We
make our way along the street on the river bank among the burning and
smoking ruins. Twice we are forced into the river itself by the heat
and smoke at the level of the street.

Frightfully burned people beckon to us. Along the way, there are many
dead and dying. On the Misasi Bridge, which leads into the inner city
we are met by a long procession of soldiers who have suffered burns.
They drag themselves along with the help of staves or are carried by
their less severely injured comrades...an endless procession of the
unfortunate.

Abandoned on the bridge, there stand with sunken heads a number of
horses with large burns on their flanks. On the far side, the cement
structure of the local hospital is the only building that remains
standing. Its interior, however, has been burned out. It acts as a
landmark to guide us on our way.

Finally we reach the entrance of the park. A large proportion of the
populace has taken refuge there, but even the trees of the park are on
fire in several places. Paths and bridges are blocked by the trunks of
fallen trees and are almost impassable. We are told that a high wind,
which may well have resulted from the heat of the burning city, has
uprooted the large trees. It is now quite dark. Only the fires, which
are still raging in some places at a distance, give out a little light.

At the far corner of the park, on the river bank itself, we at last
come upon our colleagues. Father Schiffer is on the ground pale as a
ghost. He has a deep incised wound behind the ear and has lost so much
blood that we are concerned about his chances for survival. The Father
Superior has suffered a deep wound of the lower leg. Father Cieslik
and Father Kleinsorge have minor injuries but are completely exhausted.

While they are eating the food that we have brought along, they tell us
of their experiences. They were in their rooms at the Parish House--it
was a quarter after eight, exactly the time when we had heard the
explosion in Nagatsuke--when came the intense light and immediately
thereafter the sound of breaking windows, walls and furniture. They
were showered with glass splinters and fragments of wreckage. Father
Schiffer was buried beneath a portion of a wall and suffered a severe
head injury. The Father Superior received most of the splinters in his
back and lower extremity from which he bled copiously. Everything was
thrown about in the rooms themselves, but the wooden f