Loved Ones I looked for my 14-year-old first-born son for 5 days, but could not find him. Hearing that dead bodies were being shipped out at the port, I rushed there and finally found his body. I managed to carry him to a junior high school, where I conducted cremation. It broke my heart to know that he was laid on a cold concrete floor and died without anyone giving him even a drop of water. How cruel it is that a mother had to cremate her own child to whom she had given birth. —Atomic bomb survivor in Hiroshima Numerous victims of the atomic bomb were cremated near the Fukuya department store, a busy shopping area 800 meters from ground zero in Hiroshima. Bodies of soldiers and citizens continued to be brought there on stretchers to be cremated. August 12, 1945. Photograph by Hajime Miyatake, Collection of the Asahi Shimbun. In July 1952, seven years after the bombing, a great number of atomic bomb victim remains were uncovered across Hiroshima city. This photograph was taken in Saka-cho, where the remains of 60 people were found exposed to the elements and another 156 buried underground. This site was home to a first-aid station where many atomic bomb victims died. Excavations continue to this day. Photograph courtesy of the Chugoku Shimbun.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDU4ODgz