We were in the air raid shelter the night before, and the light of the single candle, the smell of burning wax, put me to sleep. And then I dreamed of a white crane that flew to me and talked to me and took me through all the seasons until it was spring.

But then a fire came, and I grabbed the crane by the legs, but the energy of the fire sucked him in and I heard the crane tell me, "Don't worry, don't worry, I'll be back.' I crumpled by the fire, and its embers -- red, orange, black -- turned into thousands of butterflies dancing through the sky, and one white butterfly came to my hand and said, 'It's me, it's me.''

Now it was 2:20 in the morning, and my father woke me up, saying it is safe now; we can go home.

That morning at school, we played hide-and-seek in the yard while the Japanese soldiers were drilling nearby, and I was so proud because I was 'it', and I knew I could find all my classmates. I was counting with my eyes closed, and when I counted to eight I saw a flash, a pure white flash through my closed eyes. There was a total silence, an eerie dead silence, and then a roaring sound began like thousands of tanks rumbling through a sandstorm.

I felt the pressure, the heat, the dark smoke and the fire leaping like the tongue of a serpent. I was weeping, and Toshi, my best friend Toshi, who was not ten feet from me, just disappeared.

I didn't know it but I was buried, and then the soldiers dug me out and carried me to the river. I saw a mother fleeing with her baby on her back. The baby's head was blown off, but I don't think she knew it.

At the river, there were thousands of fleeing people, and then a black rain came down, and the river rose and some were swept away.

Later, as we fled from Hiroshima, we saw thousands and thousands of black flies over the city, but I don't know how the flies survived the bombing of Hiroshima, when so many people died.

SOURCE: Dream Scene Magazine, a zine by Dan Holzner, (final issue, 1996). His source: Thomas Takashi Tanemori's Hiroshima: Bridge to Forgiveness

World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sk - Sl-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites