The next day, there had still been no sign of their father, so they decided to try and find him. As they approached their father’s place of work the state of destruction worsened. Houses had been completely obliterated and there were bodies scattered everywhere and floating along the river. Many of the body’s arms and legs were black and swollen and to Yoshiro looked like “black rubber dolls”, as inquisitive youngsters they touched a body with their shoe and the skin came away like tissue paper to expose the fat beneath.

They were drawn to the body of a teenage girl who apeared to have a long white belt attached to her, they soon realised as they approached that it was no belt, it was her intestines. Almost overwhelmed with nausea they ran on. As they approached what was left of their father’s work place, the older brother let out a scream. He had spotted a young boy, dead by the side of the road with the round worms that had once infested his body escaping through his open mouth.

The Mitsubishi plant was very close to the epicenter of the explosion, virtually nothing was left of the place but they did eventually find the body of their dead father. They decided to cremate him there and then, there would be no one else to do the job and no other facilities left standing. They built a fire and set him alight. The sight of his feet sticking out from the fire overwhelmed them with grief so they decided to go home and come back the next day.

When they returned the next day with a make shift urn they found that the fire had only managed to burn the extremities of the man. Not knowing what to do, they decided to take just the skull home. The oldest boy lent in with his tongs to remove the head but the skull caved in like old plasterboard and his brain ran out as an ooze. The boys screamed and ran and never returned. Yoshiro would never forget, but never talk about that experience to anyone again, until just a few years ago.

☛ Next Up: Huge Explosions — A Video Collection