there they died.

We must proceed to our goal in the park and are forced to leave the
wounded to their fate. We make our way to the place where our church
stood to dig up those few belongings that we had buried yesterday. We
find them intact. Everything else has been completely burned. In the
ruins, we find a few molten remnants of holy vessels. At the park, we
load the housekeeper and a mother with her two children on the cart.
Father Kleinsorge feels strong enough, with the aid of Brother
Nobuhara, to make his way home on foot. The way back takes us once
again past the dead and wounded in Hakushima. Again no rescue parties
are in evidence. At the Misasa Bridge, there still lies the family
which the Fathers Tappe and Luhmer had yesterday rescued from the
ruins. A piece of tin had been placed over them to shield them from
the sun. We cannot take them along for our cart is full. We give them
and those nearby water to drink and decide to rescue them later. At
three o'clock in the afternoon, we are back in Nagatsuka.

After we have had a few swallows and a little food, Fathers Stolte,
Luhmer, Erlinghagen and myself, take off once again to bring in the
family. Father Kleinsorge requests that we also rescue two children
who had lost their mother and who had lain near him in the park. On
the way, we were greeted by strangers who had noted that we were on a
mission of mercy and who praised our efforts. We now met groups of
individuals who were carrying the wounded about on litters. As we
arrived at the Misasa Bridge, the family that had been there was gone.
They might well have been borne away in the meantime. There was a
group of soldiers at work taking away those that had been sacrificed
yesterday.

More than thirty hours had gone by until the first official rescue
party had appeared on the scene. We find both children and take them
out of the park: a six-year old boy who was uninjured, and a
twelve-year old girl who had been burned about the head, hands and
legs, and who had lain for thirty hours without care in the park. The
left side of her face and the left eye were completely covered with
blood and pus, so that we thought that she had lost the eye. When the
wound was later washed, we noted that the eye was intact and that the
lids had just become stuck together. On the way home, we took another
group of three refugees with us. They first wanted to know, however,
of what nationality we were. T