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I told her ¹ wouldn't leave without her, but the flames were closing ² around us and my clothes caught fire and it ³ so hot that I couldn't stand it any longer. "⁴, Mother," I cried as I ran as fast as ⁵ could through the flames. There was fire all around, ⁶ there was no way to escape so I jumped ⁷ a water tank by the side of the road. ⁸ of sparks were falling from the sky so I ⁹ a piece of tin over my head to keep ¹⁰ off. The water in the tank got hot like ¹¹ bath. There were four or five other people in ¹² tank, too, and they were all crying and shouting ¹³ names. As I sat in the water, I started ¹⁴ get a dreamy feeling and finally passed out. I¹⁵ know how long it was before I came to, ¹⁶ it seemed to be morning. Smoke was coming up ¹⁷ here and there and I could hear the cracking ¹⁸ popping of things smoldering on the ground. In the¹⁹ beside me, there was a dead woman lying back ²⁰ peacefully as if she were asleep. As soon as ²¹ noticed her, I got scared and shouted to a ²² man for help. He lifted me out the ²³ and told me that there was a first-aid station ²⁴ ahead. I walked beside the man. Just as I ²⁵ wondering what had become of my mother, I happened ²⁶ take a look at my hand. The skin was ²⁷ and sore. I also felt a pain in my ²⁸ and back. At the station, they took care of ²⁹ and gave me some rice balls to eat. Then ³⁰ got in a truck that took me to a ³¹ school outside the city. There were hundreds of injured ³² there groaning with pain. The people in charge there ³³ all very kind, making our meals, and comforting and ³⁴ after us. But day after day — scores of injured ³⁵ died and there was a bad smell coming from ³⁶ corner of the playground where dead bodies were cremated ³⁷ piles of sticks. I was very worried about my ³⁸ and cried every day. There was a man who³⁹ to go with me and help me search for ⁴⁰ mother. We went back into Hiroshima City together, but ⁴¹ we came in front of the Fukuya Department Store, ⁴² said to me, "Wait here for a while," and ⁴³ away. He never came back and I trudged along ⁴⁴ myself through the burned-down area. We had been having ⁴⁵ weather for several days and the sun was so ⁴⁶ that the ground felt very hot under my feet. ⁴⁷ saw a lot of dead bodies by the roadside ⁴⁸ there were also carcasses of horses and dogs. I ⁴⁹ not to look. The town which had once been ⁵⁰ busy with people and traffic was now turned into ⁵¹ vast burned field. Only the concrete buildings remained standing ⁵² and there like so many giants. Everyone was looking ⁵³ someone or other. They were dragging themselves along feebly, ⁵⁴ tears filled their eyes. I saw people digging out ⁵⁵ bones of their relatives and friends and putting ⁵⁶ into urns. What had become of my mother? Could ⁵⁷ have helped her escape after I left her? I ⁵⁸ up to every woman who passed by and looked ⁵⁹ at her face partly hidden by the air-raid hood ⁶⁰ she might be my mother. When I saw that ⁶¹ wasn't, I was sad and disappointed. Enemy planes were ⁶² low in the sky. I hadn't had anything to⁶³ or drink since breakfast so I was hungry and ⁶⁴ and so exhausted that I couldn't walk any further. ⁶⁵ I sat crying by the roadside, a passer-by placed ⁶⁶ small bag of hard biscuits in my hand and ⁶⁷ me to a sip from his canteen. I still ⁶⁸ how happy this made me. Then a policeman came ⁶⁹ and asked me what the matter was. After I ⁷⁰ him my story, he took me to a police ⁷¹ where I stayed for the night. When I told ⁷² that my grandmother lived in Miyajima, he made out ⁷³ pass and gave it to me. With the pass, ⁷⁴ got a ride on the suburban streetcar from Koi ⁷⁵ then took a ferryboat to Miyajima, where at long ⁷⁶ I found my way to my grandmother's house. She⁷⁷ overjoyed to see me and immediately asked, "Where ⁷⁸ Sueko (my mother's name)?" When I told her about everything that had happened ⁷⁹ us, she broke into tears. One day about five ⁸⁰ later, she said to me, "Your mother is really ⁸¹ after all." A relative had found and brought back ⁸² ashes. She had burned to death, unable to get ⁸³ of the wrecked house. I hugged the urn that ⁸⁴ her ashes and I cried loudly. I couldn't keep ⁸⁵ the tears which kept streaming down my cheeks. ⁸⁶ wife, son and daughter of the family we were ⁸⁷ had all died in the same way. It was⁸⁸ that I would stay with my grandmother. It was ⁸⁹ that time that my hair began to fall out, ⁹⁰ the burn on my hand got worse. At first, ⁹¹ was very kind as she comforted me and changed ⁹² bandage on my hand. But later she became cold ⁹³ me. Whenever I noticed this change in my grandmother, ⁹⁴ would be filled with resentment and sadness, and many ⁹⁵ of my kind, gentle mother and pleasant times ⁹⁶ had together would go racing through my head. Night ⁹⁷ night I cried endlessly. I don't know how it ⁹⁸ about. But when the bright red of the maple ⁹⁹ in Miyajima had faded, and the chilly autumn winds ¹⁰⁰ to blow, a relative of mine in Kyoto City came to take me away with him.

I spent two years in Kyoto, and when I was in fourth grade, I got tuberculosis and had to stay in the Red Cross Hospital for five months. They told me that the disease was caused by the radioactivity of the atom bomb. I got well and left the hospital but had lost so much weight that I looked like a skeleton. One day, when the last term of the fourth year was almost over, my father surprised me by coming to see me. I left Kyoto with many memories of the city, and with Father came back to dear Hiroshima. I had been away four years and much rebuilding had been done in Hiroshima. There was a new house where our old house had been, where my mother died. In front of the house, I put my hands together and prayed, "Mother, I have come to Hiroshima. Please watch over me so I will be happy here." My father and new mother have taken good care of me, and I have become strong and healthy. I am happy and enjoy every day. Sometimes though, I get angry when inconsiderate boys say bad things about me or tease me because my little finger is still crooked from the burn I got on my right hand. Everyday in the streetcars and on the streets, I see quite a lot of people who have large, ugly scars on their faces, necks, and hands. Since I know that all the scars are from the bomb, I always feel like rushing to them so that we can comfort and encourage each other. I think everyone who suffered from the bomb feels like this. All of us who suffered from the bomb know from our experience how terrible and how miserable war is. And we all want to try to live peacefully forever with people all over the world.