• 

Part 3 Rescue and Medical Relief

---

Relief trains picked up the injured at way points between Michino’o and Urakami Railroad Stations on the day of the atomic bombing.
　That day (August 9), four relief trains were in service and transported approximately 3,500 injured people to Isahaya, Ōmura, Kawatana, Haiki and other places. Regarding the service time, train No. 311, the first relief train, left the affected area at 1:50 p.m.; train No. 807, the second relief train, at around 4:00 p.m.; train No. 317, the third relief train, between 6:00 and 6:30 p.m.; and train No. 329, the last relief train, between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. If these data are applied to the Nagasaki Railroad Station arrival and departure timetable (the table below) train No. 311 arrived at Nagasaki Railroad Station at 11:10 a.m., and other trains in the order of arrival.
　Train No. 311 arrived at Nagayo Railroad Station 15 minutes behind schedule, the delay caused by an air raid. In fact the delay saved the train. If it had been on time, it would have been passing the vicinity of the hypocenter in Matsuyama-machi when the atomic bomb exploded. The atomic bomb exploded when the eastbound train, scheduled to leave Nagasaki Railroad Station at 10:10 a.m. (30 minutes behind schedule), was approaching Nagayo Railroad Station following train No. 311.

Nagasaki Railroad Station arrival and departure timetable (revised on June 10, 1945)

Departure		Arrival
Time	Destination	Time	Departing Station
5:14	Haiki & Hizenyamaguchi	6:13	Konagai
6:57	Sasebo	7:08	Hizenhama
8:15	Haiki	7:38	Moji Port (via Haiki)
10:10	Moji Port	8:55	Sasebo & Hizenyamaguchi
12:45	Tosu & Sasebo	11:10	Haiki & Tosu
15:29	Sasebo & Tosu	13:14	Sasebo
17:20	Tosu & Sasebo	14:47	Tosu
19:12	Tara	17:47	Sasebo
22:15	Moji Port (via Haiki)	19:23	Sasebo & Tosu
		21:26	Sasebo & Tosu

Nonaka Katsumi (in charge of trains, operational section) of the Japan National Railroads Nagasaki Administrative Division experienced the atomic bombing at Nagayo Railroad Station while waiting to take train No. 311 on a business trip to Nagasaki. The Nagasaki Administrative Division had been relocated to a wooden office in a paddy field, in front of Nagayo Railroad Station. Hiding between seats at the moment of the flash, he was shocked to see the sky turn black in the direction of Nagasaki. He tried to make calls to Nagasaki and Urakami Railroad Stations from Nagayo Railroad Station, but the telephone lines to both stations had been disconnected. He managed to get through to Michino’o Railroad Station using a railroad telephone, but when he asked the person on the other end of the line about the situation, the person seemed confused and gave only a very vague reply.
　The westbound and eastbound trains were idling at the platform with their windows broken. The most urgent question was how trains going west toward Nagasaki could resume service. Nonaka returned to the administrative division office for meetings regarding that matter. When he arrived at the office, her heard that: “Major fires have broken out due to the bombing of Nagasaki, and the populace has suffered a large number of casualties.” In the administrative division, persons in charge of locomotives, passengers and trains quickly put their heads together and discussed the operation plan. As a result, it was decided that relief trains would be dispatched to accommodate the injured. Train No. 311, they decided, would go as far as possible but return if it was unsafe, with Nonaka Katsumi serving as leader. Thus train No. 311 left Nagayo Railroad Station.
　The crew of the train included locomotive engineers Mitsutake Fujio and Kishikawa Kunio, the conductor Nonaka Iwata, and crewmembers Matsuzaki, Shimizu Sadako and Sato Michiko. Approximately ten crewmembers, including Nonaka Katsumi, were on board the train.
　Train No. 311 stopped at Michino’o Railroad Station to let off passengers. At the station, there were already many injured people, not only in open spaces but also on the platform. However, it was imperative that they travel as far as possible into the affected areas and pick up the injured.
　From Michino’o Railroad Station, the train switched to “push operation mode,” the locomotive connected at the rear and pushing instead of pulling the train. Maintenance staff members had already gone ahead by car to inspect the tracks, but they implemented the above measure to deal with the emergency circumstances. In push operation mode, the locomotive will not get stuck, even if the train is derailed, because it can leave the derailed cars and continue on its way. Remembered Nonaka Katsumi:

