Hiroshima - A Ray of Light That Stabbed Like an Arrow

A ray of light that stabbed like an arrow
Drawing and text / Rikuo Fukamachi
August 6, 1945
Approx. 2,200m from the hypocenter
Ushita-machi (now, Ushita-minami 1-chome)

"A tremendous flash of light stabbed like an arrow yet filled every space. I was in the entrance hall, just about to leave the house. The blast blew me, the house, the walls, and all our furniture away. I lost consciousness and lay buried under the rubble until I heard my mother's voice calling me."






Child's skeleton in the rubble
Drawings and text / Tomiko Ikeshoji (Kubo)
August 7, 1945
Approx. 1,500m from the hypocenter
Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital Senda-machi 1-chome

"In the ruins of a private home outside the hospital grounds, I found the skeleton of a child. At that instant, mysteriously I saw on those bones the cute face of a child. It was a face without injury, without suffering, the face of a first or second grader. I was overwhelmed. Why was such a child here? Yet I never even shed any tears. When I went to that spot again in November, the child was gone, probably recovered by family. Nearby, some tiny sprouts were coming up."

Artwork and Text from: "Hiroshima Survivors" at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.


Hiroshima Ceremony, August 6, 2005