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There may be many reasons for that but it was because, in fact, I had no
time to consider such matters for being too busily engaged in my near
livelihood problems. So, after a short thought I said, "The people in
Hiroshima are not resenting the Americans. If we feel resent it is the
feelings against the Japanese leaders and not the Americans." To this he
seemed rather amazed and asked, "I'm a press reporter and not a soldier,
so speak frankly. Do you really think so?" I replied, "Yes, when we stand
in the ruins, we only have resentful feelings towards the Japanese war
leaders who have dared to fight such a reckless and lousy war." He then
continued to say, "Well, maybe that's how the intelligent people like you
may think so, but I'm sure the people in Hiroshima in general would not
think so". I postively replied, "As a matter of fact, for half a year
since the atomic bomb I have never heard of any words damning the Americans
I have a fairly large church and I am also in tough with the masses, but
though we resent the Japanese government I have never heard of any re-
sentments said towards the American." But, he said, "I don't quite under-
stand. There isn't such things. For sure, you must be hating the Ameri-
cans. If you shouldn't, you are strange people." And his doubt was never
solved.

Asking for the time, he mentioned it was past one o'clock. It
reminded me of the meeting and I tried to say good-bye. He said, "Well
that sounds interesting. I'd like to go too." So, I went with him to the
monument to attend the meeting in the jeep. However, no one seemed to be
there. We had waited for some time, but no one arrived. I felt like be-
ing fooled by a fox.

As it was already past noon, I invited him to my home for lunch.
My wife was out, so I set up fire in the charcoal burner and made some hot
water. He took out his Army rations and had his lunch. During the meal,
he continued with more questions. "Why did you start this war?" I ex-
plained our general opinion concerning the war saying, "Of course, this

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is not my own personal opinion but it is the thoughts of the Japanese leaders who have attracted the whole Japan up to the present. Japan has small and narrow territory and is overpopulated. When Japan had opened her country to the world from her long slumber, the worlds' colonial policies were already coming to a stop. Everywhere was occupied by the more progressive European and American countries. In order to survive, Japan had tried her immigration policy, but she was shut out everywhere. Next, she took up the policy of becoming a trading country depending upon light industries. But she was obstructed by high customs. She finally expanded towards the Asia continent and the war was the cause for the present war." He asked, "What's the purpose of the war?" "It was, 'Asia back to hands of Asia'". He then exclaimed immediately, "Why must you say so. Shouldn't the far east be opened to the world!" I felt something close upon my heart as I heard his words. And I approached him saying, "That is true. But what about the Monroe doctrine and the discriminative treatment of Japanese immigration"? He concluded then saying, "Of course, that's not right. The future world is the world for everybody. The world is one."

This stale discussion had no significance at all but his words stating that the far east should be opened for the world had deeply penetrated into my heart.

February 11 (Monday)

Ex-Major General Sakurai and the representatives of religious bodies met together in the former Army Arsenal in Kasumi-machi. This place was used as an office for demobilized servicemen from overseas. A great amount of the war dead ashes had also returned with such service ment from abroad. But, nowadays, no one is mentioning about the 'mute return of soldiers' which referred to the ashes as in the past days. Those ashes taken over by the bereaved caused no troubles but there were many ashes which could not be disposed of for the bereaved to receive such ashes were lost in the war disasters. It was impossible to have such ashes place into

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shrines. The meeting today was to discuss the disposals of such ashes
which were left and being neglected at respective repatriation ports.
There were no other steps to be taken for this case, except than to en-
trust the whole work to the hands of religious bodies. It was quite free
to organize such bodies as 'War Dead Appraising Society' by the religious
organizations and extend proper protection for such ashes. Although we
had fought as enemies against the Allied Forces, it was their intentions
to respect the sacrificed lives for the sake of one's country surmounting
all hadtred feelings of the past since the results of the war were already
obtained and over. In fact, it was only the ones who had fought
seriously in the war that could after all shake hands in mutual forgive-
ness when peace had come! The hands we had shaken in China was with the
enemy we had bitterly fought against during the wartime in the most
serious sense.

Reconstruction of the Church

February 17 (Sunday)

The first things for me to do was to rehabilitate the chapel.
I consulted with a few church committees. The only thing to depend upon
was the 150,000 yen of insurance. As the chapel and the Sunday School
building 15 years ago had been built for 100,000 yen, a 70,000 yen fire
insurance contract had been signed. Last year as the air raid in Hiroshima
was considered to be inevitable, the insurance had been doubled to 150,000
yen. Before making the contract, some opinions were against it, stating
that it is no use for it would only serve for the profiteering companies
but I had finally persuaded them to make this contract.

Out of the 150,000 yen I had thought of building the parsonage
and a meeting place with 50,000 yen and with the remaining 100,000 yen
make a bank deposit for the future and use its interest for my evangelical
work for the church members had become so few, but the cold fact of the
defeat in war did not allow such easy thought.

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The prices continued to rise and it seemed that no good house could be built with only 50,000 yen. Therefore, planned to repair the chapel with the whole 150,000. Fortunately, the concrete walls were still standing. As this chapel had been built by the Fujita Gumi, the largest construction business company in Hiroshima, I had them make out the estimation for its expenses.

It was still a cold day in winter. The Fujita Gumi hurried over to the church ruins and answered that it would cost about 200,000 yen for its repairs.

On February 11, I held our first trustee meeting since the end of the war at Mr. Nishimura's home in Kaitaichi-machi. It was 'Kigen Setsu' a national festival, but there was no one to hang out the national flag in occupied Japan. The seven persons who had attended the meeting had made the following decisions:

1. There was no good idea in how to make the 50,000 yen, should 150,000 yen be paid by the insurance out of the 200,000 yen required for the rehabilitation. It was because all the church members were war-sufferers and had become penniless for which we could not think of asking from them any great amount of donations.

2. Out of 150,000 insurance, I had already been paid the 5,000 yen but the rest given to me in saving passes with the money under the blockade. However, the deposits of collective organs were authorized for usage under a fixed limit as an enterprise fund and through special permission there was a way of withdrawing the necessary money from another angle. Furthermore, if 20% could be given away as compensation, the whole amount could be available for usage.

The church committees however, could not make up their minds to take a risk. One committee said, "The prices rising day by day and the future prospect of Japan's economy is so confused at present that it cannot be predicted. How about waiting till the economical circles become more stabilized and begin with this work." All the rest of the committees agreed to his opinion.

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These persons had lacked in the knowledge of recognising the cold fact of the defeat in war and were still trusting the Japanese economy. As a metter of fact, among the seven members, four were school teachers, two were ladies and the last one was a business man running a small stationary shop, so none of them knew anything about financial matters. And the centering figures among these persons were of 82 years; the youngest was around 60 years of age and all were of aged old persons. It could not be helped that they clung to the insurance of 150,000 yen as the most important property for the rest of their church life.

As the fundamental principal for rehabilitation was decided to have the insurance money not redeemable, I gave up my plan of using this 200,000 yen for the reconstruction of the church.

But what I could not give up was the rehabilitation of this church. While I was thinking whether there was no way to reconstruct the chapel, I became to know of a way of reconstruction after receiving the release of former Army property. This news made me rejoice as it had come from the Heaven.

At the time, many contractors had come to see me and said that as long as the Occupation Forces could support me, the materials for reconstructing one or two churches could be easily obtained, and encouraged me to ask for the support from the Occupation Forces.

February 21 (Thursday)

I went to the American Army hospital on top of the hills located behind the Kure Naval Base Headquarters to see Chaplain Jeycox. He was a Methodist pastor. On telling him of our condition, he showed great sympathy and immediately went over to the Military Gov't. and visited the officer in charge. He explained to him of my desires and Major Jefferey, who was in charge, fortunately, happened to be a Methodist himself. He promised me of his support by showing as much sympathy as the chaplain had shown me.

Major Jefferey said " The releasement of former military property

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is all supervised at the Prefectural Office, so I'll go over to see them
the day after tomorrow. I want you to bring the church moderator of your
district." I cintacted immediately the Rev. Yamagata, rector, and Takenaka
Gumi, the contractors, and representatives of the church members.

February 23 (Saturday)

Rev. Yamagata and three other members of my church waited for Major
Jefferey and Chaplain Jeycox in front of the Hiroshima Station and then
visited the Prefectural Office in a jeep. The seven of us all together met
the chief of the releasement section and the official in charge, Mr. Tawara.
According to their words they said, "We shall give you full cooperation. But
if you had been a little earlier we could have given you buildings and
building materials quite freely as most of them have been already released
to government offices, schools, and social works institutions there is
scarcely anything left. But, we'll do our best to help you." And they had
accepted our list of necessary materials. Among the items in the list, the
wood, nails, and roofing were available but the other articles were out of
stock, it was said. So it was decided that we receive as much released
goods as possible from the Japanese government and obtain the others from
the Occupation Forces. Major Jefferey took the list with him to see what
could be done about it in the Military Government.

On February 25th, (Monday), I met Major Jefferey in front of the
Hiroshima railway station at one o'clock. He spoke out, "I've brought bad
news for you today. The military government officials have said that the
Army is not allowed to keep direct negotiations with any kind of civilian
organizations. All the Japanese Military property are to be returned to the
Home Ministry, so there is no other way than to receive it through your
Home Ministry. Moreover, it is thought not proper for the Military Govern-
ment to support the Christian Church. Religion must be dealt with under the
same conditions. Should we support only the Christian Church and neglect
the other religions bodies (Shinto or Buddhism) it is not being fair. At

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the beginning, it is not right that the religious bodies try to reconstruct themselves through the aid of the government or army. Religious bodies should reconstruct themselves depending upon the faith of the devoters. The Japanese war-damaged churches shall receive before long the support of American churches. The churches in Japan should rehabilitate through the kindness and sympathies shown by the American citizens. The American churches are now launching a great campaign to reconstruct the war damaged churches in Japan so you should wait.

The former military property ought to be used for the restoration of war damaged houses. There are so many people now who have no dwellings. The Christians ought first to pray that they are given houses first.

I listened to Major Jefferesy's long teachings. And I made up my mind to look forward for the help of American churches and put away for awhile my vision of church reconstruction.

However, as I had promised that I would bring the results of Major Jefferey to the Prefectural Office, I went to see Mr. Tawara in his office on the following day and told him of the story. Mr. Tawara said, "Major Jefferey's words are very wonderful and I feel thankful for the Military Government authorities concern for the war-sufferes. The released materials however, is not run in an ideal way because there are various complicated matters involved. The civilians dwellings are of course being built, but there are more materials being used for the theaters, restaurants and hotels. I should say all such materials ought to be used for building churches and other cultural institutions in priority and leave the others for the later period. The desperate minds of the people since the end of the war must be releived only through the help of religion. The schools and churches must have the priority of receiving released materials.

Although it is rather late, Hiroshima was an Army center and Kure a Navy center. And there was an immense amount of property collected around these two cities. There must be a lot more yet to be released. In the be-

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ginning, we had released many stuffs quite freely and the schools have been greatly favored. Rules and regulations have been gradually made and it is getting more hard, but I'm sure they are some materials lying about-enough to reconstruct a few churches. I hope you feel quite free and help yourself to whatever you can find.

I would like to advise you however, not as a government official but just as an individual. I still think the Occupation Forces have many materials under custody so go and see Lt. Badami of the 34 Bde. in Hiro. He thus encouraged me in my work. I made up the necessary papers by visiting the Prefectural Office several times and obtained a ration ticket for 200 koku of timber and 18 kegs of nails for the 1000 koku of wood and 30 kegs of nails we had requested.

I went to see Lt. Badami. He was away the first time and I had met him on March 8th, on my second visit. It was then the period when the American troops were moving out and the B.C.O.F. were coming in. Lt. Badami said that had had handed over all the goods under his charge to the BCOF the previous night and felt sorry that he could not help me. Then I visited the BCOF headquarters and met the chaplain through which I was introduced to the officials in charge. But the answer was that a large force of occupation troops were coming in-they had to build barracks which would leave nothing very much. Thus, the reconstruction dreams for my church had come to an end for a while, because with a ration ticket for a bit of timber and nails, we cannot build even a hut.

March 2 (Saturday).

What required much energy for the atom bomb patients or war-sufferers was the maintenance of food, house, clothing and the security of property. That is to say, the security of deposits in banks and post offices. Most of the people had lost their pass-books in the fire. In air raid drills, it was instructed that all important documents be carried with you in a bag in taking refuge. But, as the atom bomb was so sudden, there was no time to go

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after such papers and all were burnt to ashes in vain. The reserved papers which had the numbers and accounts of such pass-books had all been lost and many persons were left with nothing to rely on.

During the war, the people had saved and deposited money, enduring their lives without taking the proper diet. The Government had demanded savings at every opportunity they could make use of and it was great trouble to have everything re-registered for a poor pastor's home had even at least 15 to 16 pass-books.

There was fire insurance and also life insurance. Every day I had to tour around the financial organs and prepare papers by standing up in long rows for half a day or sometimes a whole day. I pitied the people who had come from far off countries and were putting up in fields for the night for the sake of preparing papers.

From today the old currency had to be exchanged to new currency. All possessions of old currency in hand were to be put into blockade deposits. Like the others, I lined up in a long row and completed my papers after waiting for half a day. With this, I was now able to draw 400 yen monthly for my family living expenses; 200 yen per month per family and 100 yen in addition to each member of the family. But the inflation kept on rising the more.

In front of the Hiroshima and Koi railway stations, and at the piers in Nijina, 'blackmarkets' called in other words, 'Blue Heaven Markets' were already opened. All were made of small shacks but there were shops in the hundreds now. But its prospering was tremendous. Anything could be found here, but under dear prices. Candies, meat, fish, cotton materials were many times above the official prices. It was a free market, here. Since the defeat of war, the people who had till this day considered blackmarket as immoral and lived a tense life were now in despair and the only desire was the preservation on one's life. They had come to love the blackmarket. The authorities had frequently raided the place but it became the more prosperous. The re-

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construction of the city was beginning from such blackmarkets.

The black market was on one hand the nest of crime. Stolen goods were mostly sold away here. But on the other hand, the people suffering under inflation could find no other place than here to sell away their belongings and get rice from it. I had also sold some of my things to cover my living expenses.

March 9 (Saturday)

Chisako, my wife and Koko have started out for Nakatsu and in Kyashu accompanied by my mother-in-law to take rest.

I went out to teach English at the Hiroshima Electricity School which was now under reconstruction at Okukaita village. This school was brought up for twenty years or so by Mr. Tauru, principal of the school, and had lost everything in the fire in Hiroshima. He had also lost his three daughters in the atom bomb as I had mentioned before. He had obtained the former 11 naval arsenals employe billets released to me and was now using it as a school building. There were 300 students and most of them were elderly sons of the farmers. I felt good to see the farmers, in general, awakening to the respect of electrifying the farming villages. In order to increase the income to support my family and at the same time, help the reconstruction of Mr. Tauru's school. I had accepted to teach English 12 hours a week in three days. My salary was 150 yen, but the living expenses required 500 yen. But, it was great exhaustion to cycle to this school taking one hour and a half on the burnt down bike with fire hoses as tires. I had four hours of English conversation classes a day. The students had no power at all in English, because the leaders in Japan had boycotted the usage of it as an enemy language during the war time.

March 10 (Sunday)

I began to have visitors to my temporary parsonage by many repatriates. Hiroshima is ranked first or second as an emigrating prefecture throughout

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Japan and had many immigrants abroad. Such people had begun to return since the end of the war and the ports of Ujina and Otake were mingled with scenes of joy and sorrow as several ships came in every month. Such people must have been filled with thousands of emotions as they stood and saw the devastated scenes in their motherland and in the ruins of their native homes. After deserting all properties accumulated in years of hardship, they were left pitifully with nothing but their present clothing. Motherless children, the old without relatives, homeless young demobilized soldiers etc.--countless problems were thus brought into the repatriation center of Hiroshima.

The war suffers in Japan still must of had some things evacuated in the countries and there were still occupations open for them. But, the repatriates had nothing except their belongings which they carried about. All were troubled about their problems for tomorrow's living. The only thing they could rely upon was their saving pass-books and the insurance papers. Reports of such external assets had to be prepared in English and Japanese and sent in to the Finance Ministry. As the Japanese, in majority, could not write English they were all perplexed. Taking advantage of this opportunity, there were bad scriveners who had profited themselves by overcharged fees. As I had informed to an official in the Repatriation office to send me anyone who is really in trouble, more than ten persons had come to my place till today for consultation. I even used the duplicating machine and made copies for the persons who had no forms with them. This was also a lot of trouble but all the people had expressed their gratitude from the bottom of their hearts. Some had gone leaving tokens of gratitude all against my will, but I always refused to accept them.

Today after my Sunday service was over, I wrote out a report for external assets. The night in a torn house when snowing outside was terribly cold. But, I wonder how most of the war suffers and repatriated are spending their nights?

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March 29 (Sunday)

Above the countless loss of houses by fire, 7,000,000 repatriates or demobilized soldiers were returning daily. The houses seemed not to be constructed. First, the difficulties of funds, secondly, the shortage of materials and thirdly the sudden rise in wages.

The House Corporation were building one house (12tsubo) for 3,000 yen. It soon became 4,000 and finally had risen to 7,000 yen. So the citizens could meet the conditions no matter how you struggled in work. The houses around the skirts of Hiroshima were badly torn but they had to rent it and were compelled to plead in living together with other families under the same roof.

My house had two rooms, a six matted and a four and a half matted room. Other rooms had no roof or walls and could not be used. At night the beautiful starts could be seen, but on snowy nights the snow flakes would flutter down upon our sleeping heads and we would sometimes awake in wonder. But, strange to say, we had never caught cold.

On rainy days, as many parts of the house leaked, everybody would wake up to open the umbrellas. Such a house, however, had to be opened for persons who had no place to put up. First of all, on March 2 (Saturday) we had invited Prof. Matsushita to whom I was much obliged. He had come from Kyoto, where he had taken refuge, in order to reconstruct the college department of JoaquimJogakuin.

Soon after, Prof. Matsushita's younger sister and her husband, Rev. Isono came with her old mother, to reconstruct the Jogakuin by assisting Prof. Matsushita. Altogether the house was occupied by seven persons. Above this, one church member who had been the S.S. superintendent Mr. Y. Matsuda had been demobilized and he came in with his wife and three children. As they had no other place to stay a total of eleven persons were forced to live in the torn house which had only two rooms to use.

One person was for one mat and the house would be filled by just sitting

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It made not much difference from a prosperous family of a beggars home.
I had experienced the sufferings of house shortages in its full sense. But
we had to be grateful just the same to be able to live under a roof, for
it was only our house in the neighborhood that was the first to be repaired.
The others were in much poorer conditions.

March 15 (Friday)

Since the beginning of this year the officials of the Socal Education
Section in the Prefectural Office had frequently come to see and contact me
as a representative of Christian community in the city. Social education
was quite a new problem in Japan. Japan's democratization must be handled
by social education, but there was no base at all to carry it out. So our
church existence was taken into consideration. Religion in Japan's edu-
cational system was neglected from the very beginning and some persons who
were more or less educated were mostly atheists. In the recent war, these
people had begun to think that the cause for the defeat in war was due to
non-religious feelings of the people, after being shown extreme egoism by
such people. So, they had come to ask for the cooperation of religious
persons in the reconstruction work in the country.

I found the road for Christian evangelism widely opened for us and was
happy to give my words of cooperation. The officials had then launched a
'Brighter Life' campaign for rehabilitation. I had acted in accordance to
their schedule thereafter.

Today at the meeting held from 10 A.M. in the Kaitaichi primary school
about 100 leading characters in the northern part of Aki county had attend-
ed. They were mostly heads of villages and towns, youth leaders, school
principals and heads of women organizations, etc. I spoke on the subject
'Facing problems in the reconstruction period of a Democratic Japan' for
two hours and then held a round table talk with the attendants. According
to one of the principals of a young men's school he testified, "One young
man who used to be one of my pupils had been drafted in the Army while

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studying in a Tokyo university and joined the 'Tokko Tai' (Special
Attack Corps). On the day he was resolved to die in the Okinawa front
the war had ended and he had been demobilized. But, recently he is
indulging in drinking and gambling from morning till night and is
wasting his life in vain. I spoke to him saying, 'You were one of the
best boys in my class, but tell me why have you changed so much. Are
you satisfied with the life you are now leading?' He would say, "Teach-
er, I'm not at all satisfied with the present life. I'm only regretful.
What do you think of the war leaders who had driven us to war, at the end
of the war? Deserting the men and making a selfish escape and grasping all
military goods for himself. The ones who had shouted much about sacri-
fice have all cheated us. Look at the village leaders who had sent us off
to the fronts in cheers! They are neglecting us and are only struggling
to protect their own lives. I am filled with resentment against such
people. That's why I'm living such a deperate life. I am suffering from
such agonies." He pleaded to me in tears. The youth of Japan have lost
their spiritual reliance. They are in despair for being cheated of their
hopes. It is only Christianity that can give relief to such people. I
sincerely hope that the teachings of Christianity be spread under a great
program." This person was not a church member. As the meeting was spon-
sored by the prefectural government, it was a meeting consisting only of
the general social leaders. It was an unexpected result to hear such a
keen desire.

Such lectures were held at the Takasu primary school in Ondo-meshi on 1
the 16th, and Kamakari primary school on the 17th, and about 100 persons of
local leaders attended the meeting for exchanging views. At every meeting
in the talks with such people, I learned that the very foundation structure
of the Japanese state was errupted from its roots and that its people
were quite lost with no support, getting more bewildered for being so
suddenly freed from the heavy pressure of long feudaulism, while among them

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them there was a tendency of misunderstanding freedom and leading a wayward life full of complaints and dissatisfaction. I was convinced that the realization of Democracy in Japan must begin from awakening the values of the individual personality through the teachings of Christianity. I was always introduced as a Christian minister in such meetings and it was the first time in my life that Christianity was so openly received.

March 25 (Monday--- April 9, Tuesday).

On April 10, the first general election in Japan is to be observed since its defeat in war. This general election would legislate the Constitution if new Japan and solidate the foundations for reconstructing the country and is considered the most important election in history. The Tenno system would be openly discussed, the reconstruction for a peaceful state would be debated and at a time like that, I thought that a Christian pastor should not pass his days in vain. The church should be independent from political organizations, but should not be indifferent to politics. Nay, the government administrations must be guided through Christian conscience. Therefore, I thought of taking advantage of this election in order to give a good start in reconstructing a peaceful state by an enlightening campaign. As my friend in Yamagachi pre- fecture had run as a candidate for the diet I decided to support him.

For 16 days I ran about in Yamagachi city, Oshima county, and Kuga- county and attended to about 31 rally meetings, speaking to about 5,303 persons--an average of 170 persons a day. My subject was 'Tenno Protection and Reconstruction of a Peaceful State'. As I had addressed myself as a Christian pastor, I aroused much sensation wherever I went. Although I knew that Japan was shaken off her foundations by her defeat in war, I became convinced that the devotion towards the Tenno and the desire for peace was still kept deep in the hearts of the masses.

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On the night of April 1, when I spoke in Kakuho temple, one old lady came to see me after the speech, "in my room, and said, "I have no one to look after me. My son is still missing in Gaudaucanal. He was the only one I had relied upon. Hearing your talk, I have nothing more to be resentful about now."

April 1946

At the time I was found lost in a situation regarded impossible to rise up from again, for having lost my church in the fire and a great number of devoters with it. I had received invitations for future work from a few circles. The first was on August 24, when I had visited Fukuoka, I was asked to consider serving in the Fukuoka Girls High School and become in charge of the chaplain's office, there be Rev. Honda, who was the predecessor of the Hiroshima church. Secondly, through Dr. Matsumoto, principal of the Hiroshima Jogakuin, I had been told that the Chinsei Gukuin in Nagasaki would like to have me there under the same post. And thirdly, I had once been asked to think over the idea of becoming a minister in one of the churches in Tokyo which was advised by Rev. Hinohara, director of general affairs in the Japan Christian Church Board.

All such cases were kind suggestions which they advised me to undertake in expectation of my future work. But to me the thought of leaving Hiroshima was unthinkable. I had skipped such negotiations without much consideration, but it had become a motive in far more solidating my resolution of settling down in Hiroshima.

The Methodist church from the beginning was under episcopalism and through its appointment the ministers were transferred. In outward appearance, it looked to be kept under fine fulings but it seemed in fact that the appointments of ministers were controlled by management behind the curtains.

The pastors were a kind of puppet to the influential leaders. The Hiroshima Nagarekawa Church is the largest church in the Chugoku region and it was the center of its powers. In recent years, it had already been taken

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under the control of influential members and the pastors for several
generations were all deprived of their powers. It was due to the itiner-
ary system in the Methodist church administration which did not enable the
pastors to settle down to their wife work and to the lack of the
discipline on the side of the church members.

The reconstruction of the church in this new era must first begin
from the liberation of pastors. The episcopalism may be run along ideally
in a country like America which is still well disciplined in Democracy
and fostered propoundly by Christian-like culture, but as Japan does not
yet know the spirit of Democracy, it shall be degraded in no time as an
administration under a group of abnormals. The democracy on church lies in
the emancipation of the pastors. The Japanese Buddehist circles keep an
immense number of temples and priests and yet it is utterly impotent and
is turning our as only an instrument for funeral services. The main cause
lies in the fact that the priests are only self satisfied in consulting
the pleasures of their influential supporters. Religion in such ways are
only the playthings of the rich and an opium towards the honest workers.
The Buddehist bodies have entered the stage of a disease too late for re-
medies and it is now time for the Christians to make a new living. Let the
ministers be free to stand on their own conscience and faith.

As the first step to be taken in the reconstruction of churches, I
have decided to stand and rise up by myself. And I have written the follow-
ing letter addressed to the Board of Trustees of my church to have it taken
up for consideration:

Gentleman:

Since the damages of the air raid in August of last year, I
have received invitations from several places and have thought over the cases
whether I should stay or not. For about half a year, I have been pondering
about the cases but finally to its consequence I have made up my mind never

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to leave my post in Hiroshima.

