A-bombed wall clock-a new marker: Hiroshima's Kazuo Takemoto tells his A-bomb experience
8/3/00 
The wall clock that belonged to Kazuo Takemoto
(70), who managed a rice store in Koinaka
2-chome in Nishi Ward, Hiroshima City, was
stopped at 8:15 am by the shock of the A-bomb
blast. The clock was in its 55th summer.
Over the years, Takemoto talked little about
the clock or his own experience because,
"It's frightening to recall." This
year, he told the story of his experience
for the first time to elementary school children
in his community.
"It looks exactly as it did that day."
The clock hangs in a six-mat room where he
used to work at the time. It is located about
three kilometers west of the hypocenter.
The shock to the two-story building that
was both residence and business was sufficient
to shake mud plaster off the walls and blow
away all the roof tiles and straw, but the
structure itself remained intact.
On August 6, 1945, Takemoto was a mobilized
student at the Mitsubishi Juko Hiroshima
Shipbuilding Yard in Eba. It was there that
he was exposed to the A-bomb. Having escaped
injury, he left the factory around 3:00 pm
and walked home. He saw many injured people
suffering along the riverbanks.
When he entered his house, Takemoto saw the
familiar clock. Neither the wooden body nor
the glass face were scratched, yet the pendulum
was still, and the hands had stopped at 8:15.
Because he also had an alarm clock, he did
not need to repair the wall clock immediately,
and he gradually came to see it as "proof
, here and now, that the bomb actually fell
back then." He never removed the clock
from wall except to dust it or show it to
his grandchildren.
Takemoto remained silent about his bombing
experience all these years because, "It's
frightening to recall those horrible scenes."
In June, children at Koi Elementary School
asked Takemoto to tell them his A-bomb experience.
He showed the clock to six children who came
to see him, telling them, "We can't
have any more wars. Tell everyone that nuclear
weapons have to go."
[Caption] Holding his A-bombed clock, Takemoto relates
his A-bomb experience.
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