There was virtually no protection from the blast, ... The very flatness of the city center helped seal its destruction. The lack of any warning also contributed: Nobody was in the shelters when the bomb exploded. The whole city was taken by surprise. Only freakish accidents of fate ensured survival. Eizo Nomura was one such survivor, a clerk in the Fuel Distribution and Control Cooperative, a concrete building 100 meters from the hypocenter. Moments before the explosion, he had gone down into the basement to retrieve a document his chief had forgotten. Quite possibly he was the closest man to the hypocenter to survive. Stephen Walker