Its reason is because I desire to carry out my original pastoral works over here based upon the precious experiences of my strange survival in the unprecedented disaster of the atomic bomb. And to exert myself to the utmost in reconstructing the Nagarekawa church, in one sense, and contribute something towards the reconstruction of Hiroshima in a greater sense; nay, to sacrifice myself for worldly peace movement is to my belief the road to comfort the sacrificed souls of the people who were killed in the dreadful air raid and have caused the Emperor finally to declare "order to open the peace for eternity". And since last Christmas when I had resumed my pastoral and evangelistic activities, I have through its struggles been in contact with the outside world such as the Shintos, Buddhist organizations, government social education officials, chaplains in Occupation Forces which has strengthened my decisions ever more.
Therefore I have resolved to push on to with the following three aims:

1. Reconstruct Nagarekawa church for sure.

It does not only mean the reconstruction of the chapel but its interior by which I mean the spiritual reconstruction of the church. Concerning the chapel, we have seen some light in obtaining building materials through the kind considerations of the prefectural office and the Occupation Forces and it is still possible to ask for the assistance to the American churches to complete this plan. In respect to the spiritual reconstruction of the church we should first secure the members who have come from the former Episcopalian church. To welcome in the people, who had formerly lived in this city and are members of other churches that have no future prospects of having their churches reconstructed, and have such people settle down in our church. It is needless to say, we should not miss this chance especially in securing new members.

2. March forward in the evangelistic activities towards the general

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public.

Our country was desperately defeated in war and we are now actually in a dark era, losing the support of our lives, its national morality swept off and in a confusion of thoughts. It is now the best chance to testify the teachings of the Gospel. Recently, in connection with the 'Brighter Life' reconstruction movement sponsored by the prefectural government, I have evidently witnessed the tendency in the general society that Christianity is now being welcomed by the people. It is true that the gate to Christianity is now opened under the cooperation of the Government authorities. If proper measures be taken we can begin a large evangelistic movement by obtaining the full support of the prefectural authorities. Endeavor for the World Peace Movement by appealing to the Christian sciences through the world.

It appears that Japan is to renounce war forever, but I believe that peace is the royal road of the world, the righteousness of God and the ideal of Christianity. It is also not difficult, I believe, that we assemble the Christian churches in this prefecture to readily join in the peace movement of the prefectural or municipal authorities and seek for the same fellow workers in the world, especially in America.

Embracing these three visions, I feel now warm in heart to endeavor with all my strength for the achievement of these aims. But, on this occasion I would like to ask for the considerations of the churches leading members.

For the past three years I have done nothing and the church has been brought to poverty-stricken conditions. It may be due to the current of times but it was actually because of the lack of confidence and power in myself and I am terribly sorry about it. However, on the other hand, since my arrival to this church it is also true that as a pastor I had by all means not the least initiative powers necessary to minister the church in seeking for the peace in church. For its respect I was unable to carry

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out responsible evangelistic activities and thus caused the lack of confidence in the church, the weakening of church influence and the end to financial matters. Facing the reconstruction problems of our church. 1) I hereby heartily request for the initiative as a minister:--at the time of my arrival, I have mentioned, "I do not regard myself as a complete pastor. I have come with the intentions to study the works of pastorship." That feeling is the same even now, but I think that it is not leing faithful to the work unless I cannot exercise my convictions. Therefore, as I shall exercise myself freely according to my own beliefs I would like to ask for your cooperation and support. I would like to know of your opinions to this respect. 2) Under the present compensation I cannot make my living under the recent suppresion of livelihood:- I am prepared to cover its shortage through part-time work, but that will obstruct the practise of my original mission. In order to have myself be engaged in evangelistic work with all my energies, I would like to know what your respective opinions are. I entrust that you kindly reply to me with your opinions concerning the above questions.

There had been reasonable conditions why I had asked for the reflections towards the patriarchs of this church. First of all, my evangelistic work was mostly kept under control. Just before the outbreak of the war, the Protestant churches in Japan had mostly been united. The Presbyterians in Hiroshima were lost in what to decide, but finally they had joined in after considering the general situation. But, their past system could not be wiped away and should the situation continue on like this, it was feared that it may form a special kind of a settlement-like group within the church. Rev. Fukai, who was the leader of this church, had come to the conclusion that in order to become a church to take roots in Japan, he suggested that the church at this occasion be dispersed and let everyone enter any church they like among the united churches and thus organize a true new church. But it had been decided that they join into my Nagarekawa

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church for it was said that it be better to join into one same church collectively and continue the fellowship among the numbers than to have it departed and join another church according to one's own choice. This was the conclusions agreed between Rev. Takai and myself through the mediation of Dr. Matsumoto. The unification of the Episcopal and the Methodist and it was in a form having the Episcopal merged into the Methodist church. It was in this unification matters that had involved so many problems, I had to consider towards the attitudes taken by my church staff members. Namely, they said this was not an unification in its true sense. It should in the beginning have both churches dissolved and then elect new committees from among all members of its joint body and the properties of both churches should be all brought together. But in this case there is no merger of properties. As a matter of fact, the Episcopal had donated all its land and buildings away to the country. Donation is quite all right but it should have been done under the name of the united church. So it is incomprehensible to see them join the church with nothing in their hands after donating away everything at their own will before the merger. Therefore it is impossible to elect new committees of the church or have such committees in their church join in as our church committees. Under such reasons, if it is meant to have the Episcopal be merged into the Nagarekawa church it is agreeable. In other words, it meant that the members of the Episcopal join into the Nagarekawa church under their own free will as individuals.

This was the attitude my church committee had taken. It would ignore the self-respect of the Episcopal committees. Therefore, I had proposed a compromise of having a few committees join the Nagarekawa committees but the committees of my church had not approved. One old man said, "In case the church should dissolve itself, its properties would then be divided among the devoters and if in such cases the Presbyterians who had come in free hands should get the same dividends this is not fair." Such ways of

thinking had become the great obstacles.

After all to whom does the church belong to? It is not the pastor's
nor the members but belongs to Christ. Should the church have at least some
property however, they are insisting of their own rights. The church is a
sort of a limited company towards such people. For this reason, such per-
sons like Dr. Hiraiwa among the committees was so glad that all the proper-
ties of the church had been completely destroyed by the atomic bomb. It
was because it was now possible to build a new church standing on faith.
Therefore, it was necessary for me to have the past ways of thinking be
changed in order to secure the church members who have become so few due to
the atomic bomb.

Next to the reason why I have to make explanations concerning the
evangelistic work being carried out towards the general public, which is
quite a proper thing to do as a pastor, is because there had been some com-
mittees who had not thought well of myself going out to meetings of youth or-
ganizations, women's clubs and so forth through the good offices of the
prefectural government. Such persons were trying to restrict the conducts
of the pastor within the church, that is to say, to only make pastoral
visits to Christian families. It is of course, an important part of the
pastor's duty to keep visiting the families by all means, but the social
conditions after the disaster of the atomic bomb was impossible to keep the
pastor restricted to only pastoral affairs. They were of course well aware
of the new conditions, but they wanted the pastor to work under their re-
cognition. Their intentions were only to determine where the initiative of
church activities lies. Some committees were convinced that all their de-
cisions were right and the plans of the pastors were all wrong. They would
condemn the pastor, if the results would turn out the same even if the
matters were conducted by themselves and would say nothing of their own
failures. They were the ones to decide and the pastor was considered that
he should remain to be as a servant to them. And I had demanded for this

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initiative to be handed over to myself.

Furthermore speaking, although I find myself ashamed to speak about my living difficulties, this matter in fact should be made clear in case one intended to take up the evangelistic work seriously. Because, the suppression in living conditions during and after the end of war had gradually increased in intensity. For this reason, the majority of pastors are taking full time work as teachers and devoting themselves to preaching during its part time. And some of them have sought other occupations and deserted their original work.

My church, in particular, is extremely greedy concerning financial matters. At my arrival to this church I was offered an income of 120 yen a month. They had lowered 30 yen because I had been younger than my predecessor. And within a year period the living expenses required 150 yen a month. At times before the atomic bomb, it required 200 yen a month. But then I had not felt so hard. Since the termination of the war, the inflation waves had suddenly risen. In no time, the living expenses required 300 yen to 400 yen a month. And finally the church treasury had made the pastor pay 150 yen. At that time, the common citizens living expenses were paid to be around the 500 yen to 600 yen base. It could not be helped to begin a part time work. But, strange to say, our church had a considerable amount of savings. There used to be a fine Sunday School building which could be regarded as one of the best in western Japan and with the current times such a large building became unnecessary for the church so it had been rented to the Broadcasting Station for 500 yen a month. The rent had been saved for three to four years before the day of the atomic bomb. It was due to such savings that the church was able to give out tokens of sympathy towards all church members at the time of the atomic disaster. But this money could not be saved as a property and be used for the living expenses of the pastor. Then the pastor's compensations were dealt with the amount of donations and in case the donations were low it was regarded

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as the pastor's work was inefficient. They considered that pastoral work was God-given task and that a pastor should be satisfied in poverty, and should not demand of compensation or even expect it. So should the pastor have an income coming from outside the church they took it up as a problem. During the wartime, the pastors were also called to war plants. I was decided upon as to go to the Mitsubishi Machinery Tools Mfg. Plant, but as my church was the largest in the city and I could not desert my work as an evangelist, I had another pastor take my place while I went to a factory making small screws and became the head of the moral education group. As I was engaged in giving spiritual education towards the employees, I talked for half a hour daily. I was then accused of then for hearing that the pastor was being paid by this factory and was receiving double payment. As a matter of fact, the factory was paying 70 yen per hour and as I had worked for only one hour in the morning, a month's pay would only amount to 20 yen which was not enough for even shoe repair.

Mr. Sawano, a member of the church was saying, "If the pastor is to live on the monthly donations given by the church members as usual it would always mean that he is being hired so he would not be able to work accordingly to his own will. All donations should be collected in anonymity."

I was determined not to make reductions or sacrifices for the initiative for the sake of my livelihood, but in order to be occupied full time in evangelism I had them consider the problems over.

A few days later, Mr. Hayashi, one of the trustees, visited me with the answers of the board. The answers to the first question was that the trustees would leave everything up to the pastor so that he may work as he wishes freely according to his own plans and for the second it was thought better to keep the present condition, for they also do not know of any good methods.

As my first step in reconstructing the church, I began to make a survey of church members registered in the church. I

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I sent out cards to be signed stating that the concerned shall cooperate in the church construction work by testifying himself to be a regular member of the church at this time when the church is now being reconstructed. I made out regular members of the church by only those who had responded to my card. I confirmed 121 persons with the confessions of their loyalty to the church.

April 28 (Sunday)

I resumed the Sunday School. About 20 boys and girls came from the neighborhood. The pastor himself acted as a teacher in the Sunday School. We had only one room and it was a torn down room and had much trouble in the rain. Miss Kusama and Mrs. Takano came to help.

Recently as Mrs. Yoshimura had presented us with a duplicating machine we were so happy to be able to publish a regular weekly church bulletin.

April 27 (Saturday)

Chaplain Jeycox returned to America and Major Jefferay had been transferred to Okuyama. The chaplain who had come in touch with our church was Rev. Earnshaw of the British Methodist church. He was attached to the headquarters of the British Indian Forces in Hiro. I visited him frequently and asked for his support in the reconstruction of my church.

The 200 koku of timber which I had been released for me was in the first place said to be in the Army Arsenal, but as I could not move the materials by myself I had asked Mr. Tomita, one of our trustees, to see to it. Mr. Tomita was the chief of the timber section in the Housing Cooperation so he was an expert. But as he was also a busy man he had another man to go after the timbers to the Army Arsenal after about a month had passed. It was no longer there and nothing was left in the Army Arsenal. We, therefore, went to negotiate with the Prefectural authorities again and it was decided that we receive some timbers in Kailaichi. Mr. Tomita inspected the place and found about 100 koku of wood.

Such being the case I hurried in securing the other materials. The

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released goods were given away to the early ones in priority. As it was decided that I was to receive a half ton of steel structures in the Kure Naval Arsenal, I went over to Chaplain Earnshaw to seek for help in transport, for I could not afford to hire a truck. He gave orders to a driver and had loaned me the truck. This driver was expected to receive a medical operation on that evening but he helped us out with pleasure. I had to load the iron materials by myself. As my temporary parsonage was located along the road too narrow for the truck to enter the materials were loaded at a place about 100 metres away. My wife and I had carried them from there to my house. As the driver was rather in a hurry when he was backing up the truck one of the wheels slipped into a small ditch. It was hopeless to pull it out by a man's strength. So he returned to Kaitaichi and brought back a tool-car and pulled it out. For such troubles, he got late for his operation. I felt terribly sorry for everything and asked for his forgiveness.

May 7 (Tuesday) --- May 12 (Sunday).

Today is the 60th anniversary day commerating the erection of this church. Usually a grand celebration would be observed but under the present conditions it was really impossible. However, when we thanked God for his blessings and recollecting the hardships of the early days in establishing the church, we found new significance in observing this day at the time of our church reconstruction. In commemoration of this day, firstly the home meetings were resumed. The whole city was devastated and only a few destroyed houses were left along the skirts of the city or in the cuburbs which were available for living. And the meeting place in Ushita which was in the northern part of the city was very inconvenient, for no transport was available and it took people to come here half a day or more. So I decided to have house meetings at homes of the church members in various parts of the city. After designating the Tomitas in Ushita, Nakatas in Midori, Tsurus in Okukaita, Takaki's in Kwanon-machi, Yamasaki in Mijajimagushi and the

Yoshimuras in S.

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Yoshimuras in Senda-machi it was so arranged that the house meetings be started from this week. To its results, I had found a fair amount of new devoters in the respective localities. Secondly, we began church services at the ruins of the church. On May 12, (Sun) starting out with the memorial service of our 60th anniversary we had decided to hold church services in the ruins of this church regardless of the weather. It had been requested by few of the church members in the past and according to their words they said, "It hurts our feelings to see the present appearance of the church that had once before been so beautiful, but we feel we can hear more clearly His voices when we are praying here. And it fills our hearts with passions to reconstruct the church... "

On this day with the cards I had collected with signatures on which I had been working on in the past, we passed the decisions that all members observe the Sunday Service and pray for the reconstruction of the church by taking into consideration the intentions of the establishers of this church. And it was also promised that the ruins shall be always cleaned after Sunday services by everybody and make donations to the reconstruction funds accordingly to one's own ability. The pastor claimed that he would sell his own belongings worth of 2000 yen for the fund. Mr. Kusuda, promised he would donate all the money he can get by selling vegetables raised at his own farm at lower prices than the market which he would bring from Saijo every Sunday.

On this day, I had an 'ad' put in the Chuzoku Press stating that all church members immediately send me their addresses and names who were not in contact since the atomic disaster and asking that all concerned people attend to the memorial service of the church's 60th anniversary. And perhaps for that reason there were about 50 persons that attended. The old members such as Komori, Yamada, Nakahara joined and mixed among them we were many young students.

On Hiraiwa, one of my church trustees, also the chairman of the YMCA directors and such committeemen of the YMCA as Mr. K. Nakao and Mr. T.

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Ohashi attended my services as there were no other church meetings. They were working together to reconstruct the YMCA, and were also working at my young members of my church. They were passing out applications cards for membership and trying to secure their own members. I did not mind of the old members entering the YMCA but I was in doubt whether it was right to take away the new members in the church but I skipped the whole case.
May 19.

As it was like competing with business men alert in calculation I could not lose any time in securing materials required for reconstruction. I started to work on transporting the 18 kegs of nails which was among important released goods I was to receive. It was not found at its first designated place and the article was located at the Hirayama storehouse in Shiwabori, a distance of one hours ride in a bus from Happonmatsu. From May 2, I had made altogether seven trips to the place and completed the papers required for its releasement after checking on the nails. I hired one truck and had it moved by Kazuyoshi Arna who had recently been demobilized. The day before we went there, a truck from the Prefectural offices agricultural Association had come and taken away about 150 kegs and left us only kegs which were broken and lacking in contents. Then from Saijo we got 30 roofings and from Fuchū one drum full of creosote. The transport for receiving this creosote was offered by Mr. Green who was a YMCA secretary of the Occupation Forces in Kaitaichi.

In order to receive such released goods I had to make visits to the offices more than ten times and when it came to transport the goods it took me again so many round trips. It required an astonishing amount of energy, May 26 (Sunday)

Evangelism in the prison!! Usually the preaching in prisons in Japan was solely occupied by the East and West Honganji Shinshū Sect of Buddhism but this time the gate had been opened to Christianity. The first steps taken were to dispatch Christian pastors to prisons in Toyōkō and other

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representative prisons throughout the country. In the Chugoku region I was appointed by the church board to become a non-official of the Ministry of Justice and engage in work as a prison chaplain of three prisons in Hiroshima, Onomichi and Iwakuni.

All the prisons had two holidays a month and it was always on Sundays. And my preachings were to be given on Sundays and I always had to attend the prisons before going to my own church so it was real intense work. This morning I held my first sermon. About 800 convicts were carefully listening to my talks. Before making any risky sort of a sermon I preached on the sermon of the mountain and hoped I could give them the blessings of Christ. From now, I would like to study their minds and speak of something that may appeal to their hearts. We may lose this opportunity according to the results of our Christian chaplains. I could not help myself realizing the importance of my responsibility.

May 29 (Wednesday)

Late in the evening I came home exhausted. My wife said to me handing out one name card, "Father Kleinsorge of the Catholic Church has brought a gentleman of this card." It read as John Hersy, reporter of Life and New Yorker. His business was that he had hope to hear the experiences of the atomic bomb. As I knew so well of these magazines I felt sorry I had been away. He had left saying he would come again the next day. Since I was so busily engaged in the reconstruction work of my church since this March, I had to go to Kaitaichi early on the following morning. But as I thought I would like to respond to his kindness, I worked till 3 A.M. in the night in my bed and wrote about my experiences on ten sheets of paper although I was terribly tired from work. As I had not written in English for some time no good expressions came out but managed somehow to write on a part of the atom scenes I had witnessed after much erasing and filling in words I had dropped. I used to feel after finishing the manuscripts for the papers-during-

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And after such work was over, I felt a slight joy which I used to feel
after finishing the manuscripts for the papers during my school days.
May 30 (Thursday)

Early in the morning I visited Father Kleinsorge with my manuscripts
I asked him to convey my apologies to Mr. Hersy for being out yesterday and
that I was unable to meet him today for a previous engagement and give him
my manuscripts. I had left saying I would like to know Mr. Hersy's replies
whether he would be satisfied with these stories of experiences and if he
would like to have a fair copy or not. Mr. Hersy was staying with the Pro-
vost Marshals in Ujina. Afert getting over with the days work, I visited
Father Kleinsorge again. Mr. Hersey was saying that he would like to see
me by all means and had asked Father Kleinsorge to make arrangements so
that I could meet him at Father Kleinsorge's plave at 9 A.M. the day after
tomorrow.

June 1 (Saturday)

At 9 A.M. I met Mr. Hersey at Father Kleinsorge's home. His face was
rather long and he was a gentleman quiet in his manners. He said, "I've
read your manuscripts and I think its quite moving." And it seemed that he
had it also read by the M.P. officers which he said they were also moved.
I could not distinguish the right and wrong of his comments, but I could
understand that at any rate he had interest in my experiences. He ex-
plained of the purposes and steps to take for his investigation saying,
"The scientific investigation of the Hiroshima air raid by the atomic
bomb is now being carried out in details by such experts, but I am
thinking of trying to make investigations of it from the standpoint of
humanity. And I am trying to get about five characters of various circles
to hear of their experiences." From then I spoke about three hours
following the passages of my manuscript which I had handed to him. He
had listened to me intently and showed much sympathies that I spoke to
him quite frankly. I had really felt like seeing an acquaintance I had

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missed for years.

As he said he would like to take pictures, we went to the ruins
of my church. It was bright daytime and the sun shone from above. Mr.
Hersey compared the difficulties I had in reconstructing my church with
that of the Catholic church and expressed his sympathy. The Catholics
were among the very first to start in the reconstruction work in the
city because the fathers had freedom so far as their own conducts were
concerned and had many fathers to work in cooperation in the Monastery
in Nagatsuka in the outskirts of Hiroshima. First they had cleaned up
the ruins and had built two barracks of the Housing Corporation as their
homes, obtained support from the Occupation Forces and were now build-
ing an Official house like the same one which stood there in the past.
The main structures were already set up. In the gardens, there were al-
ready a large amount of logs piled in the campus. I could not but envy
of their wealth.

June 2 (Sunday)

After finishing the Sunday service in the ruins, I went out to
Onomichi on the 12:40 train. Reacher there about 3:30 and after thirty
minutes got to the prison on top of a hill. Immediately began my sermon.
They also listened intently. It appeared to me, that I saw several
persons who were in tears. The head of the prison, Mr. J. Kawasaki,
is a fine gentleman but he was assigned in this country prison for he
was suffering from T.B. and at the same time was taking care of his
health. After discussing some business matters, he said, "The usual
chaplains had only given ordinary sermons by quoting on articles after
reading newspapers. To such Buddhist priests I had often given them
warnings that Buddhism which could no longer purify the minds of the
general public and nearing death would eventually cease to exist. But
they never seemed to endeavor to rise. I hope that you can really
crave into the guts of these people the love of Christ which is revealed

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on his cross. Of someone should repent among them, please have them
baptized in the prison. I am of the opinion that I could give such men
who have been able to start a new life spiritually a release or parole.
Not only towards the interned, but I hope you would give the preachings
to the staffs also. And on your trip here, after you have finished your
sermon in the prison's chapel, I hope that you stay for the night and
preach to the dependants of our staff. The regeneration of our convicts
is impossible without Christianity. I have been praying in my bed today
as you were giving the sermon." I had found out that there were also
great works to be done here.

June 9 (Sunday)

Tentocost Sunday. Today in Tokyo, a general convention
of Christians in Japan was held and launched a /Christian campaign under
three years program. "All Japan for Christ" was its slogan. Kneeling on
the ruins of the church, we held the first baptism ceremony since the
atomic bomb. Kunio Takaheshi (lost mother in bomb), Akiko Takahashi (lost
father in atomic bomb) and Kazuko Tanaka had responded to the application
to be baptized and dedicate their lives for Christ.

June 23 (Sunday)

Recently the congregation of my church was increased to
forty to fifty people. It was due to the church members who had repatriat-
ed from abroad and the participation of demobilized service men. So, today
we held a special welcome service for such new members at the Yoshimura
home in Senda-machi. The number of persons welcomed were 4 ordained mini-
sters not in charge, 29 regular members, 20 other churches' members and 16
seekers for x'tg, a total of 69 persons. Because the inside of church
has so much changed, one person who had received a nominal roll book of
present members which I had made and distributed sent me a letter in which
he stated, "I have enjoyed your nominal roll book. But I felt rather
lonely for it had changed so much....."

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This was what everybody could understand. It was because so many church members had died or moved away since the wartime period till the atomic bomb last year. But now some old acquaintances had come home from overseas. And new members are also joining. What a great emotion it is to be able to rise again with hope and courage in the loneliness. Our lord, Christ, had once said to his disciples in Luke 12:32, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom". The church shall never remain small forever. How grateful we are, our Lord is increasing to his group persons day by day.

July 5 (Friday) 6. (Saturday)

In order to rehabilitate the church of Japan and have her participate as one member of the churches in the world, Dr. John B. Cobb who had so early come to Japan as the representative of the Board of Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Church of America, came to Hiroshima today. Just then, a memorial service of the Hiroshima Jogakuin at Ushita was held in their temporary school building. I went out to read from the Bible and offer a prayer. And I had met Dr. Cobb for the first time since the beginning of the war. I was filled with emotion when I shook his large hands.

The purpose of his visit was to investigate the war-damaged churches and schools. And I showed him around the ruins of all churches within the city. He also dropped into my temporary parsonage. My daughter Koko would run away when she saw any O.F. soldiers in kahki clothes, but she became acquainted soon with Dr. Cobb in plain clothes and got embraced in his arms. Dr. Cobb said, "It's not so good to see uniforms in any country is it?" Dr. Cobb had come to Japan as an religious advisor in the G.H.O. and was of course ablt to take the Army train. But in cases he would travel with us he would take the 3rd class crowded car. He did not favor of the missionaries making use of the Army privileges. He was victorious but yet he was friend of the defeated people./

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July 10 (Wednesday)

Reached Iwakuni city on the 1:30 P.M. down train. Took a bus and visited the Iwakuni Juvenile Prison. It was arranged so that I make two visits a month. I walked about inside the prison and is was the time for exercise after the lunch. They were playing a horse riding game consisted of four in a group. The sight of their joyful game made me think they were young men after all. But their half naked bodies were so skinny that their rib bones could be counted.
I wondered why they were so thin. I looked up the diet of their three meals but it was not at all a small portion of meals. It rather appeared to be better than the common outside people. According to the chief of their education section it was said that it owed much to their spiritual agonies. After seeing them in their quarters I understood his statements were true. It is the tortures coming from their sins that ruins the young spirits. I wish I could somehow save their souls.

July 19 (Friday)

Since the defeat in war, it was the Buddhist organizations in Japan that had most earnestly tried to come close to Christianity among the other religious bodies. Hiroshima is the influential base of the Shinshu sect, so called the Akimontos. Therefore, the evolution of Christianity had to endure much hardships. For example, at an occasion when a Christian had died and wanted its ashes buried in the graves, the chief priest of the temple would not consent of having it butied in the ancestral graves for the dead was a Christian. The reason was because all graveyards were under the supervision of the temples and shrines.

But now Japan has come to face a great change and the kingdom of Buddhism has been shaken by its roots. The people were now trying to study Christianity and start a new life. Should I keenly criticize them, they are trying to take advantage of the universal character

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of Christianity. But as there were some among them that were seriously trying to adopt Christiahity I think we should always be careful as we give them the chances in seeking its truth. Especially we should be tolerant enough so as to have them stand in a joint front and let them take part in the movements of the moral education of the society in general and in the struggles for world peace. It will also bring good effects to our Christian movements.

So, I did my best in cooperating with the Religious Association and endeavored to enliven and strengthen the body. Since the beginning of this year the representatives of Shinto Buddhists and Christians had gathered together frequently and made preparations to organize a Religious Association.

