I was sent to japan to take the point of view of the war from the Japanese. I was amazed from all of the things that the people were saying. Some people hated the war because it just brought problems. Japan was basically defeated already, but the emperor didn’t want to give up to the war. A lot of U.S. planes showered Nagasaki with over 5 million leaflets warning Japan to surrender or they will be bombed with the strongest bomb. August 6, 1945 I heard news of a big bomb that detonated in Hiroshima. I went to Hiroshima the next day, August 7, I went close to the spot where the bomb exploded. There was massive destruction. The bomb detonated right above a bridge. As I walked around I saw this woman that had her child stuck to her. Their skin was literally stuck together due to the intense heat that melted their skin. The hospitals were full, a lot of people went blind due to the bright light and the heat. Everything was in horrible conditions. Then on August 9, another bomb detonated on Nagasaki. I just didn’t want to go to Nagasaki just because of the things that I witnessed in Hiroshima. I felt a deep sadness seeing all of these people trying to get back up after many of their relatives died during the explosion. Some people vaporized instantly because of the intense head and radiation.
Auschwitz death camp…. Where do I start…We were getting closer and closer to the camp. For a moment I felt happy for the people in the camp because they were finally going to be free. But as we got near to the camp there was a bad smell. It was the biggest camp that I have ever seen. Then we entered the camp, I was one of the first ones to set foot on the camp. There was a solider next to me and then he said, “This is the moment when they will feel freedom.” As we entered the camp I looked around and it was a horrible place in horrible conditions. I didn’t know what we were entering any more. The camp was a cold place, dead, full of pain, fear, and sadness. Finally we reached the prisoners. They were very skinny, very pale, and full of pain. We started to set them free and bringing in the medics. We searched every building. We found a laboratory, there were dead woman on top tables. It looked like as if the Germans were doing experiments with them. That place was full of blood everywhere. We searched for people that were alive. I got really scared realizing that I didn’t walk into a concentration camp but a death camp. There was a big tree in the middle and it was stained with blood. Days later there was reports on the deaths, 1,055,000 people were murdered. It was a beautiful Sunday morning in Pearl Harbor. I couldn’t sleep very much so I went for a walk and took my camera with me. As I walked around admiring the beauty of the sun light looking at the battle ships and the fighter planes I had a weird feeling. I started to hear a buzzing sound. At first I thought that it was a swarm of bees but the sound grew louder and louder. I looked up and then that was the moment that I saw more than 300 air planes. I wasn’t sure what was going on until I heard the whistling sound of falling bombs. Most of the marines were still sleeping, it was barely 7:40 in the morning. I started to see all the soldiers running into their battle stations. I took out my camera and took a picture of the fighter planes swarming into the island and destroying everything. As I looked around I saw a lot of dead marines. I saw how the pilots were trying to take off the ground, but it was difficult because they were getting shot at. Then the attack stopped for about 3 minutes. That was our chance to recover. The bad thing was that most of the fighter planes were destroyed, so the pilots started to take off on every available plane. While, in the battle ships a lot of marines were killed in the water. As some of the ships were sinking, there were soldiers inside trying to get out of the ships. Finally the attack was over. The hospitals were full of wounded and dead marines. It was horrible seeing all of these men in such pain. I was lucky I wasn’t in their position. It was just horrible, the next day there were reports on all of the damage. There were 188 destroyed aircraft, 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded, nearly eight enormous battleships were destroyed, and 20 naval vessels were destroyed. |
AuthorArches
August 1945
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