Photo/Illutration Kazuo Imanishi, former general manager of the Sanfrecce Hiroshima professional soccer club, at Edion stadium in Hiroshima on Nov. 14 (Ayako Fujita)

HIROSHIMA--Kazuo Imanishi says he does not remember much of his childhood, but he’ll never forget the excruciating pain he felt when removing maggots from his foot after the atomic bombing of this city.

“I developed blisters after suffering burns, and flies came over to lay their eggs there,” said Imanishi, 79, the first general manager of professional soccer team Sanfrecce Hiroshima. “In a few days, maggots emerged from the eggs and started crawling around. It caused me great pain when I took them out with tweezers.”

He shared his experiences of the 1945 nuclear attack on video for a project that the J1 club of the J.League started this year to pass down to prosperity the direct accounts of survivors associated with the team.

Imanishi, who was born in Hiroshima, was near what is now Hiroshima Station when the U.S. atomic bomb detonated over the city on Aug. 6, 1945. He was only 4 at the time.

He was pulled from a flattened house but suffered burns on his left foot. He became unable to kick a soccer ball straight because of the injury.

He said the horrific scenes he saw after the atomic bombing were deeply etched in his memory.

“When I walked along the Enko river in the city, I saw large numbers of people wobbling and covered in blood,” Imanishi said. “Many of them went into the river because they badly wanted to cool their burns and quench their thirst, although a slew of corpses was floating in the river.”

Astounded by the scene, he told his mother that people were drinking water from the river despite all the bodies there. She ordered him to never drink from the river.

Imanishi’s account, recorded earlier this month, is expected to be shown at a new stadium for Sanfrecce Hiroshima, which is scheduled to be completed in 2024, and on the team’s website.

Shingo Senda, president of Sanfrecce Hiroshima and a former executive of a local broadcaster, said the team took up the effort to gather survivors’ accounts for future generations.

“When I was a member of the news media, I was often chagrined to discover that we can no longer hear directly what survivors went through,” Senda said. “We, as a club in the stricken city, realized the need to document their fresh accounts while they are still well.”

After giving his story, Imanishi visited the club’s Edion stadium in Hiroshima on Nov. 14 to watch a match between his former team and Yokohama FC. The game ended in a draw.

He described Sanfrecce Hiroshima’s project as an “invaluable endeavor” to return the kindness shown by local people.

“When we worked for the establishment of the club toward the 1993 inauguration of the J.League, they were extremely supportive,” he said. “I was touched by their support.”

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