Today, an inauguration ceremony was held in the temporary main temple which was erected in the ruins of the Hiroshima Branch of Honganji. We invited Chaplain Winn of the B C O F at Kaitaichi to lecture on the chaplaincy in the Army. I acted as the interpreter. The Buddhist and Shinto priests listened to the talk earnestly and later exchanged questions and answers.

In Japan there were priests attached to the forces but they were only considered as civilians and not qualified as members of the forces so they were neglected even by the soldiers. Their duties were to cremate the war dead killed in action. The priests attached to the Japanese Forces were merely cremators even though they had graduated from Buddhist University. In comparison to this, the chaplains of the Allied Forces were regular commissioned officers and were assigned to give spiritual instructions to the men and had a contact with the soldiers in all means through their personality. Services were also strictly observed in the Army and the whole rank were God-fearing. The differences in the morality of the forces had appeared in such a manner.

We found out that the causes for the inhumanistic characters of

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Japanese Forces and the superior ethical nature of the Allied Forces had
lied in this respect.

The priests also envied greatly the superior points of a Christian
nation; that is a respective feeling towards religion even within the
forces.

July 11 (Thursday)

Since the "Brighter Life" movement, I had received many requests
to make lectures from various organizations outside the church. A school
principal in Hataga village, a distance of 1 hour by train, came over to
ask me to speak at the restarting event of the Women's Club in their
village.

Uyu (2 hours by train) Iwakuni Kawashino (2 hours by train and bus)
Sunami (2½ hours by train) etc. had sent in requests for lectures from the
local youth organizations, and I gladly accepted their requests. They
were all similarly in want to deepen their understanding in Democracy and
Christianity. The youths were driven into a state of blankness. Some had
resorted to robbery gangs, the others went after obscene literature. But
still, the majority were thinking seriously of themselves and were seeking
and struggling for some sort of support in their souls.

July 21 (Sunday) --August 8 (Wednesday)

Ever since the atomic bomb, I had held no memorial services gener-
ally in our church for the sacrificed till this day owing to various cir-
cumstances. It is now one year since the bomb. We made full preparations.

1) Home memorial meetings.

I held memorial services at the homes of the members who had lost
someone in the family, daily for three weeks. I also made a pamphlet which
contained the brief history and told of conditions under which they had
suffered at the time of the atomic bomb. It was a record of the sacrificed
lives and at the same time a consolation to the souls.

2) Memorial S

er

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## 2) Memorial Service for the dead sacrificed in the Atomic Bomb)

On August 4th, (Sunday) observed a solemn service hanging the pictures of the dead in the ruins of the church. About 100 persons had attended, some coming from very far away. The old and new member took this opportunity to gather and the attendance was increasing. Mrs. Hata, our church organist came back with much interest. Mr. S. Ota, having lost his son in the atomic bomb and deeply moved was now devoted in seeking the spiritual standing in the Bible with his wife. These two persons soon resumed the choir and became the earnest leaders. Miss Mochizuki who had lost her elder sister had a beautiful voice and with much training she was now the center figure in the choir. Mr. Ota and Mrs. Hata were both music instructors in the teachers college and they could get along well without any musical instrument.

## 3) Christian Assembly in the city.

On August 6th (Tuesday) from 8A.M. to 9 A.M. in the ruins of the Nagarekawa Church, all the Christians in the city were assembled and read out a declaration for peace based upon the views of the atomic bomb sacrifices. As I was then the chief committee of the Christian Association of the city, I ministered the meeting. I selected out a few committees and had them draft a message for the declaration of peace. To the consequence of their due deliberation, the committees had come to a conclusion that our declaration of peace should be that of confessing our sins looking deep within ourselves than to appeal peace outwardly towards the public.

Soon after the termination of war, on August 30, the one hundred million mass confession voiced by prime minister, Prince Higashikuni, was intended to call for the reflections on the defeat of war. Namely, it was to retrospect into the facts of the government, its officials, and the military servicemen who had lead this war to defeat without the slightest notion which meant that they themselves were of the thought that they were

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making contributions for their country's sake, but was in fact under the same state of leading our country into arterial sclerosis and then was attacked by a sudden death suffering from cerebral haemorrhage, after it was unable to take further moves, and also of the degrading of national morals, the black-market transactions done by the government, half-openly and by the civilians secretly.

But our confessions after a year had passed should reach into deeper senses. That is to say, the reflections upon the responsibilities of starting this war. It is a problem in which the cause is found in the human nature, much deeper than the various problems in politics and economy. It must be our deep retrospection against sin and a religious confession.

War is caused being backed by the complicated relationship on interests among the worldly nations, but the foreign affairs are so complex and puzzling that its actual state cannot be grasped. But should we stand in the presence of the stern God and retrospect ourselves, we find that the recent wars of Japan were after all wars of aggression. And Hiroshima had been the important base which had taken so many parts in this aggressive war.

Hiroshima in its early days was a poor village washed by the blue waters of the sea standing on the delta of the Ota river. And in the Tensho period, Terumoto Mori, a fuedal lord, had constructed a castle here and ever since it had become a fortress in the fuedalistic Chugoku region. After the revolution in the Meiji period, it has become the location of the 5th Division. During the Sino Japanese War (1893-1894) in the Ching dynasty our Emperor Meiji had moved the Imperial Headquarters and established the National Diet Hall here, temporarily. Furtherly, in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) Hiroshima was used as the military communication depot. And in 1931, since the outbreaks of the Manchurian incident up till the recent Great Asia War, it had been a military center

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in a stretch. It had been the ushering base for the aggręsions against
the Korea, Manchuria, China and the South. On every such occasion, the
city had taken long strides in prosperity. It had become an industrial
and educational city, but they were all doomed to the fate a militaristic
city would face.

Hiroshima in such manners had brought up such mass massacring troops
of the Nanking and Manila incidents and was a cursed city. And here, the
God had passed down his judgement.

And we should come to think! We were not only unable to stop this
aggressive war, but had not we even approved of it. The terrible disaster
inflicted upon our fellow country men on August 6th, was a heavy blow that
we well deserved. After expressing these thoughts we declared as follows:
"We confess of our sins in not being able to prevent the past wars."
4.) Memorial Service for the war-dead as a whole.

This was held under the auspices of the Municipality and the Relig-
ous Association jointly. The municipality itself, of course, had to
commemorate August 6 with other proper methods but they had left the re-
ligious events up to the religious organizations. From the past there was
a so-called "Kuyokai" memorial service society, which were collecting in
ashes neglected in the ruins among which included those of no one to look
after for the whole family was annihilated and of the many travellers who
were staying in hotels and considered as missing. Just soon after August
6, a chapel to repose the ashes of the dead was erected in the atomic
center location and 4850 unidentified ashes were rested there. At this
chapel, we were to hold a memorial service for the benefit of the citizens.

Its method was by having one hour's each of services of the Shinto,
Buddhist and Christians in this order. The hour for Christians was di-
vided in half between 9:30 to 10:30 A.M., the former period for Catholics
and the latter for Protestants. During our service, Chaplain Frank Winn
offered a wreath and a silent prayer which gave console to many of the

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bereaved.

According to the intentions of the Occupation Forces who had given some suggestions to the municipal authorities then, it was said that it would be better to wish for the world peace than to commemorate the dreadfulness of war. But a part of the Hiroshima people seemed to have taken it superficially and flower decorated street cars were run through the city and fireworks of rockets were shot into the skies making the city a carnival.

August 11 (Sunday)

On the 9 o'clock night up train, I got to Kasaoka with my family after a four hours ride. Mr. T. Yamashita's family had welcomed me. Okayama is noted for its delicious peaches and we were heartily entertained by the family. On the following day we went to Tomo and became the guests of Mr. Kabumoto, a noted scholar of Shintoism in Hiroshima prefecture. He honestly recognized the wholly amendments of the Kannagara ways due to the defeat in war. He had come to seek Christianity in the hope of turning the Amaterasu Goddess into an universal God. We had discussed the objects of the fundamentals of God. I thought that the Shintoism in Japan had come to face the same facts as once the religions of Israel had faced in its cultivation through their experiences of the Exile. I thought it would be a good thing if the Shinto devoters could taste fully the bitter toast of the defeat in war.

August 14 (Sunday).

Recently I am now frequently asked to make lectures on the subject of "Democracy and Christianity". I tied up with the chaplain and went out to various circles to speak.

This evening at a theatre in Tuzu, I spoke to an audience of 300 persons together with Head Chaplain, Rev. C.E. Paull, wing commander B.R.A. F. stationed in Iwakuni and gave much impressions to them.

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August 16 (Friday) ---17 (Saturday)

Chaplain Winn and I were invited to Hogen Templea, Zenshu sect, in Miyoshi ( 3 hours by train) which had been arranged after the meeting of the Religious Association when held at the Hiroshima Branch of Honganji. We had stayed overnight at the temple. The following morning from eight o'clock till four o'clock in the evening, we made lectures to a group of the leaders of the youth organizations in Futami-county on "Democracy and Christianity". So many questions came out we were unaware of the time passing. The local priests also attended such meetings and they were saying that the Buddhism and Christianity were the same things, to them. In the afternoon, as it was requested that a meeting be held only by the young people without including the priests and old persons we accepted their proposals.

At such meetings, the young men would say, "We are lost of leaders. We cannot be satisfied only by priests and Shinto chiefs. We eagerly hope that Christian pastors come to lead us." In the evening a lantern festival dance was held. Miyoshi is known for Buddhism being prosperous and so a prize banner was sent from the head temple of the Shinshu sect. It was so a dance contest. More than fifty groups from various organizations took part and there were about 30,000 spectators which crowded into the town's grounds. It was a great successive event. Chaplain Winn and I had spoken on "World Peace and Religion" for about 20 minutes at their request.

The temple we had stayed in was a gorgeous old temple erected by Lord Asano about 300 years ago and it's garden was especially beautiful. According to the priests explanations, this temple was only used for people who would come to seek the Zen methods and had not propagandised to secure followers by going out into the public. Those who came to seek its teachings were rejected not only once or twice and those who came, nevertheless were only accepted. The quality valued more than quantity.

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Every morning they got up at 4 o'clock, read out loudly their books of teachings and observed a strict disciplinary conduct of 'gyo'. This is carried out throughout the year.

Near the temple there was a Christian kindergarten. It had concentrated American P.O.W.'s during the war time. They used to frequent the temple and get tea treated by the priest. Among them there was one lady who had crushed some moss growing in the garden. She sat by the spot and was carefully fixing up the spoiled moss. The priest saw this and was deeply moved for it was a genuine sight which related to the arts of tea-ceremony. The tea-ceremony had four important meanings. 1) Peace, a harmonious feeling between those who receive and the maker of the tea; 2) Respect between the two; 3) Purity; 4) Tranquility.

If anyone could appreciate such points, he has already understood its real meaning no wonder how unskilled he may seem to be in the ceremony. The priest said the tea ceremony is comprehensible to the world surmounting all its differences of races and nationalities.

August 25 (Sunday)

I had once demanded to my church trustees to recognize the initiative of the pastor so as to make it possible the pastor may act to his own convictions and that had been before I engaged myself in starting the reconstruction work for the church. Then afterwards I had made a book of names registered in order to fix up the members of the church and that had been at the church's anniversary of foundation. Later, I had held an election for new board of trustees of the church, according to the names I had registered. Usually, there were bossive elements among the church trustees which had never allowed relections, for such trustees were on life terms and it seemed as if there existed ranks and orders among the church trustees. I was still young and my experiences were still little, but I had never seen such an undemocratic church like this before. Besides the inside of the church was now undergoing a great change. And trustee

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meetings could not be held unless I had gone to see the bossive ones
among them; such aged one was sick in bed or lives far away in the coun-
tryside and would not come out to church. The present church was consis-
ted of 'repats' or new-comers and member who had transferred from other
churches, so they could never represent the general opinions for the church.
For these above reasons I was compelled to carry out a re-election for church
trustees which was a 'taboo'.

Among 96 voters, 62 had voted and 34 were absent. The following
seven were elected. Mr. Tomita 54, Dr. Y Hiraiwa 53, Mr. K. Kusuda 53,
Mrs. K. Yoshimura 51, Mr. T. Kano 46, Mr. Z. Arita 44 and Mr. K. Takagi 43.
These members were confirmed on July 14 at a trustee meeting. A secretary
and treasurer were mutually elected and Mr. Kusuda with Mr. Tomita was
elected as the rehabilitation committee. The trustee's term was limited to
two years. And we asked for the dispatch of Miss Starkey to the Board of
Missions of the Methodist Church of America. The letter was undersigned
by all the trustees and mailed immediately. And the resignation sent in
by Mrs. Kusama, bible-woman, was accepted for it could not be helped,
under the present conditions. On August 4th, at another trustee meeting
Mr. Nishimura, Mr. Tsuru and Mr. Hayashi were recommended as the honorable
members of our church and thus express our deep gratitude for their long
service. And, finally, decided on the reconstruction plans which were then
being faced by the church.

After the good season of spring had arrived, we had removed our
temporary meeting place in Ushita to the ruins of our church and had since
then all prayed fervently for the rehabilitation of the church. The stu-
dents from the electricity school which was being rehabilitated in Okukaita
had come over to the ruins of the church and had cleaned up the area without
my knowing anything about it. Mr. Tsuru had led in the work and they even
had made an altar with pieces of burnt weebricks piled in the front of the
church. B

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But, gradually, the rainy season came and the rainy days continued for days. Having no place to hold our services, I would get my congregation under the gallery. Still though the rain penetrated through the concrete brunt walls leaking and we would get wet by the drops breaking through, we kept our services in earnest.

Summer had come. We had no roofs, no trees, and so there were no shades at all. The ruins were terribly hot. The prayers for church reconstruction were offered more fervently than ever.

Future principles were set so as to build a temporary chapel and parsonage in the ruins of the former Sunday School site and use it for the time being and after the main chapel be constructed have it be used as a Sunday School and by so doing prolong the real construction work to its future. But, how would we be able to make out the 170,000 yen required for its fund?

a). Materials we had been released up till present---30,000 yen.

b). The grand total of money now in possession--- 6,000 yen.

c). Donations in church---34,000 yen.

d). The remaining 100,000 yen maybe expected to be given support by the American churches. This was because we looked forward to Major Jefferey's advices.

We began our work after dividing the work among us. Mr. Tomita was expected to make the best use of the materials and Mr. Kusuda took charge in collecting donations from the church members.

From today, we began to start our road-preaching in front of the grounds of the Hiroshima railway station. As there was no single complete church in the city, there was no other way left than to spread the Gospel towards the passers-by by going out into the streets. A powerful preaching group was organized by gathering all pastors from the various churches in the city. Fortunately, I had with me a drum and a lantern which had been evacuated and a church member of Rev. Nagase had a trumpet. We promised

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to preach on the street on every Sunday evening.

## September 1 (Sunday)

Bibles which were donated from American churches had arrived to the church. The church members all jumped with joy. Especially the illustration cover had given calm impressions to the crude feelings caused during the war-time. In no time, the amount of distribution was sold away. From the Hiroshima Branch of Honganji an order for 100 copies were received stating that the Buddhism in the prefecture was nor underhoing a re-educational program and the Bible was wanted to have it read.

And again I had heard that in Yanai, a small town in Yamaguchi prefecture, a certain book-store had ordered a considerable amount of Bibles. For several days no one seemed to buy it; but on one day it was all of a sudden sold away. Upon investigation, it was found out that boys who had bought it were all from Tsuzu village. It was due to our lectures we delivered with Chaplain Paull in its previous day.

## September 8 (Sunday)

After service, Mr. Murata of the Akatsui General Works came to see me. And looking about the ruins, he encouraged me saying, "Reverend, So long as you have such strong walls left, the reconstruction work is quite easy. If such a building as this can be reconstructed, how good influence it will bring to the citizen's life." I said, "I'd sure like to rehabilitate my church, but I haven't the necessary money for it." Then, he said eithout delay, "Reverend, you cando it without money. Look at the Catholic church. That building was constructed with no more than 20,000 yen in cash." The Catholic church had in fact built a fine 2 storied house. It was all due to the works of Mr. Murata and Father Radmann who looked after all workers and materials. Therefore, I asked for his full cooperation saying, "If our church can also be so reconstructed as you say, I would sure like to have you cooperate with us." The tricks of the work was after all to make best use of the released materials. Mr. Murata encour-

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aged me saying that there were yet a lot more materials to be released
and it was not hopeless.

Mr. Kusuda who was the rehabilitation committee of my church
jumped in joy of the news. We went to see Father Radmann at once and
learned of his secret ways. First for the reconstruction work, according
to Father Radmann, it could bot have been accomplished if he had not been
exclusively put in charge of this work. The church work was all entrusted
to Father Kleinsorge. He said, "If from morning till night, from office to
office, company to company, you could only work daily, always in pursuit
without losing any time, then the sonstruction would be possible."
September 15 (Sunday)

Recently the number of young men and women have increased in coming
to our church. The innocent students were for a temporary period shaken in
their minds since the end of war but they soon recovered. It was such
young students also, who had offered heart touching services in looking
after the 'demobs' and 'repats' who landed in Ujina daily and got off at
the Hiroshima station and welcomed them home.

And the more they worked they sought for spiritual guidance and
would come to ask for the pastor to visit them and deliver lectures towards
them. I went out twice a week to Hiroshima Girls College and held Bible
classes. Their great troubles were that they could not get hold of Christ-\ian books. Those that did come out in book stores were very dear. So I
loaned them books which I had evacuated. It could not be helped, however,
that most of the books were passed about would be lost in the end.

On August 15, at a ranch called Chichiyasu, I held religious
meetings for the young men in a house of a charitable man called Mr. Nako
on September 6 and 7. Also I set aside one Sunday as a special service
day for the young men and I decided to appeal to their sacrifices. It was
Mr. K. Takagi who had showed much interest in this service and began to be
its active member.

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September 18 (Wednesday)

First of all, I visited Chaplain Paull, of the B.R.A.F. in Iwa-
kuni who showed me his kindness recently. He was a chaplain representing
both the Presbyterian and the Methodist churches in England, though he
was a Presbyterian himself. When I asked him for his support in the re-
habilitation of the church he promised me of his full support.

September 21, (Saturday)

With Mr. Murataas our advisor, Mr. Kusuda and I began to launch a
busy campaign towards various circles. Drafting a list of materials re-
quired for repairs in the present chapel, we had to run about the govern-
ment offices and controlling distribution organs to have such goods re-
leased and delivered. Mr. Murata came along with us to all places that
required professional explanations. Today, we opened negotiations with a
District Lumber Distribution Corporation in Hatsikaichi for the delivery
of 1,000 koku of wood and dropped in to make only a complimentary address.
In accordance to their instructions we made out applications papers and had
it returned to a deliberation committee meeting. It would then be sub-
mitted to the concerned government offices in charge and later receive a
ticket necessary for the delivery of required wood. To reach so far, we
had to run back and forth for about 10 times between the government offices
and companies.

September 23 (Monday)

Today I went to the Prefectural Office to make application for a
special delivery of glass panes. There were more than 20 sorts of con-
struction materials necessary such as the nails, iron sheets, electric
wires, cement, tacks, veneer sheets of wood. All negotiations had to be
done at different government offices and firms. It was great trouble for
one had to run to offices for more than ten times in order to obtain ra-
tion tickets for each goods. Now here, I must introduce Mr. Kusuda. Mr.

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Musuda had been a naval captain. But he was not at all such a person to take advantage of the state of affairs. Since he had been baptized when he was a high school boy at our church, he lived a Christian life. Especially when he was in the Naval Engineering Academy he had been much persecuted by the school president and other instructors as well. But, he had postively struggled his way through taking up the shield of 'religious liberty'. He was rather behind in his promotion since he was commissioned to an officer. I had been intimate relations with him since my arrival to this church and during the wartime he had never showed any pride even though it was the best years for the soldiers. He would say, "I may be discharged at any time for my body is not strong. Then I shall go to the Seminary and become a pastor to fulfill my longing hope of years."
Now, the time had come. In his study room, there were a lot more books on Christianity than myself and the shelves were stacked with them. Since his young days, he had been reading books on Christianity more than the military books. His lectures on Christianity are so good and a professional like myself cannot reach his level. His personality may be summarized in one word as a mild Christian.

Sept. 27 (Friday)

There was one thing that we had found while continuing the work in visiting government offices daily. Mr. Kusuda and I became to know that we had great handicaps in comparison to the Catholic priests. That is to say, it was that we were not of the white race. The Catholic priests were German people, but as they were of the white race, they were regarded as the Allies and everything had proceeded smoothly. But, I was a short man of the Oriental race and was out of question. I could not help from smiling sardonically on finding that even in Japan after the end of the war there was racial discrimination.

Sept. 29 (Sat.)

went to the Hiroshima Finance Bureau with Chaplain Paull to

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borrow his white face. Interviewed the chief of the Bureau and the property section and asked for the release of former military buildings for the reconstruction of the church. Chaplain Paull also gave some explanations on the works carried out by churches and asked for their support politely. The officials, promised to give their best support.

According to the explanations of the officials in charge it was said that under present conditions there were four temporary naval ware houses in Kamakarijima that may be available for us.

Sept. 30 (Monday)

We went to the island after hours of riding in train and on boat and inspected the warehouses located along the shores. It was a crude house with galvanized iron roofings but it was better than nothing so we decided to have it. Among four buildings, two were large and two were small and a total of 600 tsubo altogether.

Oct. 9 (Wed.)

Following instructions of the Finance Bureau, we submitted some necessary papers. But, we later found out that this warehouse was under the supervised area of the Kure Finance Bureau and under their charge, so we made several trips to Kure to have them understand our work. However to our surprise the Kamakari village had sent in their application in order to build a young man's school in their village. Then it had become a race between the Kamakari village and the church.

Today, we were asked to make explanations from both sides as there was going to be held a release commission meeting. Mr. Kusuda and I went out together and strongly advocated on the importance of church work in the present days and asked for the releasement of the warehouse. After all, it was decided that one building among the four would be given to the church and the rest to be given to the Kamakari village. But as far as the church was concerned, this was not enough at all to reconstruct the church and we accepted the decision on conditions that we be provided with other buildings

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from other circles. Just then, one of the twenty committeemen spoke out and questioned, " A temporary warehouse would not be of use for the reconstruction of a church, would it?" But everything was settled as the chief of the bureau said, "It can be of some use at any rate."

October 13 (Sunday)

After service, Mr. Kusuda, Mr. Komori and Mr. Murata went out to nara-village in the vicinity of Gaijo-town to inspect some military barracks located in the training fields there. It was because we were instructed by the Finance Bureau to cover the shortage of the Kamakari warehouses. After one hour and a half on foot, we found about 10 several barracks in the fields. All were built up in a hurry during the wartime and were temporary buildings. The iron sheeted roofings were all in rust. The training fields were now being cultivated by 'repats', 'demobs' and war sufferers under difficulties of getting food and fertilizer. Recently it was arranged so that the Occupation Forces use the fields as their training fields so the people here were instructed to move out. The barracks they were living in were now to be destroyed, but it was authorized to be released if found good for further use.

We had come to the conclusion that as the place was so far in distance and it would require a great amount for its transportation charges. The buildings would be os no use for also the materials were in very poor condition.

But we carried negotiations to receive the buildings in case the Finance Bureau would release it to us without taking any charges.

Oct. 15 (Tues.)

The Finance Bureau was authorized to distribute the former military buildings and its goods, but it was not the final decision. There were two steps to be taken.

1.0 It must be approved by the American Military Gov.'t. Name-
ly it must be judged by the M. G. whether or not the distribution

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for the released goods were proper. All released properties were pro-
vided that a) it be used by the Occupation Forces, b) Those regarded
unnecessary by O.F. to be used by the Japanese government, and c) Those
regarded unnecessary by the Japanese Gov't to be used by educational
or social work organizations.

2). Furtherly, it had to be released by the B.C.O.F. through
the Military Government.

To take such procedures, we had to make frequent visits to the
Military government and the B.C.O.F. in Etajina. The officials in charge
were all kinder than the Japanese authorities, but it took much time to
prepare papers.

Oct. 13 (Sunday)

The opportunity for evangelistic work has gradually ripened.
What was of great interest recently was the street preachings held in
front grounds of the Hiroshima railway station. Besides the blackmarket
that mushroomed in the ruins, there was nothing in the front grounds of
the station but it was an oasis for the homeless people. The air raid
shelters dug underground were covered and several pine trees were planted
above it, surrounded by green grass. People who were living in huts made
of patched up iron sheets would come out in the evening feeling so lonesome
and lie down in the grass in front of the station. Only the starts were
glimmering beatifully. The station was a social melting pot. War or-
phans, vagrants, 'demobs' who lost their homes and families and 'repats'
who had no one to look after them, all would come here and stay for the
night in the open air. The grounds were crowded every night and it seemed
as if the war sufferers in Hiroshima were enjoying themselves in relating
their own stories.

We would occupy one corner of the grounds and standing upon a box
preach with all our might. One pastor would speak for about 30 minutes, so
it would take about two to three hours in case four or five pastors spoke.

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The listeners consisted of young people, students, workers, old and young women. At the least there were about 100 persons and it would sometime amount to 200 or 300 persons. Most of the people would keep standing from the first to the last and listen intently. After our preachings had ended, we would unite in prayer. They also bowed their heads, and prayed silently.

We had often been engaged in street preachings up to the present, but we had never seen such an audience listen intently and quietly to the end. After such meetings, several young people would come to see us and ask for instructions and the ways of obtaining the Bible. From among these people a great number of church attenders had increased.

We were surprised by the appearance of street girls who would try to stop us on our way home. Such was the serious social conditions since the end of the war.

Oct. 20 (Sunday)

Our group of pastors began to start preaching in the streets at several places during the daytime, but this was not so successful. And, in various churches, an evangelist group was organized. Today in my church we organized a group and the centering figures were Mr. Mayajina, Hiraiwa, Kusuda, Yoshinaga and Mr. Komori. But the activities of believers were not to be expected so much because they were too busy in their personal affairs.

Oct 21 (Mon.)

Father Kleinsorge came to see me in my house in Ushita. Worrying about our health, he had brought a few sorts of Vitamin medicines. At the same time, he brought to me a New Yorker on the August 31st edition. It had been sent from Mr. John Hersey to the six persons.

