‘Atomic bombing was Armageddon’

It was totally pitch dark. Smoke all around the city and the temperature was so high, people almost couldn’t breathe. It was Armageddon.

Thus recalled survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, which ultimately brought an end to World War II.

Three of the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings shared their experiences to distinguished guests that packed the American Memorial Park auditorium early yesterday morning in what is dubbed as the “Hibakusha Experience.”

Keijiro Matsushima and Fumiaki Kajiya represented the Hiroshima survivors, while Kiyoshi Nishida represented the survivors from Nagasaki.

Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela, Japan consul Takeo Saito, Pacific Development, Inc. general manager Yoichi Matsumura, and other officials attended the event. The 10th Tinian Municipal Council, led by director James M. Mendiola, organized the event as part of its preparation for the Tinian Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Ceremony, which the council has been holding for the last three years.

Matsushima recalled the day when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He was 16 years old at that time. He remembered that it was a bright sunny day and he had to go to school, which was only 1.2 miles away from the center where the Americans dropped the bomb.

It was 8:15 in the morning when he looked at the window and saw the brightest flash of day. He said he was at the library, which was a safer place when the bombing happened. He said the explosion was so sudden that it rattled the entire school and brought every one inside the library down to their knees. He said he slipped under his table for cover, but it didn’t help muffle the noise, which he said was utterly deafening.

Matsushima said the temperature rose to 7,200 degrees Fahrenheit during the bombing and people were actually “barbecued” to death because of the intense heat.

He said the heat was so terrible that not even covering his eyes worked to withstand the pain. At 16, he said, he could not understand what just happened.

Matsushima said his whole world instantly turned into total pitch black and he found himself crawling on the floor searching for a way out and for light. He then touched his face and to his horror realized that his whole face was bleeding from small cuts. He was frightened of what had happened to him.

“People that time called the event Pika Don,” he said. He immediately found his way out and everyone was asking everybody if they got the Pika Don. He was trembling in fear that he would die that very moment.

“The whole city was in chaos,” he said. He said he saw students on the grass, wounded and in excruciating pain from broken bones and burnt bodies.

The city was a total wreck, he said. Buildings were crushed into rubble and the school was badly damaged too. Outside, he said, he saw one of his friends who was in dire need of help. He hauled his friend up and tried to take him to the nearest hospital.

Matsushima said on their way to the hospital, they saw all the buildings in Hiroshima were smashed into bits, roads were rendered impassable, and electric pole wires dangled on the road.

His tired eyes melted into tears, he said, when he saw thousands of people on a very long queue trying to evacuate the city. He said all of them had burnt faces and bodies with their skins hanging loose from their bodies. He said they were all screaming in pain.

When they reached the hospital, Matsushima and his friend realized that even doctors and nurses were not spared the tragedy. The hospital seemed to be the destination of all victims. Matsushima said he had never seen such a “long procession of ghosts” pleading for assistance and immediate medical attention.

He went back to his school and along the way he saw the dead floating on the river and still other people were heading to the river probably hoping the water could somehow ease their pains.

“My city was dying,” he said. In his journey to the school he kept on asking himself what did the Americans invent this time.

He then headed home and he said it was the longest walk home he had ever had. In pain, he reached his home and his parents rushed to him and hugged him so tightly that they said in tears, “You’re alive! You’re alive!” Matsushima said he thanked Buddha for making him one of the luckiest survivors because he did not get much radiation.

He said he contracted the worse fever and he had diarrhea that kept him in bed overnight. Some people were exposed to the radiation so badly that they died the next day. He said the real hell was never realized until the next day. He said the city was in more chaos the day after because the city was filled with screams and cries for help. People demanded for water. Thirst was felt all over the place. Everyone needed water. Everyone was in pain, he said.

Those who were exposed to the radiation felt the wrath of the bombing more. He said pregnant women bore children with defects and deformities. Microcephaly was diagnosed with the newborn babies, he said. “Women gave birth to retardate children,” he said.

The death toll was just overwhelming, Matsushima said, and that 140,000 people died in Hiroshima while 74,000 died in Nagasaki. Matsushima said he would never forget the event. He said he is pleading to the world’s superpowers that such weapons should be “abolished.”

He said leaders of the world should make it a point that none of these would ever happen again.

Matsushima said he had understood why such a gruesome event had happened. He said it happened for a reason and if it did not take place and the war continued, there would be more people who would have suffered and probably died due to war.