Fragments of glass that pierced her skin as a result of the U.S.'s atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 are still lodged in the right arm of Mineko Yonezawa, now age 86. She said the glass penetrated deep into her arm and muscles developed around them.
"These pieces of glass are reminders of my experience of the atomic bombing. I will take them with me to the after life," Yonezawa said.
Yonezawa was 13 when the city was hit by the atomic bomb. Back then she was a second year student at Yasuda Girls' High School. Along with her fellow second year students, Yonezawa was mobilized to work at the Homare aircraft factory in the town of Kusunoki in Nishi Ward, where they were assigned to sharpen aluminum bars.