Strength
I found this article just browsing for a picture of my old judo instructor who was a definitive father figure in my life, but i found a good Gambit article from '05
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2005-08-02/news_feat.php
the cut is just my sensei's recounting of hiroshima
At the time of the raids, Hayashi was a 13-year-old recruit in a special Japanese boys' military unit that trained for suicide missions.
"Whenever the B-29s came, they dropped a firebomb. Napalm. And you can see from the oceans to the mountains -- fire. Nothing was left: fire, fire, fire," he says.
"In my own eyes, I saw children running in the firebombing. When it hit your body --your whole body get burned."
Every house had a bokayosui, a tub of water placed outside. It was used to extinguish house fires, but was too shallow to jump in. During the firebomb raids, fleeing civilians would run for the tubs, kneel down and put their faces in the water. In the morning, there were dead bodies, face down in the water.
"I thought if there is hell, hell must be a much better place than this," Hayashi recalls.
When news came of another B-29 attack, Hayashi received permission to leave his military post. He put his baby brother on the back of his bicycle and his younger sister on the front. He pedaled toward the safety of a mountain.
"About 3 miles from the mountain, a B-29 came right above us and dropped a firebomb. The napalm. It's just like today's fireworks. ... If it's peacetime, it's a beautiful scene. Just like fireworks on an Independence Day. We were right in the fire. I told my younger brother and sister -- close eyes. We are going to get hit. Luckily, the wind blew the firebomb about 200 yards away from us."
Hayashi hid with his brother and sister under a bridge. After the plane left, they returned home to find their home burned. They had no food.
In the backyard, the chickens had been burned alive. Under the scorched body of a mother hen, Hayashi recalls finding baby chicks that he excitedly presented to his parents as food.
"But Mother cried. 'Don't you understand mother's love? This mother protected her baby under wing and died. How can you think of such a cruel thing as eat it?'"
Hayashi says his mother then ordered him to bury the mother hen "with respect."
Hayashi recalls the night before the bombing of Hiroshima. "About midnight, we heard the radio emergency broadcast warning of an enemy air attack," Hayashi recalls. Everybody ran for the underground bunkers. "There were three B-29s coming toward the Kobe area. My first reaction was -- why only three B-29s? It never happened. Usually there were 50 to 100 B-29s, a fortress in the sky.
"We thought the three B-29s must be spy planes. It was just like waiting for a hurricane. Then we heard the planes were heading west. We said, 'Oh, that's good.'"
The next day, Hayashi heard that the United States had dropped a new bomb that burned down the city of Hiroshima. Nagasaki burned next. On Aug. 15, the Emperor announced the surrender on the radio, though his message was muddled. However, Hayashi recalls that an officer at his training school at Nakajima told the troops to go to their homes and guard their gates from the advancing Americans.
Hayashi says he and his brothers took turns guarding their Kobe home with a sword against the expected assault by American occupation forces. They never came.
"After about 10 days, somebody said, 'You want to see an American soldier? Go to the National Highway. They ride a strange thing, a box (a Jeep).'"
The youths waited by the highway. Eventually, a Jeep pulled up and several American GIs passed out chocolates and chewing gum. Some encouraged the youths to worship with them in church. "Fear and hatred turn into friendship," Hayashi recalls.
Hayashi also recalls an American missionary who came to Japan to teach English. One day, the American went to the back of a newly constructed building, the former site of an orphanage that was destroyed by the bombing. The American knelt down and prayed. He had been a bomber in a B-29, Hayashi says.
In 1963, after a religious conversion by an American missionary, Hayashi journeyed to the United States. He entered the Anderson Theological Seminary at Anderson, Ind. He intended to become a preacher.
During a seminar, however, his fellow seminarians applauded the use of the atomic bomb at Japan to end the war. "I was ready to flip them and break their necks, I was so mad!" says Hayashi, a judo instructor.
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2005-08-02/news_feat.php
the cut is just my sensei's recounting of hiroshima
At the time of the raids, Hayashi was a 13-year-old recruit in a special Japanese boys' military unit that trained for suicide missions.
"Whenever the B-29s came, they dropped a firebomb. Napalm. And you can see from the oceans to the mountains -- fire. Nothing was left: fire, fire, fire," he says.
"In my own eyes, I saw children running in the firebombing. When it hit your body --your whole body get burned."
Every house had a bokayosui, a tub of water placed outside. It was used to extinguish house fires, but was too shallow to jump in. During the firebomb raids, fleeing civilians would run for the tubs, kneel down and put their faces in the water. In the morning, there were dead bodies, face down in the water.
"I thought if there is hell, hell must be a much better place than this," Hayashi recalls.
When news came of another B-29 attack, Hayashi received permission to leave his military post. He put his baby brother on the back of his bicycle and his younger sister on the front. He pedaled toward the safety of a mountain.
"About 3 miles from the mountain, a B-29 came right above us and dropped a firebomb. The napalm. It's just like today's fireworks. ... If it's peacetime, it's a beautiful scene. Just like fireworks on an Independence Day. We were right in the fire. I told my younger brother and sister -- close eyes. We are going to get hit. Luckily, the wind blew the firebomb about 200 yards away from us."
Hayashi hid with his brother and sister under a bridge. After the plane left, they returned home to find their home burned. They had no food.
In the backyard, the chickens had been burned alive. Under the scorched body of a mother hen, Hayashi recalls finding baby chicks that he excitedly presented to his parents as food.
"But Mother cried. 'Don't you understand mother's love? This mother protected her baby under wing and died. How can you think of such a cruel thing as eat it?'"
Hayashi says his mother then ordered him to bury the mother hen "with respect."
Hayashi recalls the night before the bombing of Hiroshima. "About midnight, we heard the radio emergency broadcast warning of an enemy air attack," Hayashi recalls. Everybody ran for the underground bunkers. "There were three B-29s coming toward the Kobe area. My first reaction was -- why only three B-29s? It never happened. Usually there were 50 to 100 B-29s, a fortress in the sky.
"We thought the three B-29s must be spy planes. It was just like waiting for a hurricane. Then we heard the planes were heading west. We said, 'Oh, that's good.'"
The next day, Hayashi heard that the United States had dropped a new bomb that burned down the city of Hiroshima. Nagasaki burned next. On Aug. 15, the Emperor announced the surrender on the radio, though his message was muddled. However, Hayashi recalls that an officer at his training school at Nakajima told the troops to go to their homes and guard their gates from the advancing Americans.
Hayashi says he and his brothers took turns guarding their Kobe home with a sword against the expected assault by American occupation forces. They never came.
"After about 10 days, somebody said, 'You want to see an American soldier? Go to the National Highway. They ride a strange thing, a box (a Jeep).'"
The youths waited by the highway. Eventually, a Jeep pulled up and several American GIs passed out chocolates and chewing gum. Some encouraged the youths to worship with them in church. "Fear and hatred turn into friendship," Hayashi recalls.
Hayashi also recalls an American missionary who came to Japan to teach English. One day, the American went to the back of a newly constructed building, the former site of an orphanage that was destroyed by the bombing. The American knelt down and prayed. He had been a bomber in a B-29, Hayashi says.
In 1963, after a religious conversion by an American missionary, Hayashi journeyed to the United States. He entered the Anderson Theological Seminary at Anderson, Ind. He intended to become a preacher.
During a seminar, however, his fellow seminarians applauded the use of the atomic bomb at Japan to end the war. "I was ready to flip them and break their necks, I was so mad!" says Hayashi, a judo instructor.