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The Atom bomb...........Shivers
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Posted by: jojomataketa
By George Nishiyama Thu Aug 4,10:47 PM ET
HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Noriko Ueda was a 14-year-old schoolgirl when the "pika-don" -- "flash and boom" in Japanese -- hit Hiroshima on a hot summer morning 60 years ago, killing tens of thousands instantly and flattening her hometown.
While she was only 1.5 km (1 mile) from where the world's first atomic bomb detonated on Aug. 6, 1945, she survived as her school building protected her from the heat rays, believed to have reached as high as 4,000 degrees Celsius (7,200 Fahrenheit).
But six decades on, memories of the devastation -- and bitter regrets over those who were lost -- still haunt Ueda and many other survivors.
She and her schoolmates were attending an outdoor assembly when the B-29 warplane known as Enola Gay dropped the bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy," which exploded around 600 meters (2,000 feet) above the western Japanese city at 8:15 a.m.
"My teacher said: 'Let's do the assembly in the shade as it's such a hot day.' Had it not been for those words, I would have been dead," she told a group of junior high school students visiting Hiroshima to learn about the tragedy.
Ueda wandered through the desolation and carnage for two days before being reunited with her parents, but to this day, she regrets not searching for her 12-year-old sister.
"I don't know why I didn't go looking for her at her school. I just thought she would be fine," she said, tears in her eyes.
"She never returned, and seeing the grief of my mother and father, I could never confess the fact that I didn't search for her.
"I'll regret this until the day I die."
Ueda, who still suffers symptoms caused by the bombing -- tumors in her thyroid gland -- begged the pupils at the end of her tale: "Please, don't die before your parents do. That is the most unfortunate thing."
"WATER PLEASE"
Thousands of those who were seared by the heat rays, some suffering burns to their internal organs, trudged toward the many rivers that run through Hiroshima in search of water.
Barely able to walk, many drowned and their bloated bodies filled the waterways, according to survivors' accounts.
For 77-year-old Kohji Hosokawa, who suffered cuts all over his body from shattered glass but escaped the heat of the blast thanks to a large pillar that served as cover, the words of a schoolboy 60 years ago have stuck in his mind like a scar.
Hosokawa, speaking to schoolchildren visiting the Peace Memorial Museum, which displays photos and other graphic material showing damage to the human body, recalled how the boy begged him for water.
Believing rumors widespread at the time that giving water would hasten death, he refused.
"Then, right in front of my eyes, he became very quiet. He died.
"I should have given him water if he was going to die anyway. I still regret this very much," he said, as the elementary school pupils listened quietly.
"It was such a shocking experience, I wanted to clear it from my mind. But, unfortunately, I cannot escape from it."
EFFECTS PASSED ON
Aug. 6, 1945, changed the lives of many survivors completely. For some, each day has been a struggle against the deadly effects of the weapon that ushered in the nuclear age.
On top of a hill overlooking the southwest of the city stands a nursery home for A-bomb victims with conditions too serious to be treated at home.
The average age of the 99 patients is 83, but among them is 59-year-old Toshio Ueda.
Ueda -- no relation to Noriko Ueda -- suffered "in-utero exposure," meaning he was in his mother's womb when the bomb unleashed its fatal combination of heat rays, explosive power and radiation.
His mother hid the fact that they had suffered the bombing until he was nearly 30. But Ueda, who has no visible deformities, said he had endured mysterious symptoms long before that, including persistent bleeding from the nose and gums.
"I was weak and often unable to go to school," he said, sitting in a wheelchair with plastic tubes supplying oxygen through his nose.
He developed kidney trouble when 15 and heart problems in his 30s before suffering multiple symptoms including thyroid disorders and diabetes after turning 40.
The effects of the radiation were not limited to Ueda -- his son had to undergo surgery for cancer at the age of two.
Now 34, the son has a clean bill of health.
"It's clear that nuclear weapons are dangerous and will only lead to the destruction of mankind. There can be no co-existence with them," Ueda said.
"We must teach the young generation of today to wake up to this fact."