Situation |
Watanabe Katsuhiko was 12 years old at that time. He was exposed to the bombing at a building demolition site located at the east end of Hijiyama Bridge, approximately 1.8 kilometers from the hypocenter.
He fainted after being blown down by the blast. When he came to, none of the students, who had gathered there with him, were there.
The many corpses that he saw while evacuating greatly shocked Watanabe, who was a first-grade junior high school student.
After returning home through his own tenacity to do so, he hovered between life and death for 12 days due to his serious burns.
After the end of World War II, he had bitter experiences facing discrimination in his employment examination and at his workplace.
Still now, he has his burn marks, and continues to have poor health due to anemia and internal diseases. |