to rescue the Father Superior. I am one of the bearers. The theology
student goes in front to warn us of the numerous wires, beams and fragments
of ruins which block the way and which are impossible to see in the dark.
Despite all precautions, our progress is stumbling and our feet get tangled
in the wire. Father Kruer falls and carries the litter with him. Father
Schiffer becomes half unconscious from the fall and vomits. We pass an
injured man who sits all alone among the hot ruins and whom I had seen
previously on the way down.

On the Misasa Bridge, we meet Father Tappe and Father Luhmer, who have come
to meet us from Nagatsuke. They had dug a family out of the ruins of their
collapsed house some fifty meters off the road. The father of the family
was already dead. They had dragged out two girls and placed them by the
side of the road. Their mother was still trapped under some beams. They
had planned to complete the rescue and then to press on to meet us. At the
outskirts of the city, we put down the litter and leave two men to wait
until those who are to come from Nagatsuke appear. The rest of us turn
back to fetch the Father Superior.

Most of the ruins have now burned down. The darkness kindly hides the many
forms that lie on the ground. Only occasionally in our quick progress do
we hear calls for help. One of us remarks that the remarkable burned smell
reminds him of incinerated corpses. The upright, squatting form which we
had passed by previously is still there.

Transportation on the litter, which has been constructed out of boards,
must be very painful to the Father Superior, whose entire back is full of
fragments of glass. In a narrow passage at the edge of town, a car forces
us to the edge of the road. The litter bearers on the left side fall into
a two meter deep ditch which they could not see in the darkness. Father