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Japan Diary Extract

Dr. Michihiko Hachiya lived through the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and kept a diary of his experience. As the director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital, he was approximately a mile from the explosion's epicenter. His diary describes the flash of light from the bomb, the destruction of his home, and his harrowing journey with injuries to reach the hospital with his wife, passing many other injured survivors in silence along the way.

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Craig McArthur
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68 views2 pages

Japan Diary Extract

Dr. Michihiko Hachiya lived through the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and kept a diary of his experience. As the director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital, he was approximately a mile from the explosion's epicenter. His diary describes the flash of light from the bomb, the destruction of his home, and his harrowing journey with injuries to reach the hospital with his wife, passing many other injured survivors in silence along the way.

Uploaded by

Craig McArthur
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Dr. Michihiko Hachiya lived through that day and kept a diary of his experience.

He
served as Director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital and lived near the
hospital approximately a mile from the explosion's epicenter. His diary was published in
English in 1955

Suddenly, a strong flash of light...

The hour was early; the morning still, warm, and beautiful. Shimmering leaves,
reflecting sunlight from a cloudless sky, made a pleasant contrast with shadows in my
garden as I gazed absently through wide-flung doors opening to the south.

Clad in a vest and shorts, I was sprawled on the living room floor exhausted because I
had just spent a sleepless night on duty as an air warden in my hospital.

Suddenly, a strong flash of light startled me - and then another. I remember vividly
how a stone lantern in the garden became brilliantly lit, and I debated whether this
light was coming from.

Garden shadows disappeared. The view where a moment before had been so bright and
sunny was now dark and hazy. Through swirling dust, I could barely see the wooden
column that had supported one corner of my house. It was leaning crazily and the roof
sagged dangerously.

Moving instinctively, I tried to escape, but rubble and


fallen timbers barred the way. By picking my way
cautiously I managed to reach the roka [an outside
hallway] and stepped down into my garden. A profound
weakness overcame me, so I stopped to regain my
strength. To my surprise, I discovered that my
clothes had been burned to cinders. All over the
right side of my body I was cut and bleeding. A large
splinter was protruding from my thigh. My cheek was
torn, I discovered as I felt it gingerly with my tongue and hand.

Where was my wife?

Suddenly thoroughly alarmed, I began to yell for her: 'Yaeko-san! Yaeko-san! Where
are you?' I was bleeding heavily. Frightened and irrational, I called out again 'It's a
five-hundred-ton bomb! Yaeko-san, where are you? A five- hundred-ton bomb has
fallen!'

Yaeko-san, pale and frightened, her clothes torn and blood stained, emerged from the
ruins of our house holding her elbow. Seeing her, I was reassured. My own panic
alleviated, I tried to reassure her.

'We'll be all right,' I exclaimed. 'Only let's get out of here as fast as we can.'

She nodded, and I motioned for her to follow me."


Dr. Hachiya and his wife make there way to the street. As the homes around them
collapse, they realize they must move on, and begin their journey to the hospital a few
hundred yards away.

It was all a nightmare...

After the blast, we started walking, but after twenty or thirty steps, I had to stop. My
breath became short, my heart pounded, and my legs gave way under me. An
overpowering thirst seized me and I begged Yaeko-san to find me some water. But
there was no water to be found. After some of my strength returned, we were able to
continue.

Our progress towards the hospital was interminably slow, until finally, my legs, stiff
from drying blood, refused to carry me farther. The strength, even the will, to go on
deserted me, so I told my wife, who was almost as badly hurt as I, to go on alone. This
she objected to, but there was no choice. She had to go ahead and try to find someone
to come back for me.

Yaeko-san looked into my face for a moment, and then, without saying a word, turned
away and began running towards the hospital. Once, she looked back and waved and in a
moment she was swallowed up in the gloom. It was quite dark now, and with my wife
gone, a feeling of dreadful loneliness overcame me.

Could I go on?

I tried. It was all a nightmare - my wounds, the darkness, the road ahead. My
movements were ever so slow; only my mind was running at top speed.

In time, I came to an open space where the houses had been removed to make a fire
lane. Through the dim light, I could make out ahead of me the hazy outlines of the
hospital. My spirits rose because I knew that now someone would find me. I paused to
rest. Gradually things around me came into focus. There were the shadowy forms of
people, some of whom looked like walking ghosts. Others moved as though in pain, like
scarecrows, their arms held out from their
bodies with forearms and hands dangling.
These people puzzled me until I suddenly
realized that they had been burned, and
were holding their arms out to prevent the
burns rubbing together. An old woman lay
near me with an expression of suffering on
her face; but she made no sound. Indeed,
one thing was common to everyone I saw -
complete silence.

All who could were moving in the direction of the hospital. I joined in the dismal parade
when my strength was somewhat recovered, and at last reached the gates of the
hospital.

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