Culture - History

Hiroshima

 

THIS IS WHAT I SAW
Page 1

 

"When I think about my age, I realize that I am 87, and that I should leave something for people while I am alive. This is why I started these paintings. A terrible tragedy that frightens me to talk about or even remember. Now I think I am able to tell the story, of what I saw in Hiroshima on that day."

 
Aug. 6, 1945
Atom-bomb on Hiroshima
Aug. 7, 1945
Mr. Makino, (at that time he was 30 years old) was working part time at NHK Okayama, and was sent to Hiroshima to rescue people and find any broadcasters from NHK Hiroshima if there were any left alive because he had heard that the Hiroshima TV station had collapsed.
"On a busy street big sign boards were messed up, streetcars were not on the street, they were blown on to the houses. The streetcars were full of dead bodies. White buildings were movie theaters that had had many screening rooms."
Around 11 at night, he arrived at Hiroshima station by relief train. What he saw first were innumerable fireballs everywhere in front of the station. Right after he saw them, he had to evacuate the area because of an air alert warning. He moved to Kaitaiiti station and stayed over night there without sleeping.
"In front of Hiroshima Station, there were about 200 dead bodies as a result of the nuclear explosion. These were laid on burned iron sheets coated with tin. At night, innumerable fire balls (phosphorus) floated up from the bodies."

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