I was worrying about him after he had left, but as I had received no words from him I was thinking of him as the same as the rest of the reporters who had come to see me. But the article was occupying the whole

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magazine.

I read the whole pages in a run and I was deeply moved, meaning: 1) The description was surprisingly accurate; it was not colored and written precisely as I had stated. The misspellings appeared as I had written. 2) In my conversation, he was jotting down some notes but it was a surprise to see that everything was indetails. 3) But, above this, he had written about us with great sympathies as if he were in our positions.

October 25.

Dr. R.L. Durgin of the Young Men's Education Section of the G.H.Q. came to Hiroshima. I had met him for the first time but he mentioned he knew me through Mr. Hersey's book. I was surprised at the speed and wide circulation of journalism.

Nov. 1st---Nov. 23rd.

Various informations were available while we were making effort to reconstruct the church in some way or other. When we learned that Otake Naval Barracks would be discarded before long and would be disposed of by the authorities, I rushed to the spot with Mr. Kusuda and found that these barracks were being used as a repatriation port and moreover it was rather a huge establishment with many buildings. A port of the former Naval Submarine School which also was in use as a 'repats' hospital was also reported to be discarded soon, but as Otake City authorities were after these buildings the situation seemed quite difficult and our effort consequently ended in vain.

When Dr. Matsumoto, principal of Hiroshima Girls' Mission School, heard that Ohara Branch School of Etajima Naval Academy would be disposed, he approached the authorities concerned, but did not accept the offer as it was too exorbitant. Upon hearing this, I went to inspect the establishment myself with Mr. Kusuda, but under the accordance with Mr. Murata's opinion that it wouldn't be a paying work against the enormous expense to convey

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old buildings in sections, we decided to postpone any further search for old buildings.

After consulting this matter with Kyoritsu Gumi, I went with some of their representatives on a boat to investigate on the spot. It was one big building of more than 2000 tsubos and they estimated that if this was available, they could rebuild one one-tenth of the original size; that is a building of about 200 tsubos.

I started my negotiation with Col. McGowan who was in charge of the Construction Section at BOOF. Up to this time, I have already called on the Colonel more than ten times for this purpose. Col. McGowan, as well as other officers, simultaneously promised their utmost cooperation to this effect.

Nov. 17 (Sunday) --18 (Mon.)

Ever since we rose to our feet for the reconstruction of our church we have started a fund raising campaign with a firm resolution to reconstruct our own church with our own hands. By Oct. 25th, total amount of only 5,345 yen has been collected. Each person has donated a trifle amount of 5 or perhaps 10 yen. The reason for such a result was that all members of our church themselves were suffering from the calamity and are leading a hand-to-mouth life. Moreover, there were many who couldn't even afford to pay any amount that only 33 out of 153 persons responded to the donation. But we are hoping to build a roof over the ruins at least by this coming Christmas.

Thereupon we planned a bazaar on the Harvest Festival and named the members of Women's Missionary Society and Young People's Department as Bazaar Committee. But unfortunately, we didn't have any material to make things for the occasion. Nevertheless, numbers of things from what remained after the fire were made, but still it was not enough to make a bazaar so I got in touch with several firms and asked them to exhibit their

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goods on our bazaar and requested to donate certain percentage of their
sales. Boeki-kodan and Koyama Toy Shop promised to exhibit their goods.
There was still another headache; there wasn't any table to exhibit
things on.

A dancing instructor Mrs. Kusakabe, one of our church members,
whose husband was killed by the atom bomb, promised to put on a Japanese
dance show with her dancing class as the center of attraction. Every-
thing was satisfactory as far as this was concerned except that we didn't
have any stage or chairs for the occasion. I took some of our young
people to the Catholic Church and the Noborichi Primary School and bor-
rowed their desks and chairs. The goods to be exhibited had to be loaded
and transported on a cart. Of course I had to do all this by myself.
What remained of the church after the disaster was only the shattered con-
crete frame work and so the chairs, tables, and other things to be ex-
hibited at the bazaar were liable to be stolen and then I had to stay in
the place for altogether four days in order to be on the watch; that is
one day before the bazaar, 2 days during the occasion and one day after
that.

As you could see from the above, that I had not many young people
to help me in these activities yet snacks used to come in at bazaars and
it was also my job to get them from Tsuzu in Chaplain Winn's jeep.

In this way, the bazaar was finally opened, but all we got out of
it was a total donation of 4,500 yen, plus several complaints about the
prices being too high and so on.

Our ladies had no spare time as to do some preparations before the
bazaar or rearrange things after, and so all they could do was to look
after the foods stand only during two days of bazaar. That's how little t
time they could actually spare in their daily life.

But as we advanced headlong towards our reconstruction, old

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faithfuls who have been secluding from society and others who have lost
their churches entirely began to group together in search of religious
association. Case of Mr. Nakamura, President of Chamber of Commerce and
Industry of this city, is one of the few examples.

Nov. 24 (Sunday)

As soon as the bazaar was finished, big lumbers and woods were
brought into our church ruins. This morning, I went to the church for our
morning service and was greatly surprised to see the carpenter fast at
work. I found out later that Mr. Murata consulted the matter with Goto-
Gumi and they immediately accepted his request without our talk or contract.
Of course, they might have been fully aware that we had no sufficient
building fund but perhaps they had their own idea to become interested in
our church. As a matter of fact, according to Mr. Murata's explanation
they have just established their new branch office in Hiroshima and are
very anxious to set up their foundation as soon as possible. To start with,
our church-is-situated-in-the-important-center seemed to be the best op-
portunity for them. First of all, our church is situated in the important
center of the city and secondly, Christian churches are becoming the
favorite of present day. Under these considerations, if they invest in
our church, it would serve as a nice propaganda. At first, I was taken
aback when I heard that they have accepted the project, but as long as they
are willing to take the job in spite of our poor financial situation, and,
moreover, under the condition that their expense would be paid in future
when a sufficient fund is available, I thought it unnecessary to oppose to
the plan. Especially under the present inflation with prices soaring al-
most every day, the more it delays the higher the price would get; so I
thought it wise to build now than to wait for the worse.

After I dismissed our morning service, having felt more or less
uneasy and yet happy, with all the carpenters working on the building, I
solemnly directed Mr. Obata's wedding ceremony with everyone standing up in

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the inch deep ashes remaining in the site of our former Sunday School building. It was his second marriage since he had lost his former wife at the time of the Bomb.

December 1 (Sunday) After morning service.

We held our committee meeting and discussed on the reconstruction problems. Mr. Murata was also present and gave the explanation of the plan and expenses. We went into our debate whether we should accept the plan or not even though the reconstruction work had already been started. Some approved and other disapproved the plan so that it seemed quite difficult to reach the decision ommediately.

The reasons for disapproval:

1.) Construction work started before the contract was signed.

2.) Construction expense of 250,000 yen is too much expense.

The reasons for approval:

1.) The expense is not so high under the present inflation.

2.) We should accept their goodwill to build the church in spite of the fact that they know our financial situation.

At any rate the question of expense should be left in the hands of the experts concerned and we should be thankful for the action that they have taken from their own accord.

December 7 (Sat.)--8 (Sun).

Dr. Kagawa visited Hiroshima for his first time since the end of the war as a lecturer for the Christian movement. Several assemblies have been arranged and on each occasion occupation personnels came to see him, but as a whole, attendance was amazingly very poor. Dr. Kagawa explained this trend as follows:

"Anywhere you go, you would expect the attendance to increase in proportion with the damage of the war, but the fact is to the contrary. Places where food is abundant the bigger attendance you would see as in the case of agriculture district. The reason I don't know."

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129

I wonder if Hiroshima would be the same case?

December 22 (Sunday) -- 25 (Wed.)

Christmas season has come.

After thinking quite a while of how to celebrate this coming Christmas in this atom-bombed desert, I finally hit upon a wonderful plan and immediately called on a Salvation Capt. Christian at the 67th Australian Infactry Battalion Army Officer to consult about my plan. When he heard my idea, the Captain asked me to investigate all the Sunday Schools in the city. After I handed my investigation to Capt. Christian, he reported to the Commander and collected Christmas presents from the officers and men in accordance to my report. Many soldiers brought in their donations which they have shared from their can-teen goods. Several groups of few soldiers with these presents respectively visited all the churched and enjoyed the international Christmas parties especially prepared for them. Japanese children as well as the grown ups overjoyed themselves with their foreign Christian visitors.

The roof of our church was completed just before the Christmas. Several of our young people went to the mountains and brought back two big fir trees to be used as Christmas trees. Decorations were made from a tin insulator material from some electric apparatus by cutting them into all kinds of figures.

On the 22nd, we gave Christmas services and in the afternoon, we held a Christmas ceremony for the people. About two hundred people assembled in our church with no windows or floor, and celebrated the Christmas with everyone on their feet. After this ceremony our young people performed a religious play and after that Chaplain Bennett sent his Christmas message to everybody present.

On the 25th, we held our regular Christmas party as I have already mentioned.

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We did not only take, but gave what we could. We visited and gave Christmas services and celebrations at Onomichi Prison on the 23rd, Iwakuni Prison on the 24th and Hiroshima Prison on the 25th respectively.

Several of the Hiroshima Technical College students accompanied me on these visits and did their best to cheer the hearts of the prisoners. As this was the first attempt by anybody since the history of Japanese prison, everybody expressed their utmost gratitude for our deed. The central figure among these students was Kobayashi who is an arduous soul and has been rendering his service to our church ever since.

We built a small front room in the church for Kobayashi who is now living there attracting attention of many college students. December 27 (Friday)

The first stage of construction was the roof and expense of 250,000 yen would be paid in goods which we have in our hands, that is to say a ware house in Kama-kari Island and some nail stock to go with it. But the ware house will not be available until it is released by the Occupation Authorities. Mr. Murata and others urged me to implore again about the Army Release and at the same time to negotiate with both the Occupation Authorities and the Shift Section of Prefectural Government to have a few of paints and airplane parts left without any usage any more in the warehouse disposed together with the building.

Thus, I practically didn't find time to take a real rest on either Christmas or New Year, but had to work like a cart horse.

Capt. Christian of Salvation Army who has shown a keen interest in our reconstruction effort got his permission from his commander to get in touch with the Army Brass Band so that they could participate in the charity concert to be held for raising funds for our church reconstruction. I asked a few of the vocalists among our church members such

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as Mr. Ota, Mrs. Hata, Mr. Yamamoto and others to help me in making
preparations for the Japanese Australian Goodwill Concert.

I saw Miss Kimiko Nishimura known to have a beautiful voice to ask
for her appearance on the occasion. I also talked with her father about
our untiring efforts in the reconstruction of the church and as he-hepp--
happened to be the son of one of our church members, I became sort of
overcome by the sense of security and asked him whether Kama-kari
warehouse would be of any use in the reconstruction.

This disclosure of my opinion to him was, as I found out later,
a very big mistake.

January 2, 1947.

I visited Mr. Mochizukis of Kannon-village (ten miles distance).
He is one of our oldest church members and has served as our treasurer
for many years. He had a cork company in Fussan, Korea and another
in Formosa, but at the end of the war he had to abandon all his property
and repatriate. He is now living in the juvenile reformatory which
he has donated to the juvenile court as a token of his last public
service. His current idea was that he would rather donate in some
establishment than donating money to some public welfare. Bishop
Kugimiya whom Mr. Mochizuki respected highly, once had said," He is
the man who could really accomplish something." And I had been praying
that he might cooperate with us in our reconstruction effort.
My visit this morning was also based on this purpose. I have been
taking few preliminary steps before I decided to visit today. Once
I made for him a written report on his assets in foreign countries,
and another time, I asked Capt. Christian for bring some Christmas
present to his reformatory on the Xmas Day. Having seen that Mr.
Mochizuki was satisfied with my visit, I showed him all my documents
concerning to church rebuilding materials, and asked for his assistance.
He gladly accepted my request and promised me to help us

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after the New Year. As a matter of fact, having lost his beloved daugh-
ter by the bomb and had no special work to do, he determined to serve
the God intently. I left our whole documents in his hands so that he
may do whatever he wished for our reconstruction plan. But when I told
him that I had asked for Mr. Nishimura's help in the disposal of Kama-
kari Warehouse, he shouted, "Don't you ever deal anything with a fellow
like that again! "

January 4 (Saturday)

At 1:35 P.M., we held a concert in the chapel under the new roof
completed, but we had to borrow chairs for the neighbors and use some
board to make more space to sit. The church was full, for we had Occu-
pation Army Band. This was the first concert that really looked like a
concert in our atom-bombed city. Music lovers of our city were listening
with admiration because both the instruments and the players were good.
Mrs. Yoshiko Mochizuko, Miss Junko Kano, Miss Kuniko Nichimura, Mr. Shiro
Ota and some others did their best in the performance. We were able to
raise 5,600 yen from this concert. In back of all these successes there
had been young men and women who sold tickets, put up posters, prepared
the church etc. They are all our young people who began attending the
church quite recently. The activities of Kobayashi group was particularly
outstanding. Kobayashi himself sold tickets even in the street cars and
in the trains not to mention of department stores. From the public we
asked for their donation for our reconstruction fund. But unfortunately,
the result was not as satisfactory as we first expected because at the
time, every school in the city was raising their own reconstruction funds
too and the people were already getting tired of donations.

January 5 (Sunday)

At our trustees meeting, I recommenced Mr. Machizuki as chairman
of the reconstruction committee. He was, of course, unanimously voted
chairman. Thus Mr. Michizuki formally became the man in charge of the big

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job of church reconstruction. Soon as this was settled, he established
'Nagarekawa Church Reconstruction Office' inside the Law Office of Mr.
Micara, his friend on the 2nd floor of Shinko Credit Association Building
which was located in front of the Hirohima station. He also had good
colleagues among his friends who were construction engineers such as Mr.
Sasaku, Mr. Hirayama, etc. Mr. Mochizuki immediately started his activity
grouped with these people, and I missed him very much for he had worked
with me almost every day, dealt chiefly with the reconstruction fund as well
as all other things such as negotiations with outside church. However Mr.
Mochizuki covered his absence and strengthened our reconstruction activities
again- a great deal. Mr. Kusuda works such as Christian social welfare
works at Nakanoshima settlement in order that he might serve our church
better and more in the future, and so I thought of devoting myself a little
to the pastoral work leaving everything up to him. I started my visitation
after the New Year and neglected my visit to the Reconstruction Office for
two or three days or so. For this reason, Mr. Mochizuki asserted, "You
haven't shown up a bit in spite of you being the central figure in our
church reconstruction job. My presence at this office without you is en-
tirely meaningless. " I admitted he was right.

January 11

As the Registration Office had been dispersed to Gion-machi I had to
go up there to complete the registration of our church according to the new
regulation. With this, a legal ground would be formed of the use of the
150,000 yen church fire insurance. Formerly, all fire insurances no matter
who owned them were being blocked, but at present, 10,000 yen from each
policy is being paid out and the remainder is automatically collected as a
special tax. But if they are registered religious bodies are exempted from
such a tax. 150,000 yens released from the policy plus the 10,000 yens
income from the Kama-kari warehouse would make the total of 250,000 yen.
This amount would be enough to pay for the first stage of construction.

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January 13

Upon a call from the Kure Post-war Liaison Office, I went to the office and found out that they had received a report from the Military Government that the warehouse at Kama-kari Island had been released. This meant that the warehouse could be dissected at our will.

January 15

After getting in touch with the Financial Bureau, I proceeded to the island to inspect the present situation. We found the materials still remaining in the building as before meaning that we still have to wait for the disposal of these things.

January 22 (Wed.)

Dr. Cobb, Rev. Kimura and Mr. Okabe, Wester committees on the church rehabilitation, called on me. We held a conference at our Nagarekawa Church Reconstruction Office under the present Pastors Tsukishita, Yamashiro, Nagasem Nagagami and others.

Proposals discussed by the committee as follows:

1.) Temporary Chapel.

Donation of 3,000,000 yen as received from the American churches. Thirty temporary chapels throughout the country to be established one of which is allotted to Hiroshima on condition that two or three different churches share the use of the allotted church. 100,000 yen will be subsidized for this purpose, but 70,000 yen more should be raised at the respective district and build a chapel with the total of 170,000 yen.

2.) Quonset Huts.

Donation of 20 Quonset huts is received, one of which is all allotted to Hiroshima.

Also on condition that two or three different churches should share the establishment and must be used in the welfare works also.

Regarding the expense of 20,000 yen for the dissection and assembling, it should be discussed by the respective district committee.

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I was entrusted by the committees with a task to make a negotiation among the churches in the city in regard to their proposed project and to find out their decisions. On the side of my church, we decided to abandon our privilege over our own shares and help other churches. Thus we renewed our resolution to build our own church with our own hands.

January 24 (Friday)

Having visited all the church ruins in Hiroshima, the committee went to Kure and discussed on the church reconstruction problem. I asked Dr. Cobb to spare some of his time so that I could show him the actual condition at the Kama-kari Island. We went there on a specially prepared chartered boat and had him inspect the things stored in the warehouse. From there we went directly to the BCOF Headquarters at Etajima and met Major Fisher who was in charge of these problems and asked Dr. Cobb to negotiate as follows:

"We have a permit from the authorities concerned to dissect the warehouse but owing to the materials still remaining in the warehouse, we could not proceed with our work. As we are in a hurry with our church reconstruction, we would like to either take over the goods together with the building or else have them removed so that we may begin dissecting them as early as possible."

As a matter of fact, I have already negotiated several times in regard to this problem before, but didn't get any satisfactory reply, so this time, I was expecting an ultimate reply through Dr. Cobb. The reply was as follows:

"The paint in the warehouse will be given to the church. The airplane parts will be released to the Prefectural Government so if desired, you may have them released from them."

Then went to Col. McGowan to have the Ohara Branch School released, but this was flatly rejected.

January 26 (Sunday)

After the morning service, we held a children's mass meeting and at the meeting we heard a wonderful talk from Mr. Hara. After the bazaar, Christmas, concerts etc. the number of children and young people suddenly increased to a great number.

Twenty or thirty students from the Technical College, Higher Normal School and University of Literature and Science with Kobayashi as a central figure and forty or fifty from the Girls College and housewives with Mochizuki and Tanaka as central figures assembled and studied the Bible.

By taking advantage of their fervent interest in English language I planned to open a Bible class but unfortunately any Chaplain couldn't spare his time for the lecture at our regular meetings. These young people were glad to take part in our church reconstruction activity.

The only furniture we had was the twenty chairs which I had evacuated before the air-raid. And in order to have a comfortable meeting place for the young people, I had to make a bench in substitute for the chairs by placing long boards between the chairs. On the occasion of the children's mass meeting, we welcomed Miss Mary McMillan as our first missionary who has ever visited the atom-bombed desert of Hiroshima. She spoke on the effect which John Hersey's book had given to the people.

I called up an urgent committee meeting and reported on the paints and discussed on how we should take them over. But the way I dealt this problem caused Mr. Mochizuki'sROTTEST. He said, "Such problem should be left in my hands. If any business which really needs an urgent and prompt decision should be kept on the table until the chance to call for a meeting and the decision be waiting, if you can not trust me, all I can do is just resign!"

At first I was quite surprised at his unexpected protest, but as I reconsidered the matter over I thought that as long as he was devoting

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himself in our rehabilitation with several cooperators, it would be
wise to leave the responsibility in his hands. There after I decided
to follow his instructions.

January 30

Since the paint release permit from the BCOF called for the removal of the paint within a week's period, we mobilized young men to transport them. Five of us including Kobayashi, Kuwabara, Fujiishi and Hashimoto started early in the morning and arrived at Kama-kari Island around noon. We began putting all the paint containers in order and loaded them. I did not look so much at first, but actually there were quite a number of them. When the Occupation forces removed some of them sometime before, they had punctured a hole in every can to inspect the contents as they could not judge it from the labels written in Japanese. Therefore, every can had a small punctured hole and moreover some cans with the paints leaked out were sticking fast to the floor so that we had a hard time removing them.

Since the situation was like this, we could not finish our loading on that day in spite of the hard work we had. We had to stop for the night and finally finished the following day. The sun had set by the time we reached Hiroshima. Everyone worked very hard with paints all over their bodies. We could not have done that much work if we did not have these students. On January 1st, we employed some laborers to unload the paints.

February 1 (Sat.)

Since our Young People's Department and Sunday School were on
there starting point of restoration, we had to return to the ruins
as soon as possible, otherwise we couldn't be able to start any reli-
gious activities. After all the time and efforts spent on our
reconstruction it was about time for us to return to the ruins so that

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we may be able to open an efficient church work. In regard to this problem, I planned to purchase the hut used by the carpenters, which the Goto Gumi had built beside the chapel wall. The price was 14,000 yen and as a result of the discussion with my board of trustees, we all agreed that the price was too expensive and if we could use that amount of money, we could build a nice parsonage. Thus my plan was postponed.

Anti-fire plaster-built godown type house under architect Sasaki's plan was decided to be tried, for it would also serve in cleaning up of the ruins. This sort of house needs plenty of dirt, so we borrowed a truck for two days from the Occupation Forces after negotiating with Capt. Christian of the Salvation Army. Again we mobilized the students and accomplished the job. Mr. Nishinanni, Mr. Hirayama and also Mr. Date all worked very hard. They made altogether eleven trips. February 2 (Sunday)

Mr. Yoshio Date who was present at our church last Christmas was anxious of the present state of society since the end of the war. He was also convinced that the only thing that can save our fatherland is in the Christian mission work. And he finally came to me, and confessed his desires to devote himself in church work. Since I had but a few people to cooperate with me for Christian cause, I talked over with the board of trustees and appointed him formally as my assistant.

Since his wife was a graduate of Lumbath Training School for Christian workers, she had a qualification as a nurse and we asked her assistance in establishing a kindergarten.

February 5 (Wed.)

We found that our paint happened to be of poor quality. Mr. Mochizuki after all handed them over to the Goto Gumi and thus we could pay 250,000 yen against the expense of our first stage of construction that is building the roof.

We expressed our highest gratitude toward Capt. Christian for his

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kind cooperation and his great services to the reconstruction of
Japanese Salvation Army quarter and Women's Home.

After visiting Bureau of Finance, Nabe, Kure, etc. with Capt.
Christian, we acquired a former factory workers dormitory of 2,000
tsubos and built a 200 tsubo Salvation Army quarters under Toda-Gumi
contract.

Salvation Army in Kure did not have any land, so we also
worked on this problem.

Theft

February 7.

The doors, windows were all blown away, walls were torn down
and nothing could be done about it. Woods to make fences were also
gone. The pieces of wood scattered about were all useless. I worked
hard in making our paper screens to avoid the night breezes. But the
house was so open that anyone could intrude in from everywhere. In
such occasions, there was no way accept to leave everything in his
hands.

It was when I was still in bed suffering from the atom disease
the family was all sound asleep. A thief had sneaked in and stolen the
umbrella and mantel clock. Of course, all such articles were collected
from various places where I had them evacuated.

The, two or three months later, my best suit and my Wife's
dresses were stolen. This took place also at night time. It was my
only and best suit I had evacuated. With the, we had become only left
with what we were wearing. Since the, I have been going places dressed
in large untidy Army clothing. During the war time, such clothing was
prevailing, but after the termination of the war the Kahi clothes were
very unpopular. In Tokyo or the Oskak Kobe districts it was said that
smart tailored suits could be seen, but in Hiroshima it was always the
soldiers clothing and boots that could be seen at all gatherings,

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either in official or private meetings. So, I had no inconvenient feeling at all, even if the pastor conducted funeral services and delivered sermons.

After four or five months, Mr. Date had come to live with us. We offered him our 4½ mat room, but we were stolen of his fine leather suit case and two suits.

We were so often attacked by thieves, but the house could not prevent in under small repairs of a torn down house. At every occasion I went out and picked up some pieces of boards to strengthen the house, but the robbers could easily remove such boards without causing the slightest sound.

In Japan there were so many robbers. The vegetables we raised eith much care also were stolen. So I tried to prevent it by covering our pumpkins up with grass. The farmers were complaining that the rice ears were being stolen. According to other peoples sayings it is said that after stealing such ears the rice is rubbed between two rubber sandals in order to take the husks away and then put into a large bottle where it is powdered by the end of a stick for hours till it is polished to white rice. So, to the robbers themselves, it was a serious case. There were quite a number of families who had been exempted from 'poor nutrition disease' in this kind of secrecy. But those who had stolen goods besides food were a different kind of people.

## Juvenile Crime.

### February 10.

Recently I was visited by a few young people. One of them was Mr. Hitaka who had been demobilized from Army as a captain, after he had graduated from a Technical College in Manchuria and entered the Army. He was thoroughly influenced under militarism and since the defeat in war he was now disillusioned in thought. Above this, when he reached home he found that his sweetheart had neglected him and was away. He

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had come to church to seek his heart be filled with spiritual consola-
tions. The other was also a 'demob' soldier. he was now staying in his
uncles home as he had lost both his parents and brothers except his
small sister. He could not stand living so long in his uncles house so
he came out to Hiroshima from the country to seek a job, but nobody
would hire him. Finding no house to live in and no work to do, he com-
mitted a crime and now resenting it in tears. I tried hard to find
some place for him to work but it was in vain.

Another boy, was Mr. Mizogami. He was the rbightest boy in the
senior class. His behavior was good at home and he had never talked
back. But, his younger brother to his surprise picked up an empty pistol
to the
from the ruins in the former Engineering Corps and went out near Hiro-
shima railway station with the weapon in his pocket. He then took a
few drinks and eats. On payment, he stuck out the pistol and threaten-
ed, "A thousand yen a shot. Take it or leave it?" Immediately he was
contacted to the police and was sent to the Juvenile Prison. I went over
to the rpison and had him released. Now, he has become an earnest seek-
er of Christianity.

There was another boy, Mr. Kato, and he was also the brightest
boy in the senior class. He was a foot ball player and its captain. He
was kind to all his friends and never had a quarrel. But, at home, he
was a tyrant and gave much troubles to his sister and mother. As his
father had died in the atomic bomb, he had to take all the responsibili-
ties in the house. But, he never seemed to end his rough behavior and
the relatives and neighbors around him thought he was a hopeless boy.
I had since then visited him for several times. He is now an earnest
follower.

