I heard that in United States, the WWII memorial day is December the 8th in 1941.
The day of Pearl harbour attack.

But in Japan, for the majority of people, WWII memorial days are in August in 1945.
August the 6th as Hiroshima Uranium bomb day, August the 9th as Nagasaki Plutonium bomb day, or August the 15th when the former Japanese emperor Hirohito stated "we lost" on the radio.

I understand both sides' feeling.
The war is really miserable event.
And we want to believe that we are the good people.
So we tend to think that we are the injured party.

So American cry "Remember Pearl harbour" and we cry "No more Hiroshima."
I think both feeling is understandable.
I hope we would live in peace forever, and no more such miserable incidents in anywhere.
Let's keep peace.

I think, for my mother, the memorial day of the WWII might be June the 1st 1945.
Because the day, when she was a little girl, she was in Amagasaki and U.S. Air Force used Napalm bomb there.

Napalm bomb is rather primitive weapon, and Amagasaki is rather small city.
So the day is not so popular as Atomic bomb's days.
But for my mother, it was the day of nightmare.

My mother was really cute lady.
But I remember she had burnt skin over her breast, arms, hands, and legs.

She talked the story of June the 1st for a few time to me and my elementary school's teacher.
It was really horrible story and talk about it just for few times.

Now I'm trying to write it down as far as I remember.
Please understand it was depending on my memory, so anything might not be so accurate.

In the day, the buzzer alarmed that B-29 bombers was seen.
So the people including her went into the public bomb shelter.

Then she wanted to read the book, so she and her family was near the entrance because there was a light coming through the slit around the door.

Then a B-29 bombed the shelter.

All the people except she, her father (my grandfather), her mother (my grandmother) and some more relatives near the door was dead.
Because the bomb attacked the center of the shelter.
My mother was so lucky.
She could survive because she wanted to read the book.
But she got injured.

B-29s kept on bombing.
Then her father and mother took her to the school.
They put her in the bed of the nurse's office there.
They put the many comforters over her to guard her.
So her father and mother laid down over the comforters to make them stable over my mother.

B-29s kept on bombing and blasts of hot air came into the room through the windows.
The comforters moved up and down because of the hot air.
So her father and mother moved up and down too.
When they moved up, their back touched the ceiling of the room, I heard.

This was her most horrible experience in her life, she said.
But she said she was lucky, because she could survive with her family and relatives.

I felt lucky to hear that too, because I could be born because she could survive.

This is my mother's story.
I wanted the young people to know it.
So I wrote this article.
Of cource, I heard Japanese army did many cruel things.
I think we should remember it.

The war is horrible.
Let's try to eliminate it.
Let's be friends each other forever.

Peace Sign made of Garlic