Ittsei Nakagawa was born in January 1930 in Fresno, California. He was fortunate in that the lady who delivered him was a midwife. His first name is spelled differently than it should be. It should be spelled "Issei". He lost his citizenship while in Japan during World War 2. He did not go to the embassy because there was none. After the war, he wanted to regain his citizenship and made an application. That is when he found out his name was spelled incorrectly. It was a mistake the midwife had made. His name is the only one in the world and he is very proud of it now. His real name means "to become one". He feels it is appropriate for an atomic survivor who is only one of those who survived. [Annotator's Note: Nakagawa is referring to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945.] In 1953, he met his wife. As soon as he graduated from UC Berkeley [Annotator's Note: University of California, Berkeley] they got married and have two girls.

Ittsei Nakagawa's father's side of the family came over to the United States [Annotator's Note: from Japan] around 1904. At the beginning, his grandfather and the two brothers came and found jobs. They found the "American Dream." His grandfather went back and got his wife and daughter. Nakagawa has two sisters. One was exposed to the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945]. She was married to a farmer and she had a disease they could not define. He does not know if she ever got to see a Japanese doctor. American doctors will not always accept problems with atomic survivors diagnosed by Japanese doctors. If they want to solve a problem, they have to go to Japan for treatment which is not easy. Some American insurance companies will not insure the survivors.

Ittsei Nakagawa was born in Fresno, California and lived in Orange Cove [Annotator's Note: Orange Cove, California] in the 1930s. His father and his uncle shared a home where they all grew up together. They later moved to Reedley, California around 1940. There was some indication that war may happen between Japan and America. Japan was at war in the Asian world and they were concerned about a war starting. They felt they should go visit their grandparents in Japan. The war broke out and he was stuck there until 1947. He had difficulty learning the language and maintaining a level of education to get into high school. The first exposure of the atomic bomb took place in Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: Hiroshima, Japan]. Nakagawa was going to school in Hiroshima. The city had never been bombed before. They would see planes pass by them. On 6 August [Annotator's Note: 6 August 1945], at 8:15 in the morning, he had the experience of being in the midst of an atomic bomb. It was a normal day and he went on his way to school. He got to the factory where the students worked making military equipment. He did not know what they were making. It was a clear day and an air raid [Annotator's Note: air raid siren] came on. There was only one B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] in the air, so the warning stopped. Everyone came out of the shelters. He went inside the factory and the students were outside looking at a parachute coming out of the sky. Next there was a flash and it got very black and dusty. It was like going to hell. When it all settled, he was completely lost and did not know what was happening. He got out of the building and noticed he had blood all over his clothes. It felt like an instant, but it also felt so long. He saw his student friends and he could not recognize them because they were black. It was complete chaos and it looked like the earth was crumbling.

[Annotator's Note: Ittsei Nakagawa was in a factory in Hiroshima, Japan when the atomic bomb exploded over the city on 6 August 1945.] Everybody was wondering what was going on. It was so chaotic. They decided to head for home. There were no leaders, no instructions, nothing. Everyone went their own way because they thought it was the end of the world. It was pitch dark and black and moisture was coming down. There had been no clouds before the blast. There were no streetcars and it was almost impossible for Nakagawa to find his way. Everything was burning. It was hell. It was so hot. He remembers having a cloth hood, a bokuzuki [Annotator's Note: the word specifically means compulsory air raid helmet but his sounds different], that was homemade for protection, but it was too hot to wear. He thought it was a natural disaster. People were coming towards him and going the other direction. He could not really tell where he was. He did wear his hood, but he had to wet it to continue. He found a reservoir and it was filled with people who had jumped in. It was not a big reservoir. It was meant for putting out fires. There was one on every block. He did not realize until later on, how protective this hood was. He kept the hood open enough to just be able to see. Nobody knew it was a bomb yet. He went through the maze of destruction and came across the Aioi bridge, which was where the center of the bomb actually landed [Annotator's Note: the bridge was the aiming point for the bomb]. There was a museum there that had a dome [Annotator's Note: originally Product Exhibition Hall, 1915; now Genbaku Dome, or Hiroshima Peace Memorial]. It still stands today. Going through the area, people were just coming at him and he thought he was going in the wrong direction. They were trying to get away from where the bomb had hit. He had to go that way to go home. He normally would have caught a streetcar and train. The Hiroshima station was gone. He thought the whole world was disappearing. Only a few people in the United States, like Oppenheimer [Annotator's Note: J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist], knew what it was. He did not find any injury on him. It is difficult to know how to talk about this because he did not know what was happening but later he knows what he must have gone through. It was unbelievable that he came out of there without a scratch. His jacket had a burn on the left side. He had a burned retina from the flash. He walked for miles and there was finally a train at a station that he used to take to work. There was hardly anybody there. He was one of only two uninjured in his entire class.

[Annotator's Note: Ittsei Nakagawa was in a factory in Hiroshima, Japan when the atomic bomb exploded above the city on 6 August 1945.] He was in the right place to be to escape the radiation. Only after many months, did he find out what this atomic bomb was. He thought it was a natural disaster at first. He was only 15 years old and he was not going to school because teenagers were the only ones left to produce for the war. He only knew he did what he was told. He does not know what they were making but there were many lathes there. The whole structure came down but the machinery held. He was looking for some shoes he had come there for. That is how he escaped the gamma ray. The equipment around him shielded him from the blast and the gamma rays. He was lucky.

