"A boy in my class was burned by the flash;
The hair was gone from half his head, It was slick as glass. A younger student in a lower grade Was called "tempura*, tempura" by all; He covered his face with one hand As he ran down the hall. Someday they'll grow up, and . . . I thought, What will it be like then?" *"Tempura" is deep-fried fish or vegetables Page 153, The Impact of the A-Bomb: Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945-85 |
"I hated for people to stare at me…. Yet, every nerve in my body was attuned to the outside world; and to avoid even the slightest sinister look, I walked with a rigid on-guard posture…. Even so, I secluded myself at home and spent hours before the mirror, looking at my own face. What I saw was ugly hunks of flesh, like lava oozing from a crater wall, covering the left half of my face, with the eyebrow burned off and my eye pulled out of shape. My neck was pulled over to one side, and however much I tried to straighten it out, it wouldn't move back to the normal position. (Nakayama Shiro,Shi no kage [The Shadow of Death])"
Page 152, The Impact of the A-Bomb: Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945-85 |