An Eyewitness Account by a Middle School Student

The following is from an eyewitness account by a middle school student who was in a classroom during the bombing. The student managed to escaped the collapsed school building but suffered injuries.

"I'll never forget that day. After we finished our morning greetings in the schoolyard, we were waiting in the classroom for our building demolition work to begin. Suddenly a friend by the window shouted 'B- 29!' At the same instant, a flash pierced my eyes. The entire building collapsed at once and we were trapped underneath. I don't know how long I remained unconscious. When I came to, I couldn't move my body.

Cuts on my face and hands throbbed with pain. My front teeth were broken and my shirt soaked in blood. As I crawled along, encouraging myself, I somehow managed to poke my head out of the wreckage. The school that should have appeared before my eyes was nowhere to be seen. It had vanished and only smoldering ruins remained. Beyond the school toward the center of town, all I could see was a sea of flames. I was so terrified I couldn't stop shaking. Moving my body a little at a time, I was finally able to work free of the collapsed structure. Making sure to head upwind to escape the fires, I made my way staggering haphazardly through the rubble of the city and escaped."

Lunch Box and Water Bottle

Shigeru was a first-year student at the Hiroshima Prefectural Hiroshima Middle School #2 and was mobilized everyday with his classmates to work on clearing demolished buildings. He was exposed to the A-bombing on August 6 in Nakajima Shinmachi (currently Peace Memorial Park), approximately 500 meters from the hypocenter. His mother walked around the A-bombed city looking for her son, eventually finding him with a lunch box strapped around his stomach. The body was unidentifiable, and the lunch box, with its contents that he never ate, was burned black. (Approximately 500 meters from hypocenter. Courtesy of Shigeko Oremen)