Agawa Hiroyuki and Kazuko Hiroyuki

In this account written two years after the atom bomb exploded over Hiroshima, a father and daughter share their remembrances of surviving the horrific event. The father, Agawa Hiroyuki, was working at city hall when the blast came on August 6, 1945. The shock knocked him unconscious for some time. He awoke in a daze but soon focused his attention on finding his daughter, a student who worked at the Postal Savings Bureau, a short distance from city hall. Unable to locate her and worried about his wife and parents, he struggled through the devastated city toward his home. As he walked the streets, he crossed several districts of the city — Danbara, Iwahana, Onaga, and into the Nakayama Pass — trying to find his way to Hakushima, his home on the outskirts of the city. On his journey, he...