I walked ahead of the train. The conductor in the front car used flags to relay my signals to the engineer in the locomotive in the rear. I walked along the right side of the tracks while Saiki Hideo, another crewmember, walked on the left side. Following us, train No. 311 gradually entered the affected area in Urakami.
　The injured were streaming toward the train along the tracks, the only route of escape. I picked up a bamboo stick and waved it as a signal to the injured to divide along the right and left sides. “Get off the tracks and stay here,” I said. “We will take you to a hospital using this train.” Leaving the injured there, we went on our way.
　From the area of Rokujizō, the tracks descended at a grade of 10:1,000 and the town ahead gradually came into view. Flames were darting up everywhere. Because of that, the sun looked dull. The more we advanced, the more the railroad ties were burning, so I brought the train to a stop, feeling that it was too dangerous to go any closer to the affected area. That was downhill from Shōenji Temple, specifically at a point a little closer to Urakami from the stone steps of the temple.
　The train blew its whistle many times when it came to a halt. Persons with burn injuries came crawling to the train from all over the place. However, the carriage decks were too high to board without a platform. Many died from exhaustion while hanging from the iron poles of the decks, after finally arriving at the train. Desperate to board the train, they often used corpses as steps. With the help of passengers whose injuries were relatively slight, other train crewmembers and I tried desperately to lift and push the injured onto the train.
　During this operation, a messenger came from a military unit somewhere. He asked if the train could be used to transport the injured in his unit to the nearest hospital. My response was that in such a situation, with so many injured, we could not make special arrangements only for the military, but that if the unit came here, we could at least transport them to a hospital. Enemy planes flew overhead but did not drop bombs, apparently carrying out reconnaissance flights. However, somebody’s cry of ‘air raid!’ caused panic for a time, with some people crawling under the carriage, some rushing to an air-raid shelter, and others cowering in the shadow of the temple’s stone steps.
　I ordered the train to leave at 13:50. We picked up the injured at Michino’o Railroad Station, and the train headed for Isahaya with approximately 700 passengers on board, letting off most of the injured at Isahaya.
　I got off at Nagayo Railroad Station, returned to the Nagasaki Administrative Division and made plans for the next relief train.

Train No. 311, the first relief train, left the point down the hill from Shōenji Temple less than three hours after the atomic bombing. Although the train’s standing time is unknown, the hypocenter area was still engulfed in flames and the aid operation demanded desperate efforts.
　The point down the hill from Shōenji was approximately 2.2 kilometers from Michino’o Railroad Station and approximately 1.4 kilometers from the hypocenter. Among the following relief trains, there seems to have been one that went as far as the Nishimachi railroad crossing (about one kilometer from the hypocenter) and picked up the injured.
　With four relief trains carrying some 3,500 persons, there remain many memoirs and testimonies regarding the relief work on the day of the atomic bombing. The following example is an excerpt from the memoir of Nakano Ryūzō, one of the students from Saga Prefectural Imari Commercial School mobilized to work at the Mitsubishi Arms Factory Ōhashi Plant. Nakano experienced the atomic bombing and sustained injuries at Nishigō Dormitory in Nishi-machi. Written in the autumn of the same year and carefully preserved, the memoir describes one of the relief trains deployed from Nagasaki to Haiki and provides valuable information on the activities of the trains.

