The Tricycle1

Hiroshima: August 6, 1945

Cling! Cling! Cling!

The little metal bell chimed from the handlebars of the little tricycle. The little boy
swerved in long loops in front of his home. He giggled, and looked up towards the doorframe of
his home to his father who could only chuckle at the fat-cheeked three year old. He twisted the
metal machine back towards the front stoop of the home, and bumped into it with enough force
that rattled the little metal helmet 2he wore right over his eyes. He stopped from the sudden
collision, and lifted pudgy little fingers to push his helmet back into place before he committed a
hit and run, and backed his bike up just enough to veer away again! He occasionally babbled out
an incoherent phrase here and there on his whimsical commute. He was in his own enlightened
little universe paying no mind to the neighbor regrettably tearing down his own home to make
room for another fire lane3. The only thing in young Shinichi Tetsutani’s vision were the little
bugs that skittered in the self proclaimed roadway he had forged with his trusty tricycle. His
father, Nobuo Tetsutani, watched in elation at how Shinichi created his own reality and was
naive to everything. His older twin sisters were at school helping clear fire lanes, and his father
was prepping to help their neighbor tear down the house across the street.
Shinichi was young enough to escape all this, and his father hoped this war would be
over by the time he was old enough to retain such memories. He often wondered what kind of
God would allow a naive child to be born amidst war, fire, and death? Nobuo also; however, saw
Shinichi’s innocence as a breath of fresh air from the smoke and the creeping anxieties of war.
Shinichi had long since gotten used to the wailing of air raid sirens 4and he would actually sleep
through them as Nobuo would rush himself and the girls to an air raid shelter5. The boy could
sleep like a stone, and he wasn’t a fussy eater either.

1
This story is based on the true story of three year old Shinichi Tetsutani.
2
In 1945 Japan, metal helmets were common.
3
The constant fire bombings sparked huge fires that did intense structural damage. The Japanese demolished structures close
together in order to create larger fire lanes in order to help mitigate fires being able to spread between many of the traditional
wooden structures. There were so many men at war that these jobs were given to school children.
4
Whenever planes were spotted over the major cities air raid sirens would go off to advise everyone to seek cover. The
Americans even intentionally would fly over cities at unconventional times just to cause chaos, and tire out the Japanese on the
ground who would scramble defensively.
5
There were designated shelters set up throughout the city for people to retreat to in case of a firebombing raid. These structures
were often the concrete buildings in Hiroshima that were more likely to survive the air strikes than the traditional wooden homes.

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 The rations were not great. Nobuo recalled more than once sacrificing some of his own
share to feed his children, and even then the food was often coarse, and was more apt to make
them feel sick rather than satisfied6. They were all doing their best to survive, and thankfully
Shinichi was much more interested in racing the insects in his yard than he was interested in the
war around him. His metal helmet glimmered and rattled on his little head as he went back and
forth.
Back and forth. Back and forth. Cling! Cling! Cling!
The silver bird7 far above them loomed over the skies of Hiroshima. Nobuo was just
inside his home when the faint hum of the B-29 loomed over the city. Shinichi continued to
zoom past the window on his tricycle, and Nobuo was continuing to get ready for work when the
entire city was enveloped in a thick white cloud8. The sky had fallen down on them with
vengeance, and Nobuo felt like God had back-handed the entire nation of Japan into another
dimension all together9. The light roasted his neighbor who had been dismantling the roof of the
home across the street. The clay tiles melted and fused together10 and he cooked against them
and sizzled like a hibachi11 feast. The blast completely dismantled the building, as well as,
Nobuo’s home. The terrified father picked himself up from the debris, and somehow survived the
explosion with minor burns and lacerations from thrown debris. He limped to his yard which
now contained half of the neighboring house that had been blown towards his own. He was
distraught to see Shinichi toppled aside his tricycle, his self proclaimed best friend12, and they
were both smoldering aside each other. The melted rubber from the tricycle tires had fused with
the black crisped flesh of Shinichi’s thigh, and Nobuo couldn’t tell where the tricycle ended and
his son’s body began. Shinichi’s metal bicycle helmet was also fused to his little skull and Nobuo
feared tearing it off and taking the top of Shinichi’s skull with it.
Shinichi was alive and too weak to even cry out for his father who spent the evening
cradling him. The little boy had someone prolonged his death unlike both his sisters who
6
The diet of the Japanese citizens during this point in the war often consisted of poor quality rice, barley, soybeans, and potatoes.
The conditions got so bad that some citizens faced starvation, or would eat meals that were hard to digest and would make them
sick.
7
A single B-29 dropped the bomb while two others accompanied behind to document the explosion. The plane that dropped the
bomb, Little Boy, was named the Enola Gay.
8
Many people who witnessed the explosion said it was a super bright white explosion.
9
A synopsis of how Nobuo reportedly felt when he was interviewed about the Hiroshima bombing.
10
The blast was so hot it fused roof tiles together and emulsified flesh, and other organic tissues that were directly exposed to the
intensity of the radioactive heat waves.
11
A word for Japanese barbeque
12
Shinichi reportedly couldn’t talk much yet; however, he did manage to address his tricycle as his best friend.

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tragically died working in the fire lanes. His sisters’ remains were never recovered. Nobuo did
his best to treat his son. He did his best to find water to offer to the badly burned infant; however,
that evening the little boy passed away with his metal helmet still fused to his skull13. In his
despair, Nobuo buried Shinichi outside their home along with his tricycle so that he wouldn’t be
left alone14.

13
Nobuo years later exhumed Shinichi’s body to be buried in the family lot at the official cemetery. He donated the tricycle, and
the helmet to the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Memorial Museum. The helmet still contains shards of Shinichi’s skull that became
fused with the helmet.
14
Nobuo was unable to bring Shinichi’s body with him. He was injured himself, and the radiation fires that were consuming the
city. In order to survive he had to leave, and so buried Shinichi outside their home with his tricycle so his son would be with his
“best friend.”