After the Air Raid -------- (19 of 21) Fig 19.1 Water Distribution after the Air Raid in Ginko-Alley Though Mayer Yoshitaka Tsuruta was killed in a shelter and the city hall building was burned, the city government started the rescue operation in the next morning. The city government issued "Damage Certificate" which enable sufferers to get on trains free, and to get some relief goods. 66,639 meals were distributed until August 6th. Dead bodies were checked by the police. Once checking was done, a body got a mark of wire or rope being tied around wrist in order to avoid double check. There were so many dead bodies burned severely that could not be idenfied even by relatives. Such bodies were left and got worse under the summer heat. To cremate the unidentified bodies, they were piled up. It was like one layer of five bodies was piled up to be five layers, then the bodies were burned by crude oil. 300 bodies in Hiragata Shrine and 130 in Shinmei Shrine were said to be cremated in a such way; Mass-cremation took three days. Such unidentified bodies reached one fourth of all death. On August 15th, people knew Japan's surrender by recorded voice of Emperor Hirohito through radio broadcasting at noon. Some said a rumor like "All men would be killed, all women would be taken to somewhere", but others thought that they no longer had to worry about air raid.