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