Pic of Somchai Letters from Somchai : A Japanese boy living in Japan

Dear Joe,

Hey Joe!  It’s Somchai!  How are you?  I am writing to tell you my new address.  My dad is working for the ambassador in Hiroshima, Japan.  Please write to me at this address. 

So far it is scary here.  I haven't made any friends because I am not allowed to converse much with the outside world.  I cannot make any friends because my dad’s boss will not let me go outside without a guard.  I usually keep to myself, as I don’t want to be with a guard. 

I sometimes listen to my dad’s conversations on the telephone, and I hear some interesting stuff about America.  I do not really know what is going on, but from what I can tell, it is not good.  It seems like Japan will not end the war with America.  I do not know what we can do.  Pretty soon I will have to stop writing to you. The guards check my mail, and I know they will not allow any mail to go to the United States.  My dad’s boss says America is the enemy. 

I go to the National Elementary School in Hiroshima.  The students are not permitted to talk to each other, so it is very quiet.  National Elementary school makes me feel like I am in a room all by myself.  I really hate that feeling.  Do you still go to the same school?  I am going to have to go to a different school in four weeks, so I will give you my address when I arrive.  Please write to me here until then.  This school is for children only. I think it is a good reason to get us children off our parents back when the air raid sounds. 

Do you have many air raids?  I think my town has about one or two a day.  Sometimes they are late at night, like 2:00 am.  Imagine that, I have to get up early in the morning and run to the air raid shelter.  Usually after the all clear has sounded, we can go home.  Sometimes the raids take 30 minutes, sometimes 1-2 hours.  The longest I have stayed in the shelter is for five hours!  I find it hard to get to sleep after that.  Sometimes my mother makes breakfast for my father and me when we get home.  Usually my dad goes to the office after a raid.  I am not sure what he does, but I know it is not good.  He comes home with piles and piles of work each night.  When I try and ask him about it or ask if he needs help, he usually tells me to get lost.  When my mother hears him, she speaks to him and I get to help my dad.  Usually I get to file papers and look at maps.  He does not tell me what the maps are, but they look like a great place to live.  Do you have any maps of where you live?  What do they look like? 

I better go and help my mother with dinner, so I will write to you later.  Please write to me, because I get very lonely.  I really have no one to talk to. 

Somchai


Dear Joe,

It’s Somchai! This is getting crazy. I can not believe what has happened. I do not even know where to begin to tell what happened. All I remember from the bombing was as I was sitting in school and all of the sudden I felt a huge explosion near by. As we all ran to the window, I had seen all of these people running with melted skin. Everyone was yelling for help and had nowhere to turn too. It seemed as if they were lost people wondering scarcely through the city. I knew that something really, really bad had happened. After seeing this, my first fears were my parents. I thought after the raid earlier this morning I was safe for another day, but then this had to happen and my father, my mother, where was they? Were they safe? We were not allowed to leave till very late that day and still we were not allowed to talk. All I did was cry and worry about my family.

Later that day we found out that dad did not make it through the bombing. He was one of the many bodies that had jumped into a near by river to kill their flaming bodies, but there were too many…mom was okay and we are both terrified. It was a moment that we never thought would happen, at least happen to us. But now we have to face our lives alone, without dad.

Now all I feel is fear inside of me fear that this may someday happen again. I find it hard for me the blame the USA because we did harm to them, but they killed my dad and that is what makes me most angry. I lie awake at night with visions of people with burning skin crying for help. Then I see all the bodies swamped in the river lying dead. I still am confused and do not sleep much.

Well, I really have nothing much else to tell of the bombing. It is making me upset writing what I did, but I wanted to let you know what happened. Please keep writing me, I am not mad at the USA and am not mad at you.

Somchai

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