VII: Neighboring Towns
The nearby counties of Aki, Asa and Saiki all played their wartime roles in the defense of Hiroshima City. Such duties had been assigned to each area as raising rice and vegetables, lumbering or extracting pine-root resin. The fishing villages had salt-making added to their work. The military had dispersed their command centers to many outlying towns and set up hospitals, armories and ammunition dumps, and various governmental offices stored important documents and materials in suburban areas. Even as late as the day before surrender, it was decided to evacuate the 2nd Regiment Command to Mt. Futaba, the Central Japan national offices to Mt. Mitaki and prefectural and city offices to the hills of Koi.
In 1942 about 420,000 people had lived in Hiroshima, but in June of 1945, due to widespread evacuation, especially of the elderly and of children, there were only some 240,000. After the disaster, nearly 150,000 managed to escape to outlying districts, but so unremitting were the deaths that the funeral pyres were never quenched.
Hachihonmatsu
At Hachihonmatsu, eleven to fifteen miles from the hypocenter, even people inside their houses saw the flash the explosion, and a minute later heard a dull "Crump, Their paper doors vibrated. Running out and looking west ward, they saw the huge mushroom-shaped cloud rising an spreading, and stood nailed to the ground.
Katsumi Kuboki, then a Saijo Agricultural High School student, writes, "Suddenly over the house I heard the metallic roar of a B-29. I ran to the back garden, and over my head two contrails stretched toward Hiroshima. As I recall it now, the planes suddenly dived and leveled off to bombing position, probably to drop the A-Bomb. Then one turned north and disappeared and three parachutes billowed open. While I watched, a white-hot light stabbed my eyes. When I could open them again, fearfully, a huge cloud rose and spread in the sky, rose-colored above and purple underneath. Then a shock wave struck me."
Kabe
Kabe also experienced the flash, the roar and the shock, although 9.5 miles from their source. Shading from orange to red to black, the nuclear cloud stood over the mountains south of Ota River. "What has happened to Hiroshima ?" people wondered uneasily. "Probably the fuel tanks have exploded." While they shaded their eyes to see, a B-29 flew over their heads and three parachutes slowly approach. ed, gleaming white in the sunlight.
About 9:15 the sirens screamed and the warning was spread around, "Time bombs! Escape !" It threw the small town into confusion. People fled or took shelter for several hours, but the parachutes fell harmlessly among the trees in the mountains. In the meantime, the long procession of refugees from Hiroshima entered the town Wu dragging feet, throwing it into commotion a second time.
Kaita
In Kaita, 3.8 to 7.3 miles from the burst, windows were smashed, glass and frames alike, roofs buckled and clocks fell from walls. Very soon from the station radio was heard a pleading voice, "Osaka Radio, Osaka Radio ... this is Hiroshima Radio calling ..." However, the people were told nothing. The police posted a red sign, "Do not use !" on the public telephone in the town office, so the only news that came into Kaita stopped with the town authorities and the police.
The flash and shock wave struck many other towns. People in Miyoshi, 40 miles away felt the shock, and the flash was seen 47 miles away at Shobara. Burned timbers, tin roofing, shreds of clothing, papers and the like bounded through the air and fell in the mountains to the northwest For example, at Yuki Town, about 10:00 o'clock in the morning, there came a rain of papers from the Post and Telegraph Office, post cards, letters, documents and business memoranda. Even at 3.5 miles distance, papers from the Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce came raining down. It was from these signs that people living back in the mountains first realized the magnitude of the disaster.
Civilian Corps
The volunteer house-dismantling groups came largely from these outlying areas. Otake, Saka, Hatsukaichi and six other towns represent their combined loss as 472 instantly killed, 816 missing and 634 injured. No figures are available for Kure City and many other smaller towns and villages that sent volunteer help to Hiroshima.