People devoting themselves for the church rehabilitation.

Date is uncertain.

One other member who is devoting himself for the rehabilitation

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of our church is Mr. Shoishi-Enomoto. He is the superintendent of our Sunday School and his wife Nobuko is the head of our kindergarten nurses. Mr. Enomoto is a graduate from the Nagasaki Pharmacy College and is a pharmacist in the Prefectural Hospital. Mrs. Enomoto is a graduate from the nursery course of Lambeth Training School for Christian workers in Osaka. There was good reason why these two had come to serve themselves in the church work. Namely, they were deeply moved by the terrible experiences in the atom bomb disaster.

At their home in Nishi Kwanon-machi (1.2 km.) then, Mrs. Enomoto was in the house with her children, Takako (3 years) and Atsuko (1 year). The house collapsed and they were buried underneath. Mrs. Enomoto was wounded all over, but she soon made herself out and got free. Calling after her Takako, she could only hear her crying voice. With great risk she pulled Takako, -she-could-only-hear out. For this action, she was bruised all over the body but was rescued. Atsuko, unfortunately was under a huge log and it would not move an inch despite all her strength. She finally convinced herself to die with her children. Strangely, she felt very calm. Seeing the mistress of the neighbor escaping in wounds, she asked for her help and under cooperation they had taken Atsuko out. Atsuko was already dead. She ran away with Atsuko in one arm and taking Takako with the other hand to take refuge in Kusatsu.

Mr. Enomoto was in the hospital in Ujuna. After treating the crowds of injured persons, he searched for his family in anxiety and finally coming to Kusatsu in the evening met her there. They stayed overnight in the primary school but the whole school was occupied with seriously injured persons. Among them that which touched them most was a seriously injured mother and child. The mother was in burns from her face to tip toes. There was no hair and she was swollen in black-purple. No one could have identified her. Both nipples however,

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strange to say were not burnt. The baby clung to her breast and was sucking the milk. The surrounding people could not stand to see them and they tried to take the baby away by attracting the baby, but the baby would not leave her. Three days past, but still the baby clung to her mother's breast which could not give a single drop. Some persons tried to give the baby a rice-ball, but it paid no attention and kept on crying, "Oka-chan! Oka-chan! Mama,Mama!" The mother in agony asked for water in painful breath. Sometimes feeling too annoyed she would cry out in spasmodic, "Take this child away! Please!" Nurses, who were running about, would say "The mother should be dead a long time ago. She's still living because for the baby's sake." When Mr. Enomoto had seen her, she was at the brink of her life and death. She was covered with a straw sack. Beside her head laid two rice-balls. She would shout at times "Water! Water!" but the baby still clung fast to her. The mother had finally taken her last breath in the evening of the third day since the atomic bomb.

Mr. and Mrs. Enomoto who had witnessed and experienced such conditions firmly convinced themselves to serve the rest of their lives for the church.

Date is uncertain..

We had decided to open a preaching center in Miyajima. The island is noted for the Itsukushina Shrine and is a tourist town with a population of about 3,000.

In this town, there lived Mrs. F. Sakai, a midwife, age 55 years. She had also determined to dedicate her life to the services for God through the atom bomb experiences. On that day, she was late for the ferry boat on her way to Hiroshima to study tea-ceremony and was about to leave the house by the door. A light flashed as if she was shone by a reflection of sun rays by a mirror. Usually, the boy next door would

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do such mischief, but today she had thought a larger mirror must have
been used. Then, she heard a great explosion that made her nearly jump.
She got upstairs and looked about, but saw nothing. She had imagined that
the pier must have been bombed. Two paper sliding doors upstairs were
derailed. (This place is about 20 kilometers away). When she got down
stairs the 'raid-alarm' siren ed. The guard scouts shouted out, "Run to
the mountains!" The people started to escape. She thought it was the end
and she sat in front of her alvoce and began to arrange the chinese
bell-flower and Patrinia Scabiosae folia in the vase. She then put her
money in the sash, she had wrapped around her body, and wrote down, "If
I die, anyone may take anything you need." When she was about to eat
her lunch, it became suddenly dark as if an eclipse was taking place.
(The smoke in Hiroshima had covered the skies above Miyajima.) She sat
down in front of the Buddhist altar in her house, thinking she would
rather die in the house, and lit the incense sticks. In the meantime
the 'raid-alarm' was switched to the 'pre-raid-alarm'. Going out doors
she saw the directions in Hiroshima was pitch dark.

By the evening, about 30 persons among those who had gone to
Hiroshima that morning came back carried on stretchers to the island. The
Nagai clinic was now full with such patients. She also went out to help
carrying along her first aid bag. The treatment continued till midnight.
Around four o'clock when she was back home taking meals, a messenger
came saying, "400 injured persons will land in Miyajima," coming from
Nomijima. " She ran out immediately with her first aid bag. The ladies
club came out to prepare meals. These patients were taken into 4 temples
and shrines. (Sonko-ji, Shinshu-ji, Hozu-in and Tokusu-in.) Since then
for three weeks from 6 in the morning till 6 in the evening, she had toured
the temples and shrines in turn to give them treatment.

In the isle of Miyajima, the only doctor was Mr. Nagai. And the

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only nurse with qualifications was Mrs. Sakai. Later, a few doctors had arrived for first aid from the Prefectural Office, but till then these two persons had to work with all their strength. All Patients who were taken in were already having grubs. The most terrible was a male teacher of the Girls Commercial High School, who was in burns all over the body. He said whereever he could see it had pains. Maggots were found under the skin after revealing it. These maggots were picked out by pincers and about 2 "go" of them were taken out from one arm into a basin. There were some places which left only bones after taking them out. After finishing with one part of the body, they would ask for the other parts to be attended to, but as there were other people also awaiting for their turns to get the maggots picked out, they were told to wait while the others for through. There were many persons under the same conditions. While one was being attended, the other patient would die. There were days when a few persons died while looking after them. What had confused her much while she was taking care of the patients surrounding her was an attitude taken by one certain observer. He knew that Mrs. Sakai was a Christian and rebuked saying, "Well, this is what the Christians you believe in do to us, you see." She said positively "It's not God that did this. It was done by men who had deserted him. Should it be done by God's will, it is because the Japanese had done wrong and God had passed his judgement to it." And she kept on carrying her work attending to her next patient.

One patient had smeared himself with the bloody excretions, above all the suffering burns all over his body. He was laid on a mat in the nude but Mrs. Sakai cleansed the body with the cotton, put 6660 and bandaged the wounds and dressed him with one of the clothes she had brought from her home. On the evening she had attended to this patient she herself had bloody excretions. She was infected by the atom disease.

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This patient died on that night. Mrs. Sakai had stayed in bed for three weeks since then. Her life was preserved by glucose and salt injections. When she was able to rise again, the majority of the patients she had looked after were already dead. One doctor who had come to Miyajima, Mr. Matsuo, had contracted the atom disease a few weeks later and had died later in the Ono Hospital. Mrs. Sakai had thus devoted herself for the love of her fellow country men, at great risks of her life in danger.

June 25.

A general meeting of representatives from 350 various organizations in Hiroshima city were gathered together in the chamber of Commerce and Industry by the Mayor on order to discuss on how to observe the atomic bomb anniversary day of August 6. In order to commemorate August 6, which is a day of fate for the people of Hiroshima, it was highly requested that a body be organized by both the government and civilian joined together and to its results the 'Hiroshima Peace Festival Association' was inaugurated. Its principle was to pray for the world peace through the sacrificed lives of Hiroshima.

But a hot debate was held in concern to this principle. One was, as August 6 is a day of sorrow, it should be a memorial day to comfort the bereaved and recollect the dead. The other was, as the war had ended due to the atomic bomb of August 6, this day had become the beginning of peace. Really we are happy that it has brought peace to us. Therefore, this day should be a date of celebration and we shall become happy. The former is touching the cores of people's hearts, but if it should have no further meaning it is only conservative and shall have nothing constructive. The latter has positive meanings, but the thought of being glad about the atomic bomb is going too far.

But, this preparatory meeting had mostly favored the celebration and the memorial services were set aside as only a small part in the day.

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The main cause for this decision was owed much to the advices made by the Occupation Forces. On asking for proper instructions in concern to the events to be held on August 6, by the municipality to the Military Government, it was said, "It was not only Hiroshima that had become a sacrifice. The world all over was suffering from such painful sacrifices. Therefore it is hoped that the day be commemorated that world had come to peace. Through such sacrifices rather than to grieve over the sacrificed in Hiroshima."

This advice was right and proper. All were happy and grateful that a part of their conclusions were approved by the Occupation Forces and they followed their advice. It is a question however, whether or not the general public minds were heightened up to this level.

August 26 (Tuesday)

The Peace Festival carried out by and under the official and private organizations in Hiroshima had, after all, ended in a carnival. In other words, the peace ceremony conducted by the mayor was observed by a part of the leading people, but the general public had all crowded over to the special events, such as horse, racing, baseball, shows, musical concerts, and so forth. A masquerade and dance procession had even turned out. Thus, it was said in the Life magazine as a sort of a carnival. To its consequence, the case was retrospected in various circles. A standing commission of the Peace Festival Association was then held at the City Hall.

a Mr. Tada first exclaimed, "As such places as Tokyo and other places where many lives were sacrificed, there are people found paying visits to graves, offering flowers and burning incense on the days of their death. But in Hiroshima, there were no such scenes. The ruins of Hiroshima can all be regarded as a cemetery. Even today, since two years have passed from the atomic bomb, burnt bones roll out from the ruins when clearing up some area.

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nd

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And people in such a Hiroshima have made a carnival out of August 6. This is quite unreasonable to me. " After him, a few persons spoke on how the bereaved members in the family had felt bitterly about this carnival by relating to the actual cases they had observed.

I said as follows, "It is all right to observe August 6 as the world peace day. But, in that case this day must be fully understood in its religious meaning. From our original feelings, August 6 is a deplorable day which cannot be comforted. But, it is the religious belief that deepens and purifies and furtherly guides the pathetic appeal for world peace. August 6 should begin from a memorial service in a deep sense and in such a way communicate this ceremony to worldly peace as a religious memorial event. But, why was it that there were only a few people who had attended to such religious services conducted by the respective churches and temples from exactly 8:15 A.M.?"

To my question a few persons said as follows, "It is because the general public finds nothing attractive in religion. The shrines and temples no longer can grasp the minds of the people. Especially, as one of the reactions due to the defeat in war a general feeling of antipathy has been aroused against the religion in general, for the Shintoism before and during the warime had been extremely strong and suppressive." In concern to the retrospection for the Peace day being regarded as a carnival, Mr. Mochizuki, a member of my church exclaimed, "The carnival of August 6 suggests the usual custom of the Japanese, That is to say, in the days when militarism had prevailed, a Decoration Day was held by the whole city in grandeur in order to console the sould of the war dead. Naturally, I think the sentiment of the victorious war dead and the defeated war dead should have a different kind of feeling. However to make a pageant out of the day to mommemorate the war dead must be considered as matching the nature of Japanese minds.

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If I take it in a good way, it shows how much the Japanese are optimistic."

There were some among the group that approved of the fete saying, "There were some people whose hearts were downcast after losing their parents, wives and children or brothers and sisters and after observing such decorated flowerly running street cars and merry processes, they had recovered their spirits and determined to start out on a better and brighter life. To have August 6 celebrated as a Peace Festival Day is quite a proper way to give consolation to the hopeless bereaved people." Furtherly, a certain person pointed out as follows, "The proportion of the atomic sufferers in the present population in Hiroshima is comparatively small. Many have died, others have moved out to other districts. The population of Hiroshima is recovering with the demobilized soldiers, repatriates and new-comers from other parts of the country. They all don't know of the griefs of the atomic bomb. And most of the people engaged in such carnival events were young people who had mostly come from the adjoining villages. After all, the defeats laid in such events that were so far astray from the hearts of the bereaved."

Other facts were also revealed. It was said, "Business opportunities had supported the carnival with intentions to assist in developing the rehabilitation tendency of Hiroshima be celebrating August 6. They held various events in their local shop districts so as to attract the rural people to their own streets for their own prosperity."

So long as this Peace Movement is being conducted under people who are consulting the pleasures of the Occupation Forces or observed under selfish business minded natures, it is sure to become dissolved after the Occupation Forces evacuate from Japan.

It only showed the actual state of the poor nature of the peace movement, because they were only a few persons who had attended the

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peace lecture meeting which was given by Mr. Morito, Education Minister as one of our peace activities and because we could but only donate a small amount of 100,000 yen by selling out social work badges as a part of charity work on the day.

Sept. 22 (Monday)

A pastor's meeting was held at the home of Rev. Kimura of the Baptist church. I proposed a question, after the evangelical matters were deliberated asking, "What are your feelings towards America for using the atomic bomb on Hiroshima?" Rev. Kimura: "A college graduate working in the Prefectural Government said, "We don't mind at all-- no, there nothing could be done about it,-- (but I am sure this resentment shall be satisfied by our kids in the next generation.)" asked him, "Do you wish, then, to have your children and grandchildren suffer again under the same dreadful conditions?" He had no answer to this. We both felt it was a problem we could never solve.

Rev. Shikama, who lost his daughter in the atomic bombing, (As Japan was crying to have her country devastated by fire, even if the atomic bomb had not been used and the war had continued I am sure the sacrifices would have become much greater.) It was rather fortunate to have been able to stop the war by means of the atom disaster, in Hiroshima for it surely saved greater sacrifices. The same can be said about the Americans. Through the sacrifice of Hiroshima and Nagasaki many Americans were also saved. In this respect the atomic disaster was an event which saved millions of lives for the Americans as well as for the Japanese."

Rev. Kimura continued without a pause: "I once thought of building a church near the center of the explosion. There was a Goryoso near there which was for sale. I thought of buying it and building a church so I talked the matter over with Mr. Iwamiya, head of the municipal reconstruction committee."

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Reconstruction Affairs Board. He spoke in a rather conservative tone
'That area will always be a park. We must think of the matter of build-
ing a Christian church which has an American background as a grave prob-
lem. Why?---Wouldn't the church be placed in a difficult situation after
the occupation forces left the country? I think that was his kind con-
sideration after taking in the sentiment of many people."

Rev. Tsukishita: "The citizens, in general, have some resentful
feelings. However, there is no thought of revenge. On the contrary
they want to be consoled by the Christians in America. We are endeavor-
ing to remove resentment from the public."

Mrs. Nagase: (Rev. Nagase had died of the atomic disease) "I
don't think the Christians of Hiroshima have resentment towards America.
One of the seekers of Christianity in my church lost his daughter in the
atomic bombing. She was a high school student and had been clearing an
area where houses were being torn away by a labor corps. In the beginn-
ing the mother of this girl hated the governor who had forced her daughter
to do such reckless work. When she got on the street cars she wouldn't
buy any tickets, and, when asked to, she would retort, "Who has caused
conditions like these? However she never said a word against America."

In my room, that evening after obtaining such answers to my
question, I thought over this matter quietly. These were my conclusions:
If this question had been asked at the time when Mr. Jonh Hersey was
writing his book, "Hiroshima" a good many of the same answers may not have
been made, for our sentiments are changing, as time passes by.

1. The point which is to be considered first of all was the fact
that we were so busy engaged in our own matters that there was no time
to self-examine and find answers to such questions. We were fully occu-
pied in attending to ourselves, to treat one's own wounds, to find some
place to take refuge, the clothing and food problems. Above all this,

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the livelihood problems were under extreme suppression and there was no room for harbouring any resentful feelings. Even though, one felt better for a while, he would be kept running about daily in order to straighten our papers necessary to rehabilitate the family properties (ruins insurance and savings), after going through a complexed procedure. It would then be followed by reconstruction work starting everything all over from the very beginning. And the population would increase the more by 'demobs' and 'repats' vexed with complicated family affairs and the food in inverse proportion would become short. We would be pursued in this manner and merelu be dragged about by only immediate problems and this become the slaves for bread.

The length of this period differs to individuals. For about half a year it went on like this and it later improved gradually. Today we are free from such troubles to some extent but there are still many suffering under such conditions. Therefore, the sentiment of the sufferers in Hiroshima are so much in variety and complicated.

But, during this period however, there was the feeling of 'shikata-ga-nai-' a 'it could not be helped' sentiment of inevitability which reined among the public in general. This was the practical philosophy of life in the Japanese minds which had been fostered by the Buddhist thoughts through many years. One need not have to go through making deep inquiries into the causes for this misfortune. The rather intelligent people, however, have been already convinced to endure any kind of sacrifices so far as war was concerned and had no resentful feelings against their enemies whether or not they had to suffer from the atomic bomb, although they would resent their war leaders. In other words, they had thought the inevitable had come and the ethical problem regarding the usage of the atomic bomb was entirely out of their question.

2. After being able to settle down to some extent, however, under the living conditions as refugees it criticism from the ethical point of

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view was brought about. The inhumanity nature of the atomic bomb has been recognized by everyone, but to this there are some who are in resentment and some others who are not resenting against the Americans. Its contents are complicated, but those who have resentment against the Americans are few in number and are only resenting the inhuman nature of the atomic bomb. In fact, I had very seldom met such people. The majority of people do recognize the inhuman nature of using the atomic bomb but they are checking on their resentful feelings by giving retrospective view based upon reason. The main basic views may be summarized as follows:

a.) It was wrong in the very beginning to start a reckless war which had no victorious views. Since the termination of war, the cause for its defeat has become clarified and this feeling has become very strong. Nothing could be done for the difference in actual powers. It is not proper to resent against America.

b.) We are not qualified to attack the inhuman conducts of Americans for the Japanese forces themselves have committed such acts in the Chinese continent and in the south.

c.) This is Mayor Hamai's views: "That America had used the atomic bomb and Japan had not, only differs because they had it with them and we had not. Should we have been in possession of it, we would have been using it to be sure. Even if America had to use it, it could not be helped so far as it had been a war."

d.) Furtherly, the tolerant occupation policies of humanity and justice are striking out such resentments.

3. The fact that the Japanese do not harbour feelings of resentment although they can recognize the inhuman nature of the atomic bomb is because that the Japanese have a small conception of resentment. Mr. K. Hata who is a noted writer and one of my church members says, "The Japanese have the 'Katakiuchi' but it differs from the sense of revenge in the western world. The western idea is an ethical demand but the

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Japanese sense of revenge is that of being changed into a social system. In other words, in 'Katakuichi' when the parents or elder brothers is killed their children or the younger brother must revenge for the dead in all such occasions. Matter of fact, the revenger used to be weaker than his opponent and should they fight on equal terms, the revenger is always defeated. So the opponent is beaten until he has no power to fight by the officials of his lord before the fight takes place and the revenge is thus achieved. Therefore it is only a formal revenge. Besides there were descendants who went out to tour the country to make revenges and some had frequently returned home with cut-off heads as evidences. Already corrupted after beheading poor beggars who had nothing to do with the revenges. This is the actual state of the revenge in Japan and there is no profound ethical demands in making revenges. So, in Japan the conception of revenge is weak.

4. The very largest cause for not resenting the atomic bomb is due to the gigantic destructive powers in the atomic bomb itself. It's great power has made the people in Hiroshima who have actually suffered under its power to entertain the pathetic appeal of stamping out all wars from the surface of this earth, surmounting all feelings of obligation and revenge. The people with sound body and mind are from the bottoms of their hearts praying for world peace.

But the weak minded people could not grudge against the Americans nor their own country. They were only sad about their own destiny. Mrs. H. Hirata and Miss C. Mujake who are earnest attenders to my church had homely faces, now, fir it had been burned by the atomic bomb, but they were saying, "We do not resent the Americans. We are only sad about our misfortunes."

Briefly speaking, the sentiments of Hiroshima people have changed much and there is possibility that it may turn to the right and left

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wings. I believe there is necessity of a powerful guidance to lead their sorrows to peaceful aims.

General Eikelberger and Six Characters.

Date is uncertain.

Major General Eikelberger came on a special train to Hiroshima accompanied by 10 reporters representing respective presses. As I received an information from the Military Gov't. that an interview would be held at the Red Cross Hospital for the six characters that appears in John Hersey's 'Hiroshima' and asked for their attendance, Miss Sasaki, Father Kleinsorge, Dr. Sasaki, Dr. Fujii and myself gathered at the hospital. Having a little time before the interview while waiting for the General we had a chat together. Miss Sasaki was the most physically hurt among the five and one of her legs was stiff and could not be bent. She whispered to my ears, "I hate to see myself looked over as a display. What do you think about it?" she asked. I tried to encourage saying, "But these people are in sympathy with the sufferers in Hiroshima and are trying to know the exact conditions of that time so I think we should do whatever possible to cooperate with them." But she had kept quiet without saying a word during the meeting.

Eventually the party showed up with the General and various questions were asked by the reporters. Catholic fathers besides Father Kleinsorge were answering to all questions in dexterity.

Then General Eikelberger asked, "I stood in front of the Hiroshima station but I didn't see any special persons with one arm, one leg or one eye as much as I had expected. I wonder why?" To this, I think I remember no one had given a sufficient answer. It must have been due to the fact that we were actually in the action that we were not able to take notice of this matter. To our regret, we could not find words to answer and were thinking of what to say, but they had left the hospital before anything could be said. Later, I began to recognize the

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following points.

Namely, the majority of the wounded had died. During the few months following the bomb most of the injured had died and even later, the deaths caused by atomic disease was endless so it is not extravagant to say that all such persons had died dooner or later. Even if they a appeared not to be injured, they had injuries nevertheless. It seemed only by the outward appearance that nothing was wrong. For instance, if you should have the chance of looking into a woman's face not made up, you may notice the tiny scars on most of their faces. Should you stop a passer-by and let him undress before you, he can show you all the scars of his body. There are still many persons who are commuting to the hospital in order to get the bits of glasses derived from the skins through operations. Furtherly, another fact can be stated as that the sufferers of the atom bomb have returned to their countires and only a few may still be living in Hiroshima.

Correspondence with Mr. Hersey

Date is uncertain.

Dr. Cobb had seen me working so hard in reconstructing the church gave me the following suggestions. "There is one way you may be able to get funds for reconstructing your church. That's to publish a Japanese translation of Mr. Hersey's Hiroshima. I think you are the best fit for its translation." Till the present, I had not realized that there was such a wonderful way. I found it very interesting and said, "Then, shall I try?" Dr. Cobb continued, "I write and see to that with Mr. Hersey." and offered of his good offices. It was because there was no way of correspondence allowed to the Japanese. Thus, the negotiations for the translation of 'Hiroshima' had begun.

Received a letter from Dr. Cobb stating that Mr. Hersey was asking for a letter of request written by Tanimoto himself as the rea

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results of his negotiations with Mr. Hersey. I had immediately written
to him of my wishes. By this time, the foreign correspondence was
permitted.

The first meeting

Date is uncertain.

I received a letter from Mr. Hersey which I had anxiously been
waiting for. According to the letter it said the Japanese translation
was not approved of by the SCAP and for the time being nothing could be
done about it. Should the opportunity to have the Japanese translation
be published the proceeds shall be given to the six characters who had
helped him with the article. Therefore, I asked Dr. Fujii, Dr. Sasaki,
and Mrs. Nakamura to call on me to hold our first meeting. Upon gathering
the persons I related to them the proceedings taken up to the present
and also Mr. Hersey's opinion concerning the case. We were grateful
for his kindness, and at the same time, we all promised each other that
its proceeds be used in some works to commemorate the sacrificed
lives in Hiroshima and have it contribute towards the making of eternal
peace through some means.

October 18 (Saturday)

Meeting of the Six Group. The second meeting of the 6 group was held at Dr. Fujii's home in Kaitaichi. Mrs. Nakamura, Dr. Sasaki and myself had attended the meeting. Dr. Sasaki began speaking expressing his wishes of calling this group as the "Hersey Fellowship". It was because we brought together by Mr. Hersey to know each other and because through Mr. Hersey we had received deep sympathies. So we had decided to take up this name of "Hersey Fellowship" as a symbol expressing the friendship of American to Hiroshima.

We then spoke on the recent conditions of Father Kleinsorge and
Miss Sasaki. Father Kleinsorge was terribly weak since the atomic bomb.
Miss Sasaki entered the Catholic monastery suffering from the thought of

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being herself regarded as a heroine. Dr. Sasaki also spoke of his sufferings, "Through Mr. Hersey's book I have become so well known all of a sudden and Americans visiting Hiroshima are always dropping in at the hospital. Those who visit the Red Cross Hospital always ask to see me and ask for an autograph. I am really suffering from the thought that others consider as if all the merits of the Red Cross Hospital was done by myself, when there is yet the president and vice-president in the hospital."

I explained then, "It is true that we have become so famous. But, this is not because we are great or we had done great work. Really, we had only what we should have done as an honest citizen and there was nothing meritorious about it. There were also many other persons who had done more than we had and in case it is right that we be regarded as heroic, there would be so many a hero in Hiroshima. The difference between such people with ourselves is because we were rolled out into public through the waves of journalism. So wouldn't we be more relieved if we fully realize our own position and not regard ourselves as heroes although the others may?" Dr. Fujii then said, "That's how it goes in the world. It is also 'destiny' or 'luck' that makes on famous."

I recalled the thought expressed by Thomas Grey in 'Elegy written in a Country Church-yard' saying "The-beast-of-heraldry,-the-pomp-of-power,-and-all-that-beauty,-all-that

"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Wait a' like th' inevitable hour:-
The paths of glory lead but to the grave."

FOREWORD

The United States Strategic Bombing Survey was established by the Secretary of War on 3 November 1944, pursuant to a directive from the late President Roosevelt. Its mission was to conduct an impartial and expert study of the effects of our aerial attack on Germany, to be used in connection with air attacks on Japan and to establish a basis for evaluating the importance and potentialities of air power as an instrument of military strategy, for planning the future development of the United States armed forces, and for determining future economic policies with respect to the national defense. A summary report and some 200 supporting reports containing the findings of the Survey in Germany have been published.

On 15 August 1945, President Truman requested that the Survey conduct a similar study of the effects of all types of air attack in the war against Japan, submitting reports in duplicate to the Secretary of War and to the Secretary of the Navy. The officers of the Survey during its Japanese phase were:

Franklin D'Olier, chairman

Paul H. Nitze, Henry C. Alexander, vice chairmen

Walter Wilds, secretary

Harry L. Bowman

J. K. Galbraith

Rensis Likert

Frank A. McNamee

Fred Searls, Jr.

