World War II and McCarthyism - “Eight Hundred Meters from

the Hypocenter,” Yamaoka Michiko

World War I had given war a bad name. But World War II had a moral core absent in the previous conflict. This
was the “good war.” It was a war against great evils: the Nazi system, the invasion of European countries, the
Holocaust against the Jew, the Japanese cruelties in China. Despite the initial reluctance of Americans to enter
the war, the attack on Pearl Harbor brought a surge of support for military action. It was probably the most
popular war the United States had ever fought.

And yet, when it was over, although no one question the evils of Nazism, there were question to be raised about
the moral purity of the Allies, racial segregation in the U.S. army, putting Japanese in concentration camps.
There was the ruthless bombing of civilian populations in Germany and Japan: the devastation of Dresden, the
firebombing of Tokyo, and the atomic bombs killing hundreds of thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Altogether the bombings killed more than a million civilians.

In the years that followed the war, the promise of a new world free of militarism and war, or racism and
inequality, was not fulfilled. Instead, there were now two great powers, the Soviet Union and the United States,
possessing thousands of nuclear weapons, threatening the world with destruction in what was called a “cold
war.”

In the United States, a hysterical fear of communism led to the suppression of free speech: jailing of dissident,
inquisition by congressional committees, surveillance of ordinary citizens by the FBI - a phenomenon which
came to be known as ​McCarthyism.

But there were Americans who insisted on speaking their minds, and who kept alive the idea of democracy.

Eight Hundred Meters from the Hypocenter, Yamaoka Michiko

1992
The United States and its allies used horrific violence in the war. The firebombing of Dresden killed more than
one hundred thousand people. The dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945 killed two
hundred thousand more. Here Yamaoka Michiko, a survivor of the bombing, describes the awful morning,
August 6, 1945, when a Boeing B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped “Little Boy,” an enriched uranium bomb,
on Hiroshima. On August 9, a plutonium bomb, “Fat Boy,” was dropped on Nagasaki.

