"Dr. Hachiya was at home and awake early on a morning that was "still, warm, and beautiful," as he wrote in the daily diary he kept. At the time, he was director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital, and as befits the trained scientist he was, Hachiya was also an alert observer who was able to focus on the smallest details of events around him and to record them carefully, even in this unique event. The hospital was located less than a mile from the hypocenter of the world's first atomic bombing and his house was a few hundred yards from the hospital, where he and his colleagues witnessed and treated the many effects of the bomb on the dazed and damaged survivors who came to the hospital. Severely wounded himself, Dr. Hachiya nevertheless recorded his actions, thoughts, feelings, and conclusions about what happened on that day and in the days that followed.
6 August 1945
The hour was early; the morning still, warm, and beautiful. Shimmering leaves, reflecting sunlight from a cloudless sky, made a pleasant contrast with shadows in my garden as I gazed absently through wide-flung doors opening to the south.
Clad in drawers and undershirt, I was sprawled on the living room floor exhausted because I had just spent a sleepless night on duty as an air warden in my hospital.
Suddenly, a strong flash of light startled me—and then another. So well does one recall little things that I remember vividly how a stone lantern in the garden became brilliantly lit and I debated whether this light was caused by a magnesium flare or sparks from a passing trolley…"
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Amicalement
Armand
is back from Council of Five Nations.