Mr. Ide told me and the other students from Imari Commercial School to return to the dormitory (Nishigō Dormitory) and go to the air-raid shelter beside the dormitory. We headed back in a large group to the dormitory air-raid shelter, carrying the seriously injured on stretchers in the middle of the group. When we got to the shelter, Mr. Okamoto was there. He had sustained external injuries all over the body in addition to burn injuries from face to neck.
　A messenger told us that a relief train would arrive at the crossing beside the factory at 4:00 p.m. Deciding to leave Nagasaki for the time being, we headed for the crossing carrying the seriously injured on stretchers. When we arrived at the crossing, we saw that the fields all around were filled with the injured and evacuees.
　One of the students of Imari Commercial School, Tanaka, could not sleep and was covered with blood from his back to his sides, with glass splinters sticking out. He was leaning over the ridge between potato fields. Just next to him, Nakajima, who was at death’s door with his skin hanging down from the burn injuries he had sustained all over his body, was also lying with his body covered with mud.
　When the train finally came, we happily stood up to board it. However, the train passed without stopping and left in the direction of Nagasaki. After a while, it came back with injured fully loaded on its 10 cars. While some able-bodied people recklessly jumped onto the train and hung from the deck, most of us just watched the train go by, its crew encouraging us, saying that they would come back for us soon and we should wait until then. According to the information I heard later, three students (Soejima, Murakoshi and Ozaki) from Imari Commercial School boarded the train and arrived at Imari that day, going on to report to the school regarding the situation.
　After that, it felt like a long time before the next train came. Waiting impatiently, we finally saw one coming around 6:00 p.m. Then Mr. Ide, expecting congestion, stood up and addressed us saying, ‘Everybody, as to riding on the train, we should put the seriously injured on board the train first, under the command of the naval personnel, and the get on the train ourselves in good order.’ The naval personnel, two or three at each door, started to put the seriously injured on board the train first.
　In due course, since the train was filled with passengers even on the decks, two or three of my friends and I headed for the freight cars. Seen from below, the freight cars looked almost empty. When we gratefully got onto them, however, we found the floors covered with seriously injured persons and hardly any place to put our feet without stepping on someone. We had no choice but to stand close beside the doors, half hanging from them. Suddenly there came a sound of bombers and a piercing cry, ‘Enemy planes!’ We scrambled off the train and trudged along behind a group of evacuees, heading for the mountainside.
　Nothing happened, and four or five minutes later the evacuees rushed back to the train. Then a few more people followed, and all of the evacuees did the same. Fortunately, I managed to get on the carriage that time. However, the carriage was packed with people, and I had to remain on my feet in an aisle.
　When we arrived at Michino’o Railroad Station, the injured, eagerly awaiting the train, poked their heads out the windows and begged for water. However, the people at the station seemed to have been told about the situation and would not give the injured any water, saying, ‘Please be patient a little longer.’ After departure, a man sitting in front of me, who had a terrible, massive wound on his head, asked me if I could give him my space. I thought he was joking, because it was a sitting man asking a man standing in an aisle to trade places. However, I traded places, feeling grateful for his request. The man, covered with cuts and bruises, then collapsed on the aisle floor. He had probably been in such a state of agony that he could simply not remain sitting.
　When we arrived at a certain station, a local person provided us with cucumbers through the train window. Hearing the word ‘cucumber,’ even people who had been lying as limp as a wet rag got up and made a fuss, saying, ‘Give me a cucumber! Give me one!’ The man who traded places with me, not having enough energy to get up, asked me if I could get a cucumber for him. So I did. He ate it voraciously.
　The train arrived at Isahaya after dark. Although the defense unit members shouted that the slightly injured should get off the train and have their injuries treated, the students from Imari Commercial School decided not to leave the train.
　In time, the train arrived at Ōmura.
　All the seriously injured were to be taken to Ōmura Naval Hospital. It seems that five or six students from Imari Commercial School got off the train as well. There was an injured person from the navy lying in the door area, covered with blood. For some reason, pumpkin seeds had been stuffed in his wound. When we tried to put him on a stretcher, he asked us in a feeble voice to leave him alone because the wound hurt. Another man who was probably the unit chief criticized the wounded man, saying a naval man should not be disabled by such a slight injury. He forced him to get on a stretcher and then went outside. The injured people, who were taken off the train on stretchers, were laid out on the platform in a row like tuna in the fish market, a scene so often viewed in photographs.
　While the train stopped at Kawatana Railroad Station, the loud screech of an air-raid alarm siren sounded. Turning pale, I thought, ‘Oh no, another air raid!’ However, the train left the lights on inside the carriages and continued moving without regard to the situation.
　Fortunately, we were not attacked and arrived at Haiki safely. Approximately 50 injured people got off on the platform there. The next thing I knew was that we were missing Mr. Ide. He seemed to have gotten off the train along with the seriously injured at Ōmura. Since the eastbound train coming from Haiki would arrive at 5:00 the next morning, we went into the dark waiting room.
　The station employees worried about the injured and took them to a nearby hospital. It might have been around 11:00 p.m. when we arrived at Haiki Railroad Clinic. In a room shielded with blackout curtains and lights brightly on, first aid treatment commenced. Since it was only a stopgap measure, there was no anesthetic for stitching wounds. When the injured squirmed from the pain of stitching a wound, the doctors would make everyone laugh, saying something like, ‘This gentleman is still alive, very good, very good!’
　Around the time the doctors finished treating wounds, the defense unit members in Haiki brought rice balls for us. Although I had completely forgotten about food until that moment, I suddenly felt very hungry. Come to think of it, I had not eaten anything since breakfast the previous day. It was already 2:00 a.m. on August 10. Each person received two rice balls, and the taste was unforgettable. I have never again tasted anything so delicious. We were truly grateful for the people from Haiki treating our wounds and cooking for us, even though it was 2:00 o’clock in the morning.

