9.Shortly after a huge blast Hiroshima was enshrouded in the searing light and fume as a result of the atomic explosion.A big shock wave swept the B29 up and down in a turbulence,which struck the crew with terror.Bacon,coming back from the fright,said to himself,"It's Horrible,too horrible!"
10.On the land,the big explosion seemed to split the mountains and the ocean and plunge the city into a violent tremor.In a second,the light in Kiyoha's cellar went out.The wine rack fell onto the floor,the bottles breaking and the liquid spilling out.Dust was stirred and fluttered around.Not knowing what was happening outside,Kiyoha felt her way out of the cellar.When she came to the door,she found it was blocked from outside by something that had fallen on it.Despite all the efforts she made,she couldn't push it open.
11.The terror-stricken and perplexed Kiyoha stood there in the darkness for quite a long time.When she was tired from standing,she sat down; and when she got tired from sitting,she stood up again.All along,however,she held the bottle of wine in her hands,knowing her family were waiting for it.
12.After lying unconscious for five days in the cellar,she was discovered by the rescue team and saved from ruins.
13.Now,Kiyoha found that broken walls,fallen bricks and scorched land stood in the place of all things that had been so magnificent and perfect.The beautiful city,with its many loving families and her own folks,turned into ruins and ashes in the atomic explosion.She survived but had to live alone in the lonely world,except for the sake that had been held in her bosom all along.
14.She was arranged to settle down in a provisional victim center 20 miles away from the scene of explosion.This area was not destroyed by the explosion,but it had fatal radioactive dusts hovering in the air.The victims and the workers with no knowledge of atomic radiation contracted incurable radioactive diseases within two or three days,and Kiyoha was one of them.
15.When she was on the point of delivering,Kiyoha was sent to the central hospital of Osaka,where she lay completely pale on the bed in the delivery room.
16.Several doctors were discussing their patient's condition with her medical record passing among them.
17.A doctor said,"She was exposed to the atomic radiation and is very seriously ill."
18."She has got leukemia so she runs a great risk in giving birth." another doctor said.
19.And the head nurse said,"The fetus lacked oxygen just now.If…"
20.At that moment,the alarm rang and they immediately rushed out towards the delivery room.
21.The doctors and nurses were quite busy with the patient in the delivery room.Time drew away slowly until a burst cry of a baby made everybody present relieved.Hearing the cry,Kiyoha,who was quite low,opened her eyes and beamed with happiness,her lips moving slightly as if murmuring something.A nurse went up closer in order to hear her saying,"I am happy he is born alive.I have got a name for him,Kyuutarou Hibachi.It means ‘being born in fire'.He is named after his father,whose name contains the sound ‘Kyuu'.He is now in Hulan County,China.He is called Jiu(Kyuu)Yueshuang,an officer serving in the North-east China Anti-Japanese United Army.I hope my son will go and find his father when he grows up."
22.A nurse at the baby room sent Kiyoha's record to the doctor in charge,to whom she said,"Professor Egawa,your patient Kyuutarou Hibachi is found to be slightly deformed in his upper limbs.His right arm is bent inward.According to the preliminary diagnosis,his deformity was caused by the atomic radiation.Besides,the baby's mother has left a bracelet,an album and a letter right at his hand.Professor,please go and have a look."
23.Professor Egawa took the new-born boy in his hands and looked at him again and again.Then he browsed the album and read the letter.He said with a heavy heart while reading it,"Sin!This is the sin of Japan and the sin of the world as well.Sin!Take good care of the baby.Don't tell its mother about his deformity since she is severely ill.There is no cure for her disease and I am afraid she will die today."
24.Unfortunately,what Professor Egawa said did come true: things went worse for Kiyoha in the night.She kept losing blood after the delivery and her blood pressure went down to the lowest level so that blood transfusions didn't work at all.Quite soon,she had difficulty in breathing and followed by heart failure.
25.Over one o'clock in the night,her heart stopped beating.Kiyoha had passed away silently in this manner.In the dim corridor,hospital workers pushed towards the mortuary an operation cart on which lay Kiyoha under a white blanket.She had left behind her new-born Kyuutarou Hibachi,lying silently in the baby room,sleeping safe and sound.
26.As time went on,Kyuutarou Hibachi,with many kind-hearted people taking good care of him,grew up gradually.When he was one year old,he was sent to an orphanage along with several other children who had similar experience.
27.Now the naughty and lovely Kyuutarou Hibachi was playing toys in the orphanage.He played this now and then picked up another.He piled up building blocks with other children.A while later they went to the courtyard where they chased each other in laughter.When he was running,Kyuutarou fell down all of a sudden and cried.A nurse came over to help him up but was stopped by Aki,the head of the orphanage,who walked up to Kyuutarou and tried to encourage him,"Be brave,Kyuutarou.Sit up by yourself.Don't cry.Be brave." Kyuutarou finally got up without help.He thrust out his chest and smiled.
28.At the school age of 7,mom Aki,the head of the orphanage,drove her car to send Kyuutarou to a primary school of the downtown.In the classroom,Kyuutarou listened to the teachers carefully with his classmates.With his teachers' concern and devotion,he worked hard and he was consistently a top student of the class.