeful spirit.
The Japanese suffered this terrible blow as part of the fortunes of war ...
something to be borne without complaint. During this, war, I have noted
relatively little hatred toward the allies on the part of the people
themselves, although the press has taken occasion to stir up such feelings.
After the victories at the beginning of the war, the enemy was rather
looked down upon, but when allied offensive gathered momentum and
especially after the advent of the majestic B-29's, the technical skill of
America became an object of wonder and admiration.
The following anecdote indicates the spirit of the Japanese: A few days
after the atomic bombing, the secretary of the University came to us
asserting that the Japanese were ready to destroy San Francisco by means of
an equally effective bomb. It is dubious that he himself believed what he
told us. He merely wanted to impress upon us foreigners that the Japanese
were capable of similar discoveries. In his nationalistic pride, he talked
himself into believing this. The Japanese also intimated that the
principle of the new bomb was a Japanese discovery. It was only lack of
raw materials, they said, which prevented its construction. In the
meantime, the Germans were said to have carried the discovery to a further
stage and were about to initiate such bombing. The Americans were reputed
to have learned the secret from the Germans, and they had then brought the
bomb to a stage of industrial completion.
We have discussed among ourselves the ethics of the use of the bomb. Some
consider it in the same category as poison gas and were against its use on
a civil population. Others were of the view that in total war, as carried
on in Japan, there was no difference between civilians and soldiers, and
that the bomb itself was an effective force tending to end the bloodshed,
warning Japan to surrender and thus to avoid total destruction. It seems
logical to me that he who supports total war in principle cannot complain
of war against civilians. The crux of the matter is whether total war in
its present form is justifiable, even when it serves a just purpose. Does
it not have material and spiritual evil as its consequences which far
exceed whatever good that might result? When will our moralists give us a
clear answer to this question?
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