Monroe Spaght

Dr. Louis R. Thompson

Theodore P. Wright, directors.

The Survey's complement provided for 300 civilians, 350 officers, and 500 enlisted men. The military segment of the organization was drawn from the Army to the extent of 60 per cent, and from the Navy to the extent of 40 per cent. Both the Army and Navy gave the Survey all possible assistance in furnishing men, supplies, transport, and information. The Survey operated from headquarters in Tokyo early in September, 1945, with subheadquarters in Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, and with mobile teams operating in other parts of Japan, the islands of the Pacific and the Asiatic mainland.

It was possible to reconstruct much of wartime Japanese military planning and execution engagement by engagement and campaign by campaign, and to secure reasonably accurate statistics on Japan's economy and war production, plant by plant, and industry by industry. In addition, studies were conducted on Japan's over-all strategic plans and the background of her entry into the war, the internal discussions and negotiations leading to her acceptance of unconditional surrender, the course of health and morale among the civilian population, the effectiveness of the Japanese civilian defense organization and the effects of the atomic bombs. Separate reports will be issued covering each phase of the study.

The Survey interrogated more than 700 Japanese military, Government and industrial officials. It also recovered and translated many documents which have not only been useful to the Survey, but will also furnish data valuable for other studies. Arrangements are being made to turn over the Survey's files to a permanent Government agency where they will be available for further examination and distribution.

I. INTRODUCTION

The available facts about the power of the atomic bomb as a military weapon lie in the story of what it did at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many of these facts have been published, in official and unofficial form, but mingled with distortions or errors. The U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey, therefore, in partial fulfillment of the mission for which it was established, has put together in these pages a fairly full account of just what the atomic bombs did at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Together with an explanation of how the bomb achieved these effects, this report states the extent and nature of the damage, the casualties, and the political repercussions from the two attacks. The basis is the observation, measurement, and analysis of the Survey's investigators. The conjecture that is necessary for understanding of complex phenomena and for applying the findings to the problems of defense of the U. S. is clearly labelled.

When the atomic bombs fell, the U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey was completing a study of the effects of strategic bombing on Germany's ability and will to resist. A similar study of the effects of strategic bombing on Japan was being planned. The news of the dropping of the atomic bomb gave a new urgency to this project, for a study of the air war against Japan clearly involved new weapons and new possibilities of concentration of attack that might qualify or even change the conclusions and recommendations of the Survey as to the effectiveness of air power. The directors of the Survey, therefore, decided to examine exhaustively the effects of the atomic bombs, in order that the full impact on Japan and the implications of their

results could be confidently analyzed. Teams of experts were selected to study the scenes of the bombings from the special points of emphasis of physical damage, civilian defense, morale, casualties, community life, utilities and transportation, various industries, and the general economic and political repercussions. In all, more than 110 men—engineers, architects, fire experts, economists, doctors, photographers, draftsmen—participated in the field study at each city, over a period of ten weeks from October to December, 1945. Their detailed studies, now being published, are listed in an appendix to this summary report.

In addition, close liaison was maintained with other investigating units. Co-operation was received from, and extended to, the following groups:

The Joint Commission for the Investigation of the Atomic Bomb in Japan

The British Mission to Japan

The Naval Technical Mission to Japan

Special acknowledgement is due to the medical groups of the Joint Commission, whose data and findings have been generously made available to the Survey. On medical aspects of the bombings, the Joint Commission was the chief fact-finding group; it will present its definitive report in the near future. In other fields, however—particularly the study of physical damage and the impact on community life—the Survey collected its own data and is the primary source.

64

THE UNITED STATES NEWS

## II. THE EFFECTS OF THE ATOMIC BOMBINGS

### A. THE ATTACKS AND DAMAGE

#### 1. The Attacks

A single atomic bomb, the first weapon of its type ever used against a target, exploded over the city of Hiroshima at 0815 on the morning of 6 August 1945. Most of the industrial workers had already reported to work, but many workers were en route and nearly all the school children and some industrial employees were at work in the open on the program of building-removal to provide firebreaks and disperse valuables to the country. The attack came 45 minutes after the "all clear" had been sounded from a previous alert. Because of the lack of warning and the populace's indifference to small groups of planes, the explosion came as an almost complete surprise, and the people had not taken shelter. Many were caught in the open, and most of the rest in flimsily constructed homes or commercial establishments.

The bomb exploded slightly northwest of the center of the city. Because of this accuracy and the flat terrain and circular shape of the city, Hiroshima was uniformly and extensively devastated. Practically the entire densely or moderately built-up portion of the city was leveled by blast and swept by fire. A "fire-storm," a phenomenon which has occurred infrequently in other conflagrations, developed in Hiroshima: fires, springing up almost simultaneously over the wide, flat area around the center of the city, drew in air from all directions. The inrush of air easily overcame the natural ground wind, which had a velocity of only about five miles per hour. The "fire-wind" attained a maximum velocity of 30 to 40 miles per hour two to three hours after the explosion. The "fire-wind" and the symmetry of the built-up center of the city gave a roughly circular shape to the 4.4 square miles which were almost completely burned out.

The surprise, the collapse of many buildings, and the conflagration contributed to an unprecedented casualty rate. Seventy to eighty thousand people were killed, or missing and presumed dead, and an equal number were injured. The magnitude of casualties is set in relief by a comparison with the Tokyo fire raid of 9/10 March 1945, in which, though nearly 16 square miles were destroyed, the number killed was no larger, and fewer people were injured.

At Nagasaki, three days later, the city was scarcely more prepared, though vague references to the Hiroshima disaster had appeared in the newspaper of 8 August. From the Nagasaki prefectural report on the bombing, something of the shock of the explosion can be inferred:

> "The day was clear with not very much wind—an ordinary midsummer's day. The strain of continuous air attack on the city's population and the severity of the summer had vitiated enthusiastic air-raid precautions. Previously, a general alert had been sounded at 0748, with a raid alert at 0750; this was cancelled at 0830, and the alertness of the people was dissipated by a great feeling of relief."

The city remained on the warning alert, but, when two B-29s were again sighted coming in, the raid signal was not given immediately; the bomb was dropped at 1102 and the raid signal was given a few minutes later, at 1109. Thus only about 400 people were in the city's tunnel shelters, which were adequate for about 30 per cent of the population.

> "When the atomic bomb exploded, an intense flash was observed first, as though a large amount of magnesium had been ignited, and the scene grew hazy with white smoke. At the same time at the center of the explosion, and a short while later in other areas, a tremendous roaring sound was heard and a crushing blast wave and intense heat were felt. The people of Nagasaki, even those who lived on the outer edge of the blast, all felt as though they had sustained a direct hit, and the whole city suffered damage such as would have resulted from direct hits every where by ordinary bombs."

> "The Zero area, where the damage was most severe, was almost completely wiped out and for a short while after the explosion no reports came out of that area. People who were in comparatively damaged areas reported their condition under the impression that they had received a direct hit. If such a great amount of damage could be wreaked by a near miss, then the power of the atomic bomb is unbelievably great."

In Nagasaki, no fire storm arose, and the uneven terrain of the city confined the maximum intensity of damage to the valley over which the bomb exploded. The area of nearly complete devastation was thus much smaller: only about 1.8 square miles. Casualties were lower also; between 35,000 and 40,000 were killed, and about the same number injured. People in the tunnel shelters escaped injury, unless exposed in the entrance shaft.

The difference in the totals of destruction to lives and property at the two cities suggests the importance of the special circumstances of layout and construction of the cities, which affect the results of the bombings and must be considered in evaluating the effectiveness of the atomic bombs. An account of the nature and history of each city will give meaning to the details of the damage and disorganization at each.

#### 2. Hiroshima

The city of Hiroshima is located on the broad fan-shaped delta of the Ota River, whose seven mouths divide the city into six islands which project finger-like into Hiroshima Bay of the Inland Sea. These mouths of the river furnished excellent firebreaks in a city that is otherwise flat and only slightly above sea level. A highly developed bridge system, with 81 important bridges, joined the islands. A single kidney-shaped hill in the eastern part of the city, about one-half mile long and rising to an elevation of 221 feet, offered some blast protection to structures on the eastern side opposite the point of fall of the bomb. Otherwise, the city was uniformly exposed to the spreading energy from the bomb.

The city boundary extends to some low hills to the west and northeast and embraces 26.36 square miles, only thirteen of which were built up. Seven square miles were densely or moderately built up, the remainder being occupied by sparsely built-up residential, storage, and transportation areas, vegetable farms, water courses, and wooded hilly sections. In the central area, no systematic separation of commercial, industrial, and residential zones existed, though there were rough functional sections. The main commercial district was located in the center of the city, and with the adjoining Chugoku Regional Army Headquarters occupied the greater portion of the central island. Residential areas and military barracks overlapped and surrounded this central area. The bulk of the industries were located on the perimeter of the city, either on the southern ends of the islands (where the Hiroshima airport was also situated) or to the east of the city. The four square miles of densely built-up area in the heart of the city—residential, commercial, and military—contained 75 per cent of the total population. If there were, as seems probable, about 245,000 people in the city at the time of the attack, the density in the congested area must have been about 46,000 per square mile. Five completed evacuation programs and a sixth then in progress had reduced the population from its wartime peak of 380,000.

In Hiroshima (and in Nagasaki also) the dwellings were of wood construction; about one half were one story and the remainder either one and one-half or two stories. The roof coverings were mostly, hard-burnt black tile. There were no masonry division walls, and large groups of dwellings clustered together. The type of construction, coupled with antiquated fire-fighting equipment and inadequately trained personnel, afforded even in peacetime a high possibility of conflagration.

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Many wood-framed industrial buildings were of poor construction by American standards. The principal points of weakness were the extremely small tenons, the inadequate tension joints, and the inadequate or poorly designed lateral bracings. Reinforced-concrete-framed buildings showed a striking lack of uniformity in design and in quality of materials. Some of the construction details (reinforcing rod splices, for example) were often poor, and much of the concrete was definitely weak; thus some reinforced concrete buildings collapsed and suffered structural damage when within 2,000 feet of ground zero, and some internal wall paneling was demolished even up to 3,800 feet. (For convenience, the term "ground zero" will be used to designate the point on the ground directly beneath the point of detonation, or "air zero".) Other buildings, however, were constructed far more strongly than is required by normal building codes in America, to resist earthquakes. Furthermore, construction regulations in Japan have specified since the 1923 earthquake that the roof must safely carry a minimum load of 70 pounds per square foot whereas American requirements do not normally exceed 40 pounds per square foot for similar types. Though the regulation was not always followed, this extra-strong construction was encountered in some of the buildings near ground zero at Hiroshima, and undoubtedly accounts for their ability to withstand atomic-bomb pressures without structural failures. Nearly 7 per cent of the residential units had been torn down to make firebreaks.

Hiroshima before the war was the seventh largest city in Japan, with a population of over 340,000, and was the principal administrative and commercial center of the southwestern part of the country. As the headquarters of the Second Army and of the Chugoku Regional Army, it was one of the most important military command stations in Japan, the site of one of the largest military supply depots, and the foremost military shipping point for both troops and supplies. Its shipping activities had virtually ceased by the time of the attack, however, because of sinkings and the mining of the Inland Sea. It had been relatively unimportant industrially before the war, ranking only twelfth, but, during the war, new plants were built that increased its significance. These factories were not concentrated, but spread over the outskirts of the city; this location, we shall see, accounts for the slight industrial damage.

The impact of the atomic bomb shattered the normal fabric of community life and disrupted the organizations for handling the disaster. In the 30 per cent of the population killed and the additional 30 per cent seriously injured were included corresponding proportions of the civic authorities and rescue groups. A mass flight from the city took place, as persons sought safety from the conflagration and a place for shelter and food. Within 24 hours, however, people were streaming back by the thousands in search of relatives and friends to determine the extent of their property loss. Road blocks had to be set up along all routes leading into the city, to keep curious and unauthorized people out. The bulk of the dehoused population found refuge in the surrounding countryside; within the city the food supply was short and shelter virtually nonexistent.

On August 7, the commander of the Second Army assumed general command of the countermeasures, and all military units and facilities in the area were mobilized for relief purposes. Army buildings on the periphery of the city provided shelter and emergency hospital space, and dispersed Army supplies supplemented the slight amounts of food and clothing that had escaped destruction. The need far exceeded what could be made available. Surviving civilians assisted; although casualties in both groups had been heavy, 190 policemen and over 2,000 members of the Civilian Defense Corps reported for duty on 7 August.

The status of medical facilities and personnel dramatically illustrates the difficulties facing authorities. Of more than 200 doctors in Hiroshima before the attack, over 90 per cent were casualties and only about 30 physicians were able to perform their normal duties a month after the raid. Out of 1,780 nurses,

1,654 were killed or injured. Though some stocks of supplies had been dispersed, many were destroyed. Only three out of 45 civilian hospitals could be used, and two large Army hospitals were rendered unusable. Those within 3,000 feet of ground zero were totally destroyed, and the mortality rate of the occupants was practically 100 per cent. Two large hospitals of reinforced-concrete construction were located 4,900 feet from ground zero. The basic structures remained erect, but there was such severe interior damage that neither was able to resume operation as a hospital for some time and the casualty rate was approximately 90 per cent, due primarily to falling plaster, flying glass, and fire. Hospitals and clinics beyond 7,000 feet, though often remaining standing, were badly damaged and contained many casualties from flying glass or other missiles.

With such elimination of facilities and personnel, the lack of care and rescue activities at the time of the disaster is understandable; still, the eyewitness account of Father Siemes* shows how this lack of first aid contributed to the seriousness of casualties. At the improvised first-aid stations, he reports:

> "... Iodine is applied to the wounds, but they are left uncleansed. Neither ointment nor other therapeutic agents are available. Those that have been brought in are laid on the floor and no one can give them any further care. What could one do when all means are lacking? Among the passersby, there are many who are uninjured. In a purposeless, insensate manner, distraught by the magnitude of the disaster, most of them rush by, and none conceives the thought of organizing help on his own initiative. They are concerned only with the welfare of their own families—in the official aid stations and hospitals, a good third or half of those that had been brought in died. They lay about there almost without care, and a very high percentage succumbed. Everything was lacking, doctors, assistants, dressings, drugs, etc."

Effective medical help had to be sent in from the outside, and arrived only after a considerable delay.

Fire-fighting and rescue units were equally stripped of men and equipment. Father Siemes reports that 30 hours elapsed before any organized rescue parties were observed. In Hiroshima, only 16 pieces of fire-fighting equipment were available for fighting the conflagration, three of them borrowed. However, it is unlikely that any public fire department in the world, even without damage to equipment or casualties to personnel, could have prevented development of a conflagration in Hiroshima, or combatted it with success at more than a few locations along its perimeter. The total fire damage would not have been much different.

All utilities and transportation services were disrupted over varying lengths of time. In most cases, however, the demand fell off even more precipitously than the available supply, and where the service was needed it could be restored at a minimal level. Thus, through railroad service was possible on 8 August, only two days after the attack, when fire trucks still had to be used to pump water into the locomotives because of insufficient water pressure. Electric power from the general network was available in most of the surviving parts of the city on 7 August, and only one plant, the Engineering Division of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, was hampered in its recovery by the inability to obtain sufficient power for several weeks.

The water reservoir, which was of reinforced concrete and earth-covered, was undamaged; it was nearly two miles from the blast center. However, 70,000 breaks of pipe connections in buildings and dwellings were caused by blast and fire effects. No subsurface pipes were crushed and no leaks resulted from blast as a direct cause, though several leaks in underground mains resulted from falling debris. Pressure in the city center dropped to zero because of the connection breaks and the damage to a 16-inch and a 14-inch water main where they crossed damaged

* German-born Jesuit professor at Jochi University, Tokyo; in the Hiroshima area when the bomb fell.

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bridges. Six sewer pumping stations were rendered inoperable by fire and blast within a radius of one mile. The remaining eight stations were only slightly damaged, but no effort was made to repair or operate them. Water tables rose at flood periods and lands behind revetments were inundated.

Trolley cars, trucks, and railroad rolling stock suffered extensive damage. Transportation buildings (offices, stations, living quarters, and a few warehouses) were damaged by fire in the passenger-station area, but damage was slight to the roundhouses, transit sheds, warehouses, and repair units in the classification and repair area. About 200 railroad employes were killed, but by 20 August, 14 days after the attack, 80 per cent of the employes were at work.

The electric power transmission and distribution system was wrecked; only power equipment of rugged construction, such as transformers, resisted the blast and heat within the devastated areas. Instruments were damaged beyond repair, and switches, switchyard insulators, cables, and copper bus work were rendered unusable. The telephone system was approximately 80 per cent damaged, and no service was restored until 15 August 1945.

Industry in the center of the city was effectively wiped out. Though small workshops numbered several thousand, they represented only one fourth of the total industrial production of Hiroshima, since many of them had only one or two workers. The bulk of the city's output came from large plants located on the outskirts of the city: One half of the industrial production came from only five firms. Of these larger companies, only one suffered more than superficial damage. Of their working force, 94 per cent were uninjured. Since electric power was available, and materials and working force were not destroyed, plants ordinarily responsible for nearly three fourths of Hiroshima's industrial production could have resumed normal operation within 30 days of the attack, had the war continued.

Immediately after the attack, the presence of these nearly intact industries spurred countermeasures in an effort to retain for the nation's war effort the potential output of the city. The prefectural governor issued a proclamation on 7 August, calling for "a rehabilitation of the stricken city and an aroused fighting spirit to exterminate the devilish Americans." To prevent the spread of rumors and brace morale, 210,000 out-of-town newspapers were brought in daily to replace the destroyed local paper. With the surrender, however, reconstruction took on a slower tempo. On 16 August, regular rationing was resumed. Care of the injured and disposal of corpses remained urgent, but other steps were few.

By 1 November the population of Hiroshima was back to 137,000. The city required complete rebuilding. The entire heart, the main administrative and commercial as well as residential section, was gone. In this area only about 50 buildings, all of reinforced concrete, remained standing. All of these suffered blast damage and all save about a dozen were almost completely gutted by fire; only five could be used without major repairs. These burnt-out structural frames rose impressively from the ashes of the burned-over section where occasional piles of rubble or twisted steel skeletons marked the location of brick or steel-frame structures. At greater distances light steel frame and brick structures remained undamaged. Blast damage to wood-frame buildings and to residences extended well beyond the burned-over area, gradually becoming more erratic and spotty as distances were reached where only the weakest buildings were damaged, until in the outer portions of the city only minor disturbances of the tile roofs or breakage of glass were visible. The official Japanese figures summed up the building destruction at 62,000 out of a total of 90,000 buildings in the urban area, or 69 per cent. An additional 6,000 or 6.6 per cent were severely damaged, and most of the others showed glass breakage or disturbance of roof tile. These figures show the magnitude of the problem facing the survivors.

Despite the absence of sanitation measures, no epidemics are reported to have broken out. In view of the lack of medical facilities, supplies and personnel, and the disruption of the

sanitary system, the escape from epidemics may seem surprising. The experience of other bombed cities in Germany and Japan shows that this is not an isolated case. A possible explanation may lie in the disinfecting action of the extensive fires. In later weeks, disease rates rose, but not sharply.

### 3. Nagasaki

Nagasaki is located on the best natural harbor of western Kyushu, a spacious inlet in the mountainous coast. The city is a highly congested urban pattern extending for several miles along the narrow shores and up the valleys opening out from the harbor. Two rivers, divided by a mountain spur, form the two main valleys in whose basins the city lies: The Urakami River, in whose basin the atomic bomb fell, running into the harbor from a north-northwest direction, and the Nakashima River, running from the northeast. This mountain spur and the irregular layout of the city effectively reduced the area of destruction.

The main residential and commercial districts are intermingled in these two river basins. The large industrial plants stretch up the west shore of the bay and up the Urakami Valley. Though the metropolitan area of the city is officially about 35 square miles and stretches far into the countryside, the heavily built-up area is confined by the terrain to less than four square miles. The greatest population density thus approximated 65,000 per square mile even after the evacuations.

Despite its excellent harbor, Nagasaki's commercial importance, though great in previous centuries, had declined in recent years because of the city's isolated peninsular position and the difficulties of transportation through the mountains by inadequate roads and railroad facilities. As a naval base it had been supplanted by Sasebo. Industry gradually increased in importance, primarily under Mitsubishi influence. The four largest companies in the city were the Mitsubishi Shipyards, Electrical Equipment Works, Arms Plant, and Steel Works, employing nearly 90 per cent of the city's labor force. Administratively, Nagasaki was by 1941 of merely local importance, despite being the seat of the prefectural government.

Before the atomic bombing on 9 August, Nagasaki had experienced five small-scale air attacks in the previous twelve months, by an aggregate of 136 planes which dropped a total of 270 tons of high-explosive, 53 tons of incendiary, and 20 tons of fragmentation bombs.

Of these, a raid of 1 August 1945 was most effective, with several bombs falling in the Mitsubishi Shipyards and Steel Works. The scale of effect can be roughly measured, however, by comparing the toll of building damage with that from the atomic bomb; in all these raids 276 residential buildings and 21 industrial buildings were destroyed or badly damaged. When the atomic bomb fell, Nagasaki was comparatively intact.

Because the most intense destruction was confined to the Urakami Valley, the impact of the bomb on the city as a whole was less shattering than at Hiroshima. In addition, no fire storm occurred; indeed, a shift in wind direction helped control the fires. Medical personnel and facilities were hard hit, however. Over 80 per cent of the city's hospital beds and the Medical College were located within 3,000 feet of the center of the explosion, and were completely destroyed. Reinforced-concrete buildings within this range, though standing, were completely gutted by fire; buildings of wooden construction were destroyed by fire and blast. The mortality rate in this group of buildings was between 75 and 80 per cent. Exact casualty figures for medical personnel are unknown, but the city seems to have fared better than Hiroshima: 120 doctors were at work on 1 November, about one half of the pre-raid roster. Casualties were undoubtedly high: 600 out of 850 medical students at the Nagasaki Medical College were killed and most of the others injured; and of the 20 faculty members 12 were killed and four others injured.

Utilities and services were again disrupted. Both gas plants were destroyed, and the replacement time was estimated at

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several months. Though the basic water supply was not affected, thousands of residential feedêr-line breaks were supplemented by eight breaks on a 14-inch main line and four breaks where another main line crossed a bridge. Electric power distribution and transmission systems were effectively destroyed in the area of heaviest destruction, but power could be supplied to the other parts of the city almost immediately.

Shipping was virtually unaffected. Trolley service was halted both by the interruption in power supply and by damage to street cars. Nagasaki is at the end of a railroad spur line. The major damage was sustained by track and railroad bridges. The rails buckled intermittently for a distance of 5,000 to 7,500 feet from ground zero, at points where burning debris set fire to wooden cross ties. Three bridges were displaced; rails were distorted and the tracks had to be completely rebuilt. The railroad stations were completely destroyed by blast and fire and the electric signal system was severely damaged. Rolling stock was slightly damaged, primarily by fire. Although the damage to equipment was not extensive, it was severe enough to curtail traffic for 48 hours, during which time sufficient emergency repair work was performed to permit resumption of limited traffic.

Control of relief measures was in the hands of the prefecture. The sequence of clearance and repair activities illustrates the activities that were carried on.

The city's repair facilities were completely disorganized by the atomic bomb, so that, with the single exception of shutting off water to the affected areas, no repairs were made to roads, bridges, water mains, or transportation installations by city forces. The prefecture took full responsibility for such restoration as was accomplished, delegating to the scattered city help the task of assisting in relief of victims. There were only three survivors of 115 employes of the street-car company, and as late as the middle of November, 1945, no cars were running. A week after the explosion, the waterworks officials made an effort to supply water to persons attempting to live in the bombed-out areas, but the leakage was so great that the effort was abandoned. It fell to the prefecture, therefore, to institute recovery measures even in those streets normally the responsibility of the city. Of the entire public-works construction group covering the Nagasaki city area, only three members appeared for work and a week was required to locate and notify other survivors. On the morning of 10 August, police rescue units and workers from the Kawami-nami shipbuilding works began the imperative task of clearing the Omura-Nagasaki pike, which was impassable for 8,000 feet. A path 6½ feet wide was cleared despite the intense heat from smouldering fires, and by August 15 had been widened to permit two-way traffic. No trucks, only rakes and shovels, were available for clearing the streets, which were filled with tile, bricks, stone, corrugated iron, machinery, plaster, and stucco. Street areas affected by blast and not by fire were littered with wood. Throughout the devastated area, all wounded had to be carried by stretcher, since no motor vehicles were able to proceed through the cluttered streets for several days. The plan for debris removal required clearance of a few streets leading to the main highway; but there were frequent delays caused by the heat of smouldering fires and by calls for relief work. The debris was simply raked and shoveled off the streets. By 20 August the job was considered complete. The streets were not materially damaged by the bomb nor were the surface or the abutments of the concrete bridges, but many of the wooden bridges were totally or partially destroyed by fire.

Under the circumstances—fire, flight of entire families, destruction of official records, mass cremation—identification of dead and the accurate count of casualties was impossible. As at Hiroshima, the season of the year made rapid disposal of bodies imperative, and mass cremation and mass burial were resorted to in the days immediately after the attack. Despite the absence of sanitary measures, no epidemics broke out here. The dysentery rate rose from 25/100,000 to 125/100,000. A census taken on

1 November 1945 found a population of 142,700 in the city.

At Nagasaki, the scale of destruction was greater than at Hiroshima, though the actual area destroyed was smaller because of the terrain and the point of fall of the bomb. The Nagasaki Prefectural Report describes vividly the impress of the bomb on the city and its inhabitants:

> "Within a radius of one kilometer from ground zero, men and animals died almost instantaneously from the tremendous blast pressure and heat; houses and other structures were smashed, crushed and scattered; and fires broke out. The strong complex steel members of the structures of the Mitsubishi Steel Works were bent and twisted like jelly and the roofs of the reinforced concrete National Schools were crumpled and collapsed, indicating a force beyond imagination. Trees of all sizes lost their branches or were uprooted or broken off at the trunk.

