usic: toshio hosokawa's "ave maria"] [haunting music] [haunting music]

[radio news report in japanese] [radio news report in japanese] [radio news report in japanese] [radio news report in japanese] [us propaganda radio]

[soft upbeat music] - [akiko] my name is akiko mikamo, i'm a child of hiroshima. both my parents are survivors of the bombing. my father taught me from his experience about resiliency and forgiveness. this is his story.

[soft upbeat music] [akiko speaking in japanese] [shinji speaking in japanese] [soft upbeat music] [shinji] there were many things about this morning that were just like any other. it was just my father and me. my big brother was at war and my mother was gravely ill out of the city. it seemed we'd been at war forever and that we would always be at war. paper and wood houses flourished throughout the crowded streets of hiroshima. the government demanded homes must be demolished to help control fires in the event of air raid bombing.

today was the day my father and i would finish preparation for the demolition of our home. fortunately, the tanakas had offered their guest house for us to move into. i knew this was because the great respect that the tanakas like so many people in our neighborhood had for my father. at 63, my father was too old to manage the preparation on his own. my father picked up his pocket watch from the kitchen table. [watch ticking] i heard a familiar jingle of the house key that was chained to his watch and i thought once we demolished our lovely house, the key would no longer have its purpose.

after breakfast, i climbed up to our wooden roof, one by one, i pried thick clay tiles loose with my hammer. there is not a single cloud in the sky. it was going to be a hot day. i was looking forward to the evening when i would meet my friend teruo near sakae bridge and go for swim in the river. everything was calm. the sky was beautiful. [fukuichi speaking in japanese] it was nearly 8:15 a.m..

suddenly i was facing a gigantic fireball. it was at least five times bigger and 10 times brighter than the sun. it was the sound of the universe exploding. [atomic bomb blast] i felt a searing pain that spread through my entire body and got blown away. it was as if a bucket of boiling water had been dumped over me and scarred my skin. at the same time, i was thrown into a pit of absolute darkness.

was this real or nightmare? was i still alive? i couldn't move. - shinji! shinji! shinji! [shinji screaming] shinji! [fire raging] shinji! i was buried under the collapsed house.

i could hear him making his way closer to me, crunching through the rubble. i could barely see. i could smell the singeing of flesh burnt raw. my father managed to pull me out, my skin hanging off my body in pieces like ragged clothes. people were shrieking for help all around us. these horrible sound left us speechless. my father and i looked at each other frozen. hiroshima had been turned into a gigantic pit of ash and rubble.

what in the world had happened? i wasn't laughing. then we heard a roaring sound growing louder. the fire was quickly approaching. [haunting music - fire raging] it was burning everything on its path. we heard their screams. we smelled their flesh. we tasted ash. it was hell on earth.

we crawled under electric wires and fallen poles. we stepped on the sharp and jagged debris. my feet were raw. my entire body was in pain. i heard whispers and cries from the ground. [people crying] [bird chirping] [shinji speaking in japanese]

when we finally made it to sakae bridge, the dark swirling columns of smoke and leaping flames reflected on the river's surface, red and black hell painted with only two colors. and i heard someone yell, "fire, fire is coming. "get into the river." [loud splash] my father and i clung to each other, and one after another, we watched people drop, began to float away, joining the scores of other bodies. i wanted to help.

i wanted to reach out to save even one. i'm sorry, i'm sorry. when we got out of the river, a woman stood alone. she gazed around with a vacant stare looking like a ghost. [woman speaking in japanese]

across the river, dark clouds were hanging low. the clouds began to swirl like a thick ribbon and sucking everything from the ground. [storm] a tornado was moving toward us, stretching nearly 60 feet towards the heavens. we dropped on the ground and hung tight on a tree,

holding our breath. it hit the river bank and just missed us before it turned away. [shinji speaking in japanese] i felt something wet and muddy on my left hand, [drop of black rain] a black smudge. [drop of black rain] then another one on my burned thigh. [drop of black rain] then a few more. [drops of black rain] before i knew black rain, like liquid charcoal from the sky smeared my head face and all over my body. [black rain pouring loudly]

that night, there is not a single star. by far, it was the longest night of my life. [music: toshio hosokawa's "ave maria"] [haunting music] [haunting music] the next day, a man nearby told us that the military was treating the injured at the east army drill ground. my father and i decided to go there, we hoped to find medical help.

we joined a steady stream of people. going across sakae bridge, many were dead, some were alive, others were lingering in between. it took every ounce of my energy to put one foot in front of the other. like so much of my body, they had hardly any skin to protect them. slowly with my heart breaking into countless pieces, i stumbled forward. i did my best to follow exactly in my father's footsteps hoping and believing he will know the path to save us both. at this point, i wasn't even afraid of dying.

the pain was beyond imagination and i just wanted to be free from it. my only wish was that my father would survive, he seems to have a better chance. [rumbling] in the east drill ground, we waited in line forever under the scorching sun with no shade whatsoever. finally, i saw a soldier in front. he poured some cleansing liquid over my scorched and raw skin. i felt some relief and wanted to share this bit of hope with my father.

he was gone. my mind began to shatter like a young child lost in a busy street. i had lost my father. i wanted to die. i was envious of the dead. i laid there for some time, willing myself to death. then something happened. i felt a force deep within me.

wherever it came from, i felt a power that i didn't know i had. i pushed myself back up, began looking for my father. i heard a voice calling my name. - shinji, shinji! - and i saw his figure in the distance. my energy surged, i reached for my father and clung to him, bursting into tears. father, why did you leave me alone? please don't ever leave me again. it was a miracle. i found him in this chaos amongst so many people. [haunting music] the groans and moans of the people clinging onto the last thread of life echoed around me

all night haunting me. my father did not speak, he gently squeezed my hand. it was his way to communicate without words. [haunting music] my father and i sat on the ground to rest. i closed my eyes for a moment, it felt like a peaceful sunday afternoon.

[soft chime] i was ready to die. what was there to live for? our life as we knew it was gone, my father read my thoughts. [soft piano music] we had made it all the way down to the last 10 steps

when we encountered two japanese soldiers, they stood below us on the steps like gatekeepers blocking the rest of the stairway. [soldier speaking in japanese] [sword unsheathed] [spitting sound] [ominous music] were these demons wearing justice as a mask?

had a bomb changed everything? had it destroyed not only our bodies, but our minds too? i was desperate. we inched our way forward on the side slope. [shinji speaking in japanese]

returning to what remained of our neighborhood after the bomb was like visiting foreign land. as darkness began to fall, i could see spirals of smoke

rising against the blackening sky, the remnants of the fire that burned across the city. by the time we reached our neighborhood, it was completely dark. from inside a broken warehouse, a voice called out. a woman stood in the doorway, the family invited us in for the night. they were shocked by our wounds. i immediately laid down. [shinji speaking in japanese] [hundreds of people crying and wailing]

[soft somber music] [soft somber music] i recall waking to the most incredible smell. it was a smell of miso soup. my gut suddenly shot with hunger. i had been so consumed with pain and exhaustion for so long, i hadn't thought about food. eating that miso soup, i was surprised by the thought i am alive, wounded but still alive. i didn't believe that i would make it this far. we couldn't think about the future. in these past three days, we were consumed with surviving in the present moment, one to the next.

thanks to the woman, we were transported to kangyo bank where we hoped to receive attention to our wounds. those hopes of finding medical help were immediately crushed. everywhere lays the sick and dying. there are no doctors. there are no medicine, no food. suddenly i heard someone shout my name. - shinji-san! shinji-san! - it was my best friend, teruo. how incredible to suddenly see my best friend in this horrible place. teruo found a truck driver to transport us to an elementary school in a small village, fuchu, outside of the city. my father and i were speechless with gratitude. [soft somber music]

that night, my father and i had our first real talk since the morning of the bombing.

i was afraid. i woke the next morning in agony. i couldn't have imagined that it was possible to feel such pain and remain alive. i looked up and saw three men in military uniform walking toward us. i was to be transferred immediately to a military facility for treatment. this good news came with difficult news. the soldiers informed us that my father could not go. i didn't want to leave my father. my father's survival and mine were one. we had made it through these past five days together but truly it was he who had carried me through.

"you must go, i'll be fine to stay here. "you need more help, shinji." my pain had only grown each day, i was in too much pain to protest or even to think about what was happening at this moment. for just a moment i thought i saw a shadow of sadness across his face. my father's eyes never dropped, never wavered as the soldiers carried me away. even after i could no longer see him, i could feel him watching me as we parted. i was on my own.