[Annotator's Note: Ittsei Nakagawa was in a factory in Hiroshima, Japan when the atomic bomb exploded over the city on 6 August 1945.] His mother had made a bokuzuki [Annotator's Note: the word specifically means compulsory air raid helmet but his sounds different], a cloth that every person had in case of bomb blasts. He was wearing it [Annotator's Note: he forgets the question]. He was looking for some shoes when the blast took place. He was protected by the machinery around him. He does not remember when he put his hood on. It was all instinct. He tried to find a way out. He does not know how he did it, but there must have been an opening in the roof. He was covered with blood. He did not know he had saved a person until around 1987 when he applied to be an atomic survivor. To get the certificate, he need three witnesses to verify he was there. During the process, a person at the clinic [Annotator's Note: he loses his train of thought and a woman off camera picks up the story for him]. A Councilman told him that Nakagawa had helped him get out of the collapsed building. You do not know what happened until somebody else tells you. He had gotten others out as well. He was the only one uninjured and was only three quarters of a mile from the center of the bomb. He was told he lost his hair, but he does not remember that.

[Annotator's Note: Ittsei Nakagawa was in a factory in Hiroshima, Japan when the atomic bomb exploded over the city on 6 August 1945.] Nakagawa was going in the opposite direction of most of the people when he was trying to make it home. There was a train at the third station he came to. People could not believe he was being normal. When he got home, they could not believe it either and asked him why he was there. Nobody knew what happened. His home was about ten miles away and the roof structure was slightly moved. They were all puzzled. His father had gone to look for him. He said everyone looked the same because they were all burnt. They were unrecognizable. August is a warm time in Japan and some people barely wore clothes anyway. You do not die instantly from burns. They were swelling and their skin was falling off. He thinks wearing a hood his mother had made helped him. He soaked it in some water because it was so hot. The water reservoirs were filled with people. Small rivers go through Hiroshima and people went there but the water was salty, brackish. It is difficult to describe. Most of the people he saw had nothing on. He does not even talk about these things unless he has to. Any small road was filled with crawling people, dead people, dead animals. The saddest thing to see were the crying babies. The mothers were too injured to care for them. The parents were burnt but the children were not. There were no men at the time really. It was hell. Somehow his cover protected him, but it was unplanned.

[Annotator's Note: Ittsei Nakagawa was in a factory in Hiroshima, Japan when the atomic bomb exploded over the city on 6 August 1945.] It is a hard story to tell. What he saw then, and what he thought about later, was that he could have done so much more. You cannot have another like this. There are 65,000 atomic bombs still available. Somebody is going to use one. This could be a real thing. He does not tell these things. In Japan, they know each other very well. It is a tight knit environment and it is many generations. You do not move from one place to another. In his case, his grandparents came to the United States and then went back. Even in those days, the Mexican people worked with the Japanese people because they are all laborers. His father knew how to speak Spanish. When he returned to Japan, everyone knew they were from America. His family was mostly self taught. Nakagawa had to go to school in a Temple to learn Japanese. He had an accent. His parents were well-respected, but he was picked on due to being Japanese-American. He was small too. He did not have many friends. Japan was fighting all over the Asian world. It was very difficult for him. When you are 15, you do what you have to do. As a kid, he got pushed around and at one time, they started a fire in their house. They were concerned that they were against Japan. His father knew Japan could not win a war against America. His father was respected in the community but eventually was disliked as well for being Americanized. In many ways they were.

[Annotator's Note: Ittsei Nakagawa was in a factory in Hiroshima, Japan when the atomic bomb exploded over the city on 6 August 1945.] Nakagawa feels he and his family were Americanized without even knowing it, having been born in the United States. He said to himself that he had to get back to the United States. He was 15. There was nothing left. If there was to be fighting, it would be with bamboo sticks and they were training to do that. He started looking for an opportunity. They tried to go back to school but the yard was covered with dead bodies. Every place was practically a crematorium. He left and tried to find a job. American soldiers were already in Japan and he knew English well enough to be an interpreter. He went to Kure, a naval place in Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: Kure Naval Arsenal] where the Yamato [Annotator's Note: Japanese super battleship] was built. The US X Corps and 42nd Division [Annotator's Note: 42nd Infantry Division] were stationed there. The first man he met was an American military news bureau person. He was very kind and gave him a job. Nakagawa became a sort of clerk with officers. Japan was split in two, America above Hiroshima and Australia and Britain below. He went with the 42nd to Yokohama [Annotator's Note: Yokohama, Japan]. He had no option. He wanted to get back and get his citizenship. He did get help and made the proper application. He started in 1945 and he got it in 1947. Because his name was spelled wrong, it took a long time for him to verify who he was. He got it for his brother as well. They finally made the trip. They used Marine Links to get back. He had a first class hammock. He made it back in April 1947.

Ittsei Nakagawa never wanted to talk about it [Annotator's Note: surviving the atomic bomb detonation over Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945]. Not too many people have been in the center of an atomic bomb. He had to step on people to get home. Those living wanted water. All he could hear was people calling for water and babies crying. He had blood on his clothes but no injuries. He wanted to do something, but he would have died. He does not normally want to talk about it. He was selfish enough to use the cloth that he had for protection. He remembers finding a place where there were no people. It is not an easy story to tell. He sees so many things in his mind that he does not know what is important or not. He knows he will have a nightmare after telling this. He did not see the mushroom cloud. You do not see it. It is all black and all heat. He is only telling one little side of it. His concern is what is going to happen now. Who was wrong and who was right? It was right to end the war early, but it was not right to kill the innocent people; civilians, kids. He never saw a leaflet and nobody he has talked to, saw any warning. Why did he survive? That makes him think. Who is going to start the next one? There is no religion that will solve this problem. What he sees today is really scary.