That year, on August 6 [1945], I was in the third year of girls’
high school, fifteen years old. I was an operator at the telephone
exchange. We had been mobilized from school for various work
assignments for more than a year. My assigned place of duty
was civilian, but we, too, were expected to protect the nation.
We were tied by strong bonds to the country. We'd heard the
news about the Tokyo and Osaka bombings, but nothing had
dropped on Hiroshima. Japan was winning. So we still believed.
We only had to endure. I wasn't particularly afraid when B-29s
flew overhead.
How are Yamaoka Michiko’s personal
experiences at Hiroshima different from
textbook accounts of the dropping of the
bomb?
The textbook only really give the historical
facts from the dropping of the bomb like
the date and the names of the planes and
the bombs. The textbook doesn’t really talk
about people. This reading tells the
reading what it was actually like after the
atomic bomb was dropped. It shows more
That morning I left the house at about seven forty-five. I heard
that the B-29s had already gone home. Mom told me, "Watch
out, the B-29s might come again." My house was one point three
kilometers from the hypocenter. My place of work was five
hundred meters from the hypocenter. I walked toward the
hypocenter in an area where all the houses and buildings had
been deliberately demolished for fire breaks. There was no
shade. I had on a white shirt and monpe [pants]. As I walked
there, I noticed middle-school students pulling down houses at a
point about eight hundred meters away from the hypocenter. I
heard the faint sound of planes as I approached the river. The
planes were tricky. Sometimes they only pretended to leave. I
could still hear the very faint sound of planes. Today, I have no
hearing in my left ear because of damage from the blast. I
thought, how strange, so I put my right hand above my eyes and
looked up to see if I could spot them. The sun was dazzling.
That was the moment.
There was no sound. I felt something strong. It was terribly
intense. I felt colors. It wasn't heat. You can't really say it was
yellow, and it wasn't blue. At that moment I thought I would be
the only one who would die. I said to myself, "Goodbye, Mom."
They say temperatures of seven thousand degrees centigrade hit
me. You can't really say it washed over me. It's hard to describe.
I simply fainted. I remember my body floating in the air. That
was probably the blast, but I don't know how far I was blown.
When I came to my senses, my surroundings were silent. There
was no wind. I saw a slight threadlike light, so I felt I must be
alive. I was under stones. I couldn't move my body. I heard
voices crying, "Help! Water!" It was then I realized I wasn't the
only one. I couldn't really see around me. I tried to say
something, but my voice wouldn't come out.
"Fire! Run away! Help! Hurry up!" They weren't voices but
moans of agony and despair. "I have to get help and shout," I
thought. The person who rescued me was Mom, although she
herself had been buried under our collapsed house. Mom knew
the route I'd been taking. She came, calling out to me . I heard
her voice and cried for help. Our surroundings were already
starting to burn. Fires burst out from just the light itself It didn't
really drop. It just flashed.
It was beyond my mother’s ability. She pleaded, “My daughter’s
buried here, she’s been helping you, working for the military.”
She convinced soldiers nearby to help her and they started to dig
me out. The fire was now blazing. “Woman, hurry up, run away
from here," soldiers called. From underneath the stones I heard
the crackling of flames. I called to her, "It's all right. Don't worry
about me. Run away." I really didn't mind dying for the sake of
the nation. Then they pulled me out by my legs.
about the people living in Japan, and the
textbook only talks about the atomic
bombs from the American perspective.
Why did the United States government
oppose bringing the Hiroshima Maidens
to the United States for medical
assistance? Do you agree or disagree
with this decision?
The United States government opposed the
bringing of the Hiroshima Maidens to the
United States for medical assistance
because the U.S government thought that it
would mean they were admitting that they
had done something wrong. I think I agree
that by bringing in the Hiroshima Maidens
in for medical assistance would be
admitting that the U.S. government had
done something wrong, but I think they
should’ve done it anyway. I think you
should always help people when given the
chance. By accepting the Hiroshima
Maidens, it could have been the first step to
creating a better relationship between the
victims from the atomic bombs and the
United States.
Why would the government oppose
bringing the Hiroshima Maidens to the
United States but later, in 2003, suport
the bringing of some child victims of the
war in Iraq to the United States for
treatment? How are the two situations
similar and different?
I think the United States learned their
lesson from denying the Hiroshima
Maidens and did not want to make the
same mistake to the victims from the war
in Iraq. These situations are similar
because the people that need help need
help because of something bad the United
States had done and it was about children.
I don’t think these situations are different
at all and it’s really sad the United States
keeps putting itself in situations like this.
What kind of education do we receive in
most history textbooks about the atomic
bombs? Do you think that Michiko
would approve of such education? Why
or why not?
Most of the information we receive from

