It was now April 1946 and Springtime in Japan is similar to England's spring with flowering cherries and other trees visible on the islands as we sailed through to the inland sea. We were however heading for a much grimmer sight - Nagasaki. We tied up the Belfast alongside the jetty at Kobe, the inland sea port and when we went ashore that same evening, buses were laid on to take us to Nagasaki which was nearby. The devastation was terrible, although not much worse than Yokohama, at first sight there was something more deep and total about this devastation that was hard to describe. For instance, the thing that struck me was that only a very few things were still standing and these were usually brick walls, most things seemed to have been flattened by huge winds. A pile of bottles and glass which must have once been a tip was pointed out to us. The bottles had melted and were twisted round each other in grotesque shapes , the heat must have been terrific to fuse glass together that way. Even after only eight months however, the Japs were starting to rebuild with the help of American CBS and prefabricated buildings were being erected.
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