Kenji Takashina, 74, Asaminami Ward, Hiroshima

Mother and friend pass away in front of his eyes

Sharing the letters he has received from students, Mr. Takashina said: "I want people to appreciate their lives." In his hand he holds a photo of his parents.

Time passes, comes to tell A-bomb account
/ Letters from children are "treasures"

At the beginning of our interview, Kenji Takashina, 74, shared letters he had received from elementary school students in Osaka and called them his "treasures." These students had listened to Mr. Takashina's story and then wrote such impressions as "I would be so sad if a close friend died in war" and "I'm against war." After experiencing the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Mr. Takashina lived in Osaka for about 50 years, where he was active in relating his account of the bombing.

Mr. Takashina was 8 years old when the atomic bomb was dropped. He was playing with a boy from his neighborhood near his house in the Deshio district (now, part of Minami Ward), about 2.5 kilometers from the hypocenter. He was squatting down when there was a great flash and blast. Flying fragments of glass pierced the right side of his face, from his temple to his chin.

His mother, Ayako, was at home at the time, and she was pinned under a beam and suffered multiple fractures to the bones in her upper torso. The boy Mr. Takashina had been playing with was severely injured, too, with wounds to his face and chest. With his mother and his friend, Mr. Takashina fled to his mother's cousin's house in the Kaita district. As they walked along, Mr. Takashina would help support his friend. He also gave his friend some water, which his friend gladly drank, but then the boy died in Mr. Takashina's arms.

A few days later, Mr. Takashina's mother's gums began to bleed. No treatment was available to her, though, and she died on August 13 at the age of 32. His father, Hidemaru, had already died in 1939, in a battle between Japanese soldiers and soldiers from the former Soviet Union. Mr. Takashina, now on his own and carrying an urn containing his mother窶冱 ashes, went to his paternal grandparents窶・home in the village of Toyama (now, part of Asaminami Ward), where his uncle was living.

Kenji Takashina at about the age of 12 when he was attending Toyama Elementary School.

Toyama is located 13 kilometers from the hypocenter and took in many people seeking refuge after the blast. The radioactive "black rain" which fell in the aftermath of the bombing also fell in this location. In Toyama, Mr. Takashina graduated from junior high school and began to work. While working, he sought to enter a vocational school to learn communications technology, but was unable to pass the school's health examination. At this checkup he learned for the first time that his eardrum had torn as a result of the A-bomb blast.

He passed the entrance exam for high school, but had to abandon the idea of enrolling when he wasn't able to scrape together enough money for the school expenses. He was feeling a bitterness toward life, but his mother's last words kept him going through that trying time. She had told him: "Live your life as best you can and don't cause difficulty for others."

After he turned 20, an uncle on his mother's side advised him to go to Osaka to apprentice himself in a barbershop. At the age of 26, he opened his own shop and worked there until he moved back to Hiroshima in September 2010.

About 20 years ago, prompted by his second son, an elementary school teacher, Mr. Takashina began to speak about his painful A-bomb experience. When talking in schools, he would sometimes share a letter his father had written to him. Part of it reads: "I'm going off to war. After I die, I want you to listen to your mother and grow up to be a good man. I'll always be watching over you, son."

"Our life today has been created through the sacrifices people made for their families and their nation," Mr. Takashina said. "Live as fully as you can and forge your own path for your life." (Sakiko Masuda, Staff Writer)