Those days when I lost my family I was 6 years old May 24, 15:57

I couldn't connect because my father's whole body was burned.

Her mother looked for her brother and sister in a demon-like manner.

"I thought I would take the courage to speak in her remaining life." That's why I have to tell her

now.

The man who lost his family in front of him at the age of six began to speak.

(Hiroshima Broadcasting Station reporter Yuki Fukushima)

It's been a long time

Shingo Naito (83) from Hiroshima City.

He was a freshman at a national school 77 years ago.

I lived in Hagoromo-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima City, with my parents and two older brothers, a younger brother and a younger sister.

In the early summer of 1945, Naito evacuated to his father's acquaintance's house in what is now Miyauchi, Hatsukaichi, with his mother, Keiko Toshi, and his siblings.

His father, Ryozo (45 years old at the time) and his eldest son, Hideki (13 years old at the time), who worked as a telegraph and telephone engineer, remained at home for work and school.

Under these circumstances, it was decided that his father, Ryozo, would travel to northeastern China from August 7 to lay a telephone line.

"This may be the last time," we all got together and had a supper.

A moment of family group after a long absence.

It was August 5th.

Fateful break

The following August 6th.

After breakfast, I was about to start my usual life.

The father in a running shirt said "yes" to her mother asking "Is this business trip going to be long?" And stood in the garden all the time without answering anything.

Hideki, a first-year junior high school brother, went to the site about 1.2 km from the hypocenter to evacuate the building by destroying the building and widening the road width in preparation for an air raid.

The energetic voice of "I'm coming" became the last word of Mr. Hideki.

Takahiro (9 years old at the time), the second elder brother of a third-year student at a national school who loved studying, invited Mr. Naito to "go to school together", but Mr. Naito decided to skip school. Did.

Shingo Naito

"I didn't want to go to school because I was only evacuation drills and I was severely scolded by a scary teacher in military uniform if I wasn't good at it. My mother silently forgave me."

Naito, who was absent from school, started playing with his younger brother Mutsuro (4 years old at the time) and his younger sister Kusako (2 years old at the time) alongside the vegetables brought back from the evacuation site the day before.

However, before I knew it, I had a fight with my younger brother, competing for the colorful dark purple eggplant.

Mr. Naito was told by his mother, "You're an older brother, give it away."

He started walking to the garden, messing around with "Che! It's boring!"

In the yard, there was a magnificent air defense made by the engineer's father to protect himself from air raids.

Near the entrance, Mr. Naito found a small crab with bright red scissors.

Shingo Naito

"It was as if I was saying," Come here, come here. This was the turning point of my destiny. "

The moment I crouched to catch a crab.

It was blown into the air defense by a blast with a loud noise.

"I remember fluffy inside. I was totally lucky. I think I would have been charred with me if I hadn't tried to catch the crab."

The surroundings became pitch black, and dust struck all over my face and body, and I couldn't open my eyes.

Wandered through hell

Has 5 to 10 minutes passed?

When I went out, the sky was like a dim dusk, like the sunny weather.

What came into my eyes was a town that had been ruined as far as I could see the houses that had been crushed by the blast, and a father who had been severely burned and stood in a charred figure.

The silent father said, "Oh, Shingo. Was it safe?" In a faint voice, in the usual gentle tone.

When I looked for her mother, I was looking for his younger brother and sister, who had been playing with him, while stripping the tiles in a demon-like appearance.

Her mother herself, with a burn on her left arm, came out of the rubble with two loose, bloody babies on her sides.

Her father walked around the house looking for a safe route for her family to evacuate.

Naito and his colleagues decided to head to the airfield about 2 kilometers away.

Shingo Naito

"My father's whole body was burned, and I couldn't hold it well when I tried to hold it. My face was swollen and my eyelids were completely blocked, and I couldn't see. My dad didn't say that it hurt at all, and he followed me repeatedly, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

The father held the end of a wooden stick about 1 meter long picked up by his mother, and Mr. Naito held the other, and walked while pulling.

The skin on the inside of the palm remained unburned, so I could have a wooden stick.

Her mother had her younger brother and sister on both sides, who were about to die.

While stopping many times, I walked for about 6 hours on the road that normally arrives in about 30 minutes.

Shingo Naito

"A person who has fallen down by the side of the road, a corpse that has flowed from the upstream to the river. Even if you are told" Please help ", we can not help and just run away. Just in hell. bottom"

The father, who had been eager to evacuate his family to a safe place, suddenly collapsed and lost consciousness as soon as he arrived at the airfield and entered the air defense.

The two young siblings were out of breath and were cremated the next day together with many other bodies into small bones.

Four days later, in the early morning of August 10, his father woke up.

Shingo Naito

"Suddenly, I stood up and staggered toward the east, saying" His Majesty the Emperor Banzai "and died as it was. Why did my father hate war at that time, war? Couldn't I scream out loud that I didn't like it? When I remember that mysterious sight, I had to think about the fear of human beings. "

The end of two older brothers

The day after his father died.