Nobody there looked like human beings. Until that moment I
thought incendiary bombs had fallen. Everyone was stupefied.
Humans had lost the ability to speak. People couldn't scream, "It
hurts!" even when they were on fire. People didn't say, "It's hot!"
They just sat catching fire.
My clothes were burnt and so was my skin. I was in rags. I had
braided my hair, but now it was like a lion's mane. There were
people, barely breathing, trying to push their intestines back in.
People with their legs wrenched off. Without heads. Or with
faces burned and swollen out of shape. The scene I saw was a
living hell.
Mom didn't say anything when she saw my face and I didn't feel
any pain. She just squeezed my hand and told me to run. She
was going to go rescue my aunt. Large numbers of people were
moving away from the flames. My eyes were still able to see, so I
made my way towards the mountain, where there was no fire,
toward Hijiyama. On this flight I saw a friend of mine from the
phone exchange. She'd been inside her house and wasn't
burned. I called her name, but she didn't respond. My face was
so swollen she couldn't tell who I was. Finally, she recognized
my voice. She said, "Miss Yamaoka, you look like a monster!"
That's the first time I heard that word. I looked at my hands and
saw my own skin hanging down and the red flesh exposed. I
didn't realize my face was swollen up because I was unable to
see it.
The only medicine was tempura oil. I put it on my body myself I
lay on the concrete for hours. My skin was now flat, not puffed
up anymore. One or two layers had peeled off. Only now did it
become painful. A scorching sky was overhead. The flies
swarmed over me arid covered my wounds, which were already
festering. People were simply left lying around. When their
faint breathing became silent, they'd say, "This one's dead," and
put the body in a pile of corpses. Some called for water, and if
they got it, they died immediately.
Mom came looking for me again. That's why I'm alive today. I
couldn't walk anymore. I couldn't see anymore. I was carried on
a stretcher as far as Ujina, and then from there to an island
where evacuees were taken. On the boat there I heard voices
saying, "Let them drink water if they want. They'll die either
way." I drank a lot of water.
I spent the next year bedridden. All my hair fell out. When we
went to relatives' houses later they wouldn't even let me in
because they feared they'd catch the disease. There was neither
treatment nor assistance for me. Those people who had money,
people who had both parents, people who had houses, they
textbooks is from an American perspective.
The textbook only really talks about the
numbers from the day and the names of the
planes and bombs. The textbook also says
that the American military made this
decision to end the war quickly and save
lives. I don’t think Michiko would approve
of this type of education because it doesn’t
talk about anything from the Japanese side.
I think if more people read about sad
stories like hers then maybe we would be
more caring towards each other.
What thoughts and feelings did you have
while you were reading this. Include at
least one quote that stood out to you
and explain why it stood out to you.
This reading made me really sad. The girl
that wrote this was only fifteen years old at
the time the bombs were dropped on her
home and that’s the same age I am. I
couldn’t even imagine having to go through
what she did at this age, or ever really. It
makes me so sad thinking about the family
members and loved ones she lost. One
quote that stood out to me was when she
said she felt colors. I didn’t really
understand what that meant, but when I
kept reading it kind of made sense that the
atomic bombs could make your senses be
weird because of how intense it was. But
what stood out to me more was that people
were catching on fire. This is such a sad
thing for such a young person to have to
witness. She probably had a lot of
nightmares about that. Reading the final
paragraph was weird to me. I always just
think how we only went to war because
our people were killed in the attacks on
Pearl Harbor and have never really thought
about the Japanese that died because of the
decisions the Americans made. Overall,
this was really sad and it makes me hope
something this horrific never happens
again.
could go to the Red Cross Hospital or the Hiroshima City
Hospital. They could get operations. But we didn't have any
money. It was just my Mom and I. Keloids [scar tissue] covered
my face, my neck. I couldn't even move my neck. One eye was
hanging down. I was unable to control my drooling because my
lip had been burned off. I couldn't get any treatments at a
hospital, so my mother gave me massages. Because she did that
for me, my keloids aren't as bad as they would have been. My
fingers were all stuck together. I couldn't move them. The only
thing I could do was sew shorts, since I only needed to sew a
straight line. I had to do something to earn money.

The Japanese government just told us we weren't the only

victims of the war. There was no support or treatment. It was
probably harder for my Mom. Once she told me she tried to
choke me to death. If a girl has terrible scars, a face you couldn't
be born with, I understand that even a mother could want to kill
her child. People threw stones at me and called me Monster.
That was before I had my many operations. I only showed this
side of my face, the right hand side, when I had to face someone.
Like I'm sitting now.

A decade after the bomb, we went to America. I was one of the

twenty-five selected by Norman Cousins [the editor of the
Saturday Review​] to be brought to America for treatment and
plastic surgery. ​We were called the Hiroshima Maidens. The
American government opposed us, arguing that it would be
acknowledging a mistake if they admitted us to America, but we
were supported by many civilian groups. ​We went to Mount
Sinai Hospital in New York and spent about a year and a half
undergoing treatment. I improved tremendously. I've now had
thirty-seven operations, including efforts at skin grafts.

When I went to America I had a deep hatred toward America. I

asked myself why they ended the war by a means which
destroyed human beings. When I talked about how I suffered, I
was often told, "Well, you attacked Pearl Harbor!" I didn't
understand much English then, and it's probably just as well.
From the American point of view, they dropped that bomb in
order to end the war faster, in order to create more damage
faster. But it's inexcusable to harm human beings in this way. I
wonder what kind of education there is now in America about
atomic bombs. They're still making them, aren't they?