translation1

The Voice Inside the Flames

Orginal Japanese text by Essei Okawa - Translation by DWW

This is is the story of the air raids, those horrible air raids, even if you want to forget them you cant.

Like going through the flames of hell, a few people were helped, but countless children and mothers could not get through and horribly, slowly, burned to death.

That day--- the 20th year of out emperor (1945) , March 9th, the 6th year students came back to lower Tokyo. Approaching graduation, as a group, the boys and girls returned. It had been a really long time since they had slept next to their mothers, so it was a truly happy night.

Since Aki's father had become a soldier, Aki's mother and grandma had lived alone in a small home style restaurant. Mother was waiting and when she saw Aki, she ran up and said,

"Oh my goodness, everyones alright! But---just like I thought--- you've lost some weight, haven't you?"

Aki, as if she was young again, snuggly took a hold of mother's hand, as they walked home. At home, Grandma had used war-rations to make a huge dinner. As she ate, Aki told endless stories she hadn't had time to write in her diary or send in a letter. Stories of being horribly siuck and countless others.

She put her tiny backpack, with all her priceless things inside, next to the bed, then she got into her sleeping kimono, and went to bed in between Mother and Grandma. Aki was too excited to sleep though, and she rolled over and said to Mother,

"I wonder what Father's doing right now. I hope he comes back to the homeland quickly!"

Next, she rolled over and asked Grandma,

"If there's an air raid, do you remember which way we run?"

Aki, her mother, or even all the people of Tokyo had no idea about the horrible events about to happen. Every night, a few bombs dropped somewhere, but there had still been no massive attack. Just as Aki began to dream, suddenly,

"Wake up! Wake up! It's an air raid!"

As Aki woke up, she could see the B-29 aircraft in the sky, dropping a weave of bombs, causing a rain of fire. The fire spread rapidly, and the screams of people trying to escape could be heard from the road in front of the house.

Aki was shaking, her feet wobbling, and she surprised herself by saying,

"I'm scared."

Her mom turned to her, and said harshly,

"Hurry up! It's dangerous here. Lets go take shelter in the school yard. Stay close to Grandma."

Mother said that as she tied the strings of Aki's Air Defense Hood. Aki picked up her backpack and slipped outside. That night the North Wind was blowing strongly. The flames would burn high, black smoke billowing high, approaching, seeming to stalk them, blown by the wind. Out of breath, as Aki ran she kept shouting "Hurry up!" to Grandma. When she got to the school yard it was over flowing with helpless people. Beyond them, the second floor of the school house burst into flames.

People began to scream.

"If we stay here, we'll all burn to death!"

"Aaah! It's so hot, someone put it out!"

Like idiots, everyone began to run around. Aki and Mother ran as hard as they could, and Grandma decided she was slowing Aki down. Grandma clasped her hands together, and prayed earnestly to Our Great Buddha,

"Please don't worry about me, just save the two of them, please, save them."

Aki's hand became detached from Grandma, and the masses of people behind her pushed her forward until she couldn't get to Grandma anymore. Tears choked her eyes, and she screamed,

"Grandma, don't die, don't die!"

She dropped her back pack and ran in any way she could.

But every way they ran there was more fire surrounding them. The monstrous B-29 bombers swooped in low, dropping loud firebombs that smashed into houses, erupting Tokyo into an ocean of flames, a mountain of fire. Flames swept up the sides of the shattered shells of collapsed buildings. Everyone was pleading,

"Help! Dear God, help us!" as they were swallowed in the burning inferno.

Aki's sleeping Kimono also began to catch fire, and bits of Mother's hair sizzled in the spray of flames. As soon as one fire was put out, more would erupt in a bloom of violent flame. Mother became exhausted, and she suddenly couldn't run anymore. She gasped,

"I can't do it, too bad, but I'm going to have to die right here."

Aki's strained voice was gripped by panic,

"You can't die, everyone says Japan will surly win the war! So why do you want to die here?"

Mother lifted the Air Defense Hood, and pressed her hand against Aki's cheek.

"Silly Aki. If you had only come home a day later, you wouldn't have had to be here. Poor child..."

Aki's eyes flooded with tears and she looked deep at Mother's face.

"It's okay. I want to be with you..." Aki began to say.