A few points should be mentioned regarding the mobilization of relief trains. One theory has it that instructions from the navy were involved in the relief train mobilization. This theory seems to be based on the interview with Governor Nagano, as well as the phrase, “the naval relief trains” seen in the memoir of Yamaguchi Takeo, an employee at the Mitsubishi Arms Factory Ōhashi Plant. 56
　However, according to Nonaka Katsumi (Japan National Railroads Nagasaki Administrative Division, Operation Section, Associate Officer in charge of trains), who replied to an inquiry regarding this matter, JNR received no instructions from the navy regarding relief trains, and all actions were based on the decisions and instructions of the local administrative division.
　In addition, many aspects of the services provided by relief trains remain unknown. The relief trains have attracted considerable interest because they played such an important role, and many memoirs and testimonies have been published. However, many things remain unclear, because people tend to have only vague memories on important points and there are differences in their testimonies.
　The last train, scheduled to arrive at Nagasaki Railroad Station at 9:26 p.m. (21:26), arrived considerably behind schedule at Michino’o Railroad Station at 3:00 a.m. Was the train carrying any injured persons? If it was, the train should be categorized among the relief trains on the day of the atomic bombing, even though its arrival time was on August 10, the next day. In any case, it is not known which relief train was used to transport the 250 to 300 injured who were accommodated in Haiki Elementary School on the morning of August 10.
　The established number of 3,500 people transported by relief train was calculated from the number of people accommodated in the facilities in Isahaya (except for Nagata Elementary School), Ōmura, Chiwata, Kawatana, Haiki and other places.
　Since the role of the relief trains on the day of the atomic bombing was of such importance, future clarification of the details is required.

1) Prefectural and Municipal Aid Units

Name	Mobilization Period	Number mobilized	Note
Police Officers	August 9 - 18, 10 days	578	○As of August 13 for number of mobilized people
Firemen	August 9 - 18, 10 days	160	○As of August 13 for number of mobilized people
Defense Unit Members	August 9 - 18, 10 days	465	○As of August 13 for number of mobilized people
Volunteer Labor Unit Members for Transportation	August 9 - 18, 10 days	78	○As of August 13 for number of mobilized people
National Food Protection Unit Members	August 9 - 18, 10 days	180	○As of August 13 for number of mobilized people
Saga Prefectural Police Aid Unit	August 10 - 12, 3 days	175

“Nagasaki Atomic Bombing Damage Report” was referred to for data marked “○”

2) Factory Aid Units

Name	Mobilization Period	Number mobilized	Note
Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard	From August 10
Mitsubishi Nagasaki Arms Factory Dōzaki Plant	From August 10	300
Kawanami Industrial Shipyard Kōyagishima Shipyard	August 10 – 14 5 days	1,800
Nagasaki Shipbuilding Vocational School Militia Unit Members	August 10 – 14 5 days	120	According to “Nagasaki Atomic Bombing Damage Report”, 210 members were mobilized
Fukahori Shipyard	From August 9

