Shakuda was one of a group of young women trained for such work as the war intensified and growing numbers of male workers were drafted to fight.
The bomb that exploded on
“Many different kinds of people, including the injured, were pushing to get onto the train,” Shakuda, 89, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I remember thinking ‘wow’ about everything I saw.”
She recalls the time as the most harrowing of her life.
“The ceiling of the tram was black with swarms of packed flies,” Shakuda wrote in a memoir. “They buzzed around loudly. It felt creepy to think that these same flies had been eating those who died from the atomic bombing.”
Fares were free after the bombing, and survivors saw the train as a symbol of hope and continuity amid the devastation. Shakuda considered her work on the tram part of a vital wartime mission for her country.
Her path to that work began when, hoping to become a teacher, Shakuda entered a home economics school for girls established by the
As battles with
When the atomic bomb destroyed most of
Shakuda was having breakfast in her dorm’s cafeteria, just over 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) from the epicenter, when a bright flash filled the sky. She crouched, thinking the ceiling was falling. Silence followed, then waves of dust. Classmates started crying out, “Mom, help me!” The survivors crawled out of the cafeteria.
“People’s clothes were falling apart and their skin was drooping,” Shakuda told AP.
She survived without any injuries — one of the few. Over the following days, she helped nurse others. But with no medication, supplies or doctors, all she could do was weep as she picked maggots off gaping wounds using chopsticks.
Despite the damage, surviving train employees, residents and soldiers began rebuilding the tracks.
After
The role she and others played is now commemorated by
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, no passengers are allowed on the train this year, but operators will make special runs of the train on Thursday, the anniversary of the
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