We Will Do Our Best To Make Nagasaki City More Beautiful Than It Used To Be...
Tomiomi Koda (12 years old then)
Urakami area, which was burnt out by the atomic bomb, has been improved. Right after the atomic bomb was dropped, there was nothing remaining in the area. One and a half years later they could run the street cars up to Ohashi. Many new houses have been built, but there are only about half as many as there were before the bomb. They are like shacks, but even those things make me feel happy. When I entered Yamazato Elementary School, it was very cold in winter as there was no glass in the windows. One year later the glass was put in and the building was repaired. A monument was built at the epicenter of the explosion, and now there is a beautiful cluster of trees. A large playground is being built on the west side of the railroad tracks in Ohashi. This May the Nagasaki station was rebuilt because of the emperor's visit and the memorial ceremony for St. Francis Xavier. A park was also built in Nishizaka at the place where the 26 martyrs of Nagasaki were killed. They build a nice, wide road from the Nagasaki station to Sakura-machi.
Compared with the city four years ago, Nagasaki City has become unbelievably developed. Now my house is a hut, and it seems to take quite a long time to make it into a house. However, we will do our best to make Nagasaki City more beautiful than it used to be as quickly as possible.