3) Aid Units in Nagasaki Prefecture　

Name	Mobilization Period	Number mobilized	Note
Section: Nishisonogi County
Mogi-machi	August 9 – Middle of September 35 days	100	○Meal preparation by women’s association. Participated in relief operations only
Himi Village	August 9 – 16 8 days	320 in total	○Participated in relief operations by women’s militia unit. Meals prepared by women’s association
Yagami Village	August 9 – 17 9 days	700 in total	○Participated in relief operations by women’s militia unit. Meals prepared by women’s association
Nagayo Village	August 9 – 20 12 days	700 in total	○Meal preparation by women’s association. Participated in relief operations only
Ōkusa Village	August 10 – 11 2 days	142	○Meal preparation by women’s association
Ikiriki Village	August 11 1 day	30	○Accompanied by women’s youth association
Kikitsu Village	August 9 1 day	20
Togitsu Village	August 9 – 18 10 days	200	○Participated in relief operations only
Muramatsu Village	August 10 – 11 2 days	100	○Meal preparation by women’s association
Nagaura Village	August 10 – 11 2 days	200	○Meal preparation by women’s association
Kamedake Village	August 11 – 12 2 days	200
Kurosaki Village	August 10 – 11 2 days
Mie Village Fukuda Village, Teguma			○Meal preparation by women’s association
Fukahori Village	August 9 – 10 2 days	200
Kawahara Village	August 9 – 11 3 days	90
Kayaki Village	August 11 – 12 2 days	60
Tameishi Village	August 11 – 13 2 days	70
Section: Isahaya City
Isahaya City	August 9 – 17 9 days	300	○Meal preparation by women’s association. Also participated in relief operations
Section: Kitatakaki County
Toishi Village	August 9 – 10 2 days	100
Koga Village	August 9 – 14 6 days	350 in total	○Meal preparation by women’s association
Tayui Village	August 10 – 16 7 days	105
Enoura Village	August 11 – 17 7 days	300
Fukahori Village	August 9 – 15 7 days	18
Oe Village	August 12 1 day	28
Yue Village	August 11 – 15 5 days	30
Konagai Village	August 10 – 12 3 days	107
Moriyama Village	August 13 1 day	30
Section: Shimabara City
Shimabara City	August 9 – 13 5 days	325 in total
Section: Minamitakaki County
Aino Village	August 10 – 16 7 days	490 in total
Moriyama Village	August 9 – 15 7 days	250 in total
Taishō Village	August 11 – 13 3 days	36 in total
Saigō Village	August 10 – 17 8 days	210 in total
Nishiarie-chō	From August 9	30
Minamiarima Village		16	Mixed aid unit from Kazusa-chō, Kuchinotsu-chō and Minamiarima-chō
Kuchinotsu-chō
Obama-chō		90
Chijiwa Village	August 10 – 11 2 days	60
Unzen Agriculture Training Institute Aid Unit	August 11 – 15 5 days	250 in total	Present-day Kunimi-chō
Section: Ōmura City
Ōmura City	August 9 – 16 8 days	600 in total	○Meal preparation by women’s association. Also participated in relief operations

“Gathering of Survivors” was referred to for data marked “○”.

4) Military Related Units

Name	Mobilization Period	Number mobilized	Note
Nagasaki Fortress (district) Headquarters	August 9 – 13 5 days	Army Work Unit: 150 Army Telegram Unit: one company Army Infantry: two battalions
High-Angle Gun Unit	From August 9 to around the end of the war	20
Coast Defense Ship Crew Members’ Unit	From August 9 to around the end of the war	100
The 21st Naval Aeronautical Arsenal Workers’ Unit	From August 9 to around the end of the war	150
Kawatana Naval Dockyard Workers’ Unit	From August 9 to around the end of the war	250	141 of the 250 workers were incorporated from SHS Aid Unit

___________________________
56 Yamaguchi Takeo, Genbaku zengo (Before and After the Atomic Bombing), edited by Shirai Hideo (1969), Vol.18. ^

---