Chapter 1

1945

The Enola Gay made military history in the early morning of August 6, 1945. The bombardier dropped the first atomic bomb used in war and released the most destructive force ever known on earth. By the end of the year between 130,000 and 150,000 people in Hiroshima died because of the bomb.

Hirano Satoshi was in his office on the morning of the tragedy. A man of inflexible routine, he always arrived early. He was proud of his position as the senior public official in the water department. He liked to greet each of his employees as they came in with a personal comment or question. Satoshi was large for a Japanese, and followed the ways of the ancient discipline of Jojutsu, which kept him in excellent physical condition.

It was a morning like every other to Satoshi. He watched as those around him began their daily routine. Sitting down at his desk, the room suddenly lit up like a thousand flash bulbs going off at once. The air was stifling hot, it was difficult to breathe. Satoshi yelled to his workers to lie down on the floor quickly. Less than five seconds later, the shock wave hit. No one was prepared for what happened next. Windows imploded, as the whole building trembled and began it's journey to complete collapse. The last Hirano Satoshi realized before losing consciousness was that he was falling.

Satoshi didn't know how long he was unconscious. He did realize he was under a lot of rubble, but his arms and legs were free. As he started to think more clearly, Satoshi realized he was partially under his desk and that it had probably saved his life. He began to move loose boards from above him and to push them under the knee hole of the desk. Soon he had enough of an area cleared that he could see the gray, blackened sky above. He half stood and forced his way up through the last of the rubble. His heart nearly stopped as he realized there was no roof above him.

The sight that awaited him was like something out of Dante's Inferno. Black, bellowing smoke rose from crumbled buildings, uncontrolled fires spreading, lapping at anything that would burn. Dead bodies were everywhere. People were stumbling about blinded by the flash. Some of them had the skin peeled from all exposed parts of their bodies. Everyone was screaming, some were cursing, all were asking questions that no one had answers for. Satoshi looked up at the sky and saw that half of it looked like a beautiful summer day, while the other half looked as black as the darkest night.

Off in the distance, other buildings exploded and started to burn for no apparent reason. Mountains of distorted rubble were everywhere, burned bodies lay in the tangled mess.

Satoshi started trying to find the employees in his building. He heard a low moan and moved some loose boards to his right. One young woman who worked for him was pinned under a ceiling beam of the office. Her once young face was now a mangle of crushed bone and tattered skin. "Please help me," the woman gasped as blood oozed from an open gash on her head. Satoshi frantically tried to lift the beam, and began calling for help. Two young men rushed to his side, their clothes tattered and blood soaked as they strained to lift the beam. One young man paused as fear filled his eyes. Suddenly smoke rose from the ruin near the young woman.

The three men increased their efforts, but it was soon apparent they couldn't free the young woman without equipment. The smoke became flame and the flame became an inferno. When the heat became unbearable, the men slowly backed away from the young woman and bowed very deeply in apology for having to leave her. The screams of the young woman lay heavy in his heart, as they turned away from her, unable to watch her perish so horribly.

Satoshi stumbled away from the growing fire in search of his family. It was only five blocks from the water department to the Hirano residence, but it took Satoshi over an hour to reach his home. When he arrived, he almost wished he hadn't survived the trip. The first thing he saw was his sixteen-year-old daughter, Atsuo, lying with her head in her mother's lap. At first he couldn't see anything wrong with her and he asked her how she was. Atsuo smiled faintly at her father and told him she was feeling better now, and that the pain wasn't so bad. Satoshi glanced at his wife who shook her head and pulled aside the blanket that was covering Atsuo. A sheet of flying glass had slashed her stomach, and her intestines were draped over the lower part of her body. As he watched, Atsuo slumped further down and her gaze became fixed on something that was not of this world. Satoshi gently covered his daughter and helped his wife to her feet.

As they started down the street in search of their younger son, Satoshi asked his wife, Isao, if she was injured. She told him she had suffered only a condition like a mild sunburn and that she didn't think that it was anything to worry about. Satoshi gazed upon her once lovely face. Her cheek bones were sunken, the skin around her eyes had reddened as small blisters had formed on her neck. He knew in his heart she had more then a mild sunburn. His eyes filled with tears as he brought her close to him, kissing her gently on the forehead.

They found their son Muso two hours later in an over crowded aid station. Muso had been in the area of the black rain that was caused by the fallout from the blast. It had gotten on his clothes and skin and it wouldn't wash off. The overworked doctor at the station suggested they take Muso to one of the temporary shelters that had been set up on the edge of town farthest from the blast.