What happened to the 13-year-old girl on August 6, 1945?
At the beginning of "White Light, Black Rain," a 2007 documentary by third-generation Japanese-American filmmaker Steven Okazaki , a question is posed to young people in Japan: "Do you know what happened on August 6, 1945?"
Some people answered honestly, "I don't know, I'm not good with history," while others speculated, saying, "Maybe it was an earthquake?" The sad and harsh reality 62 years after the end of the war is that many Japanese people don't even know the historical facts, let alone the date when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
Shigeko Sasamori, who lives in Marina del Rey, a suburb of Los Angeles, is a cast member of "White Light, Black Rain" and was the victim of a massacre that would change her life dramatically on August 6, 1945. She still vividly remembers that day, when she was 13 years old and attending a girls' school in Hiroshima.
"We had been mobilized as students and were helping to clean up a school building. It was a pleasant morning with a clear, blue sky. Seeing a silver plane flying by, leaving a white contrail behind it, a classmate exclaimed, 'Look, it's beautiful!' The moment I looked up, I was blown backwards by a strong wind."
She doesn't know how long she was unconscious. When she regained consciousness, darkness spread all around. Perhaps because the impact was so violent, Keiko felt no pain and no sound reached her ears. After a while, the surroundings gradually became brighter, as if the mist was melting. In the dim light, she could see a procession of people shuffling along. Their clothes were in tatters, and their burns and injuries made them look like they were from another world.
As they approached the river, Keiko suddenly heard a baby crying, and her ears regained their senses. Then, dragging her heavy body, she followed the procession. When they arrived, she sat down under a large tree by the gate of the elementary school, and once again lost consciousness.
Keiko remained unconscious for five days and four nights in the elementary school auditorium. She was miraculously found by her father on the evening of the fifth day.
"Like me, my father was outside on the day of August 6th. However, he managed to escape with only burns to his shoulder because he instantly ran into the shade of a refrigerator at a nearby wholesale market. While I was missing, my father, who was the chairman of the local neighborhood association, apparently had received a message from a man who told him that 'a child from Sendamachi 1-chome was in the elementary school auditorium.'"
Lying in the auditorium, Keiko was thirsty and kept whispering, "I'm Keiko Niimoto (maiden name) from Sendamachi 1-chome. Please give me some water." A man who had only heard the "Sendamachi 1-chome" part in the auditorium appeared before my father.
Although he had no certainty that the child was his, the father headed to the elementary school with an acquaintance, thinking, "Maybe it's Keiko."
Around that time, Keiko was having a strange dream in the auditorium.
"I saw a well in a beautiful flower field. Thinking that I could drink water if I went that far, I dragged my motionless body and slowly approached the well. However, when I reached it, the well suddenly widened into a stream. Thinking it was a stream, I crawled closer, but the stream transformed into a large river. I reached out my hand, thinking it was a river, but then it became the sea. In that moment, my body, which had been heavy until then, became light, and I flew up high into the sky. When my body was suspended in the air, the sea and sky disappeared, and the surroundings were transformed into a space of sparkling pure gold. I was floating lightly through it, as if I had become a feather."
Just as she was feeling the utmost happiness, she suddenly heard a voice calling out from afar, "Shigeko (Keiko)!" The next moment, Keiko was being carried on a wooden board by her father and his companions and was heading home.
I heard later that Keiko's father had called out loudly from the auditorium, "Shigeko! Niimoto Shigeko!" Many children like Keiko were lying on the floor, their faces so severely burned that they were impossible to identify. When someone called her name and she replied, "I'm here," Keiko's father was able to confirm that it was his daughter, but her face was burned like a big black ball, and it was impossible to tell where her eyes and nose were.
Keiko at her home in Marina del Rey in November 2009
© 2009 Keiko Fukuda
