Hiroshima Aftermath

Dr. Mizuno was a young eye specialist who had only been working at the hospital for a month. He now found himself offering whatever first aid help he could as he moved tirelessly through the cramped, stinking hallways filled with burn victims. He wanted desperately to run out of the hospital and escape these horrible scenes of pain and tragedy, but his sense of duty kept him where he was. He carried a stack of bandages under his arm along with a couple bottles of Mercurochrome. The Mercurochrome was a simple antiseptic good for minor cuts or scrapes. He put bandages, compresses, and saline solution on the more ghastly burn wounds. Some of the people were scalded through layers of muscle. One man’s eyes had melted out. Many of them were swelling with fluid into grotesque and inhuman features. Mercurochrome and saline solution was all he could offer.

His short hair was disheveled and his face was filthy with dust and sweat. He had borrowed a pair of glasses from a nurse because his own pair had been blown off his face during the explosion. He had been standing outside his office on the second floor of the hospital when he saw a bright flash in the hallway. A few seconds later a burst of violent energy ran through the building, shattering all of the windows and shooting the glass shards like shrapnel throughout the various rooms. Many of the patients who filled the beds near the windows were sliced to ribbons from the intense power of the flying glass.

“Excuse me, sir, are you a doctor?”

Dr. Mizuno turned around and saw a young boy and girl standing behind him. They looked amazingly healthy, and they didn’t look Japanese. His first guess was that they were Filipino which took him by surprise. Why would Filipinos be in Hiroshima? They only foreigners he knew of nearby were either Germans or Koreans.

“Yes.”

“We brought some sick people over from the park across the river. They are lying out in the grass. Is there anyone here who can help bring them inside?”

Dr. Mizuno felt his heart sink. He was surrounded by nothing by victims, yet more and more were coming. Would this ever stop?

“I’m sorry, but I have to tend to these people here.”

“But they’re very sick,” said Kyla. “Is there anything we can do for them?”

“Maybe we can have some of those bandages? Then we can tend to them ourselves,” said Zammie.

Dr. Mizuno was encouraged by the will of these children. He handed them a few of the square bandages and a bottle of saline. “Here. I deputize you both as official nurses. Dab a little liquid on the bandage then place it on the wounds. There’s not enough for everyone, but help as many people as you can.” In order to save as many lives as possible, Dr. Mizuno had chosen to help the less injured first. That was what his training had taught him. It felt like a cruel decision to make but he knew many of the people who entered the hospital were beyond hope, and he only had a finite amount of medical supplies available.

The children took the bandages and the small bottle of saline. “Yes, doctor. Thank you, doctor,” they said.

-- from Killing for Country

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