Priest recalls horrors of atomic bombing, conversion to Catholicism

Published: 2005-08-01

HIROSHIMA, Japan (CNS) -- Mobilization out of Hiroshima 60 years ago to work in a weapons-manufacturing zone probably saved the life of Hayazoe Jo, then a 19-year-old student. Sixty years after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city Aug. 6, 1945, Father Hayazoe, now 79 and a Hiroshima diocesan priest, recalled the horror and the events that led to his conversion to Catholicism and, eventually, his priesthood. He spoke to UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. "The explosion took place at 8:15, just when the tram I usually rode was crossing the bridge right below the blast," Father Hayazoe said, referring to his daily journey to school in Hiroshima. Had he not been sent to Otake, a weapons- and munitions-producing center about 18 miles down the coast, he added, "I would have been among the blackened corpses." From Otake, Father Hayazoe saw the "mushroom cloud" that spread over Hiroshima the day before he was told to return to his school to help identify bodies. "The smell of burning bodies, the smell of rotting bodies, I couldn't stand it," he recalled. "Tears poured from my eyes."

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