Alone Night "Hiroshima Aunt Saw" Dr.Soko's 50days Talk DAY22

(On August 7, Nobuko came into Hiroshima in search of his grandmother. She walked around the town alone, seeing people with awful burn, and smelling Hiroshima. Finally she came to the place where her grandma's house was.）

Nobuko could not find Grandma

Nobuko continued to dig up the rubble for a while, but she couldn't find Granny anywhere.
She saw a blue sky from the break in the clouds.
"Maybe, Grandma might have evacuated somewhere."
Nobuko sat down on the rubble, and stretched her feet.She tried to recall what Grandma said to her about evacuation area.

"Yes, she said Rakurakuen, where residents of this area would go to evacuated in case of emergency.
As houses will be burned by air raid, residents around here are supposed to evacuate to Rakurakuen, the amusement park 11km west from here. Because there is no air defense shelter in this neighborhood. Yeah, she might have evacuated to Rakurakuen."

Rakurakuen is an amusement park on the way to Miyajima. There is the Rakurakuen Station, so Nobuko could get there along a tram line. But Nobuko was tired.

Nobuko stood up slowly and looked around.

A moving human figure was visible over there. It is the figure of a person digging the ground, "he may be in search of his relatives.."Nobuko thought.  In the distance, she saw a tiny figure that a  person moving. "It is like an ant working. Maybe I look like him as well. " Nobuko muttered. 

 When the gust blew, he looked like an ant, covered his face with his arms and hands, stayed for a while, and started to dig again. "His face would be desperate.." Nobuko imagined.

"A little ant is desperately looking for a family. The ant has worked for the nation, but what for? He has worked for a country, but he lost everything. Why is he looking for his family in such a miserable place now, in spite of his hard work for the nation? What for should he have worked? Shouldn't an ant have lived for the family from the beginning? I'm an ant, too. I have worked for my country. But I could not protect my family. What could I do for my family in the war? "

Nobuko was not able to find Grandma.

She was exhausted.

　

Nobuko found a broken well water pump on the side of the road, received dripping water with her mouth. She picked up the drops with her hands, washed her muddy face and wiped with sleeves.

 Grandma may have been evacuated to Rakurakuen.
"OK. I'm ready to go to Rakurakuen."
The sunshine from the west illuminated her face and cast a long shadow towards the house in Dohashi.
Nobuko walked west along the tracks. Only occasionally, on the left hand side, she could see the sea in the distance.

Alone Night

She continued walking without looking back at the burnt Hiroshima city. She ignored the pain of her feet and continued walking.
"Oh, there's grass here. It was not burned"
She noticed a green weed.
Looking back, the burned field were seen.
Her dry throat rattled and she coughed. She felt her legs were too heavy to walk anymore. 

The sun is just setting in the distant horizon.

It was still hot and humid. 

Nubuko felt her head was too dull to think.
"I need to take a little break"

A little out of the way of the tram tracks, there was a tiny hill with short grass. When she went up there, she saw a house and a flield down there. 

The sun set. The area got dim.
Nobuko went down to the field.
In the field, she grabbed a cucumber and a tomato that was still green.

She bit it while standing. She took out calyx of the tomato with tooth, and ate up in a moment. The cucumber quickly disappeared into her mouth as well. 

Then she went up to the small hill and lay down on the flat grass.
She felt strangely heavy as if her body was being pulled by the earth.
Nobuko fell asleep deeply in a moment.

 Internal Exposure of Radiation                                                   Nobuko drank water and ate vegetables outside. It was necessary for her to intake food for living. It was in a summer. Drinking is indispensable for a human. But, it was the fact that food outside was highly contained radiation, which was one of causes that made her sick later.