The Last Story of Nobuko, walked in Hiroshima. ”Diarrhea,Headaches, Bloody Stool, Vomiting,Fear" Dr.Soko DAY27/50

(Nobuko was exposed the A_bomb on the train at Hiroshima Station on August 6. The last train took Nobuko to Kure Station. She had almost no wound. Nobuko's parents lived in Kure. But, Nobuko, who had lived in Hiroshima with her blind grandmother for the past year and a half, worried about her grandmother. She left Kure on the morning of August 7 for Hiroshima. She kept searching for her grandmother alone in Hiroshima on August 7, 8 and 9. On Aug 9th, the third day after the atomic bomb fell, Nobuko found a part of her grandmother's body and returned to Kure with her reunited father and sister.）

Nobuko's exposure:                                                                    Nobuko was in Hiroshima for three days after the high-dose exposure of radiation. Furthermore, she drank local water and ate tomatoes and cucumbers. Due to internal as well as external exposure, the body of Nobuko returned home was very different from the once healthy Nobuko.

How many days have passed since then? Nobuko woke up in the futon.
"Nobuko! Nobuko! Dad, come. Nobuko got up."
When Toshiko called out, there was a sound of running in the hallway and the shoji (Wooden door) opened.
"Nobuko!"
Both dad and mother came to Nobuko.
What happened, the voices that were supposed to say "Hi,everyone!" didn't come out.
My mother put a cushion on Nobuko's back, raised the upper body of Nobuko, and made her drink water.

Her mother explained various things, but she can't hear half of them. She understood that her sister, Toshiko and dad seem to have been unable to wake up all day after returning from Hiroshima, and Nobuko herself slept for three days. Nobuko couldn't understand why she had slept so long at all.

She also heard that her father and mother both went to look for Grandma's head, again. The two visited the dead grandpa's grave in Teramachi and went there to bury the granny's bones. So they happened to meet her mother's sister. She found Grandma's head at Dohashi's house and cremated it in the grave. She did before  Nobuko and her father met at Dohashi's house on August 9th. To hear that, Nobuko closed her eyes again.

Headache, Vomiting, Diarrhea and Bloody Stool

The next time Nobuko woke up due to a severe headache with nausea.
Her mother desperately tried to let Nobuko drink water to get well, but she only repeatedly vomited. 

Nobuko got up, but didn't have power to stand up and pulled her body to the bathroom with her hands. She was tired of repeating diarrhea. Once she was in the toilet, she was not able to get out for hours. If she swallowed water, it came out of her bottom for a moment. She had no appetite, and rice broth did not pass through her throat. 

Even if Nobuko's mother found and bought a medicine, Nobuko vomited it, and even after she swallowed it, she got diarrhea immediately.
"I am sorry. This girl must be dying soon"
Everyone said so. 

Fear of Dying

Nobuko became emaciated,  as if a plant withered. 
There was a rumor spread. It was that people who went to Hiroshima right after the bomb, even if they did not directly hit the new type bomb, were dying more and more. No matter how much the father or mother prevented it, the rumors quickly entered Nobuco's ears.

"I wonder if I'll die"
The thought naturally came to her mind, and always be beside with her.

Hair Comes Off

After about two weeks, Nobuko became able to drink the supernatant juice of cooked rice. Diarrhea was sometimes getting better and sometimes worse.

One day, Nobuko, whose head suddenly became itchy,
"Is there a lice?"
She scratched her head thinking so.
Then something twined around her fingers. It was her hair.
"Oh, no.."
She quickly shook off her hair, and put her hand over head again. She slowly combed her hair with fingers. At that moment, her fair bunched and hundreds of hairs fell off at once. 
"What? What happening?"

A lot of hair has fallen on the pillow.
Nobuko shut up the shoji, the Japanese paper door. Thereafter, she didn't want to go out of the house anymore.

Nobuko heard that the war ended on August 15. She thought the end of the war was good for everybody. On the other hand, the end of the war seemed like something that had nothing to do with her.

However, when she heard that it seems to have been dropped a similar new type bomb in Nagasaki,
"What a terrible thing to do"
she trembled in anger in the futon.

Nobuko never left the small room except when she went to the bathroom. Her hair was completely lost, except area behind ears.

Her father and her sister,Toshiko were also sick. They sometimes lay down, sometimes got up and went out. Both had nausea and diarrhea, no appetite, and were in short of breath.
However, Dad had to find a job. Toshiko had to work at the station. Nobuko had the worst condition among the three. Her colitis made her suffer from not only diarrhea, but bloody stools.

Nobuko's life

One day, her mother brought her a doctor at home. Finding a doctor was difficult. After waiting for days, the doctor finally visited Nobuko.
"I am sorry to say, but she can no longer live so much."
The doctor explained her parents.

The doctor also said to Nobuko.
"Your body got weak with a disease. Unfortunately, you may be not able to live until 50 year old. So you should do something you like to do.''
Nobuko was surprised to hear what the doctor said. What she didn't expect was that she might live up to the age of fifty. Then, she got a little motivated to live.

 After a while, she got to able to eat some grains of rice. She still had diarrhea, but from time to time she sometimes got out of futon, and read books.

She is ”Pika's girl”

Nobuko recovered slowly, but his hairless appearance was proof that she was a "Pika". (*Pika means the dazzling flash of an atomic bomb. People called victims of the new type bomb as "Pica" at that time.) 

Even after the end of 1945 and the latter half of 1946, Nobuko still could not be fully recovered. Sometimes she could go out, but sometimes kept laying down for days.

ABCC (Atomic Bomb Injury Investigation Committee) contacted her house in Yamaguchi, where she moved with my family later. The letter contained an order that Nobuko had to see a doctor at the designated hospital in Hiroshima.

”I heard that ABCC does not treat patients. They just test the patient. So, I don't want to go, I don't.''

After all she went to the hospital in Hiroshima with her mother, and had a blood test and a bone marrow test. She was investigated about her circumstance of the moment bombed and symptoms she has had so far.

"Bone-Marrow testing was too painful. I could not breathe because of the pain, I cannot forget that pain." 90 year old Nobuko said so.

Nobuko's white blood cells were reduced, and her anemia continued for years.

What HIBAKUSHA means

By the age of 18, she was able to lead almost a normal life. Then, she decided by herself to leave her home town, and head to Tokyo. 

She worked as a dressmaker in a small shop, keeping secret of being a hibakusha, victim of the atomic bomb. 

Almost all victims were misunderstood that they could not have a healthy child. As a result, many of them could not get marry. Nobuko thought that she could not get marry because she had the atomic bomb disease. However, there was a man who understood all of her circumstance. Years after they got married, they had the long-awaited baby girl. They had a baby boy as well. 

On the other hand, Nobuko had to take a regular medical check. She had cancers so far, in thyroid , colon, uterus,  and both of breasts. What's more, it was mentally painful for her to repeatedly think "I might have  a sick".

Since after she started to live in Tokyo, she have returned to Hiroshima only a few times. That's because she remembers the scenery of the river and the smell of the town. Hometown Hiroshima, nostalgic Hiroshima, she can't return even if she wants to return.

So Nobuko turned 90 year old this year. Even now, there are times when she dreamed of the past experience. So, she has rarely talked about that experience.

But,

"I have to talk about it now. We, people on the planet still have nuclear weapons, so I must make an effort to make this experience understandable. Before I will die, I tell what I saw. I have to stand up to protect the peace for the future children."

My aunt said so.  Then I started to investigate medical effects for people who was exposed to nuclear weapons. I hope my life-work can  be useful for keeping peace of the world.

This is the last of Nobuko's story. However, I continue talking of atomic bomb tomorrow as well.