A Life at Nagasaki Saved by the A-Bomb

Whenever someone tells you a story, no matter who it is, you must greet it with some skepticism. When that story comes from someone who you have come to know fairly well, who has no axe to grind, who is sober, hard working, reasonable, and honest in his dealings with you, you tend to believe whatever the story is. Perhaps I am gullible, but I believe this story. It is too strange to be made up.

I will first tell you what I know about its author, Peter (or is it Pieter) Vanderkeyl (please pardon the spelling if it is wrong). Back around 1980 or so we decided to have our basement refinished, and a friend recommended Mr. Vanderkeyl, who was a carpenter and contractor in Belmont, Massachusetts, for this job . Peter was at least in his 60’s and worked with his sons, who had various skills. We engaged him for this project, and he completed it for us in the next year.

During that time, we got to know Peter quite well, and came to consider him a friend. A bit later he had a severe heart attack on our back porch, My wife immediately called 911, response came within two or three minutes, and his life was saved, but this is irrelevant to the story.

During the period of this construction, we got to learn something of his history. In 1941 he was in the Dutch army, serving in the Netherlands East Indies, now Indonesia, I believe on the island of Java. When this area was captured by the Japanese in 1942 Peter became a prisoner of war. He was first held in Thailand, or Burma and then, I believe in 1944, was transported to Japan, where he was held in a prison camp in Nagasaki. He was there when the bomb was dropped.

He told us that prisoners of war held by the Japanese were not very well fed, and by the time of liberation in August of 1945, his weight was down to eighty some pounds. Since he was well over six feet in height, he must have been quite emaciated at that time. He told us that he believed that he could not survive much longer in the prison camp. In fact, he said that he could not have survived at all, if the bomb had not dropped and the war continued. As it was, he spent a considerable amount of time in a hospital recovering his health after the liberation.

He recounted only one story about his confinement as follows. As he came closer and closer to starvation, he became willing to do anything at all for food. The commander of the prison camp had a cat, and Peter became very close to that cat. He played with it, fussed over it, and loved it more than anyone else. Then one day, when he had the opportunity, he killed the cat, skinned it, cooked it and ate it. The commander was furious that the cat disappeared and made great effort to locate the villain who caused that disappearance. Peter told us he was saved because he was the person least suspected, because of his great love for the animal.

In Nagasaki, as in all Japanese cities, when American warplanes approached, alarms were sounded, and people were urged to go into air-raid shelters, where they would be protected from the effects of bombs. This was true in the prison camp as well. This was not so much to protect the prisoners, but the guards and staff had to be protected, and one could not prudently leave the prisoners alone in the open, with all the guards in shelters, so there was a shelter for prisoners as well.

One of the unexpected tragedies of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, was the large civilian loss of life. This came about from a quirk in the bombing plans. In order to protect the bombing airplane from the expected blast, the bombs were dropped by parachute, and the planes had left the area of the attack before the explosions took place. When the planes arrived, most people entered air-raid shelters. But when the planes departed, the all-clear signals sounded, and the people emerged from the shelters to go about their business. And the bombs exploded with the streets full of people who had just emerged from their shelters. Most of them died.

In the prison camp, the all-clear sounded for the guards, and they came out of the shelters, but by amazing luck, they had not gotten around to letting the prisoners come out of their shelter when the bomb went off.

So Peter and the other prisoners remained in their shelter waiting for the signal permitting them to emerge. That signal never came. Instead, the guards, the camp and everything around it disappeared, destroyed by the explosion.

The bomb went off in the morning, and the prisoners, not knowing what to do, stayed in the shelter for hours, awaiting a signal that would permit them to leave.

Eventually, hunger and thirst propelled them to come out, and they discovered the devastation that had taken place above ground. They wandered about, wondering where to find food, where to go, what to do. After some time, they discovered a railroad train, intact, on a track leading out of the dead city. There were people of all skills among the prisoners, and they were able to get the train going, and run it down the track to the next town.

One can hardly imagine the consternation of the officials in that next town when the train arrived. They must have seen the mushroom cloud, have lost all communication with Nagasaki, to find, many hours later that the first contact with the city was a train full of mostly Caucasian living skeletons.

Fortunately the prisoners were able to obtain food and shelter from those officials, and liberation came a few days later. So Peter claimed as only the prisoners can: they were present in Nagasaki when the bomb went off, and it is very likely to have saved their lives!

The rest of Peter’s story is short. After recovery, he returned to the East Indies, married a local girl, and returned to the Netherlands. He or they decided to try their luck in the United States, and he did so, has led a full and productive life, and has ended up in Belmont. He may be still alive, but would be pushing 90 if so.