The First Hand Account of Melvin L. Routt

While I was a prisoner of war in Fukuoka #17 I worked in the coalmine mine. I had my 3rd toe taken off because of an old injury. They gave me shoes too little and my toe turned black and blue. They would not give me a larger pair, or let me cut the shoe so they removed the toe. They gave me no anesthetic. They sent me back to the coalmine. There was snow on the ground. I was bare-footed with that foot. When I got back to camp it was full of coal dust and all the stitches were out and couldn’t be put in again. Then they just wrapped it and put me on camp work unloading boxcars bare-footed. I had a bad case of Diarrhea and fell down and passed out. When I came too I was in the hospital with pneumonia by the time I got out my foot was well enough to be sent back to work near the water just 17 1/2 miles from where the 2nd bomb was dropped. I don't know just how far inland the bomb went, but we saw two planes fly over and leave and then come back again. Then we saw the blast. We could feel it.
It was one big thing to see
!

 

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