> "Outside a radius of one kilometer and within a radius of two kilometers from ground zero, some men and animals died instantly from the great blast and heat, but the great majority were seriously or superficially injured. Houses and other structures were completely destroyed while fires broke out everywhere. Trees were uprooted and withered by the heat.

> "Outside a radius of two kilometers and within a radius of four kilometers from ground zero men and animals suffered various degrees of injury from window glass and other fragments scattered about by the blast and many were burned by the intense heat. Dwelling and other structures were half damaged by blast.

> "Outside a radius of four kilometers and within a radius of eight kilometers from ground zero living creatures were injured by materials blown about by the blast; the majority were only superficially wounded. Houses were half or only partially damaged."

While the conflagration with its uniformly burnt-out area caught the attention of Hiroshima, the blast effects, with their resemblance to the aftermath of a hurricane, were most striking at Nagasaki. Concrete buildings had their sides facing the blast stove in like boxes. Long lines of steel-framed factory sheds, over a mile from ground zero, leaned their skeletons away from the explosion. Blast-resistant objects like telephone poles leaned away from the center of the explosion; on the surrounding hills trees were blown down within considerable areas. Although there was no general conflagration, fires contributed to the total damage in nearly all concrete structures. Evidence of primary fire is more frequent than at Hiroshima.

Because parts of the city were protected by hills, more than one half of the residential units escaped serious damage. Of the 52,000 residential units in the city on 1 August, 14,146 or 27.2 per cent were completely destroyed (by Japanese count) (11,494 of these were burned); 5,441 or 10.5 per cent were half burned or destroyed; many of the remaining units suffered superficial or minor damage. In 558 nonresidential buildings in the built-up area of Nagasaki which the Survey studied, almost 60 per cent of the usable floor area was destroyed or structurally damaged. Only 12 per cent was undamaged, the rest suffering superficial or minor damage.

The survival of a higher percentage of the buildings, then, distinguishes Nagasaki from Hiroshima; so also, on the other hand, does the damage to factories. In Nagasaki, only the Mitsubishi Dockyards among the major industries was remote enough from the explosion to escape serious damage. The other three Mitsubishi firms, which were responsible together with the dockyards for over 90 per cent of the industrial output of the city, were seriously damaged. The Arms Plant and the Steel Works were in the main area of damage. Plant officials estimated that 58 per cent of the value of the former and 78 per cent of the value of the latter were destroyed: Survey investigators considered the two plants to be 50 per cent destroyed. The Mitsubishi Electric Works were on the edge of the main area of destruction, but suffered 10 per cent structural damage.

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One of two paragraphs from the report of the commanding officer of Sasebo Naval District will illustrate the sort of damage done to industrial installations. Of two plants of the Mitsubishi Arms Works, he reports:

"With the exception of the tunnel workshops and the half-underground workshops, the Ohashi and Mori Machi plants were completely destroyed by collapse. Reinforced-concrete structures in these plants were severely damaged internally—ceilings collapsed, fittings of all sorts were destroyed, and equipment was damaged. Casting and forging shops in the Ohashi plant were destroyed by fire, which broke out in those structures. The Mori Machi plant was nearly completely destroyed by fire. Taking both plants together, 60 per cent of the machinery installations was damaged. In the Ohashi plant, from 80 to 90 per cent of the machinery can be used again; in the Mori Machi plant only 40 to 50 per cent of the machinery can be used in the future."

Or of the Mitsubishi Steel Works:

"Plant structures here (some north-light steel-framed structures) suffered extensive damage to roofs and walls as steel plates were blown off. The frames themselves were bent, twisted, or toppled over, and several buildings caught fire. Hardly any of the machinery in the plant can be used again in its present condition. However, nearly 70 per cent of the machinery can be repaired."

In general, (as has proved true with high-explosive or incendiary bombs also), the damage to machinery and other contents of a factory was less than damage to the buildings. In addition, the air burst of the atomic bomb meant that it acted indirectly on machine tools and other building contents. Though a few tools were blown over by blast, almost all the serious damage was caused by debris from damaged buildings, overturning through mass movement of buildings, or burning of buildings.

Thus the extent and sort of damage to machinery depended on the construction of the buildings housing them. In wood-frame buildings, 95 per cent of the machines were seriously damaged, but in reinforced-concrete or steel-framed buildings only one third or one fourth of the machines were affected seriously. As would be expected, fire caused much damage to machines in timber-framed shops (practically all of which were destroyed up to 7,000 feet from ground zero) and some damage in other types of structure. Debris was a major cause of damage only in certain reinforced concrete buildings, where walls and roofs collapsed.

Shortage of raw materials had reduced operations at these four Mitsubishi plants to a fraction of their capacity. Had the raw material situation been normal and had the war continued, it is estimated that restoration of production would have been possible though slow. The doekyard, which was affected mainly by the 1 August attack rather than by the atomic bomb, would have been able to produce at 80 per cent of full capacity within three or four months. The steel works would have required a year to get into substantial production, the electric works could have resumed production at a reduced rate within two months and been back at capacity within six months, and the arms plants would have required 15 months to reach two thirds of their former capacity.

## B. GENERAL EFFECTS

### 1. Casualties

The most striking result of the atomic bombs was the great number of casualties. The exact number of dead and injured will never be known because of the confusion after the explosions. Persons unaccounted for might have been burned beyond recognition in the falling buildings, disposed of in one of the mass cremations of the first week of recovery, or driven out of the city to die or recover without any record remaining. No sure count of even the pre-raid populations existed. Because of the decline in activity in the two port cities, the constant threat of incendiary raids, and the formal evacuation programs of the Government, an unknown number of the inhabitants had either drifted away from the cities or been removed according to plan. In this uncertain situation, estimates of casualties have generally ranged between 100,000 and 180,000 for Hiroshima, and between 50,000 and 100,000 for Nagasaki. The Survey believes the dead at Hiroshima to have been between 70,000 and 80,000, with an equal number injured; at Nagasaki over 35,000 dead and somewhat more than that injured seem the most plausible estimate.

Most of the immediate casualties did not differ from those caused by incendiary or high-explosive raids. The outstanding difference was the presence of radiation effects, which became unmistakable about a week after the bombing. At the time of impact, however, the causes of death and injury were flash burns, secondary effects of blast and falling debris, and burns from blazing buildings. No records are available that give the relative importance of the various types of injury, especially for those who died immediately after the explosion. Indeed, many of these people undoubtedly died several times over, theoretically, since each was subjected to several injuries any one of which would have been fatal. The Hiroshima prefectural health department placed the proportion of deaths from burns (flash or flame) at 60 per cent, from falling debris at 30 per cent and from other injuries at 10 per cent; it is generally agreed that burns caused at least 50 per cent of the initial casualties. Of those who died later, an increasing proportion succumbed to radiation effects.

The seriousness of these radiation effects may be measured by the fact that 95 per cent of the traced survivors of the immediate explosion who were within 3,000 feet suffered from radiation disease. Col. Stafford Warren, in his testimony before the Senate Committee on Atomic Energy, estimated that radiation was responsible for 7 to 8 per cent of the total deaths in the two cities. Most medical investigators who spent some time in the area feel that this estimate is far too low; it is generally felt that no less than 15 to 20 per cent of the deaths were from radiation. In addition, there were an equal number who were casualties but survived, as well as uncounted thousands who probably were affected by the gamma rays but not enough to produce definite illness.

A plausible estimate of the importance of the various causes of death would range as follows:

Flash burns 20 to 30 per cent

Other injuries 50 to 60 per cent

Radiation sickness 15 to 20 per cent

If we examine the nature of the casualties under each group of causes we find familiar and unfamiliar effects.

#### Flash burns

The flash of the explosion, which was extremely brief, emitted radiant heat traveling at the speed of light. Flash burns thus followed the explosion instantaneously. The fact that relatively few victims suffered burns of the eyeballs should not be interpreted as an indication that the radiant heat followed the flash, or that time was required to build up to maximum heat intensity. The explanation is simply that the structure of the eye is more resistant to heat than is average human skin, and near ground zero the recessed position of the eyeball offered protection from the overhead explosion. Peak temperatures lasted only momentarily.

Survivors in the two cities stated that people who were in the open directly under the explosion of the bomb were so severely burned that the skin was charred dark brown or black and that they died within a few minutes or hours.

Among the survivors, the burned areas of the skin showed evidence of burns almost immediately after the explosion. At first there was marked redness, and other evidence of thermal burns appeared within the next few minutes or hours, depending on the degree of the burn. Uninfected burns healed promptly without any unusual clinical features, according to the Japanese.

JULY 5, 1946

69

nese physicians who attended the cases. American medical ob-
servers noted only a tendency to formation of excess scar tissue,
which could be satisfactorily explained as the result of malnu-
trition and the large degree of secondary infection that com-
plicated healing of the burns. There were also a few instances
of burns healing with contractures and limitation of the mo-
bility of certain joints, such as the elbows or knees. In many
instances, these primary burns of minor nature were com-
pletely healed before patients developed evidence of radiation
effects.

Because of the brief duration of the flash wave and the
shielding effects of almost any objects—leaves and clothing as
well as buildings—there were many interesting cases of protec-
tion. The radiant heat came in a direct line like light, so that
the area burned corresponded to this directed exposure. Per-
sons whose sides were toward the explosion often showed
definite burns of both sides of the back while the hollow of the
back escaped. People in buildings or houses were apparently
burned only if directly exposed through the windows. The
most striking instance was that of a man writing before a
window. His hands were seriously burned but his exposed face
and neck suffered only slight burns due to the angle of entry
of the radiant heat through the window.

Flash burns were largely confined to exposed areas of the
body, but on occasion would occur through varying thicknesses
of clothing. Generally speaking, the thicker the clothing the
more likely it was to give complete protection against flash
burns. One woman was burned over the shoulder except for a
T-shaped area about one-fourth inch in breadth; the T-shaped
area corresponded to an increased thickness of the clothing
from the seam of the garment. Other people were burned
through a single thickness of kimono, but were unscathed or
only lightly affected underneath the lapel. In other instances,
skin was burned beneath tightly fitting clothing but was un-
burned beneath loosely fitting portions. Finally, white or light
colors reflected heat and afforded some protection; people wear-
ing black or dark-colored clothing were more likely to be
burned.

Other injuries

Because of the combination of factors at the area near the
center of the explosion, the casualty effects of blast are hard
to single out. If it is remembered that even directly under the
explosion people were several hundred feet away from the air-
burst, it will be easier to understand why true blast effects
were relatively rare. Only toward the periphery of the affected
zone was the blast effect lateral and likely to throw people vio-
lently against buildings, and at the periphery the intensity of
the blast had fallen off sharply. Comparatively few instances
were reported of arms or legs being torn from the body by
flying debris. Another indication of the rarity of overpressure
is the scarcity of ruptured eardrums. Among 106 victims examined
by the Japanese in Hiroshima on 11 and 12 August, only three
showed ruptured eardrums; a study done in October at the
Omura hospital near Nagasaki revealed that only two of 92
cases had ruptured eardrums. Only at Nagasaki were there re-
ports of overpressure in the shock wave. Some of the dead were
said by survivors to have had their abdomens ruptured and
intestines protruding; others were reported to have protruding
eyes and tongues, and to have looked as if they had drowned.
Thorough check by Allied investigators discredited these stories
as evidence of direct blast effects; the normal effects of blast
are internal hemorrhage and crushing. These external signs point
to injuries from debris rather than blast.

Injuries produced by falling and flying debris were much more
numerous, and naturally increased in number and seriousness
nearer the center of the affected area. The collapse of the build-
ings was sudden, so that thousands of people were pinned be-
neath the debris. Many were able to extricate themselves or
received aid in escaping, but large numbers succumbed either to
their injuries or to fire before they could be extricated. The

flimsiness of Japanese residential construction should not be
allowed to obscure the dangers of collapse; though the walls and
partitions were light, the houses had heavy roof timbers and
heavy roof tiles. Flying glass from panels also caused a large
number of casualties, even up to 15,000 feet from the ground
zero.

The number of burns from secondary fires was slight among
survivors, but it was probable that a large number of the deaths
in both cities came from the burning of people caught in build-
ings. Eyewitness accounts agree that many fatalities occurred in
this way, either immediately or as a result of the lack of care
for those who did extricate themselves with serious burns. There
are no references, however, to people in the streets succumbing
either to heat or to carbon monoxide as they did in Tokyo or in
Hamburg, Germany. A few burns resulted from clothing set afire
by the flash wave, but in most cases people were able to beat
out such fires without serious injury to the skin.

Radiation disease

The radiation effects upon survivors resulted from the gamma
rays liberated by the fission process rather than from induced
radioactivity or the lingering radioactivity of deposits of pri-
mary fission products. Both at Nagasaki and at Hiroshima,
pockets of radioactivity have been detected where fission prod-
ucts were directly deposited, but the degree of activity in these
areas was insufficient to produce casualties. Similarly, induced
radioactivity from the interaction of neutrons with matter
caused no authenticated fatalities. But the effects of gamma rays
—here used in a general sense to include all penetrating high-
frequency radiations and neutrons that caused injury—are well
established, even though the Allies had no observers in the
affected areas for several weeks after the explosions.

Our understanding of radiation casualties is not complete. In
part the deficiency is in our basic knowledge of how radiation af-
fects animal tissue. In the words of Dr. Robert Stone of the
Manhattan Project, "The fundamental mechanism of the action
of radiation on living tissues has not been understood. All meth-
ods of treatment have therefore been symptomatic rather than
specific. For this reason, studies into the fundamental nature of
the action of radiation have been carried on to some extent, the
limitation being that it was unlikely that significant results
could be obtained during the period of war."

According to the Japanese, those individuals very near the
center of the explosion, but not affected by flash burns or
secondary injuries, became ill within two or three days. Bloody
diarrhea followed, and the victims expired, some within two or
three days after the onset and the majority within a week.
Autopsies showed remarkable changes in the blood picture—al-
most complete absence of white blood cells, and deterioration of
bone marrow. Mucous membranes of the throat, lungs, stomach,
and intestines showed acute inflammation.

The majority of the radiation cases, who were at greater dis-
tances, did not show severe symptoms until one to four weeks
after the explosion, though many felt weak and listless on the
following day. After a day or two of mild nausea and vomiting,
the appetite improved and the person felt quite well until symp-
toms reappeared at a later date. In the opinion of some Japanese
physicians, those who rested or subjected themselves to less
physical exertion showed a longer delay before the onset of
subsequent symptoms. The first signs of recurrence were loss of
appetite, lassitude, and general discomfort. Inflammation of the
gums, mouth, and pharynx appeared next. Within 12 to 48
hours, fever became evident. In many instances it reached only
100 degrees Fahrenheit and remained for only a few days. In
other cases, the temperature went as high as 104 degrees or 106
degrees Fahrenheit. The degree of fever apparently had a direct
relation to the degree of exposure to radiation. Once developed,
the fever was usually well sustained, and in those cases terminat-
ing fatally it continued high until the end. If the fever subsided,
the patient usually showed a rapid disappearance of other symp-
toms and soon regained his feeling of good health. The other

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symptoms commonly seen were shortage of white corpuscles, loss of hair, inflammation and gangrene of the gums, inflammation of the mouth and pharynx, ulceration of the lower gastro-intestinal tract, small livid spots (petechiae) resulting from escape of blood into the tissues of the skin or mucous membrane, and larger hemorrhages of gums, nose and skin.

Loss of hair usually began about two weeks after the bomb explosion, though in a few instances it is reported to have begun as early as four to five days afterwards. The areas were involved in the following order, with variations depending on the degree of exposure: scalp, armpits, beard, pubic region, and eyebrows. Complete baldness was rare. Microscopic study of the body areas involved has shown atrophy of the hair follicles. In those patients who survived after two months, however, the hair has commenced to regrow. An interesting but unconfirmed report has it that loss of the hair was less marked in persons with grey hair than in those with dark hair.

A decrease in the number of white blood corpuscles in the circulating blood appears to have been a constant accompaniment of radiation disease, even existing in some milder cases without other radiation effects. The degree of leukopenia was probably the most accurate index of the amount of radiation a person received. The normal white blood count averages 5,000 to 7,000: leukopenia is indicated by a count of 4,000 or less. The white blood count in the more severe cases ranged from 1,500 to 0, with almost entire disappearance of the bone marrow. The moderately severe cases showed evidence of degeneration of bone marrow and total white blood counts of 1,500 to 3,000. The milder cases showed white blood counts of 3,000 to 4,000 with more minor degeneration changes in the bone marrow. The changes in the system for forming red blood corpuscles developed later, but were equally severe.

Radiation clearly affected reproduction, though the extent has not been determined. Sterility has been a common finding throughout Japan, especially under the conditions of the last two years, but there are signs of an increase in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki areas to be attributed to the radiation. Sperm counts done in Hiroshima under American supervision revealed low sperm counts or complete aspermia for as long as three months afterwards in males who were within 5,000 feet of the center of the explosion. Cases dying of radiation disease showed clear effects on spermatogenesis. Study of sections of ovaries from autopsied radiation victims has not yet been completed. The effects of the bomb on pregnant women are marked, however. Of women in various stages of pregnancy who were within 3,000 feet of ground zero, all known cases have had miscarriages. Even up to 6,500 feet they have had miscarriages or premature infants who died shortly after birth. In the group between 6,500 feet and 10,000 feet, about one third have given birth to apparently normal children. Two months after the explosion, the city's total incidence of miscarriages, abortions, and premature births was 27 per cent as compared with a normal rate of 6 per cent. Since other factors than radiation contributed to this increased rate, a period of years will be required to learn the ultimate effects of mass radiation upon reproduction.

Treatment of victims by the Japanese was limited by the lack of medical supplies and facilities. Their therapy consisted of small amounts of vitamins, liver extract, and an occasional blood transfusion. Allied doctors used penicillin and plasma with beneficial effects. Liver extract seemed to benefit the few patients on whom it was used. It was given in small, frequent doses when available. A large percentage of the cases died of secondary disease, such as septic bronchopneumonia or tuberculosis, as a result of lowered resistance. Deaths from radiation began about a week after exposure and reached a peak in three to four weeks. They had practically ceased to occur after seven to eight weeks.

Unfortunately, no exact definition of the killing power of radiation can yet be given, nor a satisfactory account of the sort and thickness of concrete or earth that will shield people. From the definitive report of the Joint Commission will come

more nearly accurate statements on these matters. In the mean- while, the awesome lethal effects of the atomic bomb and the insidious additional peril of the gamma rays speak for them- selves.

There is reason to believe that if the effects of blast and fire had been entirely absent from the bombing, the number of deaths among people within a radius of one-half mile from ground zero would have been almost as great as the actual figures and the deaths among those within one mile would have been only slightly less. The principal difference would have been in the time of the deaths. Instead of being killed outright as were most of these victims, they would have survived for a few days or even three or four weeks, only to die eventually of radiation disease.

These suppositions have vital importance, for actually in Nagasaki and Hiroshima many people who were protected by structures against blast and fire were not protected against the effect of gamma rays. The complexity of the problem of shelter protection has been increased by this necessity of shielding against radiant heat and gamma rays. Fortunately, earth and concrete will shield against gamma rays, the required thickness varying with the intensity of the rays.

The slow and inadequate treatment of victims by the Japanese probably contributed to the high casualty rates. Many persons could undoubtedly have been saved had facilities, supplies and personnel been available immediately after the bombings. Probably the number of deaths from the true blast effects, flame burns, or serious injuries from collapsing structures would not have been altered appreciably; generally speaking, these cases either were killed outright or else survived. Many of the flash-burn cases could have been saved with tremendous quantities of plasma and parenteral fluids if treatment could have begun within a few hours after the bombing. Probably the most significant results could have been achieved with the radiation cases. With large quantities of whole blood and adequate supportive treatment, possibly 10 to 20 per cent of those dying of radiation might have survived. However, it is doubtful that 10 per cent of all the deaths resulting from the atomic bombs could have been avoided with the best medical care. A more likely figure is 5 to 8 per cent.

## 2. Morale*

As might be expected, the primary reaction to the bomb was fear-uncontrolled terror, strengthened by the sheer horror of the destruction and suffering witnessed and experienced by the survivors. Between one half and two thirds of those interviewed in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki areas confessed having such reactions, not just for the moment but for some time. As two survivors put it:

> "Whenever a plane was seen after that, people would rush into their shelters: they went in and out so much that they did not have time to eat. They were so nervous they could not work."

> "After the atomic bomb fell, I just couldn't stay home. I would cook, but while cooking I would always be watching out and worrying whether an atomic bomb would fall near me."

The behavior of the living immediately after the bombings, as described earlier, clearly shows the state of shock that hindered rescue efforts. A Nagasaki survivor illustrates succinctly the mood of survivors:

> "All I saw was a flash and I felt my body get warm and then I saw everything flying around. My grandmother was hit on the head by a flying piece of roof and she was bleeding... I became hysterical seeing my grandmother

* A U.S. B.S. morale-division team interviewed a scientifically selected sample of almost 250 persons: 128 from Hiroshima and Nagasaki cities, and 120 from the immediately surrounding areas. The same standard questions were put to these people and similar groups in representative Japanese cities.

JULY 5, 1946

71

bleeding and we just ran around without knowing what to do.”

"I was working at the office. I was talking to a friend at the window. I saw the whole city in a red flame, then I ducked. The pieces of the glass hit my back and face. My dress was torn off by the glass. Then I got up and ran to the mountain where the good shelter was."

The two typical impulses were those: aimless, even hysterical activity, or flight from the city to shelter and food.

The accentuated effect of these bombs came not only from the surprise and their crushing power, but also from the feeling of security among the inhabitants of the two cities before the attacks. Though Nagasaki had undergone five raids in the previous year, they had not been heavy, and Hiroshima had gone almost untouched until the morning of 6 August 1945. In both cities many people felt that they would be spared, and the various rumors in circulation supporting such feeling covered a wide range of wishful thoughts. There were so many Christians there, many Japanese-Americans came from Hiroshima, the city was a famous beauty spot—these and other even more fantastic reasons encouraged hopes. Other people felt vaguely that their city was being saved for “something big,” however.

Such a shattering event could not fail to have its impact on people's way of thinking. Study of the patterns of belief about the war, before and after the bombing, show this change clearly. Prior to the dropping of the atomic bombs, the people of the two target cities appear to have had fewer misgivings about the war than people in other cities. Responses to set questions indicate that among Japanese civilians prior to 1 July 1945:

59 per cent in the Hiroshima-Nagasaki areas, but 74 per cent in the other urban areas entertained doubts about a Japanese victory;

31 per cent in Hiroshima-Nagasaki, but 47 per cent in other urban areas felt certain that victory for Japan was impossible;

12 per cent in Hiroshima-Nagasaki, but 34 per cent in other urban areas had reached a point where they felt unable to continue the war.

Further, 28 per cent of the people of Japan as a whole said they had never reached a point where they felt they could not go on with the war,

Whereas 39 per cent of the people in the Hiroshima-Nagasaki areas said they had never reached such a point.

These figures clearly suggest that the will to resist had indeed been higher in the "atomic-bomb cities" than in Japan as a whole.

There is no doubt that the bomb was the most important influence among the people of these areas in making them think that defeat was inevitable. An additional 28 per cent stated that after the atomic bomb was dropped they became convinced that victory for Japan was impossible. Almost one fourth admitted that because of the bombing they felt personally unable to carry on. Forty per cent testified to various degrees of defeatism induced by the atomic bomb. Significantly, certainty of defeat was much more prevalent at Hiroshima, where the area of devastation and the casualties were greater, than at Nagasaki.

Typical comments of survivors were:

"If the enemy has this type of bomb, everyone is going to die, and we wish the war would hurry and finish."

"I did not expect that it was that powerful. I thought we have no defense against such a bomb."

"One of my children was killed by it, and I didn't care what happened after that."

Other reactions were found. In view of their experiences, it is not remarkable that some of the survivors (nearly one fifth) hated the Americans for using the bomb or expressed their anger in such terms as "cruel," "inhuman," and "barbarous."

"... They really despise the Americans for it; the people all say that if there are such things as ghosts, why don't they haunt the Americans?"

"When I saw the injured and killed, I felt bitter against the enemy."

"After the atomic bomb exploded, I felt that now I must go to work in a munitions plant ... My sons told me they wouldn't forget the atomic bomb even when they grow up."

The reaction of hate and anger is not surprising and it is likely that in fact it was a more extensive sentiment than the figures indicate, since unquestionably many respondents, out of fear or politeness, did not reveal their sentiments with complete candor. Despite this factor, the frequency of hostile sentiments seems low. Two per cent of the respondents even volunteered the observation that they did not blame the U. S. for using the bomb. There is evidence that some hostility was turned against their own Government, either before or after the surrender, although only a few said they wondered why their nation could not have made the bomb. In many instances the reaction was simply one of resignation. A common comment was, "Since it was war, it was just shikata-ga-nai (too bad)."

Admiration for the bomb was more frequently expressed than anger. Over one fourth of the people in the target cities and surrounding area said they were impressed by its power and by the scientific skill which underlay its discovery and production.

Of greater significance are the reactions of the Japanese people as a whole. The two raids were all-Japan events and were intended so: The Allied powers were trying to break the fighting spirit of the Japanese people and their leaders, not just of the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Virtually all the Japanese people had a chance to react to the bomb, though the news had not reached to full spread at the time of the surrender. By the time the interviewing was done, only about 2 per cent of the population in rural areas and 1 per cent in the cities had not heard of the bomb.

The reactions found in the bombed cities appeared in the country as a whole—fear and terror, anger and hatred against the users, admiration for the scientific achievement—though in each case with less intensity. The effect of the bomb on attitudes toward the war in Japan as a whole was, however, much less marked than in the target cities. While 40 per cent of the latter respondents reported defeatist feelings induced by the bomb, 28 per cent of those in the islands as a whole attributed such reactions to the news of the bomb. There are at least three possible explanations of this difference.

First, the level of confidence was quite low in Japan well before the time of the atomic bombing. Prior to 1 July 1945 doubts about a Japanese victory were felt by 74 per cent of the population. By the same data 47 per cent had become certain that a Japanese victory was impossible, and 34 per cent felt that they could not go on with the war. Under these circumstances, the announcement of a new and devastating weapon was merely an addition to the already eloquent evidence of national weakness.

