The Fire
- We pick up with Mr. Tanimoto who, after the blast, started trying to help people, including an old woman carrying a little boy. He helped them to a nearby school and then ran back to the Matsui house to try to get a look at the damage in the city center from a nearby hill. He was, understandably, surprised by the extent of the damage. Because of the combination of heat, energy, dust, etc., a bizarre kind of rain kicked up.
- He heard Mr. Matsuo calling to him to see if he was okay (the bedding in the house had protected him, and he had wriggled himself out of the wreckage). Mr. Tanimoto managed to respond quickly before starting to run toward the city.
- Meanwhile, Mrs. Nakamura managed to free all of her children from the rubble and headed outside. She went and got some cloth for a neighbor, Mrs. Nakamoto, to use as a bandage and, in her confused state, decided to toss her most prized possession, her sewing machine, into the water tank outside.
- After grabbing some clothes and supplies and meeting up with Mrs. Hataya, they headed to Asano Park, an estate being used as an evacuation zone. On their way, they passed Father Kleinsorge wandering outside in his bloody underwear. Character overlap alert!
- Then, the narrative leaves Mrs. Nakamura and follows Father Kleinsorge. We learn about what happened with him in the immediate wake of the blast.
- One of the priests, Father Schiffer, had been badly cut, so he and Father Cieslik went out to look for either Dr. Kanda or Dr. Fujii, who was a few blocks away.
- The daughter of Mr. Hoshijima, the mission catechist, ran up to Father Kleinsorge asking for help. Her mother and sister were buried in the rubble of her house. Also, the teacher at the Catholic kindergarten was buried in her house. Father LaSalle and Mrs. Murata helped dig out the teacher, and Father Kleinsorge helped the catechist's wife/daughter.
- Father Kleinsorge then went back inside the mission to grab some things, including a suitcase full of important documents that had miraculously escaped getting trashed.
- Father Cieslik and Father Schiffer then returned, having been unsuccessful in their search for a doctor—Doctor Kanda's house had been destroyed, and they couldn't get to Dr. Fujii because of all the destruction.
- Now we switch over to Dr. Fujii, who was initially trapped between two large beams before managing to free himself. He walked over to a bridge near the hospital, where he met another doctor named Dr. Machii. They discussed what could have caused the blast/destruction. As they were talking, they saw people wandering around with bad burns on their faces.
- Fires were springing up all around them and the winds weren't helping, so Dr. Machii fled to a safe street, and Dr. Fujii got in the water (he also helped extricate some people who were trapped).
- Then we switch to Dr. Sasaki, who was trying desperately to keep up with his patient load in the hospital post-blast. Having lost his glasses, he stole a pair off an injured nurse. Hey, buddy. That's not nice.
- We then get a quick glimpse of Miss Sasaki, who was trapped in the rubble for several hours.
- Meanwhile, Father Kleinsorge was trying to get Father Schiffer's head wound to stop bleeding. He also managed to find some clothes.
- A woman tried to get him to come help her husband, but they were unable to find him before Father Kleinsorge insisted everyone needed to leave the area to avoid fires.
- Before they left, they saw Mr. Fukai, the secretary of the diocese, in one of the mission's upstairs windows. He wanted to be left behind, but Father Kleinsorge forced him out and onto his back, carrying him away.
- On the way, when Father Kleinsorge fell, Mr. Fukai used the opportunity to get away, heading back toward the fire.
- Meanwhile, Mr. Tanimoto was trying to get back into town to his church/family. He had a lot of trouble finding a workable route, and he saw a lot of badly injured people and destruction along the way.
- Completely by chance, he met up with his wife and baby, who had returned from Ushida that morning just in time for the blast. After chatting briefly about their experiences, they parted, and Mr. Tanimoto headed toward the center again.
- He helped out people along his way, giving the wounded water. Eventually, he ended up in Asano Park, where he ran into Father Kleinsorge. Overlap alert!
- Miss Sasaki, meanwhile, was finally freed from the wreckage. Having been carried outside but unable to walk on her own, she was left in a courtyard under a makeshift lean-to, with two other severely wounded people beside her.
- Dr. Fujii moved up the river toward Asano Park with his two surviving nurses. He came across Dr. Machii and his family and helped tend to the Machii daughter's wounds.
- Later, Dr. Fujii decided to head to his parents' house in Nagatsuka (a suburb). He asked Dr. Machii to join him, but he declined.
- When he reached his family house, Dr. Fujii discovered the roof had caved in and the windows were broken.
- Now we're back in Asano Park, which was getting pretty crowded. Mrs. Nakamura and her kids had been among the first arrivals. Then Father Kleinsorge and the other priests rolled in. Overlap alert! Okay, we'll stop now.
- Mr. Tanimoto arrived and started looking for familiar faces/trying to help.
- He decided to try to get back to his church, but he wasn't successful because there was fire along the streets.
- Eventually, he found a boat and used it to help get wounded across the river away from Asano Park to avoid the rapidly spreading fire.
- By early afternoon, the fire had reached the park, and people started pressing toward the river to get away while Mr. Tanimoto, the priests, and others tried to fight it. After two hours, they were successful in putting it out. However, several people had been pressed into the water and drowned in the process.
- The priests came across Dr. Kanda and tried to get him to dress Father Schiffer's wounds, but he was grieving for his wife and daughter, so he declined. Father Kleinsorge then managed to (more or less) successfully dress the wound.
- Those gathered then heard some planes approaching, which caused a panic—but it turned out to be reconnaissance or weather planes rather than an attack.
- Because of all the wacky stuff happening in the atmosphere as a result of the bomb, a tornado suddenly rose up and ripped through the park. Um, color us terrified—as if an atomic bomb isn't awful enough…
- After the storm, Mr. Tanimoto resumed ferrying people across the river, and Father Kleinsorge sent the theological student to the Jesuit Novitiate in Nagatsuka to request medical help for Father Schiffer and Father LaSalle. He also arranged with Mrs. Nakamura to have a pushcart come from the Novitiate the next day to bring her and her family out to Nagatsuka.
- When Mr. Tanimoto took a break from his ferrying duties, he heard people begging for food. So, he and Father Kleinsorge decided to go back (with Father Cieslik and a few others in tow) into town to find some rice at the mission shelter.
- In addition to the rice, the party found some pumpkins and potatoes that had been roasted in the blast and decided to take them back. They went back to the park, where Mr. Tanimoto organized a group to cook.
- Mr. Tanimoto came across Mrs. Kamai, the daughter of his next-door neighbor. Her baby daughter had died, and she wanted Mr. Tanimoto to try to find her husband, who had been drafted into the military the day before. Mr. Tanimoto knew it would be difficult/impossible to find him, but he promised to try to appease her.