ay have tumbled down. I do not note a second
explosion and the fliers seem to have gone on. Most of my colleagues
have been injured by fragments of glass. A few are bleeding but none
has been seriously injured. All of us have been fortunate since it is
now apparent that the wall of my room opposite the window has been
lacerated by long fragments of glass.

We proceed to the front of the house to see where the bomb has landed.
There is no evidence, however, of a bomb crater; but the southeast
section of the house is very severely damaged. Not a door nor a window
remains. The blast of air had penetrated the entire house from the
southeast, but the house still stands. It is constructed in a Japanese
style with a wooden framework, but has been greatly strengthened by the
labor of our Brother Gropper as is frequently done in Japanese homes.
Only along the front of the chapel which adjoins the house, three
supports have given way (it has been made in the manner of Japanese
temple, entirely out of wood.)

Down in the valley, perhaps one kilometer toward the city from us,
several peasant homes are on fire and the woods on the opposite side of
the valley are aflame. A few of us go over to help control the flames.
While we are attempting to put things in order, a storm comes up and it
begins to rain. Over the city, clouds of smoke are rising and I hear a
few slight explosions. I come to the conclusion that an incendiary
bomb with an especially strong explosive action has gone off down in
the valley. A few of us saw three planes at great altitude over the
city at the time of the explosion. I, myself, saw no aircraft
whatsoever.

Perhaps a half-hour after the explosion, a procession of people begins
to stream up the valley from the city. The crowd thickens
continuously. A few come up the road to our house. We give them first
aid and bring them into the chapel, which we have in the meantime
cleaned and cleared of wreckage, and put them to rest on the straw mats
which constitute the floor of Japanese houses. A few display horrible
wounds of the extremities and back. The small quantity of fat which we
possessed during this time of war was soon used up in the care of the
burns. Father Rektor who, before taking holy orders, had studied
medicine, ministers to the injured, but our bandages and drugs are soon
gone. We must be content with cleansing the wounds.

More and more of the injured come to us. The least inju