She maybe wanted to say "...because I'm not lonely or sad with you." Maybe Aki also wanted to say some thing like this to Grandma. But right then, a flaming chunk of a huge house, fell down suddenly, completely covering Aki and Mother.

Since Dad died fighting in the war, Sabu had lived alone with his mom in their fish shop. He also had an older sister, but she was at the factory. Sabu and mom took black cloth and covered the electric lights. It had been a long time since he'd had a chance to eat some fish.

"You know, mom." he said, "I want to do some work now too. Lets go together to the fish marker."

Mom laughed, a surprised look on her face as she said,

"Wow, come home from the countryside and suddenly your such a good kid. Something weird about this kid, I tell you!"

After he ate until he was full, Sabu faded off to sleep, snoring loudly. He slept so deeply, the air raid siren didn't even wake him. Just as his mom tried to wake him, and as he opened his eyes, the roof above him was disintegrating into a million sharp shreds. He swore as he jumped up. He could see every neighbor's house was also burning rapidly. Mom knew Sabu still had time to get out on his own, since he had grown strong recently. Mom handed him a blanket, and said,

"Get out, Sabu. Hold this, the fire won't burn you if you hold it over your head."

"Don't you notice our house is burning too?" Sabu shouted as shreds of flaming wood poured down.

All the houses of his neighbors were also lost in plumes of smoke and fingers of flame. The large B-29 bombers circled around lower Tokyo, dropping an endless spew of thundering explosions that burst into large flames, fanned by the cruel North Wind. Sabu pulled his eyes off the spiraling aircraft,

"Mom!" he screamed harshly, "Don't let go of my hand. We have to hide in the river!"

As he finished his words, they burst into a panicked run. Like a rat, he nimbly make his way through the crowded smoky streets, fallen chunks of burning houses, unable to help anyone.

He could see a dirty woman holding her baby to her chest, whimpering loudly,

"My baby... my baby..." but he just kept running. Sabu took off the wet blanket, and gave to his mom. He pulled his mom along a small side alleyway as pieces of the buildings around them in a firy haze.

Sabu kept running. The flame just kept growing, glowing hot like a hell on earth, fire engulfed them from all around. Sabu would occasionally yell to his mom over the roar of the fire,

" It's pretty bad, huh?"

Sabu's mom would reply weakly,

"Don't give up, son. Don't give up."

But soon mom ran out of breath, and her feet wouldn't move anymore. In front of them, a house collapsed in a maze of flames. With a painful face Sabu's mom said,

"Son, it'd be faster for you to run by yourself, I can't do it."

Sabu replied, "Mom! Pull yourself together! Do you expect me to let you die?"

He pulled her along by her hand. Fire surrounded them on all sides. Fire began to crackle from mom's kimono and Sabu's trousers, and they had to pull the burning parts of their clothes off as they ran.

Sabu's mom stumbled, almost collapsing, her face darkened,

"Come on, son. Nows your chance. You can get to the river by yourself."

"Do you still expect me to let you die?" Sabu replied.

Sabu tried to pull his mom on to his back. He couldn't make it all the way to the river like this. Fire burst out from the left, from the right, from in front, and behind him. He couldn't take another step forward. His body began to feel like it was boiling, his skin felt like it was being fried. He gripped his mom,tightly, and shouted,

"I wanted to grow up big, have a huge fish shop, mom would be alright. Everything would be alright."

The flames finally swallowed them completely.

No matter who you asked, no one would help. Even if you screamed "Wait!" no one would have stopped. Even the nicest person would have just ran with out stopping.

The morning of March 10th, everything wa a smoldering ruin. Shells of houses, burned bridges, chared corpses. The 6th year students who had just came home--- Aki and Sabu, but also Ken, Yumi, Hiroshi, Michi, Takeo, Nobu and Akira.

Now a place where the most people in the world live, with towering buildings, huge highways, and in the black of night, neon signs flitter endlessly... what is this Tokyo?

English translation is the work of DWW and is copyright as such.

Original work is by Essei Okawa, and no effort is made here to claim original authorship.

Any mistakes or changes from the original form are mine, and not the original authors.

I have made this translation in an effort to raise awareness of some of America's war crimes,

during World War Two. For more information, please read this article in Wikipedia.