66	HIROSHIMA
membered uneasily what the great burns he had seen
during the day had been like: yellow at first, then red
and swollen, with the skin sloughed off, and finally,
in the evening, suppurated and smelly. With the tide
risen, his bamboo pole was now too short and he had
to paddle most of the way across with it. On the other
side, at a higher spit, he lifted the slimy living bodies
out and carried them up the slope away from the
tide. He had to keep consciously repeating to himself,
4£ These are human beings." It took him three trips
to get them all across the river. When he had finished,
he decided he had to have a rest, and he went back to
the park.
As Mr, Tanlmoto stepped up the dark bank, he
tripped over someone, and someone else said angrily,
" Look out! That's1 my hand." Mr. Tanimoto,
ashamed of hurting wounded people, embarrassed
at being able to walk upright, suddenly thought of
the naval hospital ship, which had not come (it never
did), and he had for a moment a feeling of blind,
murderous rage at the crew of the ship, and then at all
doctors. Why didn't they come to help these people ?
Dr. Fujii lay in dreadful pain throughout the night
on the-floor of his family's roofless house on the edge
of the city. By the light of a lantern, he had examined
himself and found: left clavicle fractured; multiple
abrasions and lacerations of face and body, including
deep cuts on the chin, back, and legs; extensive
contusions on chest and trunk; a couple of ribs
possibly fractured. Had he not been so badly hurt,
he might have been at Asano Park, assisting the
wounded.