Mother Fairly Stumbled As She Ran Up To Dad And Said, "How Lucky! How Lucky!"

A siren began to sound. Whenever this happened, it threw the whole house into an uproar. "It's a warning bell. We don't have to go to the air raid shelter yet," said Mother. Mother always said this and it seemed as if she wanted to be with all of us as long as possible.

But Father, pretending he was angry, purposely said loudly, "Go on! We don't know when the planes will come." Father was used to hurrying us off to the mountain air raid shelter.

This was because a big factory was built very near my house after the war began, and it was the target of every air attack. Mother, Grandma and we children, seven in all, left the town and went up to the hut on the mountain in the west just behind our house. On the way, a terrible warning bell began to ring. We ran straight up through the bushes and trees because if we went around, we wouldn't be able to get there before the planes arrived.

We reached the hut at last, but the planes had not come yet. We felt easy and were playing in the hut. Grandma said, "We'll have lunch soon, so wait and be good." We were looking forward to lunch in the mountain hut. We were playing as we waited.

Flash! A blue light flashed in the hut. Crackle, crackle. Fire started from the coal tar painted on the tin-lined roof.

Boom ... Boom!

It sounded like all of Nagasaki had been destroyed. The hut had been entirely blown away.

We laid down flat at the root of a tree. Grandma said, "We won't be able to stay here any longer. Let's move somewhere." So I stood up and looked around for a better place.

Everything was in ruins, and something like smoke was rising all over the city. Here and there amidst the ruins fires were climbing like tongues of snakes. The flames grew bigger and bigger. They looked like a grove of red trees swaying in the wind. I was very surprised and cried, "Mother, Mother. Come out, will you? Just look everywhere!"

Finally Mother came out. At a glance she said, "Oh! What has happened? What is going on? Oh! Everything has been destroyed!" and she looked down toward our house. I looked down with her and searched for our house, but the area was full of smoke, so nothing could be seen.

The seven of us stood there vacantly and didn't know what to do. We just watched our city burning down and disappearing.

A man with a bandage around his head and a shirt around his body covered with blood was coming up the mountain. It was Father. He was my father who had fine a moment before. Mother fairly stumbled as she ran up to him and said,"How lucky! How lucky You are safe! I was afraid that you were dead."

"Everybody has died. Oh!" said Father. "I thought you had all died on the mountain. I thought I was all alone and came here to sleep. He sighed deeply and then he said again, "This has gone beyond war! It's the end of the world." Then he took a breath and said, "Everybody has died. Oh! Everybody has died! Everyone who was in our house has died. Only you...are alive. How lucky you are! You are so lucky. But...." He tottered backward as if all his strength had suddenly gone and he stared down at the flames in the city.

After that he didn't speak a word. We watched the same direction as my father. Our elder brother and sister had died there and were burning. It got dark. From the many windows of the commercial school, red flames spouted out and went on burning.

Night came and we gathered together shivering and spent a sleepless night. The sky was full of something like clouds or smoke which reflected the fires beneath and looked red.

Dawn came, and the big fire went out. We climbed down the mountain in the fine morning sunshine. Small trees were blown away and big ones were broken in pieces like matches and were blocking the roads. Corpses were lying everywhere. There were some with blisters all over their bodies. And some had something like oil pouring

from their eyes, I was very, very terrified of them, and though I tried to avoid them, I staggered and could not get through. There were many whom I knew among the dead.

I wondered if my brother and sister died so cruelly like these. At this thought I grew

sad and afraid, I wanted to see them soon, but felt pity at the idea.

I felt as if my heart were strangled.

The city was completely burned to ashes. The road was buried in ashes. We walked in the ashes. They were still hot and gave off a strange smell. We covered our noses with our hands and walked on the hot ashes. We finally recognized our house by the broken brick wall and the large burned trees.

It was totally burned. Indeed, it had been reduced to white ashes. My brother's and sister's bones couldn't be seen and there were ashes all over.

My brother! My sister! They had been fine until the warning bell rang yesterday. Oh God!

Both my brother and sister had been reduced to ashes! I squatted down on the ashes. They were white. My tears fell in drops on the white ashes. The place where the tears fell became black dots.

Many, many black dots were made in the ashes.

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