Second, the reaction of those at some distance from the target cities seems to have been blunted by their direct experience with other sorts of misfortunes and hardships, the common phenomenon of psychological distance increasing with geographical distance. In Japan as a whole, for example, military losses and failures, such as those at Saipan, the Philippines, and Okinawa, were twice as important as this atomic bomb in inducing certainty of defeat. Other raids over Japan as a whole were more than three times as important in this respect. Consumer deprivations, such as food shortages and the attendant malnutrition, were also more important in bringing people to the point where they felt they could not go on with the war.

Third, the lack of understanding of the meaning of the new weapon in areas away from the target undoubtedly limited its demoralizing effect. As distance from the target cities increased, the effectiveness of the bombs in causing certainty of defeat declined progressively:

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<table><thead><tr><th>Group of Cities</th><th>Per Cent of Population Certain of Defeat Because of Atomic Bomb</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Hiroshima - Nagasaki</td><td>25</td></tr><tr><td>Cities nearest to target cities</td><td>23</td></tr><tr><td>Cities near to target cities</td><td>15</td></tr><tr><td>Cities far from target cities</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>Cities farthest from target cities</td><td>6</td></tr></tbody></table>

Only in the nearest group of cities, within 40 miles of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, was there a substantial effect on morale. Were the channels of mass communication as readily available to all the population as they are in the U.S., and had the use of the bomb received anything like the intensive coverage it had here, the effect on continued support of the war would probably have been greater. Something approaching such knowledge, of course, probably would have spread rather widely had the war continued many more weeks, whether sanctioned by the censors or spread by the ever-active rumor channels so common in the country.

It is apparent that the effect of the atomic bombings on the confidence of the Japanese civilian population was remarkably localized. Outside of the target cities, it was subordinate to other demoralizing experiences. The effect which it did have was probably due largely to the number of casualties and the nature of the injuries received. These consequences were in part the result of surprise and the vulnerability of the raid defense system. Properly enforced warnings, precautions, and an emergency-care organization of the scale of the bomb's effects might have reduced casualties and, therefore, the effects on morale.

Even in the target cities, it must be emphasized, the atomic bombs did not uniformly destroy the Japanese fighting spirit. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when compared with other Japanese cities, were not more defeatist than the average. The bombs were tremendous personal catastrophes to the survivors, but neither time nor understanding of the revolutionary threat of the atomic bomb permitted them to see in these personal catastrophes a final blow to Japan's prospects for victory or negotiated peace.

### 3. The Japanese Decision to Surrender

The further question of the effects of the bombs on the morale of the Japanese leaders and their decision to abandon the war is tied up with other factors. The atomic bomb had more effect on the thinking of Government leaders than on the morale of the rank and file of civilians outside of the target cities. It cannot be said, however, that the atomic bomb convinced the leaders who effected the peace of the necessity of surrender. The decision to seek ways and means to terminate the war, influenced in part by knowledge of the low state of popular morale, had been taken in May, 1945, by the Supreme War Guidance Council.

As early as the spring of 1944 a group of former prime ministers and others close to the Emperor had been making efforts toward bringing the war to an end. This group, including such men as Admiral Okada, Admiral Yonai, Prince Konoye, and Marquis Kido, had been influential in effecting Tojo's resignation and in making Admiral Suzuki Prime Minister after Koiso's fall. Even in the Suzuki Cabinet, however, agreement was far from unanimous. The Navy Minister, Admiral Yonai, was sympathetic, but the War Minister, General Anami, usually

represented the fight-to-the-end policy of the Army. In the Supreme War Guidance Cabinet, a sort of inner cabinet, his adherence to that line was further assured by the participation of the Army and Navy Chiefs of Staff, so that on the peace issue this organization was evenly divided, with these three opposing the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Navy Minister. At any time the military (especially Army) dissatisfaction with the Cabinet might have eventuated at least in its fall and possibly in the "liquidation" of the antiwar members.

Thus the problem facing the peace leaders in the Government was to bring about a surrender despite the hesitation of the War Minister and the opposition of the Army and Navy Chiefs of Staff. This had to be done, however, without precipitating countermeasures by the Army which would eliminate the entire peace group. This was done ultimately by bringing the Emperor actively into the decision to accept the Potsdam terms. So long as the Emperor openly supported such a policy and could be presented to the country as doing so, the military, which had fostered and lived on the idea of complete obedience to the Emperor, could not effectively rebel.

A preliminary step in this direction had been taken at the imperial conference on 26 June. At this meeting, the Emperor, taking an active part despite his custom to the contrary, stated that he desired the development of a plan to end the war as well as one to defend the home islands. This was followed by a renewal of earlier efforts to get the Soviet Union to intercede with the United States, which was effectively answered by the Potsdam Declaration on 26 July and the Russian declaration of war on 9 August.

The atomic bombings considerably speeded up these political maneuvers within the Government. This in itself was partly a morale effect, since there is ample evidence that members of the Cabinet were worried by the prospect of further atomic bombing, especially on the remains of Tokyo. The bombs did not convince the military that defense of the home islands was impossible, if their behavior in Government councils is adequate testimony. It did permit the Government to say, however, that no army without the weapon could possibly resist an enemy who had it, thus saving "face" for the Army leaders and not reflecting on the competence of Japanese industrialists or the valor of the Japanese soldier. In the Supreme War Guidance Council voting remained divided, with the War Minister and the two Chiefs of Staff unwilling to accept unconditional surrender. There seems little doubt, however, that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki weakened their inclination to oppose the peace group.

The peace effort culminated in an imperial conference held on the night of 9 August and continued into the early hours of 10 August, for which the stage was set by the atomic bomb and the Russian war declaration. At this meeting the Emperor, again breaking his customary silence, stated specifically that he wanted acceptance of the Potsdam terms.

A quip was current in high Government circles at this time that the atomic bomb was the real kamikaze, since it saved Japan from further useless slaughter and destruction. It is apparent that in the atomic bomb the Japanese found the opportunity, which they had been seeking, to break the existing deadlock within the Government over acceptance of the Potsdam terms.

## III. HOW THE ATOMIC BOMB WORKS

Out of the stories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki can be built up, detail by detail, the picture of how the atomic bomb works: the different forms of energy given off, the velocity and intensity of each, the sort of effects each has on animate and inanimate objects. In these factors is the real story of what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for in them chance circumstances are ruled out.

Spectators' accounts, whether of the New Mexico, the Hiro-

shima, or the Nagasaki explosion, describe similar pictures. At Nagasaki, for example, the bomb exploded at 1102 with a tremendous flash of blue-white light, like a giant magnesium flare. The flash was accompanied by a rush of heat and was followed by a huge pressure wave and the rumbling sound of the explosion. Curiously enough, this sound was not distinctly noted by those who survived near the center of the explosion, although it was heard as far as 15 miles away. People on the

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73

hillsides in the country at a considerable distance from Nagasaki told of seeing the blue-white and then multicolored flash over the city, followed some seconds later by a tremendous clap; like thunder very close overhead. A huge snow-white cloud shot rapidly into the sky and the scene on the ground was obscured first by a bluish haze and then by a purple-brown cloud of dust and smoke.

The survivors were not aware at the time that a radically new bomb had been used. They were conscious of an explosion of tremendous power, but even the Government had no conception, until President Truman's announcement was broadcast, of the new principle of operation. If we strip our minds of any lingering prejudice that the atomic bomb is supernatural or incomprehensible in its operation, we shall see why its uniqueness was not at first recognized.

## A. THE NATURE OF THE EXPLOSION

The atomic bomb works by explosion. An explosion is, in the words of the Smyth report, simply a "sudden and violent release of a large amount of energy in a small region." As do ordinary high explosives, atomic bombs release energy, though on an unprecedented scale. The energy takes three forms (one of which is new), and all the effects of the bomb can be referred directly to these three kinds of energy. They are:

(1) Heat (which is present in other explosions, as the familiar injuries know as "flash burns" on warships illustrate, but ordinarily not at high enough diffused temperatures to burn a man or set fire to combustible objects at any considerable distance from the explosion).

(2) Radiation (similar to X-rays or to that from radium).

(3) Blast or pressure (as from a demolition bomb).

The whole discussion of the effects of the atomic bomb will be phrased in terms of these three kinds of energy. No other more mysterious or immeasurable forces acted; these were all.

These were enough. The energy released in atomic explosion is of such magnitude and from so concentrated a source that it sets entirely new problems in its use or in protection against it. Ordinary burning or explosion is a chemical reaction in which energy is released during the rearrangement of the atoms of the explosive material. In an atomic reaction, however, the identity of the atoms, not simply their arrangement, is changed. The change is more fundamental: in it, matter is transformed into energy. The energy released when a pound of nitroglycerine explodes would, when converted into heat, raise the temperature of 150 pounds of water by 18 degrees Fahrenheit. The explosion of a pound of uranium would produce an equal temperature rise in 2 billion pounds of water. Clearly, only a small part of the mass in the bomb's active core need be transformed to give an explosion of tremendous power.

At the time of the explosion, then, energy was given off in the forms of light, heat, gamma radiation, and pressure. The whole range of radiations, indeed, seems to have been present. There were heat radiations in the low-frequency band below infrared, visible waves of all colors (as the eyewitness accounts show), and penetrating radiations of very high frequency generally grouped as "gamma rays." Light and radiant heat ("flash heat") sped out in all directions at a rate of 186,000 miles per second, and the gamma rays at the same rate (though their effect was not immediately obvious). The shock waves traveled much more slowly: It may be inferred from tests with high explosives that the rate at a relative short distance from the point of explosion was about two miles per second, and dropped rapidly to the speed of sound, or about one fifth of a mile per second. Thus the light, heat, and gamma radiation reached the target first, followed by shock and sound and the high winds of the blast.

### 1. Heat

The center of the explosions—several hundred feet above ground—was a ball of fire. Because the radiant heat given off

at the explosion easily charred combustible objects while ceasing so quickly that surfaces not in the direct line of radiation were unaffected, there are clearly marked "shadows" visible where objects were shielded against the heat. By projecting back the sharply defined outlines of these shadows, Japanese and Allied scientists have determined the height and diameter of the fireball. The two fireballs were apparently several hundred feet in diameter. The temperature at their core was virtually inconceivable—millions of degrees Centigrade. Even at its edge, the temperature was several thousand degrees; reasoning from the heat effects observed on human beings, bubbled roof tile, and combustible materials, Japanese and Allied scientists have placed the figure variously between 3,000 and 9,000 degrees Centigrade. Energy given off in heat alone was estimated by Japanese physicists at the astronomical figure of $10^{13}$ calories.

The flash heat was intense enough to cause fires, despite the distance of the fireball from the ground. Clothing ignited, though it could be quickly beaten out, telephone poles charred, thatched roofs of houses caught fire. In Hiroshima, the explosion started hundreds of fires almost simultaneously, the most distant of which was found 13,700 feet from ground zero; this, however, probably started when a building with a thatched roof collapsed onto a hot charcoal fire. Fires were started directly by flash heat in such easily ignitable substances as dark cloth, paper, or dry-rotted wood, within about 3,500 feet of ground zero; white-painted, concrete-faced or cement-stuccoed structures reflected the heat and did not ignite. A cedar-bark roof and the top of a dry-rotted wooden platform 5,200 feet west of ground zero, were reported to have been ignited by the bomb flash. The majority of initial fires in buildings, however, were started by secondary sources (kitchen charcoal fires, electric short circuits, industrial process fires, etc.). In Nagasaki, both Japanese and American fire experts agreed that more fires were caused directly than indirectly, in a ratio of 60 to 40. The range of primary fire there is reported to have exceeded 10,000 feet.

Charred telephone poles were discernible for 10,000 feet south and 13,000 feet north of ground zero at Hiroshima, and for 13,000 feet or more at Nagasaki. Bubbling of roof tile occurred at Hiroshima from ground zero out to 4,000 feet, though with only scattered frequency after 2,000 feet. The same phenomenon was reported at Nagasaki, accompanied again by scarring and peeling of granitic rocks, almost a mile from ground zero. A similar bubbled surface was obtained at the National Bureau of Standards by heating a sample of the tile to 1,800 degrees Centigrade for a period of four seconds. The effect so produced extended deeper into the tile than did the bubbling caused by the atomic bomb, which indicates that the explosion of the bomb subjected the tile to a temperature of more than 1,800 degrees for less than four seconds.

Persons reported feeling heat on their skin as far away as 24,000 feet. Burns of unprotected skin certainly occurred up to 12/13,000 feet, and reportedly up to 15,000 feet—nearly three miles. Serious or third-degree burns were suffered by those directly exposed within 4,500 feet, and occasionally as remote as 7,200 feet. In the immediate area of ground zero, the heat charred corpses beyond recognition.

Clothing as well as buildings afforded considerable protection against the flash. Even a clump of grass or tree leaf was, on occasion, adequate.

The implication clearly is that the duration of the flash was less than the time required for the grass or leaf to shrivel. While an accurate estimate is not possible, the duration could hardly have exceeded a fraction of a second.

### 2. Radiation

From the chain reaction which produced the mass release of energy in the explosion, a wide range of radiations were released. The light and heat are familiar elements of explosions, but the free neutrons and high-frequency radiations such as

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gamma rays are a new phenomenon. These radiations are highly penetrating and lethal.

The damaging penetration of radiation would be possible from three sources:

a.) From the high-frequency radiations, whether neutrons, gamma rays, or other unspecified rays, released in the chain reaction of the bomb.

b.) From lingering radioactivity from deposits of primary fission products scattered in the explosion.

c.) From induced radioactivity in the bombed area, caused by interaction of neutrons with matter penetrated.

Only the first cause seems to have had important effects, though there are detectable pockets of radioactivity in both cities. At Takasu, 10,000 feet from ground zero at Hiroshima, and at Nishiyama, 6,500 feet from ground zero in Nagasaki, scientific measurements weeks after the explosion showed radioactivity. Presumably this was from deposits of primary fission products rather than induced radioactivity. In tests of the ground and bones of victims of radiation disease, certain substances-phosphorus, barium, strontium, rare earths-have shown radioactivity. Though evidence of lingering radioactivity is slight, it is strong enough to leave open the ominous possibility of a different situation had the bomb exploded at ground level.

The radiation apparently had no lasting effects on the soil or vegetation: Seeds later planted within a few hundred feet of ground zero grew normally. Examination of subsurface soil in the immediate area showed presence of earthworms and other life only a few inches below the surface. The effect on human procreation is as yet undetermined, but pregnant women within a mile of ground zero showed an increased number of miscarriages, and there was in most cases a low sperm count among men in the same area. Stories of harmful effects on people who come into the area after the explosion have been disproved by investigation.

The rays proved lethal for an average radius of 3,000 feet from ground zero. They caused loss of hair up to 7,500 feet and occasionally beyond, and other mild effects up to almost two miles.

### 3. Blast

The pressure or shock wave traveled out in all directions from the explosion. The blast effects produced were uniform, and essentially those of conventional large high-explosive weapons, though on a much larger scale. Thus, instead of localized effects such as the collapse of a roof truss or wall panel, entire buildings were crushed or distorted as units.

The blast pressure, as with high explosives, rose almost instantaneously to a peak, declined more slowly, and then fell below atmospheric pressure for a period about three times the period during which it was above atmospheric pressure. The positive period-that during which the pressure was greater than atmospheric-was of much greater peak pressure than the succeeding, or negative phase. Short though the positive phase was-probably only slightly longer than a second-it lasted longer than the positive phase of ordinary bombs. Thus the effect of the atomic bomb on buildings was usually that of a powerful push which shoved buildings over or left them leaning, whereas high-explosive bombs strike sharply and much more briefly and tend to punch holes in walls. The duration was also long enough, so that almost all building failures came during the positive phase. Comparatively few evidences were found of failures of members during the longer, but less intense, negative phase; window shutters blown outwards toward the explosion were very rare.

Experiments with high explosives have shown that the face-on peak pressures are approximately two to five times as intense as side-on peak pressures; thus greater damage was inflicted on walls or roofs facing the blast than on similar surfaces parallel to the blast. Near ground zero, the blast struck almost vertically downward. Buildings were crushed if weak, or the roofs were crushed in with little or no damage to the walls.

Trunks of trees remained standing, but stripped of their branches; telephone poles, pushed over farther out, also remained erect near the center. Many small buildings were virtually engulfed in the pressure wave and simultaneously crushed from different directions. At somewhat greater distances, both horizontal and vertical components of the blast were appreciable, and buildings suffered damage both to roofs and to walls facing the explosion. At considerable distances, where the blast was traveling in an almost horizontal direction, damage was predominantly inflicted on walls during the blast. In such cases, the buildings were often completely racked by the inability of roof-truss members to transmit the pressure to the far walls.

Shielding was more important at Nagasaki than at Hiroshima, because of the hills that divided the city. Building restrictions in Japan after the 1923 earthquake limited building heights to 100 feet; thus there was little shielding by buildings from these air-burst bombs.

Reflection and diffraction effects were observed. Had the blast traveled in completely straight lines, more buildings would have survived in Nagasaki than actually did. Reflection effects were most clearly observed in the destruction of parapet walls of roofs on the side away from the bomb, where reflection of the blast wave from the roof reinforced the blast impinging on the wall directly. They were also visible in the displacing and cracking of concrete decks of bridges within 1,000 feet of ground zero, where reflection of the blast wave from the water struck the bridges where their resistance was least.

The resistance of buildings depended very largely on their construction, as two examples show.

a.) In the area between 2,000 and 3,000 feet from ground zero at Nagasaki, only 9.5 per cent of the floor area of reinforced-concrete buildings was destroyed or structurally damaged. Yet in the ring between 4,000 and 5,000 feet from ground zero, 56 per cent of such buildings was destroyed or structurally damaged. Careful examination showed that the difference lay solely in design, construction detail, and materials: The bomb detonated over a section containing the most carefully and strongly built buildings in the city, the majority multistory, earthquake-resistant structures. This strength more than compensated for the greater intensity of blast. A rapidly diminishing blast was capable of serious damage to weaker buildings further away, mostly high single-story industrial buildings, with thin shell-type arch roofs.

b.) At both cities, steel-framed buildings with corrugated asbestos walls and roofs suffered less structural damage than those with corrugated-iron and sheet-metal walls and roofs. The corrugated asbestos crumbled easily, permitting the blast pressure to equalize itself rapidly around the main framing members, but the steel siding transferred the pressure to the structural members, causing distortion or general collapse.

The limits of blast effects extended eight miles out, where some glass reportedly shattered in Hiroshima; at the same city, some roof stripping and disturbance of tiles was inflicted at the Japan Steel Co., 4.1 miles from ground zero.

In analyzing the extent of the destruction wrought by the bombs, it is necessary to discriminate between the two cities and between different types of buildings. Equivalent effects are found at Nagasaki over greater areas. Structural damage to reinforced concrete buildings, both earthquake resistant and nonearthquake resistant, occurred within an area of 0.05 square miles at Hiroshima, but at Nagasaki similar severe damage was inflicted in an area of 0.43 square miles.

Severe damage to one-story light steel-frame buildings was equally extensive at the two cities; the area was 3.3 square miles at Nagasaki and 3.4 square miles at Hiroshima. Heavy steel-frame buildings could be studied only at Nagasaki, where they suffered structural damage over an area of 1.8 square miles.

One-story brick buildings with load-bearing walls were

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severely damaged within an area of 8.1 square miles at Nagasaki, and within an area of 6.0 square miles at Hiroshima. Multistory brick buildings, which were studied only at Hiroshima, were severely damaged within an area of 3.6 square miles.

Wood domestic buildings were severely damaged within an area of 7.5 square miles at Nagasaki, and within an area of 6.0 square miles at Hiroshima. Wood-frame industrial and commercial buildings, which were of inferior construction, were severely damaged within 9.9 square miles at Nagasaki, and 8.5 square miles at Hiroshima.

Maximum blast pressures fall off very rapidly as the distance from the detonation increases. In the two bombed cities, thus, reinforced-concrete buildings of good construction were structurally damaged only when within a few hundred feet of ground zero. Indeed, ground zero itself was too distant from air zero for the earthquake-resistant buildings to be collapsed. It is the opinion of the Survey's engineers that at Hiroshima more thorough destruction near ground zero, without significant loss in the scope of destruction, could have been achieved had the bomb been detonated at a lower altitude.

## B. THE ATOMIC BOMB COMPARED WITH OTHER WEAPONS

In comparing the atomic bomb with other weapons, it is well to remember the importance of the height at which it exploded. Because of this distance from the targets, the atomic bombs did not exert at any point in Hiroshima or Nagasaki the high instantaneous peak pressures of even small high-explosive bombs. For example, a single 100-pound bomb exploding at ground level exerts a higher blast pressure over an area of 1,000 square feet (for about 18 feet around its point of detonation) than did the atomic bomb at any point in either city.

That fact will place comparisons of the radii of effectiveness in the proper perspective. Even at the heights from which the atomic bomb was exploded in Japan, its blast effects were on a new scale because the duration of the blast was long, compared to that of high-explosive bombs. To take only one example: At Nagasaki brick buildings suffered structural damage within a radius averaging 6,000 feet from ground zero. Comparable damage would be done by a 500-pound high-explosive bomb burst at ground level for a radius of 55 feet; by a 1,000-pound bomb for 80 feet; by a one-ton bomb for 110 feet; and by a two-ton bomb for 200 feet. A hypothetical ten-ton blockbuster (only ten-ton penetrating bombs have actually been used) could be expected to achieve equivalent damage over a radius of 400 feet. The area of effectiveness of the air-burst atomic bomb against brick buildings thus ranged from 15,000 times as great as that for a 500-pound bomb, to 225 times as great as that for the imaginary ten-ton blockbuster.

A simple table shows most strikingly the comparison between the striking forces needed for atomic and for conventional raids. Against the two atomic attacks can be set the data for the most effective single urban attack, that on Tokyo on 9 March 1945, and the average effort and results from the Twentieth Air Force's campaign against Japanese cities:

## IV. SIGNPOSTS. THE DANGER, AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT

### A. THE DANGER

The Survey's investigators, as they proceeded about their study, found an insistent question framing itself in their minds: "What if the target for the bomb had been an American city?" True, the primary mission of the Survey was to ascertain the facts just summarized. But conclusions as to the meaning of those facts, for citizens of the United States, forced themselves almost inescapably on the men who examined thoughtfully the remains of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These conclusions have a different sort of validity from the measurable and ponderable facts of preceding sections, and therefore they are presented separately. They are not the least important part of this report, however, and they are stated with no less conviction.

### EFFORT AND RESULTS

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th>Hiroshima</th><th>Nagasaki</th><th>Tokyo</th><th>Average of 93 Urban Attacks</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Planes</td><td>1</td><td>1</td><td>279</td><td>173</td></tr><tr><td>Bomb load</td><td>1<br>atomic</td><td>1<br>atomic</td><td>1,667<br>tons</td><td>1,129<br>tons</td></tr><tr><td>Population density<br>per square mile</td><td>46,000</td><td>65,000</td><td>130,000</td><td>known</td></tr><tr><td>Square miles<br>destroyed</td><td>4.7</td><td>1.8</td><td>15.8</td><td>1.8</td></tr><tr><td>Killed and missing</td><td>70/80,000</td><td>35/40,000</td><td>83,600</td><td>1,850</td></tr><tr><td>Injured</td><td>70,000</td><td>40,000</td><td>102,000</td><td>1,830</td></tr><tr><td>Mortality rate per sq.<br>mile destroyed</td><td>15,000</td><td>20,000</td><td>5,300</td><td>1,000</td></tr><tr><td>Casualty rate per<br>sq. mile</td><td>32,000</td><td>43,000</td><td>11,800</td><td>2,000</td></tr></tbody></table>

What stands out from this compilation, even more than the extent of the destruction from a single concentrated source, is the unprecedented casualty rate from the combination of heat, blast, and gamma rays from the chain reaction.

On the basis of the known destructiveness of various bombs computed from the war in Europe and the Pacific and from tests, the Survey has estimated the striking force that would have been necessary to achieve the same destruction at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To cause physical damage equivalent to that caused by the atomic bombs, approximately 1,300 tons of bombs (one-fourth high explosives and three-fourths incendiaries) at Hiroshima and 600 tons (three-fourths high explosives and one-fourth incendiary) would have been required at Nagasaki—in the target area. To place that many bombs in the target area, assuming daylight attacks under essentially the same conditions of weather and enemy opposition that prevailed when the atomic bombs were dropped, it is estimated that 1,600 tons of bombs would have had to be dropped at Hiroshima and 900 tons at Nagasaki. To these bomb loads would have had to be added a number of tons of antipersonnel fragmentation bombs to inflict comparable casualties: these would add about 500 tons at Hiroshima and 300 tons at Nagasaki. The total bomb loads would thus be 2,100 tons at Hiroshima (400 HE, 1,200 IB) and 1,200 tons (675 HE, 225 IB) at Nagasaki. With each plane carrying ten tons, the attacking force required would have been 210 B-29s at Hiroshima and 120 B-29s at Nagasaki.

It should be kept in mind, however, that the area of damage at Nagasaki does not represent the full potential effectiveness of the atomic bomb used there. The damage was limited by the small size of the rather isolated section of the city over which the bomb exploded. Had the target been sufficiently large, with no sections protected by intervening hills, the area of damage would have been about five times as large. An equivalent bomb load which would correspond to the destructive power of the Nagasaki bomb rather than the imperfect results achieved would approximate 2,200 tons of high explosives and incendiaries for physical damage plus 500 tons of fragmentation bombs for casualties, a total of 270 B-29 loads of ten tons each.

No two cities, whether in Japan or the United States, are exactly alike. But the differences in terrain, layout and zoning, density, and type of construction can be allowed for one by one; when that is done, comparisons become possible. The most striking difference between American and Japanese cities is in residential districts: What happened to typical Japanese homes is not directly applicable to American residential districts. But in Japanese cities were many brick and wood-frame buildings of Western or similar design and of good workmanship. It was the opinion of the Survey's engineers, with their professional familiarity with American buildings, that these Japanese buildings reacted to the bomb much as typical American buildings would have. And these buildings were

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