Alupula Nagasaki Story

!- Ume is Tsubame's grandmother -!
!- Ichiro is Tsubame's great uncle -!
!- Haru was Tsubame's great-grandmother. -!
!- Start of flashback -!

UME: *narrating* "What started as a normal day in the peaceful town of Nagasaki, turned into one of the most chaotic days in history."

UME: *narrating* "My brother and I just woke up. It was 8:00AM. We had been living in an air raid shelter since March 10, just in case a bombing as large as or larger than the one on Tokyo struck Nagasaki. I was 3 years old."

ICHIRO: "Hey, mom. Where do you want these plates?"

HARU: "On the little table, Ichiro."

UME: *narrating* "All of a sudden, at around 8:05, the air raid siren goes off."

!- An air raid siren is going off. -!

HARU: "Good thing we've been living in a shelter for 5 months."

!- Back to the present -!

UME: "In about 15 minutes, the air raid warning ends."

PATRICK: "Ume, when was the bomb dropped, like what hour and minute?"

UME: "11:02AM, you need to pay more attention. Anyway..."

!- Back in 1945 -!

UME: *narrating* "...we hung out in our little air raid shelter for hours. At about 10:55, my mom told me to wash and dry the table."

UME: "At 10:58, my mom gave me a drying rag."

UME (1945): "OK, mom, I'm done!" *smiles*

HARU: *gives Ume a drying rag* "Here you go."

!- Back to the present -!

JAMES: *raises his hand* "Ooh, I can predict what happens next!"

TSUBAME: *nudges him* "Be patient! It's coming."

UME: "Stop interrupting my story."

!- Back in 1945 -!

UME: *narrating* "I was drying off the tables when 11:02 hit. I start drying the corner of the table, then a great flash of white just goes through our window! I see the bones of my fingers, left arm, and left hand."

!- The atomic bomb explodes; a boom is heard -!

UME: *narrating* "I was thrown against the wall! I started to scream, when I hit the wall, I bruised my ankle. Actually, I bruised them both."

UME: *narrating* "I look over, and my mom is okay, but my brother is blacked out."

!- It cuts to 31,000 feet in the air, where there's a rising mushroom cloud -!

UME: *narrating* "What we didn't know was what hit us. It was, an atomic bomb. It was codenamed the Fat Man."

UME: *narrating* "When all the chaos ended, my mom smelled smoke."

HARU: *smells something* "What's that smell." *she leaves the shelter and sees Nagasaki burning* "Oh my god, what just happened?"

UME (1945): "What is it, mom?" *she sees the fire and gasps* "Nagasaki!"

ICHIRO: "It's on fire! The entire city! What happened?"

HARU: *huddles the kids inside the shelter* "Kids, stay in the shelter. I sure hope your dad's okay."

UME: *narrating* "Well, sadly, he was anything but okay. He was dead."

!- Back to the present -!

XAVIER: "What happened to him?"

UME: "He, alongside 40,000 other people, was vaporized. Or, if you want to sugar code it, he was killed insantly."

SANDRA: "40,000 people killed insantly? By one bomb?"

UME: "Hiroshima's bomb instantly killed 70,000."

TSUBAME: "Guys, stop interrupting her!"

!- Back in 1945 -!

UME: *narrating* "After a long time, the fire settles and all three of us go out of our shelter."

HARU: "Ume, your brother and I are going to look for survivors. You stay here."

UME (1945): "Okay, mom!"

UME: *narrating* "But because I was the curious little 3-year-old I was, I did anything but. Because the city was destroyed, I tip-toed around the city, and all of a sudden I step on something. Debris from our neighbour's house. My neighbour's 3 daughters were underneath their destroyed home, screaming for help."

GIRLS: *screaming* "Help, somebody!"

UME: *narrating* "I tried to pull the youngest out, an 8-year-old. But I was too light. I applied all possible force I could to get her out. No such luck. One of them said..."

GIRL: "...Our mother is probably dead, and our father is at the medical tent to try and get treatment for his burn, so yes, he neglected us."

UME: *narrating* "I pull harder and harder on the youngest, and eventually, she gets out fine. I try for the second youngest, a 10-year-old, and with enough trying I get her out. All three of us try to get the 14-year-old eldest daughter out, and once again, we succeed. All three of them are burned, the oldest one was so bad she screamed."

GIRL: "I think my entire back is burned."

!- Back to the present -!

UME: "Unfortunately for the eldest one, she contracted radiation poisoning and died in 1947."

*everyone hangs their head down in sorrow*

UME: "But, the other two lived to tell their tales of the bomb, though neither of them are around anymore either, due to natural causes. So, anyway..."

!- Back in 1945 -!

UME: *narrating* "I walk around the city more, because you know, I'm only 3, and I run into this one man whose clothes are melted into his skin. I scream, pretty loudly and run, or at least try. I trip right into the concrete, and I scrape both of my knees and cut one of my ankles clean open. Now I have blood spilling all down my ankle, so now I need medical attention, and I'm trying to run away from someone who didn't even look like a human being."

UME: *narrating* "I run to a nearby medical tent and I tell someone..."

UME (1945): "Listen, sir. I know this isn't related to what you guys need to do, but..."

UME: *narrating* "I show him my foot, and bleeding ankle."

UME (1945): "I tripped and now my ankle is bleeding."

UME: *narrating* "Despite everything the doctors and nurses are doing to save people injured from the atomic bomb, I get the wound cared for and I leave the tent. I then walk around town, and another person like the one I just saw, clothes melted into their skin, bleeding everywhere, but this time a woman, tells me that she needs water."

UME (1945): "I can lead you to a nearby lake." *grabs on to the woman's hand and takes her to a lake and proceeds to rub water onto the woman's bleeding areas* "Hope this helps!"

UME: *narrating* "At 3:45 or so, she asks about the care unit, so I lead her to it. I then go back to the lake and relax for a while until my mom finds me."

UME: *narrating* "At around 5:30, my mother and brother find me."

HARU: "There you are, Ume! We've been looking everywhere for you."

UME (1945): "I'm okay, mom. I just found someone and took them to this lake because they needed water."

HARU: "That's nice of you but we need to get back to the air raid shelter. We have taken so many people to the care unit today it's insane."

UME: *narrating* "So we walk home, but I still feel bad for everyone who got injured or died. I almost step on a vaporized man on the way home, and release my grip from my mom's arm, look at him, and kneel down and say..."

UME (1945): "Why me? Why all three of us? Why did we live?"

HARU: "What do you mean, honey?"

UME (1945): "I mean, why did all of these people get to die, but we got to live? I may only be 3, but when you think about it, did I deserve to survive?"

HARU: "I don't know exactly. We should just go home now. It's getting late." *Haru takes Ume's hand back and they all walk home*

*Ume looks back at the vaporized man and a tear rolls down her face*

!- Back to the present; flashback ends here -!

UME: "Six days later, five days American time, Japan finally surrendered to the United States and World War 2 was finally over. And nuclear bombs were never used in war again."