Reunited with his older brother, Ryudai, who is a third-year student at a national school, along the coast near the airfield where he was evacuated.

Ryudai was also looking for his family and was able to meet again miraculously.

Holding the remains of three people, a father, a younger brother, and a younger sister, the three parents and children headed to Hatsukaichi City, a evacuated destination about 15 kilometers away.

It was the night when I was able to sleep soundly on the tatami mats for the first time in a long time.

However, Mr. Takahiro, who I met with much effort, began to have repeated fever, vomiting, and diarrhea, and died on August 30th.

My mother was walking around Hiroshima every day looking for another older brother, Hideki, who was missing while heading for the building evacuation work.

One day in September, the days of returning with a tired look, saying, "It was no good today."

Her mother came back with her brother who became her bone.

Shingo Naito

"In a strange situation, I didn't understand the feeling of parting, and I was just trying to accept the reality in front of me."

The family of seven is now alone with Mr. Naito and his mother.

To loneliness for the rest of my life

Ms. Keiko Toshi, her mother, started working at the factory to raise Ms. Naito, saying, "Only the growth of this child is worth living."

However, she suffered from her headaches and abdominal pains on a daily basis, and her visibly diminished.

November 1953, eight years after the bombing.

Her mother, who went to work with her head hurting on this day, does not come back even when she always comes home around 7:30 pm.

Naito was worried and picked him up at the nearest station.

The train on which her mother got on does not arrive easily.

Waiting with her heartfelt feelings, after 8:30 pm, a small mother, less than 150 centimeters tall, spilled from a crowded train.

She said her mother's smile wasn't energetic and she looked lonely, saying, "Thank you for coming to pick me up. She was seeing a doctor for a moment." Says.

When she got home, her mother fell to bed.

To her worried Naito, her mother said, "It's okay, I'll be cured if I sleep. You'll be on the day of the school marathon tomorrow. Go to bed early," she said, and she fell asleep.

This was the last word of her mother.

Shingo Naito

"Before dawn, I heard an unusual moan and my mother died. I couldn't do anything and just clung to my mother's body and cried. At this time, I was in the third year of junior high school. I'm lonely. "

Can't talk

Naito moved to a relative's house and graduated from high school.

He got a job at a power company, got married at the age of 28, and was blessed with three daughters.

When her daughter was in elementary and junior high school, she had the homework to ask her family about her family's experience of being bombed.

Mr. Naito thought, "I don't want to talk too much," but he was busy writing down her experience on paper.

It was too hard to put it into words.

Even after that, I was invited to testify by a senior at work who was also an A-bomb survivor, but I refused.

Face hard memories

However, Mr. Naito's feelings changed when he saw reports that the number of A-bomb survivors was aging and the number of people who could talk about their experiences was decreasing.

Shingo Naito

"I thought that the fear of the atomic bomb wouldn't be transmitted as it is. I felt that my father would think about me now. What should I do? Don't take it carelessly. I feel like I was told. I'm old and I felt like I had to do something before I died. "

Mr. Naito began to summarize his experience of being bombed in a manuscript.

Looking back on the painful experience, I almost stopped my hand many times.

It took him about three months to write the manuscript.

"If I write it, I remember what I don't want to remember. The scene where each family died. Even if I went to bed at night, I wouldn't get out of my head. But I thought I had to pass it on to future generations. "

Russia invades Ukraine while preparing for testimony.

As President Putin flickers the possibility of using nuclear weapons, he became more and more motivated to speak now after experiencing the bombing.

What I wanted to convey my first testimony

The day of the first testimony.

Mr. Naito was a little nervous and headed to the venue.

On this day, she gave a lecture to a junior high school student who visited from Shiga prefecture on a school trip.

Looking straight into the students' eyes, I told them about the days they spent with their parents and four siblings and what happened on August 6th.

After the testimony, he spoke to the students.

Shingo Naito

"When I talked about my experience, I was crying and I couldn't speak, and I've spent the days thinking that I'm sorry that even my daughter and grandchildren didn't feel like talking. With the number of A-bomb survivors decreasing, I decided to take the courage to share my experiences in the rest of my life. It is young people who can move society toward the realization of a peaceful world without nuclear weapons. It ’s the power of each person. ”

The junior high school student who heard the testimony told Mr. Naito, "I often learn about war on the Internet and in the news, but I can feel how happy and irreplaceable my life is now, which I feel as a matter of course. I did. "

"When I saw him listening enthusiastically, I thought I had to talk. I will continue as long as I am fine."

Mr. Naito decided to keep talking.

During the interview, Mr. Naito muttered, "For those of you who have lived in peace since they were born, even if you try to imagine that tragedy, you can't imagine it."

I think we must take every word of Mr. Naito, who started to testify for the next generation while facing hard memories, and pass it on to the future.

Hiroshima Broadcasting Station Reporter

Yuki Fukushima Reiwa

3rd year In

charge of economic topics and atomic bomb coverage familiar to life